Garden swap! Any ideas?

Hi everyone,
My friend and I are holding a garden swap tomorrow afternoon. We have passed out flyers, told everyone we know and spread the word far and wide. We did not do any formal advertising because it is the first year and we wanted to do one a smaller one to start with. It sounds like a lot of people are coming, lol.
I'm hoping you guys can help us out with some information. If you have ever gone to one of these how did it work. We figure their are two ways to o the swap, either each person has a booth and you just trade with each other. Or put all the stuff in a pile in the driveway. If you brought 5 plants you get to take 5 plants. Are there other ways to do it?
Can you make recommendations?
Also we are having the people bring garden tools, flower pots, books, magazines etc. Should those go into the main swap or be a separate swap.
We also are thinking of having a newbie area for all the new gardeners with no swaps. This is where we would put some of the more common stuff like daylillies and iris etc. Than we would say each person can have a certain number of plants.
Are these good ideas? I have never been to one of these so I'm just not sure how to work it.
I'd love to hear from people who went to swaps and what they love or hated about the way it was run.
Thanks,
Sue

The only swap I've ever gone to is the Upper Midwest Round Up.

It wasn't a "even steven" type deal because there were too many people who were newer to gardening so others brought more to cover them.

Everyone set their "swaps" in the same area. Jody then called round one and every one went up and took a plant back to where they were sitting. Then she called round two and so forth and so on until people were sort of exhausted and then she told everyone to go and simply take what ever they wanted. It wasn't exactly a tit for tat deal but I don't think anyone who attended expected it to be. Everyone seemed to sincerely want everyone included regardless of what they were able to contribute. About all I can say is that no one went home empty handed and no one went home with anything but a smile on their face. For us, this worked extremely well but then we all had a common bond of posting here at DG. It's sort of hard to describe but people who brought many extra plants were very happy that those who weren't in a position to bring many were able to participate. Again, really hard to describe but not one person seemed at all concerned about who brought what and how much or who took what and how much home.

I don't know that this would work well with people who don't have any bond to each other. I suspect that if folk were going to a swap like that, they would pretty much want to bring home one for one unless it was some sort of a charity swap.

Have fun tomorrow and please share what you ultimately did and how it worked.

The swap was a huge success! We had 25 attendees. This was strictly word of mouth we did not advertise it because we weren't sure how to run one. It turned out perfect.
We had it at my friends house, she has beautiful gardens!
We had a plant area, a book-magazine area and a garden junque area.
We just did a count of whatever they brought and gave them a slip of paper with that number on it. For instance 2 plants, a bundle of seeds, a book, and a flower pot would get you a slip for 5. Than you could go shopping and take five items, your choice.
We served sun tea, lemonade and homemade cookies.
Everyone said it was a great idea and when are we doing it again.
We will be having another swap in September. This time we are going to advertise it and inform our local garden groups. We are going to have it on a Sunday at farmers market. We will probably have a food vender set up and sell food. We also need to line up more volunteer workers and we are thinking of asking a boy scout troop to come help carry plants for people.
All in all in was very rewarding.

Sue

I forgot all about your swap. Really glad it went so well. Sounds like this is going to become an annual event! What fun!

Wow! That sounds like so much fun! I've never heard of anyone doing anything like that ... what a GREAT idea! I'm glad it turned out so well and that everyone had a great time!