Plan Now for Spring Seedling Swap with Fellow Gardeners
Trading seedlings with other Barrington gardeners is a great way to save money and add variety to your garden.
If all goes well, by mid-May I will have 27 Marzano tomato plants, 18 Casper eggplants, a dozen each of two varieties of quick-growing hybrid melons, and over 50 Zalushka potato plants, all currently residing in seed-starter trays.
What I do not have is enough garden space to accommodate them all.
When May rolls around, I would happily swap one of my sauce tomato seedlings for a yellow cherry tomato, or a white eggplant for a Scotch bonnet pepper. I’m guessing there are other gardeners out there thinking along the same lines.
So, I’m putting out feelers to fellow veggie (and flower) gardeners to see if there’s any interest in doing a seed swap toward the end of May.
I think it would be a great way add variety to our gardens, as well as a good excuse to try a new variety we might not otherwise have planted. For example, I’ve debated trying Graffiti, a purple cauliflower, but I know full well my family wouldn’t eat enough of it to justify the seed cost, time and effort. If I know I could take half the plants to a swap, I'd give it a try.
Assuming the cats don’t get into the spare bedroom and go on a salad binge, I’ll have extra sauce tomatoes, white eggplant, and melons. By May I should also have extra Redbor kale and a variety of Asian herbs and greens in the garden to pot up and share, as well as lots of incredibly invasive but wonderful-smelling chocolate mint. I’d be interested in hot peppers , heirloom tomatoes, and herbs.
If you’d like to participate, use the Comments box to let people know what excess seedlings you might have to trade, and what you’d be interested in getting in return.
Katy Killilea
4:19 pm on Saturday, March 19, 2011
if all goes well, i'll have mixed lettuces and red russian kale to swap. i transplanted a gazillion seedlings today--they'd grown too leggy--and i'm hoping for the best.
TryingForGreen
10:03 pm on Saturday, March 19, 2011
Oh my goodness, Marzano tomatoes are on my wishlist. I'd love to trade for those. I do have purple cauiliflower! I have tons of everything - herbs, veggies, flowers. Sign me up for a swap and save me a Marzano plant!
bleu
6:17 pm on Sunday, March 20, 2011
We have an extensive Seed Savers Heirloom collection - only stipulation is - you cannot sell and must pass the seeds along - also have about 20 types of kale - 15 types of spinach. Comfrey which is from root stock and nettles which are from seed.
Elaine Cunningham
9:43 am on Monday, March 21, 2011
One of my experiments this year is "strawberry spinach" (Chenopodium Capitatum) , which produces small berries as well as small, spinach-like leaves that don't bolt in hot weather. If all goes well, I should have a half dozen of those to swap.