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Central Texas Plant Swappers at Manchaca 4-21-12

This was my first time to attend the Austin area swap which used to be held in Buda. Charlotte, who graciously organizes the swap, secured a new site just up the highway from Buda in Manchaca. I can't begin to tell you what a wonderful swap this was! The weather was perfect, location wonderful, the 20 or so friendly swappers were more than generous, the food superb. Again I came home with plants that I didn't know I needed so badly -- some of which I'd never even heard of before :-) I hope I got pictures of everyone who came. Patty and Charlotte helped me with the names.

Bill Palecek, director of Manchaca United Methodist Community Garden, welcomes the Central Texas Plant Swappers to the church's pavilion and tells us a little about their community garden project ....

Here's the Community Gardens public Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/MUMCGarden

where some pictures of our swap are posted.

Wanda, Guadalupe, Charlotte, Valery, Liz, and Pam checking out the plant goodies ...

Patty enthusiastically welcomes everyone ...

Overviews of our space ...

Wouldn't you love to know what plant Pam is describing?

Patty's doing most of the talking here ...

Julia, Val, and Margie ...

Patty, Guadalupe, Ray, and Laura ...

Charlotte, Patty, Carla, Esther and Margie ...

Ray with his and Guadalupe's toy poodle. A sweet dog, she's over ten years old ...

Everyone was happy with the great selection of doorprizes. When my name was drawn I picked a beautiful little book "Lovely is the Rose, a Scented Analogy" full of beautiful old fashioned paintings, prose and poetry. And hey -- the book really is scented! ...

Wanda, Ragna (Roselee) and Patty ...

Peggy and Sarah ...

Carla and Laura looking a little windblown, but we were all happy with the nice cool temps ...

The delicious food went fast! Thanks to all who cooked and brought the snacks. Many dishes were home grown as well as home made ...

At my request Wanda sent me the recipe to her salad. If anyone wants it just let me know ...


We were very impressed with the good work of the church community garden. All the donations received at the swap went toward their projects ...

Lots of young people were hard at work ...

They are using an ancient and efficient watering system called "olla" in which clay pots which have been glued together are filled with water which gradually seeps into the ground. There were seeds planted in this whole little plot, but it's easy to see how many more seeds sprouted and grew well with the water from the ollas ...

Here are detailed photos on how the olla watering system can be made from unglazed clay pots:

http://gliving.com/home-made-garden-watering-ollas/

Thank you everyone who made this swap a wonderful experience.

After the swap Patty and I drove over to Laura's home to pick up some things and I was delighted to be treated to a tour of her wonderful garden. I'll be posting pictures soon :-)

Then we all went to a near by plant sale/greenhouse operation which specializes in beautiful succulents, agaves, cacti and many other low water need plants at fantastic prices. Pictures are coming from that visit too.

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