Ok I'll help make it easier for the guessing
Thisis a list of guesses not sent in.

drippy has 14,078
jaynine has 12,300
bhnash has 9,750
conniesc has 9,333
julie_mn has 22,050
ruthz has 9900
dirtdiggin has 13,569
poisondartfrog has 15,100
sandysgardens has 8997
just1morehoasta has 13,350
suecirish has 11,750
jas_il has 11,000
ggwrn has 10,250
hibiscusfan has 9750
patty_b has 11,419
neohippie has 7,750
sakura_komichi has 8000
patrob has 10,850
columbine21 has 12,200
chemocurl has 9,440
tammyinwv has 12,560
ollierose has 16,551
vikingkirken has 8,244
ilovefarac has 9,998
grovespirit has 9498
rane_grow has 1,677

And I will add my guess in the mix at 10,350 seed packs.

Paula

My guess...7143... Bev.

ooops I just saw that I left out a 1 ... I meant to say I guess 11,677 ! I must be tired ...

Diana, doing tags is a good idea ... I was just looking at my plant shelves in the garage and empty pots I saved from this past spring/summer ... wishing this cold winter weather was almost finished instead of just getting started ...sigh...

~Iris

It actually snowed at my house in central Louisiana for 5 hours today and actually got some big flakes, but sadly almost all has melted and is turning to ice - glad we don't have to drive anywhere tomorrow. My guess for the number of seed packets is 14,700. Can't wait to get seeds from this swap - am so excited about it. :-)

Best to you,
quiltingfox

Okay, I'll play. I guess:

10,000 even

Hello all,

I'm going to guess 13,223 packets were sent in for the swap this year.

Patty and Angie, good luck sorting through all of them, It'a huge undertaking!

Lisa

I am going to guess 13,813.

Cold here this weekend. Right now (10 am) it is 28 degrees. We are headed out this afternoon to cut down a Christmas tree. Of course, last weekend was in the 50's.

I thinking SOUTH for retirement. Is there a place where I can garden all year. :)

We are getting our first snowfall of the season. We have about an inch already and its still snowing. We are supposed to get 1-2" and 30 degrees today.
tammy

My guess is 12,660.

Better think Florida, Smitties - or Hawaii, or the Virgin Islands...it snowed in northern Alabama today! (only about 1/2 inch, though)

hmm.. my guess is 11,636 :) Hi everyone!

~Wendy / sassyb...

You guys make sure you keep your snow. I don't want any this way. :)

Good morning everyone ! We had rain mixed with ice and snow yesterday ... now my car is frozen shut ! Brrr... if the sun doesn't defrost it soon I will have to get out there and pry it open so I can run some errands ! this is what I get for having too much stuff in my garage so my car doesn't fit in it LOL

~Iris

Iris - Run a hair dryer out on an extension cord to melt the ice around the door of your car.

~CA

It got down to 25 here in Atlanta, GA last night. A lot of stuff bit it, but I am pleasantly surprised that my pineapple sage and royal carpet alyssum has held up. I covered things I hadn't planted out yet, so they're fine. Hopefully we'll have some warmer dry weather next weekend so I can get them planted out. I'm feeling a little under the weather today, so I'm sticking to tasks where I can utilize my laptop while in bed. I've been spending my time today writing out plant tags. I got a bunch of wintersowing containers cleaned up yesterday, so I'm enjoying getting a head start!

Diana

I'll guess 13550

My guess is: 11,111!

My guess is......

11,111

--Tina

....and whoever wins can raid my list...up to 40 things if you can find that many (just based on my patience for a single, long, bagging-up session). I think I've got it updated from what I've run out of from this swap.

Well, that is unless the winner is angela....I sent her half my list already. lol! (boy, it's good you didn't drop out!)

sguanzon...I don't remember if you raided my list for your win last year....have at it if you didn't and still want to after you get your hord sent back from Patty.

:)
--Tina

...that's on top of whatever prize Angie has up her sleeve already. (If that's ok with you, Angie!)

tee-hee-hee.

Hi girls well we just spent all day and evening and didn't even get halfway done Angie just left I will keep working on them after work every day now someone else knows how much work it is. I am still waiting for luvgardenings seeds so you have till tomorrow evening to guess the seed count thanks Diana for the cookies to share Kilngod we are waiting to see who wins but you are welcome to offer seeds to the winner gotta get back to the seeds so I can get finished up with the ones we were working on and go to bed I won't start sending any out until later in the week
Patty

Wow, I can almost hear some Twilight Zone music playing. Stage Rat and Kilngod both posted a guess of 11,111 at exactly 20:06 on Sunday, Dec. 6.

Does anyone else find that bizarre?

Shoot. And she beat me in the posting order. dangit.

(Yes, it's quite freaky actually.)

ok ok ok. I'll take 10,011. Doesn't have the same ring though.

--Tina :)

I was thinkin' that too Bonnie when I saw it! lol

Hugs all,
Wendy

Smitties,

Year round places to garden which are within the USA, either as states or territories:
In addition to the previously mentioned S. Florida and its Keys, Hawaii, & Virgin Islands...
Also, several coastal cities along the Gulf of Mexico such as Galveston and Corpus Christi TX.
Some Gulf-coast cities in Louisiana, Alabama and Missisippi also qualify.
Certain parts of Southern California.
Last but not least: Don't forget Puerto Rico! :)

I don't think you necessarily have to be on the Gulf Coast to be able to garden year-round in the south. I live near Austin and cold-tolerant plants like brassicas, lettuce, and root crops do fine all winter. You don't necessarily have to be frost-free as long as your freezes aren't too severe.

Then again, the flipside is that the summers are so hot and dry that it's hard to get anything to survive through them. Maybe summer is truely the off-season for us rather than winter. I can maybe get peppers, okra, and sweet potatoes through but that's about it. I'm always on the lookout for heat and drought tolerant plants. This past summer broke the record for how many days passed 100 degrees in one summer, and we're having record drought.

Yep Bonnie, I heard the twilight zone music too when I saw both Stage_Rats and Kilngod's identical guess's. I think they should both keep their guess's at 11,111 and see what happens!!!!! I think we could come up with some type of tie breaker if need be.

Hi all I got luvgardening2 seeds today so I have a total you have until 9pm tonight to post your guess at 9:05 I will post the winner and the prize it will be sent with your seeds.
Patty

Oh cool! Doing a happy dance - all the seeds are in - yeah!!! :-) Really appreciate everyone who participated and our great hosts.

Best to you,
quiltingfox

God bless you Patty, that must be a powerful lot of seeds there!

Im going to guess 11,387

I dont even want to THINK about how much work that would be to divide up.

srsly, If I hosted a swap nobody could send in more than five packets, thats packets not types.

:)

Tina (kilngod) - Oh, my goodness! I'm glad I didn't drop out, too! Well, I doubt I win the contest (I probably should submit a guess soon if I want any chance!), but if I do win, I'll take it easy on your list. hee hee

WoWWee! Thanks again, Patty & Angie! I can only imagine the insanity of rooting through all those seeds for us in this swap.

OKAY, finally... my guess is: 11,250.

....unless we're doing the closest guess without going over (like the Price is Right - LOL), then my guess is 11,001. hee hee... What's funny is I was going to also guess 11,111 until I saw the other two guesses for it. :-)

Blessings,
Angela

My guess is 9,876.

Bonnie

Hi girls I am a little late it is 9:16 and the seeds sent in total that includes mine is 12,102 the winner is

Posted by columbine21 zone 6 , IL on Thu, Dec 3, 09 at 18:50

My guess will be 12,200.
Rebekah
OK Rebekah not sure of what I am sending but I want it to be a surpise anyways I will send it with your seeds I will probally start sending some on Wenesday
CONGRADULATIONS
back to the seeds
Patty

Wow, that really IS freaky, kilngod and I posting 11111 at the same time! I wonder what else we have in common? Kilngod, it's 11:10 central time, and I'm eating pretzels, how 'bout you? :)

Patty, I can't believe that you'll be ready to mail the first envies so soon! Great work!

Wow - over 12,000 seed packets for the swap. I get a smile on my face everytime I think of all our busy hands packaging up all those packets.

Thanks again Patty for hosting and those that helped her out last weekend sorting!! Also to everyone participating in the swap, if it wasn't for all your generousity there wouldn't be such a GREAT swap.

Sandy

Congrats, Rebekah! Please, share with us your winning strategy... How'd you guess so close? :-)

Patty - I'm with Sandy... I'm in awe that you can start sending seeds back as soon as Wednesday! WoWWee! Thanks so much for all your hard work and for hosting this swap year after year. I hope it continues for a long time to come as I totally was looking forward to it again this year after first joining it last year. Oh, I'm so excited!

Blessings,
Angela

WOW, that's about 4000 more than last year!!!! I thought over 8000 was a lot!!! Can you all imagine Patty's living room? LOL I know I can :)

Oh the excitement!! Can't wait to see that packages are arriving and the excited posts...it's so much fun to read through them.

Pins n needles lol.

Toni

Hi, all! I have been absent from the computer for a couple days...then checked this thread this afternoon and wow what a great surprise! I thought with this being my first time and all, I would have a very slim chance of winning this game.

Angela, I really did not have much of a strategy; I just estimated that the average per participant was 200 packets sent. (I sent around that many myself.) I figured that for every person who sent way under that amount, there might be a person who sent way over that amount.

Patty, thanks for the surprise...I really like surprises!
And thanks for all your hard work! Wow,so you are going to be mailing envies back starting Wednesday...that is soon!

Have a great time, everyone!

Rebekah

Congratulations Rebekah,How fun.

Patty, I am with the rest of the group.So surprised you will be mailing next week already, you have been one busy lady,I wish you would post a picture of your sorting area,it must be crazy.
Thank you Patty, we would not be having this much fun, if not for you, or the bursting bags of seeds we will all be getting.
cAROL

Congratulations Rebekah! Well here in the deep south we are getting rain, rain and more rain. And shockingly it was in the 70's today after having snow on Friday evening, though suppose to turn colder tonight and tomorrow. I went out in shorts today and in the rain to check on the freeze damage to plants and had lost a few plants and tried to recover my cannas with leaves. Hope everyone has a great week. And everyone up north feel free to send some snow my way, but please no ice :-). Can't wait to get that big envelope full of seeds - definitely want to participate in this swap next year.

Best to you and stay warm!,
quiltingfox

We're in an arctic blast and have been for a couple of days now. This morning it was 16 degrees! Inland it's running about 12 degrees. We rarely get below about 28 during the cold months, so this is unusual. Brrrrrrrrr ...and they expect it for another week or so. Of course they are rarely correct with our weather forcast, so we shall see. Wish I had a job where I could be wrong 80% of the time and still have a job lol.

Hope everyone is staying warm tonight...be well and take care.

Toni

Yep, we are getting that arctic blast too! We had a foot of snow last night, and the low tonight is expected to be -2º. They actually closed the schools today, which they never do here. The highs haven't been above freezing for about a week now ...

I am very thankful to have a nice, warm home tonight!

Bonnie

I am with you Carol, I could just see Patty sitting in the middle of a mountain of seed packets up to her neck.
Tammy

Wow Bonnie... -2º? Now that's COLD! We've had some serious problems with the temps, but they haven't closed schools. Our high yesterday was 28º. I actually had to put a space heater in my greenhouse so my wintered over plants are toasty lol. Just have to haul water 'cause the hose bibs are all winterized. I still have a bunch of rooted cuttings that I need to pot up lol...I'm not behind ^o^

The plows cleared most of the roads by late yesterday afternoon, so the schools are open today, but the current temp. is - 12º. Doubt the kids will get to play outside today. It's just too dangerous. At least they were able to go sledding yesterday. Off to bundle everyone up!

Bonnie

Well, they're shutting schools down now due to the cold. We are no where around your temps Bonnie, but we just aren't used to that kind of cold. It's so crazy...we don't hit lows 'til late January or early February. Who knows...maybe we'll have our second in a row white Christmas...which last year was the first in 18 years lol.

Keep warm and safe everyone...it's realllllllly cold out there!!!

Toni

Bonnie -12 degrees - WOW!! Makes me really appreciate my warm weather here in Louisiana. Weather that cold just sounds painful. Hope you all stay very warm and safe.

Best to you,
quiltingfox

Congrats Rebekah!:)

ATTENTION: Patty's computer is down,I will be handling all of her posts from now until, it gets fixed or to the end of the swap,whichever comes first. If there is anything you need to tell, or ask Patty,just email me. I will call her and relay the message to her and get back to you with the answer! I will be starting the new thread for her also,I will be using her account info to post,so you will see her name as the one who started the thread.:)

MESSAGE FROM PATTY: She is going to start mailing out envies. They will be mailed out as they become ready.I will have a list of names to post soon,letting you all know who has been mailed,so you can start watching your mailbox!:)

I went to Patty's this past Saturday to help pack seeds! Talk about a ton of work! We made a dent,but there are loads of them! I was impressed by Patty's method. She has a great system and is very thorough! She handles every single pack! I hope to go to her house this weekend and help her finish up! :)

OK,more good stuff! Patty's yard is still full of lots of beauty,so I have compiled an album of scenes from her fall/winter garden! I also have pics of the goodies that were sent to us,of course the chocolates sent in for Patty didn't last long, and the cookies Diana sent us were nothing but crumbs by the time I pulled out the camera,so those will not be seen in any photos! LOL
The pics will be posted in the new thread I am about to start. So please make sure you post on the new thread from here on out!;)

What else will not be seen is.... any pics of the seeds!!!!! I totally forgot! Patty mentioned it,and then we started doing the seeds and I got totally side tracked! Sorry guys,I know some of you would have loved to see the giant mound of happiness!:)

Thanks to all of those who sent in seeds! I know for a fact there are going to be some really happy gardeners here!:)

Enjoy the pics!:)