PLANT PARTY ! ! !

Join us for: a chance to share plants from your garden and bring home some new ones
an opportunity to meet and visit with other Mid-Atlantic gardeners
a delicious pot luck buffet

When: Saturday, May 7, from noon to night

Where: Critter's home in Frederick, MD
(be sure to post on this thread if you're coming, so you'll get directions)

What to bring: Mid-Atlantic parties are "sharing" events. Bring your extra plants, bring a favorite appetizer, side dish, or sweet, bring something for the "gift table." Extra chairs and tables are helpful. If all you bring is a smile, that's fine too -- just come!

Who is invited: Mid-Atlantic forum participants from Dave's Garden and All Things Plants, and their guests. If you'll be bringing kids (please do!), let me know so Joyanna (6) and I can set up some play space, movies, etc.

Post on this thread so I can add you to the "Party People" list below. Let me know what you're bringing for the food table. Gift table items can be anything from a pair of garden gloves you were given that don't fit to a piece of handcrafted jewelry... our general rule of thumb is to keep purchased items under $5. We'll also have a table for pass-along books and gardening magazines. (If you have an especially choice book, by all means put it on the gift table).

When you come, pull up in/near the driveway to unload your plants. I'll set up little drop-off areas with names on signs so you'll have a place to put plants that people have requested from you. Other plants will go to a "free to good home" location. If you put plants there, you are still responsible for them... please help them find homes or take them with you when you leave. :-)

Plant chat is on this thread: The thread "2016 Spring Plant Swap Chat" in Mid Atlantic Gardening forum That's where to ask people for things, ask "does anybody want/have some xx?" or ask questions about a plant on somebody's list. We will be adapting the ATP Seed Swaps tool (see menu on left; it's above "Goodies") to use for arranging swaps ahead of time. It's not necessary to arrange a single trade in advance, but it does give you more time to visit at the party rather than running around with plants. :-)

Hope to see you on May 7!

:-)
Critter / Jill

Party People:

Jill & Jim & Joyanna (hosts)

Aspenhill
blossomgiver (from DG), daughter, friend
CAMfromMD
Catmint20906
Chantell plus kids?
egnalg
Frenchy
Gitagal
Greenthumb99
Holly & Ric
krobra
5601Lisa
Muddy1
226Mama, Eric, 2 girls
MariposaMaid
Martina (Critter's neighbor), 2 girls
Meiramalka (not coming but SSG is her plant fairy)
NisiNJ & friend Elleanora
RickM & partner
RobinBunch5
SallyG
SSGardener
tantefrancine
TerryEr

Food:

I'll make some sort of main dish. Right now I'm thinking pasta with a couple of sauces to choose from (marinara with ground beef, roasted marinara with veggies), and either Jim will grill some Italian-marinated chicken or I'll do a seafood alfredo sauce. I can make pesto butter, too. I'm not trying to establish an Italian theme here, any sort of food is welcome! Listing what people are planning to bring just gets ideas going (and makes us drool on our keyboards).

If anybody needs gluten-free, please let me know. I can make rice as an alternative.


Snacks:
Appetizer Plate including CAM's Jalopeno Stuffed Olives
Spinach Dip, Salmon Spread, Crackers -- Lisa
French Bread with Artichoke Dip -- Frenchy
Grapes -- Critter
Sweet Potato Chips -- Critter
Fruit/Veggie tray -- Catmint

Main Course (subject to change!)
Grilled Italian Chicken
Linguine Alfredo
Bow-Tie pasta with Roasted Marinara
Herbed Rice?

Sides:
Rick's Famous Baked Beans -- RickM
Spinach & Cranberry Salad -- SSG
Crusty Homemade Bread -- Lisa's DH, pesto butter
Mixed Green Salad w/dressings -- Muddy1
Greek Pasta Salad -- Ric
Quinoa
Donner's Dumplings
French Potato Salad -- TerryEr
Thai spicy peanut cold pasta dish -- Chantell

Drinks
Fruit Drink -- tantefrancine
Sangria -- Muddy1
2 bottles homemade wine - Lisa
Sweet and Unsweetened Iced Tea - Sally
1bottle white - SSG
1bottle red - Catmint
New York wine(s) -- RickM
Lemonade or kid-friendly punch - Jill

Desserts:
Over-the-top Chocolate Cheesecake - RickM
Decadent Brownies - RobinBunch
Sour Cream Pound Cake with Homemade Jellies - Catmint
Bundt Cake - HollyAnn

thanks, Jill--count me in as a party person!!

Jill, thanks for hosting! Pat (ecnalg) and I will definitely attend.

I'll be there too. Looking forward to it

Jeff and I will wave as we fly over on our way to FL.
Sorry to miss it , but I know you guys will have LOTS of fun.

Count me in for May 7. Looking forward to it.
Trying to get a handle on Plant List. Do "Haves" mean plants that Haver is willing to divide? No biggie.
Green Springs plant sale, following weekend? Alexandria, right? Now that sounds like a biggie.

I am sure I will attend too. Gita

Yep, your "haves" list are plants that you will/can bring to the swap. I gave us a few weeks to get our lists entered as we start looking around the yard, before we start on the process of calling dibs. For the seed swap, I started in on the trading too quickly, while we were still trying to get the hang of the Seed Swaps tool.

Whether you dig a plant a few days before and just put divisions in grocery bags or pot up smaller divisions asap all depends on what kind of plant you are sharing as well as on your own time constraints. You can describe what you are bringing in the "seeds per packet" field as well as in the comment section for the plant. Although the Seed Swaps tool could have a number of changes made to adapt it to plant swaps (as discussed in the ATP forum), I think it should be pretty usable as it is. :-)

People can still sign up once trading has started... I just need to let Dave know, and he'll manually add their name to the swap. (Down the road, he might add options like that to the swap host control panel, but for now he'll just do it directly.)

I will be there, always look forward to our swaps.

Please count me in!

Mee too! NOT working that Saturday!

LMK if you have other ideas for fields in the Seed Swaps tool that we can adapt for plant swapping... I figure # packets = # plants, and we can use the "number of seeds in packet" field to describe the size/condition of plant (cutting, bare root, small pot, division, seedling, etc). Use common sense about the dates -- if you request a plant on the morning of the swap, it may not end up in your pre-swapped pile. The other dates aren't relevant to an in-person swap.

I need to know if there will be a Swap Discussion thread where I can post my haves or wants.
I would also like to know what others have in the simple, old way.

I would prefer that as I never could navigate the ATP version of the Seed Swap set-up.
I looked at it--I signed up for it--but stopped short with all the logistics of it.
I may not be the only one that doesn't "get it"....Please be kind to us that don't.
I would prefer to keep tabs of others' wants in my notebook.
Thanks. Gita

Gita, the plant chat thread is up; the link is at the top of this thread. You can certainly list your "haves" on that thread and keep track of requests however you want. I think you'll be able to navigate the ATP tool at least well enough to look at the lists people post on it... if you don't want to use it to request plants, that's OK, but it would be easier for others to keep track of your requests if you did.

If there's a plant I only have 1 or 2 of, something I'm not likely to offer again, I won't bother to make an entry for it on my "primary swap list." Instead, I'll just mention it in the plant chat thread. For plants I tend to have year after year (like Felicia's Phlox, or tomato seedlings), the primary swap list will be a great help... all I have to do in subsequent years is to adjust the number of plants I'm offering and click the checkmark to include that plant in the current swap.

Jill, I looked at the swap and see that you have posted an item, presumably as an example for others. Somehow in your version the "Availability" column has been removed, the "Offers" and "Comments" columns reduced in width, and the "Quantity" column made wider. How do we accomplish this when we generate our list?

I won't be able to come because we'll be at Winterther (I know its misspelled). Hubby's taking us up for the peony and something else tour. I'll send some seedlings up with Gardener.

Yehudith

Ooh, Winterthur! I hear it's beautiful there!

http://carolynsshadegardens.co...

http://www.winterthur.org/spri...

Greenthumb, when I look at my own entry for Garlic Chives, it looks like it did when I entered it for the seed swap.... the only change I made was to say something like "freshly dug bulbs" instead of number of seeds per packet. I "joined" the new swap and checked off the garlic chives as available for the swap. I'll take another look and see if I can figure out why you're seeing it differently.