Nothing specific planned, just seeing whose around.

Ken

Once I found Winter Sowing, spend most of my time there. Keep reading in Great Lakes about their get togethers & planned swaps. If a small fraction of my WS come up, I'll have way too many to use.

~Gillian

Hoehum, we are close. I am in Girard.

Gillian, if anything comes up I'll make sure to pass it on.

Have a Great New Year!!
Ken

The closest thing I've found in the works is in Columbus, Ohio. I wouldn't mind going to two of them (although on the same day could be rough). Let me know.

Stardust

~Gillian

--Lori

Based on reading the posts, with several NW PA and some NE OH folks being interested, is Meadville the best location? Seems pretty reasonable to me, but maybe something at Pymatuning to make it a wee bit closer for our Ohio folks. Audrey mentioned Goddard State Park.

I'll take the lead in getting this rolling, but will probably enroll the services of many folks to get this to come together.

First, I assume folks are still interested, at least some.

Here are some of my thougths, and everyone else post your own or comment. We can develop this plan while folks become interested, then get things planned in a couple of months.

FIRST (and maybe only) RULE - ALL PLANTS MUST BE LABELED! IF THE NAME IS NOT KNOWN THEN SOME DESCRIPTIVE INFO NEEDS TO BE GIVEN. I see no problem in not knowing what somethings called, as long as we can get some info on what it looks like or how it grows.

I'm not adventerous enough to pick an un-named, non-familiar plant, and hope it's not invasive!

I've done exchanges a few ways. The big thing is, there were always more plants than people could take home, and everyone went away happy. Maybe they didn't get the exact plant they wanted, but they got lots of good stuff.

Couple methods I've participated in:
1 - I bring 10 plants, Jim brings 5 plants, Sally brings 15 plants, Bill brings 3 plants. We put numbers 1-33 (total plants) in a hat. I pick 10 numbers, Jim 5, Sally 15, Bill 3. Then we go in order from 1 to 33 and when a number you have coems up, you pick a plant. Extremely fair but can be time consuming and cumbersome.

2 - Say 15 people show up, numbers 1-15 go into a hat, everyone picks one. Then we go in order 1-15, and everyone picks a plan. You use the honor system that you don't take home more than you brought, so you drop out when you're done. A lot simpler, but can be inequitable.

The other thing I've found is that everyone is friendly and honest, and that when folks are done picking in the organized (mostly anyway) way, there are lots of plants left for folks to claim. I mean is someone brings a couple of Hostas and chops them up, there's a lot of plants.

I have no problem thinking it would be fair and that we'd have fun, but we probaly need some type of consensus. I'm not looking to write a contract!

For food, we could make it luck of the draw cover dish, or have folks sign up for a dish type (desert, salad, etc.)

It could be bring your own plates, or we could have a few people responsible for plates, cups, utensils, etc.

If we wanted a cookout someone could be responsible for meat, and they could be re-imbursed through a collection. We would also need a collection for any cost associated with a pavillion or shelter location. Another thought is bring your own meat. We get a couple of grills going and everyone cooks their own.

If it were me I'd go this way.

-- Pick 1-x (number of people there) and use the homor system on the plant exchange. I'm sure they'll be plenty to go around.

-- Sign up for dishes by type. That way we don't have 20 trays of brownies, and no salad. Wait that's okay, I meant 20 salads and no brownies.

-- Limit meat to burgers and dogs (bring your own anything else) and get a rough head count. Someone buys the meat and buns and gets reimbursed. Or just go with dishes brought and no meat.

-- Everyone brings their own place settings (napkins, utensils, plates, etc). And everyone bring your own beverage(s).

-- Any excess money collected to pay for meat and/or shelter area could be donated to the park or other charity that we all reasonably agree on.

Just some ideas to provoke thought. I'm also not opposed to keeping it simple and we show with plants and sack lunches, swap, and get acquainted, and seeing how things go before turning it into a shin-dig!

Let's start simple (I know, way too late)-
Who would be willing to travel to Meadville? Pymatuning? Goddard State Park? Any of the 3 (they're not too far from each other)? Other ideas?

Others thoughts on swap methods?

Food thoughts?

Here are my other thoughts on swapping: I like the idea of putting numbers in a hat equaling the total number of plants. This way each person has more of a chance to get what they want. But I agree that this can be very time consuming. I guess it would depend on how many people actually came and how many plants each person brings. This can be decided a few days before our event when we have a closer count of people to attend. I’d even be willing to do the numbers and the hat for everyone to draw from.
We could also do something similar to a Chinese auction, but then you run into a problem if someone doesn’t have any of their tickets drawn.

For food: I would say for everyone to bring a covered dish, with a sign-up sheet for salads, entrees, desserts, misc., etc (although I like the idea of 20 types of brownies!!). Someone can make sloppy joes, or meatballs and sauce for meatball subs, also rigatoni and or perogies as entrees. A few people might even decide to go together and make/bring a lunchmeat tray. That way, no one would have to transport grills and such for cooking and then have to pack them back up to take home. Also, have everyone bring their own plates and silverware and beverages. I think this would cut down on the costs overall. Hey, I would even be willing to keep track of who will bring what and sort it down so that we don’t have too much of one thing…

So, we have some ideas… anyone else what to throw something in there? Or have any better suggestions? First thought that needs decided – when do we want to have this? Saturday or Sunday? What month? Then we can decide on where.

I would like to participate in the plant swap, any of the locations mentioned would work for me. I need to keep up on the information for this one! :)

I am in Youngstown, Ohio.

Thanks,
Elliott

i usually go to the central ohio swap-- which is big and fun
but its in columbus area. check their thread above. the crowd comes from ohio, wva, ky, ind, pa and mi.

also there has been a smaller swap in tuscawarus county in the past year or so. but you'd have to search for their thread.