Hey Jeff - I'm happy to say I'll be among the new-attendees at the swap. My husband, Toby (our little fuzzy boy) and I will be coming down on the 16th and spending the weekend at the park. Can't tell you how excited and anxious I am. So, thanks in advance to you and everyone else working to bring this swap together.

Frances

Frances, I'm checking on it with HHSP and will let everyone know as soon as I found out.

Remember last year? The late frost kicked us in the teeth by burning everything then the wonderful six month drought set in to compound things. Did your water bill double or triple like ours? You think it's going to be much different this year? The sun and heat were the boss last year for sure. I don't want to go through another "lost summer" in our flower gardens and I don't want to lose any more shrubs to 30 days of 100 degree weather.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! So with much respect to Roger Harry Daltrey, Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend, John Alec Entwistle and Keith John Moon:

circa 1971 (yes I had the album in the 6th grade), Who's Next...
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss; We don't get fooled again! No. No."

A Premier Moon the Loon drum roll please.

Our lecture topic for the spring MTPS will be:

~~~~~~~Insert topic here~~~~~~~

Our Special Guest Lecturer is...

You thought that I was going to give it all away didn't you?
Not yet; we've still got 13 weeks to go before the swap.
I promise it is a much needed topic that will help us all.
But I've got to have something to promote between now and then!!!

(Single ladies: make sure you bring your cameras to get your picture made with our guest speaker and you married ladies will just have to worship from afar - sorry.)

I was going to wait until the weekend to break the story but I'll have more annoucements to make this weekend.

As far as the topic that I alluded to in the previous post, our Special Guest Lecturer will be using the subject matter...

"DROUGHT TOLERANT PERENNIALS AND ANNUALS"

I can't think of a more apropos lecture considering last year and what we are probably in store for this year as well. I want to start hedging my bets on plants that are going to thrive, bloom and aren't going to die during these hot summers and drought months. So if you want to save paying that massive Metro water bill, still have blooming flowers and not waste money on something that is going to shrivel-up and die on you then make sure you don't miss the MTPS on May 17th!!!

Here I was so excited about our topic and nobody followed with a post of any kind.

Ya'll hurt my feelings. :-(

Ok I'll bite. If it were not for a spring coming out of my hillside my plants would be dust after last year. My sweet husband fixed up the old "spring house" with no roof and now we have a water supply that does not affect our well water...located conveniently near my spring house is my cottage garden-in-progress. I do get tired of dragging my hose out to the end so I plant things that are tougher on the end...aka drought resistant perennials and annuals. I will definitely bring a notebook for the lecture. Happy bigorangevol?
LOL, Jennifer

Jeff, cry in the rainbarrel if you must we have to conserve water in these parts! :) I am so excited. I love drought tolerant plants. Lazy is my kind of gardening. I am especially interested in plants for dry shade. This is going to be a great swap! My Aunt is coming from Mt.Juliet to check us out and she makes a mean pineapple upside down cake. We will make sure you get the first slab. Oh, I will be bringing smoked ribs again too. Toothpick!!! Looking forward to this weekends announcement. I'm real proud of the new swap sight you found Jeff and have been bragging about my plant buddies. Rhonda

Jeff, I am looking forward to hearing your mystery speaker. I spent many hours during water restrictions late last summer watering after 8:00 p.m. with a flashlight in one hand and a hose in the other. No irrigation systems were allowed. It was rather comical when I would see the flashlights from other gardeners in our neighborhood and know that they were also trying to keep a few high maintenance plants alive. OK, I am ready to change to more drought tolerant plants. Bring it on!

Jeff, thank you for all the time you put in organizing and arranging everything, as well as begging for speakers. I am sure most of us do not realize the many hours you have to spend. Thanks sooo...........very much. And you do it so well and always with a smile.

Ann

Thanks guys! That makes me feel better. I thought it was a GREAT topic!!!

I made my third trip in four days down to Henry Horton yesterday. As I stated earlier, we are going to be on a first-come first-served basis with these spots and parking spaces. There are about 130 spaces that are close to the area where we are going to set up and another 40 we can use that are a tad further. Then there are two big monster parking lots available for more overflow. I'd like to ask the under 55 crowd to allow the over 55 crew to use the parking spaces closest to the swap area. We'll be helping everybody with the loading and unloading so we don't create a traffic jam for other park visitors.

PLEASE be there between 8:00-9:00 CST to set up!!! If everyone shows up between 9:00-9:30 it will be a huge royal pain as far as traffic, parking, unloading and set-up are concerned.

I'm going to have Bec add a Park map to the MTPS webpage so ya'll can see exactly where to go once you enter HHSP. It's pretty easy though, as soon as you come in the Park take a left and just follow that until you see us. We'll be on the North end of the Park by the Duck River.

I almost forgot, Tim (my best friend) is going to be bringing a slew of bluebird houses and may even bring his trailer over with a FULL load of horse poo.

I want some bluebird houses! My parents have the perfect property for bluebirds -- but no houses!

Doc, Tim wants fruit trees. I'm sure that Cindy wants flowers so she may override him but he's always looking for fruit trees and fruit bushes. He wants flowers AND fruit on his plants.

Jeff you are so on for this springs swap! Way to go and good looking out!This swap is sounding better all the time.I will be early this year as it is so close to home. Let me know if you need any help. Rhonda

Hmmmmm. I've got several fruit trees that I bought last fall. I don't have a good place to put them, but I hadn't really thought about trading them either. I'll give it some thought -- thanks, Jeff!

Rhonda we ALWAYS need help! With the new location it will be even more imperative that I enlist/beg for all that I can get. I'm going to have to figure a way to get everyone unloaded and set up without disturbing the regular flow of Park traffic. I'll have to come up with a new way to get everyone registered and name-tagged. I'm going to try and figure a way to rope off an acre for us to be able to use. I'll need help getting all the food on the tables. This year I don't think that we are going to have any electrical outlets to keep food hot or to warm it up so that is a concern too. I'll have to go back down there this week and scope that out and see if I can swing something. There are going to be a lot of bugs to work out with all the logistics of hosting the MTPS at an entirely new location. And I'm sure that there are a dozen or two things that will come up the day of the swap that haven't even dawned on me yet that will club me over the head unmercifully and bite me in the butt. The Park opens at 8:00 so as many folks as can get there by 8:00 would be very helpful so that we're not inundated between 9:00-10:000. Plus I would imagine that the Park visitors will start showing up by 10:00 and they will most likely want to mosey over to see what's happening. We HAVE to make the swap accessible to the general public because we are at a state park so I'll be dealing with that too. I hope that everyone will be patient with me while I work out the kinks. It's still two months away and I'm already stressing! I guess if I wasn't a basket case at this point then I wouldn't be doing my job huh?

BTW, if you are staying at the Park whether at the Inn, in cabins or at the campground...PLEASE make a point of letting them know that you are there for the MTPS!!! If we get enough folks to stay the night I may try to work a deal on pricing. If you stop at a gas station, store, restaurant or any place of business in the Chapel Hill or Lewisburg area let them know that you're here for the MTPS. At some point I'm going to try rounding up local sponsors and hit them up for goodies. It will make the door prize/drawings a lot more interesting and we may be able to do away with the donation jar (my personal panhandling) to recoup costs for supplies. So if they get a whole mess of MTPS folks through their doors it will make quite an impression. If all the businesses in Chapel Hill are abuzz about the MTPS, how cool would that be?

Rebecca has the pick and bio up for Lucas aka Daylily Kid on the webpage so all you gals can go by and cyber-pinch his cute little cheeks! Lucas is an exceptionally fine young man so much so that Lavonne and I have discussed adopting him. He's witty, has a great sense of humor, is very intelligent, an excellent speaker, is passionate about his subject matter, well-educated, doesn't drink, is a hard worker, loves people and plants...what more could you ask for?

Wow, wow & WOW! This Texan, lurking here for ideas to help my non-gardening DS who lives in Nashville, working to convery him, decided to check out this subject- so glad I did, I'm impressed!

You folks, especially bigorangevol, are really doing it up right; sure wish I could make it over there. Some really GREAT ideas- particularly encouraging attendees to stop in businesses and mention why they're in the area- it should go far in promoting MTPS. I hope it's a roaring success!
Suzi

WOW Jeff, I probably won't be able to walk out the door this morning because my head just swelled up!

Jeff this you may not know. If you are handicap with a card or plate the camping in the state parks is half price. I am sure some of the oldies like myself have the cards. One time a park ranger asked me if i was handicap? I told him too talk to me for 5 minutes and he would see how handicap i really was.

Greetings from sunny southern California! We're in Escondido at the Welk Resort which is off the hook.
We're having a great time. The SEAL graduation ceremony was awesome!!! So much brass, fruit salad, piping and braid it was VERY big-time. Several Commanders and Admirals were there along with a ton of current and former SEALs. We went to the San Diego Zoo yesterday and today we went to a Tourmaline mine and looked for gems. Tomorrow Tim and I are fishing for monster Largemouth and Tuesday is deep sea fishing. Looking forward to coming home to Tennessee though! Holler at yaa'll later.

Well! I'm REALLY excited about the plant swap too -- I sure do hope I can come. I don't know our speaker (Lucas), but he has a degree from my alma mater AND he works at my favorite greenhouse (Cookeville is where I lived prior to moving to Madison and the folks at Burgess Falls are fantastic), so he's bound to be BRILLIANT. :-) (No bias there!)

Plus he's going to talk about a subject near and dear to my hear -- drought tolerant plants! Some of y'all may remember that I did my big garden in mostly drought tolerant plants a couple of years back (well, except for the roses...can't be without my babies -- but even those were hardy, old fashioned types).

So, to bring a long-winded story to its illustrious conclusion, last summer when I was in New York City every other week for work, and we had over three weeks of scorching temperatures over 100 degrees and no rain, my darling hubby Chip had to take care of the garden. The pots and hayrack planters just about killed him, but he hardly had to do anything to the plants in the ground. I had just put out a clematis or two for the new pergola and a few other plants, but all I lost was one clematis and a Jupiter's Beard, both new, un-established plants. The sunflowers wilted every day and the coleuses (in planters) did so at least twice a day, but the yarrows, homestead verbenas, marguerite daisies, daylillies, hummingbird mints, salvias, sedums, artemisias, lantanas, asters, grasses, penstemons, ice plants, portulacas, russian sages, gauras, and shasta daisies just laughed and said "Bring it on!"

Yes, if I can come, I will be bringing plants. :-) I know I always have extra verbena, yarrow, daisies, and daylillies. I may also have some salvias or penstemons -- we'll see how well those reseeded last year. And I do believe I'll have a couple extra Miss Huff lantanas, that are itching for new ground to shower with color!

The attached link has some photos from the garden last year, including some of the plants I might be able to bring to the swap. Enjoy, and I hope to see y'all soon!

--April

Here is a link that might be useful: A Garden of (Mostly) Drought Tolerant Plants

April the pics are fantastic! I'm always looking for Daylilies, Cannas and your Verbena look great.

We're less than seven weeks away from the MTPS so everyone needs to start getting a gameplan together about what they are going to bring and start potting-up!!! This year I'm actually going to get an early start and not wait until the last minute.

I am looking forward to the swap this year!

With the Registration Page working now I'm REALLY getting jacked-up!

I'm considering a clandestine black ops snatch-n-go of a certain camping and canoe rental business lady (who will go unnamed to insure our covertness and stealth) to force her into coming to the swap.

Any SEAL, SBU, UDT, Alpha, Delta, SOC, CAPOC, JFKSWC, SOAR, Force Recon jarheads, Ranger, SOW, STG, FLTS, SOG, SOF Green Beret, AFP REDS or, AFCCÂs out there looking for some action? We will need an operative to plant in her place so that her unwitting husband will not be the wiser. Let's keep this under wraps; loose lips sink ships!

I heard that, Jeff......won't work...because I have to work.

We're only five weeks and five days out (40 days). Don't let it creep up on you. It's time to start potting up those plants so that they have time to get accustomed to their new situation.

Please make sure that you go to the website and register. Right now we are looking at "first-timers" making up 50% of the people that have registered. I'm diggin' that!

GO LADY VOLS!!!
#8 in 2008!

bump

Hey BOV, sandsquid is making pancakes for his peeps in Memphis! Are you going to do the same? *big grin*

R.

Gee, I wonder how many pounds of batter, gallons of milk, pounds of butter and gallons of syrup we'd need for 400-600 pancakes?

Ya know I was just thinking that I really don't have enough to do in the next five weeks and especially the day of the swap and was wondering what in the World I'm going to do with all that excess time on my hands.

Maybe YOU would like to organize that for me! I REALLY do appreciate your interest in it and for bringing it up!!! Maybe you and I can discuss that at length in person on the 17th.

Doug sayes that you are the QUEEEN of pancakes and would love to handle it for me. I heard that your moniker in Knox County is Mrs. Bec Butterworth and Aunt Jemima Holder.

In the meantime... the park has a very nice restaurant that starts serving Breakfast at 7:00 am! There is also The Country Diner and Becky's Family Restaurant right up the road in Chapel Hill. Remember to tell them that you are with the MTPS and that in October Bec will be making pancakes for the MTPS and everyone in Maury & Marshall Counties at HHSP!

Hey all!

Drought tolerant is THE way to go, definitely. Last year, I bought a few drought tolerant plants that did quite well, despite the dreadfully dry summer. I'd love to hear more about them.

So, our speaker is educated AND eye candy? Well, someone is definitely on the ball! JK ;) We "marrieds" aren't allowed to notice those things anyway, right? HA!

I will do my best, but cannot promise I'll be there before 9:30 a.m. as Chattanooga is a little ways down the road from you all and as I have two kids and a husband with way more energy to resist than I have to push . . . so, I'll do what I can, but no promises, either. And since my son uses a wheelchair, if he comes with me I'll be using a wheelchair accessible parking space. Otherwise, I'm more than happy to take a few extra steps (Lord knows I need the exercise! LOL).

BTW: Seriously, if you guys make the pancakes, I'll bring the syrup--I make it from scratch and it is fantastic!

Chatt is only two hours from Chapel Hill so it isn't that bad of a drive. It's almost all interstate too; 24 to the 'boro - 840 to Triune - Hwy 41 to the Park and you're there.

Ok, just for the record, there is no way that I can fix breakfast for 100-200 people but THANKS A LOT anyway Bec for bringing it up!!!

Now pancake syrup from scratch might be something that people would trade their plants for though!

Sorry Jeff, I don't do pancakes very well, so you musta been talking to some other Doug, but thanks for the offer :). I do make a mean belgium waffle in my waffle iron! At about 5 minutes per serving, oh it shouldn't take me too many weeks.

I agree, syrup from scratch would be highly tradeable! It is made from nature, right?

signed,
Mrs. Butterworth

Does Waffle House cater?

Waffle House, Waffle House...meet me at the Waffle House.

Are there going to be plugs for hot foods? If not I will arrange to have the ribs delivered at lunch time. Rhonda

Sorry Rhonda, yes we should have access to plugs at the two pavilions. If not, then our best friends only live 200 yards away so I could take food to their house and plug it in. It won't be a problem.

There are certain logistical things with a new location that I'll have to work the bugs out of this first go-round but I anticipate everything flowing smoothly.

Well, Mrs. Butterworth, I make syrup with sugar, water, and maple syrup extract (as I don't have a sugar maple farm in Maine) it's as natural as it comes in TN--at least more natural than what I find in the store . . .

I just updated my swap list a bit, though this isn't the final list. Check out the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: April's Exchange List

I don't know how many of you wanted Bluebird houses but Tim had to leave yesterday to go do CAT Duty in Texas for three weeks. So even if he is back in time for the MTPS he won't be able to make the birdhouses. If you were wanting one then let me know. I'll be going down there anyway to take care of his yard so I can make several myself but I'm not going to have time to make 3 dozen!

It also doesn't look like he's going to have the trailer full of horse biscuts either...sorry!