It has rained and rained again! and that means its time to Swap Plants!

Announcing the 2008 Raleigh Spring Swap

Where: Creech Road Elementary School Park, Garner NC 27529

When: Saturday April 19th, 2008

What Time: shelter rented from 2pm until 4pm

There is also a pot luck picnic - so prepare to eat!

New to the swaps? DonÂt panic, we are a friendly bunch. There are very few rules (we like it that way). Check the "Special Trades" Thread on GardenWeb/Carolina Gardening/Exhanges subforum for details concerning any special plants anyone is offering for special requests in exchange. Special trades are traded outside of the general swap - which is more or less a free for all. If you donÂt have any plants to trade, bring food (homemade is worth more than store bought by this group). DonÂt think that we only want to discuss or trade exotic or hard to find plants - it ainÂt so! we like the common stuff just as much. No matter what you bring, someone will want it, and if no one wants it you can take it back home or we can just toss it out at the end of the mayhem. The way this works is we pile all the general swap plants together on the picnic tables (no special method, just jumbled together). We do a quick walk around to explain any unusual plants. Everyone lines up on the edge of the shelter after they have designated a "Cache" or stash spot in the lawn outside the shelter. I ding a bell and everyone rushes in and grabs ONE plant, and then hauls it over to their stash site. Everyone lines up and we do it again. After a few rounds like this I up it to TWO plants per ding and eventually we just grab anything that is left over. I know it sounds messy but this systems works the best. By having the plants jumbled together on the table and not segregated into sections we keep the crowd of swappers from knocking each other over. By having the first few rounds for one plant, everyone gets a shot at the choice stuff.

Remember that this is really a way for you to meet people interested in the same style of gardening that you practice - or a way to get great starting out advice.

The Raleigh Spring Swap will be held at Creech Road Elementary School Park which is the same spot we held swaps the past. The park has a large shelter with bathrooms and running water/electricity. The shelter is a short walk from the parking lot so be prepared to haul your plants to and fro. This town park is a combination Elementary school playground/city park recreation area - so if you can find the school you can find the park. The shelter is at the back of the schools parking lot on your right as you drive in.

Set up begins as soon as the shelter is free (hopefully no one will be there before us). General Swap begins at 2:30pm ish. As soon as the dust settles and weÂve broken up any fistfights we will all sit down to a pot luck picnic lunch and behave like civilized gardeners. At any time special trades can be conducted either at the shelter or in the parking lot.

Need more help finding the place?

Plug this data into mapquest (www.mapquest.com):

Creech Road Elementary School

400 Creech Road

Garner NC 27529

Mapquest will also give you detailed instructions on how to get from your house to the park and back home again. For those of you somewhat familiar with the area, here are the basics: Garner is a suburb of Raleigh. Downtown Garner is 10 minutes from downtown Raleigh and due south of it. The swap location is just past old downtown Garner on the east side of town, north of Hwy 70. Though many of the roads I will mention are highways, in this area they look and feel more like city streets. Get off of Interstate 40 on exit #299 and head south (away from downtown Raleigh). The road you are on is called Person Street or Hammond Road depending on which direction you are going, as it comes into Garner it becomes Timber Drive (there is no "welcome to Garner" sign on this road). Pretty soon you will approach a large intersection of Hwy 70 and Timber Drive. You want to turn left and head east. There are two left turn lanes at this intersection, choose the right lane of these two rather than the far left. You will go through a few traffic lights. The street Vandora Springs will cross overhead. The next street crossing overhead is Hwy 50, exit on the right onto Hwy 50 and cross over Hwy 70. At the first traffic light turn Right onto Old Garner Road East and head east. At the next traffic light turn Left onto Creech Road. You will see wooded parks and tennis courts and baseball diamonds on your right. The Elementary School is just after all that, on your right with a large blue sign. There is only one parking lot. The shelter for the swap is at the end of the parking lot on the right hand side.

If dry weather returns and the severity of the predicted hot and dry summer seem likely we may have an informal "Rain Dance" following the swap and feast (clothing optional).