Its that time of year again!

Starting rooting those cuttings and sprouting those seeds! ItÂs time to swap plants!

Where: Creech Road Elementary School Park, Garner NC 27529

When: Saturday September 9th, 2006

What Time: shelter rented from 11am til 2pm (show up early if possible)

There is also a pot luck picnic - so come hungry!

Raleigh Fall Swap will be held at Creech Road Elementary School Park which is the same spot we held the swap this past spring. 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 at 11:00am (though if you show up early and no one has rented the shelter feel free to stake a claim before the madness begins). General Swap begins at 12:00noon and should end by 12:30pm. 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. We have to exit the shelter by 2:00pm - but if we still havenÂt gotten sick of each other there are picnic tables nearby where we can sit all afternoon long if we want. Keep in mind that the shelter rental is more flexible on the pre swap hours as opposed to post swap, so arriving early is highly recommended. The parks staff cleans the shelter so we just need to get anything important out of their way. I am asking that anyone lurking about with nothing to do please please please help the swappers move plants from the parking lot to the shelter (and the reverse after the swapping is over).

You can simply 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.

Any of the above information can be influenced by excessive amounts of whining or tantrum throwing. Threats of bodily harm and good ol fashioned bribery will work as well.

We need to come up with a smoother way to conduct "Special Trades". What I am planning on doing is to pound in wooden sticks with name tags on them in the lawn around the shelter. You can write your name on a stake and that will designate your area, the spot where you will stash your plants. That way when traders are wandering around trying to give and get their pre-arranged plants they can simply find the stake with your name on it and drop off your plant(s) if they cannot find you in the crowd. Some of you may choose to conduct your trades directly from your vehicle in the parking lot and that is fine also. Anything to speed things up.