Everyone (including myself) loves the Swaps so much, I thought I would start a new one. I’ll call it the Secret Container Garden Swap. What each participant will do is design a container garden using seeds they have with a minimum of 4 different types of annual seeds. You will then send me a diagram and the seeds needed to create it along with a SASE envelope and I'll send them off. No one will know who sent what because I will repackage the seeds.
I will limit this to 12 participants. Come Spring, when they start blooming we'll all submit pictures and see if you can recognise your design!
To clear up any confusion, each participant designs 1 container and sends enough seeds for that design for 1 container. You do not have to send enough seeds for 12 containers. Just 1. You don't send the container either. The person receiving the design and seeds provide that.
The parameters have been changed a bit. By homegrown seeds I was including ones gotten from trade. Its ok if you need to buy them as well. Pot size is no longer limited so include a suggested pot size in your diagram, but please take into consideration that people in the North with no greenhouse or growlights will probably have to be dragging the pots around for a few months.
1. Xeramtheum
2. Illoquin
3. Windy
4. moretz
5. sheran
6. starlight1153
7. princessyfs
8. Robynznest
9. makshi
10. beckygardener
X
This message was edited Jan 12, 2007 8:37 PM
CLOSED: First Annual Secret Container Garden Swap
Ooooh, I want to do this!!!! I am getting into containers big time next year.
Suzy
Are these commercial seed packets you want? Some harvested in my garden probably won't come true from seed.
Another question. Since this is a container, how many of each seed do you want to be sent. Some may not germinate, but a whole packet would not be necessary for a container.
Put me down and I will try to figure something out.
I'd prefer it to be home grown seeds. As to quantity, if they are known to be good germinators then double the amount of seed. If your design calls for 4 plants of a specific plant then send 8 seeds. If they are questionable germinators then triple the amount of seed. There is really no limit on the amount of seeds you wish to send as long as there are enough in your opinion to do the job.
X
Great. Thanks for clarifying that.Don't forget to add me. I just remembered a while ago my son sent me a container gardening book. That will help. LOL
This sounds like so much fun, but being new to seed starting I don't have any seeds I've collected from my garden. Would you consider allowing commercial seeds if your numbers don't fill up? I would really like to participate, but I understand if you would prefer not. Thanks.
i would love to try this, but not sure if i have seeds from my garden to do this since i gace alot away for sasbe. i will see what i have go ahead and add me and i will lyk ok? thxs
moretz
well if it is only 4 i should be able to do that lol,so we are only sending enough for 1 container right?
Four is the minimum number of plants per container and yes, just design 1 container. The idea is that once each of you gets your seeds, all you have to do is put dirt in your pot, plant the seeds according to the diagram and wait.
Princessyfs, if you are new to starting seeds then this project probably isn't for you. You might want to start a thread in this forum and ask for easy to grow seeds to learn from. Most people here are more than happy to send new gardeners seeds for a SASE and some won't even ask for a SASE. Also make sure you are in the Address Exchange. Just click on Extras in the menu bar then Address Exchange.
X
I've started some seeds before, I just haven't collected any from my own garden. Thanks anyway. Hope ya'll have fun!
Sorry, I misunderstood, when you said being new to seed starting I though you meant just that.
X
I have enough seed to do 2 designs for 6 people each, rather than 1 design for 12 people - would that be okay?
The idea is to design 1 container for 1 person! I hope everyone understands this. Each participant just designs 1 container using seeds they have available. Once I get 12 designs along with the seeds needed to create each design, I will send each participant 1 design and the seeds that go with it.
X
sounds fine - count me in, too
This would be a cool idea for a plant swap also, wouldn't it. But that's another place and time.LOL
LOL, Sheran, you are such an enabler - yes, it is. We might need to be a little more flexible, though, in order to maximize the possibilities of participation. For example, we might want to encourage creativity with containers - the wackier, tinier, biggier, more improbablier the better,etc. There could be other things besides plants in the pots for those with not too many seeds; for example, if all you had was sunflower seed, then you could get creative with a scarecrow to fluff out the arrangement...landscapes in a tea cup...Oh dear
X, were you serious about the seed coming from our own gardens? If so, the person who gets my pot is going to be mighty disappointed!! A six foot Thalictrum and some six foot lilies that won't bloom next summer, surrounded by some five-foot marigolds, but that's okay because the moss roses will be there. LOL!
I can't help but think that you meant something else...but if that's what you really meant, I'm going to have to drop out, too.
Suzy
Lol .. Ok .. any seeds would do .. when I said homegrown, I was including seeds that were gotten from trades. The idea was to keep the costs down on both sides and keep the pots small enough for those who had no greenhouse or lived in the frozen north could easily drag them around.
But I'm flexible since my parameters seem too restrictive pretty much anything goes!
X
whew, X, and thank you Illoquin, and Sheran, to write that small I have to get my nose vewwwwwy close to the label - it'll probably be an improvement for all of us if I sit back and write bigger.
Ok ya'll just as long as I don't see any sequoia seeds. LOL
X
When would you like our seeds sent to you?
I want to wait until the list is filled up. I'll give it until Tuesday then close it, no matter how many people have signed up since we will need to be starting the seeds soon.
I'll post for a target date to get your seeds and design to me.
X
add me
Well darn X i got Sequoia and Taxodium. LOL Since it can be regular seeds, count me in.
I apologize X, but I need to drop out - y'all have fun.
It's closed now.
You need to make your design, pack up your seeds along with a SASE envelope.
Please make sure your screen name is included!!!!!!
Send them to me please. My address is in the addy. As soon as I receive them all I send them off!
Getting excited!!!!
X
Having a hard time deciding on what to use. There are just to many choices.
OMG! I am so happy you said it first! I was going to say something last night about what a hard time I was having! I have spent so many hours on this I am embarrassed to say. (However part of the research time was for me and my on baskets, so it's not like it's all for the swap!)
Late last night I finally cme up with the seeds and design, but this morning I noticed nothing was over 12" tall. sigh. Looks like it's back through the seed pile looking for somehting spikey to stick up some. How long do those grasses take to come from seed?
Suzy
Sent mine off yesterday afternoon. I included a plan for you x to use also.
Suzy,
I am so glad also that I am not the only one have a hard time. I think when they were passing out designing skills I was out doing something else.
Don't worry about the height .. lots of containers have plants over a foot high at the anchor point! My design has one.
Also, here is what I'm using for the layout .. feel free to copy it
X
Yes, OVER a foot high -- but mine doesn't have *anything* over a foot high. It is all 12" and under! Am working on it as I type.
Suzy
I just made a small drawing like the ones you see in plant catalogs where they do a little circle and then section it off and put the name in the sections of which seeds to plant where.
Similar to this but with just a container size.
http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/layouts.html?picture=butterfly%2ejpg&garden_name=Butterfly%20Garden&code=BUTTER&pdf=%2fpdf%2fbutterflygarden%2epdf
Of course I didn't use these seeds, just showing how you could section off the drawing.
This message was edited Jan 12, 2007 2:46 PM
Don't spend too much time on the diagrams because I am going to redo them all in the above format so everyone gets the same thing. I don't want to have any clues as to who got whose!!! LOL
X
Do you have 12 participants? (I only see 9 listed above.) I'd love to join in if you have room to add me in the twelve! :-)
Lol Sheran! I'll add you to the list becky .. get your seeds and designs in!
X
X - I mailed my seeds, instructions, and container garden plans out to you today. I also enclosed 3 stamps and a return label. You can re-use my bubble envelope for whatever you send me. Thanks again for doing this swap! I enjoy container gardening and this looks like a fun garden project! Thanks so much! :-)