Home and having cheese and crackersÂand a touch of the grapeÂto celebrate a 5th successful swap! I plan to download the pics, and if I donÂt get too drunk (Gewurztraminer), IÂll post them yet tonite!

I parked on I25 for almost a half an hour between University and Alameda! Took an hour to get home (40 miles)! At least when I got to Alameda there was a wreck, so it made sense! Hate it when you get in a traffic jamÂand never figure out what the problem is!!! (Not happy somebody got in a wreckÂbut maybe they had MORE than a touch of the grape!)

Then I had to restart my computer FIVE TIMES to make it work!!! I need a new computer! SO frustrating! Think IÂm gonna get a Mac and get rid of all this MS BS! If I get another PC, I just might murder some poor innocent person because IÂm so frustratedÂand donÂt know where to find a real live Microsoft person, so I wonÂt be able to murder one of the people responsible for my frustration!!! (Anybody have any negativity to tell me about, about Macs?)

Aside from my problems with getting homeÂand my problems with my computer (gee, do I sound like somebody else who used to post around here!!!) the swap was GREAT fun!!! Friendly people, good food, and lots of good plants!

IÂll be back with picturesÂmaybe!

Thank you everyone for helping to make it another successful swap,
Skybird

I added my thanks to the swap thread, but perhaps this is a better place.

Thank you, everyone, for all the things that made this such a fun time. The food was great, the company was great, the plants were great. I appreciate everyone's generosity.

Next time, I hope I don't have any silly schedule conflicts to get me all stressed out.

My daughter had a blast, too. Thank you for letting her choose a few plants for herself. She is very pleased.

This was great fun. I'm looking forward to seeing how well my new treasures do for me. Thanks again!

Thanks Charlene for hosting and Dee for organizing!! I didn't have time to plant my wonderful plants today, but tomorrow after my MD breakfast, we are digging in the dirt.

I can't wait for these to thrive in my yard so I can divide them for others.

THANKS for a GREAT TIME and some GREAT PLANTS!!

Deb

We are home, safe and sound! It took 3 1/2 hours coming back, which is typical, but I was glad my son was there to keep me entertained.

Thank you, Charlene for opening your home to all of us. It was really great seeing everyone again, and making some new friends too!

Deb, thanks for bringing the Sweet 100 Swap seed box for me, and for the pine nuts! I'm too tired to go through the box tonight, so that will give me something to look forward to tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for sharing your plants and food! I had a great time!

Bonnie

Hi all,

IÂm not sure where to post this, maybe IÂll post it on the picture thread too, but I seem to have come home with fewer of the black plastic plant trays than I arrived with! I really, really need them to grow stuff in and to carry stuff around in for the swaps, so if you wound up with oneÂor moreÂwould you please keep them and bring them back to the Fall Swap so I can get them back to use again? I use them to move stuff around my yard when IÂm growing it before the swap, and with as much as I bring, it would be impossible to handle it all without the trays to put it in.

Thank you all, I really appreciate it,
Skybird

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

What a great time was had, and what a gracious hostess Charlene is--and hubby, too! What a lovely setting, and what perfect weather for a swap.

I'm still trying to figure out how I ended up with a sunflower, but no bother--must have been that last minute free-for-all frenzy! I'll find a home for it, and all the rest of the wonderful finds.

Skybird, I don't have any of your trays, but I'll keep an eye out and if I find anything like them between now and the fall swap, I'll hang onto them for you--I'm always asking at greenhouses and garden centers if they have any trays I can have!

Also a big thanks to SisterK, my ride for the day.

It was so nice to put names to faces, and get a little better feel for who likes what. Thanks again!

Ladies, it was very nice to meet all of you! My husband and I are going to our community garden plot today to plant all of those lovely tomatoes we got (we like to live dangerously :). I'm also really excited about the coreopsis, penstemon, and lupines I scored.

Skybird - I was right behind the girls that got in that accident. Two SUVs, one of which spun out into my lane. I avoided adding my car to the pileup and pulled over to make sure the girls were okay - everyone was fine, just a lot of cosmetic damage. That was enough excitement for me!

Have a great Mother's Day ladies!

It was good to meet everyone at the swap, I had a great time! Friend has gone back to VT and DH is packed and ready to go early, early in the morning, so I hope to start some planting tomorrow (we'll see how I recover from getting up at 4 am...) Thanks Charlene for having us and thanks to all for the plants! I hope to be back for the fall swap and I hope to be able to contribute more next time (I have some new wintersown sprouts, so there's hope!)

That was great. I had a fantastic time and came home with super stuff. Planted all the veggies yesterday--thanks for the tomatoes, Debbie. I put milk jugs on them last night and they looked great this morning. Will get to the perennials this week. I felt good that someone adopted my babies and plan to bring more stuff next year. Thanks so much to Charlene and Dee.

Dee: I think have some black plastic trays. If so,do you want them? I live in SW Denver.

I planted the sedums and iceplants yesterday and proud to report they are ALL still alive!! I also (at first) viciously yanked out my own Blue Spruce sedum and instead of tossing it all in the trash, moved some elsewhere and THAT'S alive too:)) I'll bring some of my xeric ground covers, rooted - yeah, to the fall swap.

The rest of the plants that I received from you all are getting planted today. I went to O' Tooles for basil seed, since I've killed all of my sprouts, and came home with a car load of plants...I'm glad it's spring.

Happy Gardening -

Deb

Thanks to everyone for coming!! You are so welcome!

I'm glad everyone made it home safe. Bonnie drove 3 1/2 hours!

Thank you for all the plants! I got so many great plants! Good food too!

Thanks to Skybird for organizing everything. I do have your bowl and will save it for you!

Look forward to a fall swap.

Charlene

Hi all --

Sorry I missed the swap; there was a sudden family emergency so I wasn't able to make it. :(

I'm sorry you couldn't make it, laura42. I hope the emergency ended without any long-lasting problems.

---------------

I finally got around to transplanting the sedum starts Skybird graciously shared. They went out onto my deck to protect them from the rabbits and deer. I put them out yesterday and checked on them from time to time. They looked fine yesterday evening.

All of the plants were gone this morning. No evidence, just nothing poking up above the dirt. No holes in the dirt. No scattered bits of greenery. No tracks or smells or anything else to indicate that my plants were not abducted by aliens.

I have decided that herbivores are not cute little critters. They are vicious predators that prefer slow-moving prey.

So, what ate my brand new sedums? It wasn't a deer or a rabbit or a bear. The animal had to be able to climb or fly. It's nocturnal. It left no evidence whatsoever; just ate all the plants down to the dirt. It left the nearby bird feeder alone.

I have some small hopes that the roots will resprout. If so, I will add a covering to the pots to give the plants a better chance.

The sempervivums Skybird shared with will stay indoors for now. Maybe I can get some new sedum starts at the fall plant swap.

Squirrels!! Polygonum, I think it could have been squirrels. They don't eat my sedums but that is probably because they are so busy hording the pine cones.

Of course, it could have been birds collecting soft bedding for their nest.

How about a long planter that can be covered in screen or mesh?

I'll be bringing tons of sedum starts to the fall swap; I'll put your name on some!

Jennifer

Polygonum -- Still some problems, but things are getting better. Thanks for asking. (and good luck with the critters!) :)

Poly, squirrels!!! Be sure you leave the soil where the sedums "were" dry completely before watering. IÂd say thereÂs at least a 50/50 chance theyÂll come back, but itÂll take a while. When the soil is completely dry, water well, and then let it dry againÂand in a month or two I think theyÂll grow again. If theyÂre in pots, cover the top with ½" chicken wire, but it weÂre right that itÂs squirrels, youÂll need to secure it well or itÂll disappear along with the plants! Squirrels are "creative" creatures! At my last house they figured out how to shinny down a 6' long piece of wire, no thicker than sewing thread, to get to one of my bird feeders! They really are amazingÂif only they werenÂt so destructive! IÂm really surprised theyÂve been leaving your bird feeders alone! IÂll have LOTS of sedum plants and/or cuttings at the Fall Swap, so you can easily replace any that donÂt make it. If you put chicken wire over the top of the pots, the semps can go outside too, but if itÂs squirrels, theyÂll need to be protected till they multiply enough to provide a snack and still be around! IÂve never had them eat semps down to the ground! They just eat the top off of the "leaves," which makes them look pretty bad, but they survive to produce more chicks!

Laura, glad to hear things are at least getting better. Sprouts also carries a lot of gluten free itemsÂthey have a little booklet of the GF things they carry. I just checked their site and theyÂre in the process of putting in a store in Ft. Collins. They have some really good deals on produce too! See you at the Fall Swap!

Skybird

"squirrels"

It could be. But why didn't they bother the sedums while it was light outside? The sedums were fine all day until after 8pm, totally disappeared by 7am the next morning. We do have plenty of squirrels, at the bird feeder and everywhere else.

Thanks for the advice on how to possibly resuscitate the sedums! Yes to chicken wire! It's part of our plan for protecting the tomatoes, too. And thanks for the offer to replace the missing plants at the fall swap.

I had somehting suddenly come up and couldnt make it, but I was with you in spirit. I so wish I could have been there. Looking forward to seeing the pictures.

Gloria