Party Plans!

What: Eating lunch, swapping seeds

Where: Chef Lin Buffet in Frederick MD (will add directions below)

When: February 11, 2023
Gather around noon in party room at back of restaurant.
Lunch about 12:30-2
Seed Swap about 2 to 4
4:00 wrap it up and head out

Cost: $16 per person. Covers cost of buffet, choice of hot tea or soft drink, tax & tip. note: crab legs are extra and not included.

Don't let the cost keep you from attending. If it's more than you can manage, tree-mail me. We've all been there.

Seeds Seeds Seeds! Please label your packets. Putting your NGA name as well as whatever info you have (like common name, botanical name, variety, year of harvest/purchase, tips for germination) makes it easier for people to ask questions down the road. Little clear zip-top bags are great for seed packets (100 for $1.50 at WalMart craft department). We'll be doing some trading prior to the party via the Seed Swap Tool -- see below for details.

What about plants? Since we'll be bringing everything through the restaurant & past the buffet, we need to really limit plants. Bagged cuttings are fine, and a nicely potted plant for the gift table is great, but anything more should change hands out in the parking lot, please!

Gift Table: Like a door prize, but everybody gets something! Please bring a little something. This is a great way to recycle garden-related items like a pair of too-small gloves. a plant pot, or a decoration that's in good shape but no longer your style. We'll make our picks one at a time (order to be determined). Remaining items will be available to whoever wants / can use them.

Book Table : Do you have gardening books you're done with and want to pass along? Bring a book and trade it in for one you'd like to read!

Head Count: If you see your name below, you don't need to post again that you're coming, but if you plan to bring a spouse, kid, neighbor, friend, etc, please let me know. Similarly, if you didn't post on the other thread but think you'll be able to join us, please post on this thread to let me/us know!

Party People

5601Lisa (& DH?)
Aspenhill (Terri)
Blanche_F
Chantell?
Critterologist (Jill) & friend Theresa
CrystalSalt (Sheela) & DH (Bob)
Donnerville (Sally)
Frenchy21
LysmachiaMoon
Rebecca_W & DH & friend
RickM
Robinbunch5
Sulurph (Sue) & DH David & maybe 2 friends
Tantefrancine
ValleyLynn +3

Useful Links:
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What you've bought/dibbed
What you've sold

Swap Control Panel
Swap Events Log (Adds, Deletes and Dibs)
Complete Swap List

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Directions to Chef Lin
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The restaurant is in Prospect Plaza, at 417 S. Jefferson St, near a nest of interchanges where 15, 340, 40, and 270 all come together. This makes it both easy to get to from different directions, and hard to describe, but these directions seem to work well. McDonalds is at the front of the Plaza, easy to spot. Chef Lin is toward the center of this strip mall.

Combine these directions with a look at the map! type "417 S Jefferson Frederick, MD" into google, but do NOT try to follow the really confusing step by step directions, just use it for a map)

From the north, coming down 15 South. Get off at the Jefferson Street exit, turning LEFT (going east). Cross over the highway, and Prospect Plaza will be immediately on your LEFT (turn LEFT at the light).

From the south, along 15-340 North (the two highways merge together just south of Frederick): Stay on 340. (Don't get off onto 15 North when it diverges.) 340 more or less becomes Jefferson Street. Keep left. You'll cross the bridge over the highway, and then turn LEFT at the light into Prospect Plaza.

From the south, along 270N (coming up from the DC beltway): Get off at the Jefferson Street exit and turn RIGHT at the end of the ramp (east onto Jefferson). Make an immediate LEFT at the next light to turn into Prospect Plaza.

From the east (Baltimore), you'll be on 70 West. Take exit 53b, 15 North. Take the first exit onto Jefferson Street. Turn RIGHT at the end of the ramp (east onto Jefferson). Make an immediate LEFT at the next light to turn into Prospect Plaza.

From the west: you'll be on 70 East. Take the exit for 15 North. You're now on 15-340. Stay on 340. (Don't get off onto 15 North when it diverges.) 340 more or less becomes Jefferson Street. Stay to the left. You'll cross the bridge over the highway, and then turn left at the light into Prospect Plaza.

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Dutch Plant Farm
DutchPlantFarm.com
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From Dutch Plant Farm (151 Baughmans Lane) to Chef Lin: Turn LEFT onto 40 East. Take the first RIGHT onto 15 South. Take the first exit, Jefferson Street. Turn LEFT onto Jefferson Street, cross over the highway, and then turn LEFT at the light into Prospect Plaza.

Getting to DPF. Dutch Plant Farm is off "the Golden Mile," highway 40, W Patrick St. At the corner of 40 and Baughman's Lane, there's a shopping center with a JoAnn's. DPF is just behind the shopping center. Coming from 15 onto 40W, you'd turn RIGHT at the first light onto Baughmans Lane and then take the 2nd entrance on the LEFT into DPF. (The 1st left is the side entrance into the shopping plaza.)

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Pre-party trading via the SEED SWAP TOOL
***

This swap will be added to the seed swap tool. Go to "tools & apps" and click on "Seed Swaps." Find our swap, click on it, and scroll down past the details to find the "join this swap" button.

Get as many of your seeds entered on your list as possible in the next 2 weeks, BEFORE trading begins at 8 pm on Friday Feb. 2.

Meanwhile, you can also check out what others have listed and put things on your wish list to remind you to try for them ASAP when trading starts. Putting something on your wish list will not automatically put "dibs" on it once trading starts -- you have to go to the swap list and request the item.

Wait for trading to begin (Feb. 2). PLEASE be fair and don't start making trades on this chat thread for packets you have listed in the swap tool. It's fine to ask if people are interested so you know whether to make up 2 or 6 packs of something, but going through the swap tool helps everybody stay organized and makes sure everybody gets a chance to claim one-of-a-kind offerings.

I've entered a ticket multiplier of 3. That means on Friday Feb 2, you'll get 3 tickets (1 ticket = 1 "dib"), at 7 pm Saturday you'll get 6 more tickets, on Sunday (day 3, times 3) you'll get 9 more tickets, etc. You will also get additional tickets when people "dibs" items from your trade list, so the more seeds you offer, the more you'll be able to get.

At the end of the week, I'll increase the multiplier to something insane to be sure any latecomers can get in their requests. I set up the swap to go through 8 pm the night before the swap, but please understand that last-minute requests may or may not be fulfilled, depending on when that person is done packing up their seeds.

You do not have to use the seed swap tool, but it's a helpful way to organize some trades in advance. If you haven't used the tool before, Dave has a great tutorial at the top of the first page. In addition to swapping through the tool, you can come with a box of seeds and pass it around, and you can check out other people's boxes, and you can sift through the "free to good home" pile.

When you add an item to your swap list, remember to check the box for our swap! Also remember, in order to put "dibs" on anything next Friday and the following days, you need to have at least one item in your swap list (even if it's "a warm hug" -- we're easy.)

At the actual party, you'll find a table with labeled bags set up like elementary school valentine boxes... just drop your seeds for a particular person into their bag. The swap tool makes it easy to print out lists so you know who gets what.

Any questions, just ask!

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Splitting Commercial Orders
***

With shipping costs high everywhere, it makes sense to share orders where we can! Just be sure you order in time for the seeds to arrive before the swap. :-)

Here's a thread to discuss: The thread "Splitting seed orders?" in Mid Atlantic Gardening forum

Or you can post here that you're ordering from such and such a place and that people can tree-mail you if they want to add something to your order.

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Invitations
**

I'm sending out a tree-mail "blast" to everybody within 30 miles of me (already have my list of names).

Please feel free to invite friends, neighbors, other local gardeners... they do not have to be a current garden.org member to come, although we hope they will join in the discussions here!

I think it would be good to post elsewhere about our forum, inviting local gardeners to join the discussions, but I don't want to cast a wide net through social media for the seed swap itself and get a 2 pm mob of people just wanting free seeds. I just made a separate thread about ideas for improving traffic to this forum: The thread "Increasing participation here -- ideas?" in Mid Atlantic Gardening forum

@RickM and @critterologist - I just tried the Seed Swap Tool and don't know if you are aware that enrollment has been disabled due to some problem with dates.

@sulurph, wanted to make sure you found your way to this thread! Please let me know if other gardening friends are coming with you. They can come to garden.org and use the seed swap tool or bring/find seeds at the swap. It's also fine for you to make some dibs on their behalf.

So far, I've had 1 response to the tree-mail invites I sent out. Since replies are seen by all recipients on the tree-mail blast, I encouraged people to just come to this thread to let us know if they're interested. I did want to give a couple of weeks for word to spread before opening trading on the swap tool.

Meanwhile, go right ahead and list seeds! You must have at least one item listed in order to request seeds through the swap tool.

Like they used to say in culinary school, "If it isn't green, it isn't seen!" so remember to click that button next to each listed item so it turns green (and shows up on our swap).

You can put items on your wish list now, too. Once trading begins, use your wish list to jog your memory so you can put dibs on your most-wanted items. (Wish list items aren't automatically dibbed for you when trading starts.) Each "ticket" you get lets you "dib" or claim an item.

Terri, I didn't realize that. Hopefully Rick will get a chance to fix it soon! Thanks for mentioning it.

Try it now

Thanks! Could you please bump the end/deadline/finished dates to Feb 10/11/12? That way trading will go through 7 pm the night before the swap.

Seed Order Update
I'm posting this here so people don't have to find their way to the other thread... orders need to be put in ASAP.

I just put in my order for Harris Seeds. Didn't want to wait, because I had a free shipping coupon that might expire. (The coupon is why I'm ordering from them rather than HPS.) LMK if you're interested in ordering from them, and I'll tree-mail you the coupon.
https://www.harrisseeds.com/

I need to put in my TGS order by Sunday, to be sure of getting the seeds before the swap. If you want tomato or pepper seeds, let me know ASAP. They have some other goodies, but they are mostly known for tomatoes & peppers.
https://tomatogrowers.com/

If anybody is looking at Johnny's Selected Seeds, PLMK. Orders over $50 get a $10 discount, which nearly covers shipping. We should order by Sunday night or first thing Monday morning to be sure of having seeds arrive before the swap. I just want cucumber seeds, so I don't need mine until May.
https://www.johnnyseeds.com/

I'm not going to order from Seeds from Italy (Franchi Seeds, at growitalian.com) this year. While they have the basil I wanted, they are sold out of some other things I'd like.

Seeds I'm hoping somebody has!

I haven't saved seeds or started plants from seed for quite a few years, due to family issues. So much of my stash has aged out (over 10 years old), including some I've selectively saved (improved) over the years. I've ordered fresh packets of 'Fish Pepper' and 'Sweet Pickle' pepper, but I'm really looking for these:

'Potato Top' tomato

"Italian Basil from Italy" (Napoleonto, although at one point I was mislabeling as Genovese)

"Hot & Spicy" basil (NOT available commercially!)

When you're going through your seeds, please keep an eye out for these for me! Thanks

@critterologist

Jill,
Is this the basil you're looking for?
https://www.kitchengardenseeds...

All,
I'm looking for basil mint (Mentha x piperita f. citrata 'Basil', either seed or cuttings.

Rick, I'll keep my eye out.

Thanks for the link -- that's the one, or very similar. I can get new seed for my Italian basil from Franchi (I found the old packet!! So I know what kind it was). But I was hoping for pass-along seeds, since I saved seeds from only the plants with large, puckered leaves and culled out anything else. I'll grow some kind of basil this year regardless and order from growitalian.com next year. Can't quite make myself pay shipping for just one seed packet!

Rick, I found Basil Mint at Pepper's Greenhouse in Milton, DE. They are near Rehoboth Beach. They do ship but warn that mints don't ship well. Their catalog is extensive! Might be worth a road trip... Most of the "special" mints seem to be propagated from cuttings rather than from seeds.

Bob and I will be attending, looking forward to seeing you all as we missed you guys this past spring! Jill, I would like to order from Johnny's seeds for poblano pepper seeds please, thank you! Do I pay you when we meet in Feb?

Sheela, it'll be good to see you!

I'm not sure I'll order from Johnny's (unless the order total qualifies for that $10 off to pay for shipping). But I'm definitely ordering from TGS, and they have several to choose from. Go to tomatogrowers.com and search for "pablano" then LMK which one you'd like. Note that fresh anchos are often called poblano also. And yes, just pay me at the swap -- put the $ into my bag, and I'll put the pepper packet into yours.
https://tomatogrowers.com/sear...

They also have 'Holy Mole' -- a variety a formerly active member had on his "grow every year" list, mild and fruity.

Pepper's Greenhouse (Milton DE) is a hike but especially like that place. Always stop by during our Sept beach vacay.

Jill, I have a small amount of Italian Basil seeds. The original seeds came from either you or Gita some years ago. I have been growing this basil every year and these seeds were collected a few years ago. I can share some with you if you think they are still authentic enough.

Yes!! Thank you, Donner. You'd mentioned that you thought you had a few. Even 5-6 seeds would be enough, just need to make certain I stop pinching in time to collect seeds. Hopefully I'll have it to share next year. I really love the flavor of this variety, and the large leaves make it easy to harvest. (I've about given up growing thyme for culinary use unless I just want a few sprigs -- too time consuming to strip off those tiny leaves!)

Today is LAST CALL for seeds from TGS. I want to be sure we get the order before the swap.

Nobody else was interested in ordering from TGS, so I'm waiting to hear from Sheila before putting in that order. (The longer the wait, the less likely the seeds will be here before the swap! But they will be fine for next year, or if you ask very sweetly I'll start a few for you.