I wish you lived closer....I have lots more I could share!

Lisa

Lisa, That's why I brought you all those gallon pots, so you could grow me some more. LOL Just kidding, of course.

Carol. I think that is great. I always take better care of the seeds or plants given to me by friends, they have a special meaning.

Larry

I'm with you guys. I'm such a sap when it comes to sharing garden stuff. I can usually remember from whom I got which seeds and plants. I especially love getting perennials from friends because I think of them for years and years and years. Same for OP seeds that I get to save. I walk around and tell the kids a little about each person the plants or seeds came from and they love it. It's my crazy dream that they each grow up to be insane gardeners like me and pass the origins of these down to their kids -- and you all will be an eternal part of our family lore.

Told ya I was a sap for this stuff. :-P

Diane

Carol,

I love your friendship garden! I think the same things when I'm looking at plants received from friends or those grown from seeds I've received from friends via the seed swap here....or friends like Jay who just randomly send us blessings in the form of unexpected envelopes of tomato seeds.

Diane,

I love your storytelling, and I absolutely believe your kids will "get it" and remember those stories and pass them on. I love when George tells us the stories of seeds he's received over the decades, and who he received them from.

In a society with 'instant' anything and everything nowadays, it is nice that we still have "slow food" and heirloom seeds and plants and friends who share them with one another.

Dawn

Awww I just got the warm fuzzies. :)

Jo

Carol - thank you for posting this. I've had those thoughts the last 2 years but only in passing. After reading your post I looked at my garden in a whole new way today.

My onions are the product of a group effort with my best buds. I give credit to Dawn for my cowpea addition - the purple hulls and whipporwills came from her, my Penny Rile from Diane. You & I have loved and shared peppers seeds. I love my garlic that Jay shared. And you all know how upset I was when I thought I'd lost my Nat'l Pickling Cukes that Diane gave to me. My Juan Flamee & Nebraska Wedding toms came from Ilene (a former member here). Tomatillos from Diane, sweet potatoes from Chandra, Sweet Virginia and Sungold toms from Seedmama, beans & pumpkins from George...I could go on and on.

I don't think I'll ever feel alone in my garden again.

And THAT'S a good thing.

Even after I posted, I continued to think of other things. All except 3 of the tomato plants in my garden were planted from seed. One came from Chandra and I think the other two were Dawn's. I didn't really need tomato plants but everyone seemed to be finished with their selection at the Fling, and I saw a few I had never grown, and I brought a couple of them home.

Since I lived in Greece for 2 1/2 years, I am always interested in Greek things, and Lynn gave me some Greek tomato seed to try. There isn't much info about it online so I am really anxious for it to produce. It has 6 or 8 fruit on it already. I have no idea how many of my plants came from seed I received from Jay, but it is a lot. Of course, it was a lot last year too. Dawn has sent me oodles of veggie seed.

I have seeds from Lisa and from Sandy that I will plant as soon as I can put together another bed for a butterfly garden.

But...I had to chuckle today when I opened one of my tool cabinets to get a rake and there was my bag of rabbit poo from Dody. LOL I had put it away before the monsoons hit, and had forgotten about it.

I planted three very late paste tomato plants today. There were in pots about 8x8x8 and totally rootbound, but I decided to plant them anyway. I said I wasn't going to plant container tomatoes this year, but I couldn't stand to throw them away. So tomorrow they are going to get a large dose of rabbit poo and a covering of pine bark. They could use a heavy shot of fertilizer because they are tall and lanky from neglect.

Just as a matter of information, I planted some of last years potatoes (Yukon Gold) that had sprouted big long sprouts that were 8 or 10 inches long. I had no idea if they would work, but I had a huge pot so decided to try. It got watered with rain and earlier by a leaky hose connection that happened to be convenient to leave in that tub when I had the hose stretched out to water the chickens. I didn't hill them at all but did throw a bucket of leaves in there to keep the soil covered. Well, it was no big potato crop, but it did produce a couple gallons of new potatoes. At least it is now a few meals from something that was headed for the compost pile. Just one of those experiments that worked.

Carol et al,
My garden is also Friendship Garden too! More than 80% of the plant you can see in our garden are the propagules (seeds/plants/cuttings) from generous friends of the Oklahoma Gardeners. Its work calling "friendship garden" and I agree, it makes gardening even more fun. Thanks friends -Chandra

I feel the same way. I have four of Carol's tomatoes, two of Susan's, one of Lynn's, and several others that I got at the swap. Chandra's eggplant just flowered. I started the Okra and white pumpkin seeds he gave me earlier and planted them this week. I didn't start a single pepper, but I have ten lovely pepper plants I received from friends. The Zuchetta I picked up at the swap is really taking over the garden. The pattypans have just started fruiting. I'm still sad that Betty's snake melon got eaten by cutworms. But every time I go out in the garden, I think about how much fun I had at the Fling and how lucky I am to have found such a generous group of garden friends.

Kelly