I don't know if any of you have done this before. I have never done it with seeds in particular but have been a part of other swap lists that did this.

For those of you unfamiliar with how this works:

1. Sign up here or email me privately before October 17th to let me know you want to participate.

2. Within a few days of the deadline you will be notified of how many participants there will be in the swap.

3. Prepare a seed packet with 10-15 seeds per participant. For example if there are five participants, including yourself, you will prepare four seed packets.

4. Mail your packets to the swap host (me). I will split them up into equal groups and mail them back out. If the mailing address you want your seeds sent to is not on the package I will need to have your address of course.

5. Sit back and wait for your package of seeds to arrive!

The one disadvantage to this approach is that everybody has different tastes so you may get some seeds you do not care for. The advantage is that there is less postage involved for everyone to get a little stash of seeds they may not have had. If you don't want it in your yard you can always trade it or give them to someone else. It's really supposed to be a light hearted fun thing and not so much a serious seed seeking expedition.

I do have a few, not many, but a few guidelines I am sure everyone will appreciate:

Please check the shelf-life of what you are sending and make sure that the seeds will keep until at least late winter. If you don't have time or can't seem to find a reference please feel free to contact me and I will help you find that information.

All collected seeds should be clean and dry in any container you send them in. And please make sure to check and make sure what you package will come true from seed or that the plant makes viable seeds.

Let me know what you are sending so I can kind of make sure that we don't end up with a lot of the same thing.

If you don't have enough seed to send all of the same thing that is fine as long as everyone gets a pack.

The more information you put on the seed packet the better. The only thing I ask is that you can at least name the plant by either common or botanical name.

I have not attended a swap yet where people did not drop out toward the end. Usually it is just one or two but it does happen. In that event you'll need to let me know what to do with the extra seeds.

Everyone pays their own postage. If you want seeds mailed back to you I will need $$$ for postage. I don't do SASE anymore because despite the fact that it is a simple concept it always causes problems. I will be collecting $4.80 from each person for shipping and hope postage doesn't raise in the meantime. This covers the cost of a flat rate envelope within the United States. If I can mail them cheaper I will but this covers all bases. I don't imagine there will be more seeds than can fit in a flat rate envelope. If I can mail for cheaper I will enclose your change in the return envelope minus fifty cents for a bubble mailer (which is what I paid for them). Payments can be submitted via check, money order, or Paypal. If I get cash, I will accept it but I'm not taking responsibility for it if it doesn't make it here so you do so at your own risk.

I'm the only one who needs your contact information. If you want to put your contact information on your packets that is up to you, again, at your own risk.

That about wraps it up. Like I said, this is the first time I have tried this with seeds so if anyone has any additions or suggestions or if there is something I may not have thought about please feel free to let me know.

-Tina