Crownpc's Blog

NY Plantswaps
Jul 15, 2010 | 7:17 AM PST
Tags: efforts , gardens , veggies , plants , swaps , plantswap

Everyone likes to see different plants than those they've grown to love.  Sometimes, having the same plants can get to be a bit of a bore.  So to get rid of the duldrums, we created a bunch of groups for doing plantswaps all over NY.  Our swap last month ( June 2010 ) was a great success.  We were invited to join the Broome County Rabbit Breeders Club, at their annual national rabbit show. This event took place at the Ithaca, NY 4H Club, where camping could be had for just $5.00 per night.  They had food vendors available all day, and the weather was perfect.  All told, from 13 sign ins, we had well over 300 plants to share.  When we were all done, we gave about 50 plants to anyone who wanted them, and gladly we had plenty of takers.

We are having another swap with a dish to pass lunch in Newfield in July (2010), and another in Syracuse in August (2010).  If you would like to keep posted and up to date of where and when our swaps are taking place please visit my site at http://www.7valleyplantcycle.
com

I am also a member of many other Yahoo Plant Groups, and one of my favorites to date is http://groups.yahoo.com/group
/americangardener with over 650 members.

Since we were forced to abandon our great gardens of years past, we are not doing so well to date this year.  Our raised beds are nearly empty, do to the lack of materials to fill them.  Out of 5 beds, we are growing in 2 and a half.  To make up for lost space we decided to till up a section of the yard for a conventional garden, but the soil quality is poor, and we have our work cut out for us to make these beds anywhere near as good as our all organic beds were.

Thankfully, we have lots of trees to collect leaves in the fall from, and we have some great neighbors who contribute to our composting efforts to get these beds back up to par.  By next year we should be back to full operational status, and have plenty of fresh veggies to share amongst all of our community.