los altos plant swap - april 29

here's the info i received...

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It's time to mark your calendar for the Spring Plant Exchange. The next exchange will be held on Saturday, April 29 from 10:00 AM until 12:00 noon in the Hillview Community Center parking lot (97 Hillview Avenue, off San Antonio Rd, Los Altos). Please bring your extra seedlings, plants, bulbs, cuttings and small shrubs and trees or anything else garden-related and take home something new in exchange. Please label all plants. If you don't know the name of the plant, list useful characteristics, e.g. flower color, sun or shade, water requirements. Please don't bring privet. We have found that it is usually left over at the end and we have to carry it away to the dumpster. You are welcome to post a note at the exchange saying you have some to give away in case someone wants it. This event is sponsored jointly by the Los Altos Recreation Department and the Garden Club of Los Altos . The exchange will be held rain or shine.

Some useful information, especially if you haven't been before to the plant exchange in the past year:

Please note that the exchange will start at 10AM and no plants should be taken before then. You must check in at the check-in table and make sure the plants you brought are labeled and set out before selecting plants. It is OK to do this starting at 9:45. Prior to 9:45 we will be setting up. If you come before 9:45 you are welcome to help us set up. If anyone would be willing to take a half hour shift at the check-in table please let me know.

Please remember the rules:
(1) Take in proportion to what you bring- if you only bring a few plants, take a few plants.
(2) Share- take only one of each of type of plant and 2-3 of each type of cutting (unless there are huge numbers of them; ask the volunteers if in doubt) so other people can try them, too . At 11:45 you can take as much as you want of anything that is left.
(3) Take what you have chosen to your car rather than collecting it in on the grass or concrete. If it is on the ground or the tables, we will assume it is still available. If you need help moving a large plant ask the volunteers.

Suggestions: Bring some extra labels so if something you take isn't well labeled, you can label it yourself. Bring a deep cup with a little water in it in the cup holder of your car so you can put cuttings in it. if you have any additional useful suggestions, send them to me and I will try to add them to future emails.

If you are interested in the Garden Club of Los Altos plant sale, it will be held on Tuesday April 25 from 11:30 AM to 12:45PM in the grassy area between the upper and lower parking lots of Christ Episcopal Church, 1040 Border Road, Los Altos. You don't have to be a member to come to the plant sale. Many interesting, less common plants are for sale. Please note that you may look but not pick up plants before 11:30.

*Fond memories of Los Altos.... Such a pretty little town! Goodness it's been a long time. Like, over 25 years!

I lived in Los Altos for years, Topar Ave and Loyola near LA CC. So beautiful and it was years ago. YEARS.

Thank you for posting this!
I'll see about coming on the 29th, and whether I can make it early.

Extra labels, marking pens, check.
no privet, check (I'm not taking any home, eeeeeither!)

I also have some gallon-plus black plastic pots to foist off on anyone willing; received them on freecycle from a little farther up the road, and have more than I can use.

I will definitely bring some extra Purple Cherokee and Pink Ponderosa heirloom tomato starts, in 4" pots.


This message was edited Apr 18, 2006 6:47 PM

since it's spring, vegetable seedlings are usually popular. :)

i have a bunch of pink guava seedlings going. but they are still tiny. the seeds came from a fruit that was at one of the previous swaps.

We loved this plant exchange!

It was delightful to get to see some of the folks who carried off our tomatoes to "experiment" with, and we found a few delights ourselves -
some little lettuces, a serious "chunk" of lemon balm, some trailing strawberries (I think that brings us up to three different strawb' cultivars), a cerenthe that's way farther along than our couple of little ones, a lovely piece of sage to root, a little lavendar, and a little shade plant; one leaf on a rooted piece of cane.

Apprently there is also a fall exchange, the last weekend in September. We have it on our calendar!

yes there's another one in september. i think the rule for the date is "the saturday after the last tuesday in april and september".

my dad took one of the purple cherokee tomatoes. :)

i got a sedum 'cape blanco' (finally!), white miniature rose, coleus, lemon balm and an african violet plus some bulbs that had finished blooming.

Cool. We should whomp up "Dave's Garden" buttons or tags or something and see if we can hook up and meet, if we haven't by then!

I'm glad your dad got one of the Purple Cherokee - they grow big like a Brandywine, are a good slicing tomato (each 'em up fresh), and are purple-y to a sort of brick color inside. I've had them from the SF Ferry Building farmer's market and they are tasty.
These Purple Charokee seeds I had from a Palo Alto friend who grew and saved them from a tomato that won a taste test at Common Ground several years back, so I have good hopes for them. Because the seeds were a few years old, I planted five to a cell, and of course they all came up! I'm glad it made for plenty to share.
We're doing our tomatoes in straw bales as a raised bed you amend and plant right in to (there's an active thread over in the DG Vegetable Gardening forum, where I - and several others - got the idea from). Living in Redwood City we learned in this rainy, rainy season just why that road near us is called "Marsh" -- so raised beds above our rental's long-neglected mud-bog, that will eventually themselves amend the soil here, seem like a good solution.

So hey, mmqc -- are we looking to Saturday, April 28 in 2007?

I'm also looking around for when the Santa Clara Master Gardeners have their plant sale (I think that was April 1 last year, and the phrase about the folks who descended like locusts and nearly emptied the place within 45 minutes was "but they were such a Nice mob! *whew*" -- I arrived at noon and got a few peppers, and was amazed at the lovely emptied parking lot.

yep, the los altos plant exchange is on saturday, april 28 in 2007. same time, same place. i've got a bunch of vegetable seedlings started.

santa clara master gardeners spring garden market - sunday, april 15, 2007, 9am-2pm. is this the one?
http://www.mastergardeners.org/events/2007/SGM_2007.html