I have been pondering about coming to the plant swap. If it is at Petals from the Past in Jemison, AL (which i have NEVER been to before), it will be a 56 mile drive in 1 direction for me. Would it be worth the 112 mile round trip? I've never been and just want to make sure that the drive would be worth it. I will have things to bring like all sorts of size flower pots, some small Yellow Mums, som yellow Cannas, a Texas Star Cactus, some 4 o'clock (not sure of the color...i have Yellow, Hot Pink and Verigated Yellow/Pink) and they will all be babies that seeded themselves. All will come in small pots with my homemade compost. But, again, I would like to make sure the trip would be worth it.

My plants are bought from all over. The big box stores are fine because I usually know what I am looking for and what will do well in my garden. I have my favorite mail order places for unusual stuff and for old garden roses that I can't find around here. I tend to plant things fairly close together only because I am a plantaholic who has NO willpower. I figure I can always fit in one more plant. I just have to be creative about it sometimes. I try to leave a bit more room for my roses. I have an automatic sprinkler system that I would love to convert to drip. Right now I can't afford it. Maybe next year. My watering schedule seems to do fine. Sometimes I have to go out and hand water a few plants and that is just fine with me. My soil was pretty darn good to begin with. The areas where I dug up the lawn were pretty compacted but on the whole I can't complain. It is deep, dark, easy to slide a shovel into and teeming with worms. I add stuff to it continually. I do have my problem areas that I am amending via lasanga method. My MIL has horses so I get all the manure I want. I have a small compost bin and I amend the soil with coffee grounds as well. I also started adding alfalfa tea to my roses this year. WOW! That stuff is great! I have been pretty good at pruning and keeping things clean. A little here and a little there. Some prima donna plants get more care than others. I live in the same town as Nancy and the wind here pretty much sucks. It is not a gentle breeze but a strong wind that makes it miserable to be outside at times. Our summers are cool. Maybe too cool sometimes. However, on the whole I think that my climate is great for gardening. I can pick lemons off a tree at one end of the yard and raspberries and blueberries at the other. I can gather an arm load of roses and cosmos for the table centerpiece and stop to inspect the bougainvillea on my way inside. How great is that! As for the bugs. I have the good guys and the bad guys. Usually, as soon as I see the aphids I start seeing the ladybugs. There seems to be a pretty good balance. I also have birds GALORE in my garden due to six mature Toyon bushes that are planted in the common area right behind my backyard fence. It sounds like an aviary in my back yard. The birds nest in the bushes, eat the berries in the winter, and the bees work the flowers heavily in the summer. The birds come down from the bushes and feast on all the bugs in the my garden and I get to watch from the window. Of couse they also feast on my raspberries but that is another story. ~Melissa

I have been reading the info about aspen trees. My wife's uncle brought back 5 sampling from the mountains around Boulder, Co. Over 45 years ago, we live in Southeast Missouri about 120 miles south of St.Louis. We live on a 300 acre farm. Those 5 original Aspen's are alive and doing great. They are over 50 feet tall. We have transplanted many samplings to different areas of our farm. Our 5 trees surround the edge of our lawn to the main house. We are always complimented on the beauty of our Aspen' s especially the sound there leaves make in a breeze. So I think some of you need to get out of Colorado and see that the Aspen s can thrive outside of the mountains. We have never experienced any disease on any of our trees. We have probably over 20 large mature trees in and around our lawn of our main house and a couple doing just fine near a cabin we have in a wooded area . So I have to contradict the fact that Aspen's can not survive at lower altitudes. We are at 700 ft. Altitude and our trees are going on 50 years old. So I say hogwash to most of the statements in this conversation. We have even transplanted saplings in mid summer were temperatures are in high 90's with heat indexes of 110 degrees. So I say if you want a beautiful aspen in your yard , then do it. Our lawn is immaculate so we have no problem with there root systems, the saplings come up in our cow pastures I guess our constant mowing of our lawn prevents any coming up in our lawn. We have alot of rain in our area so I assume that is why they thrive. Bill Davis Jackson,

Well I was wondering where the follow up comments for the Buda swap were! So glad I revisited this thread. I really enjoyed meeting you all and putting a face to some of the forum participants, learning about new plants and being on the receiving end of warm and generous swappers. I spent much of the afternoon after the swap finding a new home in my garden for all the plants although I will admit that I forgot what some are! And then I went online to google information about some of them and their care. Thank you so much Charlotte and swappers for making my first swap experience such a pleasant one and I hope to be much better prepared and knowledgable when I come to the next one. While I got to talk a bit with some of you, I feel there are many more who I'd like to get to know. Patty has been sharing some swap etiquette information with me and I hope you all will provide me a bit of slack if I overstepped, as I'm still a bit fuzzy about rules/etiquette and expectations. And I invite you to contact me if you have any advice or comments about our interaction as that will be a big help and an opportunity to get to know you. Already plotting in preparation for the next swap and might like to also bring some nonplant garden items to share with you. Cal