Spring 2004 - April event (4-17-04) was pretty much called after first few hours, due to abundant sunshine..... No one much in their right mind was inside that day, but they weather in Iowa in April , it only made sense to be inside.... but the sun drew us out. May 6th... another nice day, small crowd (50?) but we gathered at least 10 more names onto the mailing list and meet new friends and saw some old familiar faces!! Summer 2004 The Gardeners are looking forward to the fall swap and preparing signs.... flyers, trying to get the word out... Also, one of our own, the proprietor of Bears Mobile Pet Grooming, has given us the opportunity to help maintain part of a public flower garden in Belle Plaine IA...... We have a nice stand of coneflowers, in front of a large hedge. A large burm with various perenniels and seedy annuals. Photos to follow soon! Thanks Bear! That's all for now! Larry Events of 9-20-03 ~ Our first meet: Mel and I made about 70 directional signs for the day of the event, to bring those that were looking for the swap to the park. These included 4 exists from the interstate and many from two main thorough fare streets. We were out for several hours placing these signs. About 8-10 people showed up during the day due to those signs, some knew about the swap but had forgotten - others were just out running around on Saturday errands or rummage sale-ing! Trish, Mel and I arrived about 10:30am at that park and unloaded the vehicles with materials as well as the plants and seeds we brought. Trish was finishing placing signs on the streets that border the park, and got back just about 5 minutes past 11am. She told me that she saw the small crowd gathering and we all were very happy! Like I mentioned, at least a dozen people were there right at 11am, and we were still hanging out at 4pm!!!!! Many people from the neighborhood (I live a block and a half from the park) came as well as some people from the surrounding communities of Marion, Central City and Iowa City plus ALL parts of Cedar Rapids. Geoff from Iowa City is big into prairie restoration and came with lots of seed, information and his little dog, Sidney. Geoff also helped distribute info of Generations Gardeners in the Iowa City/Coralville. Rita came early and went home twice to get certain plants for people and shared many starts and loads of info with the various groups. Greg came with many unusual plants, many of medicinal - herbal remedies and folklore types of plants. This guy seemed so familiar to me, but we do not know where we met, but we have already become fast friends. Carol (I am pretty sure that is her name) was the lady we met at her yard sale. She distributed flyers for the swap and bestowed the virtues of alfalfa meal as a soil conditioner and non-burning fertilizer. SO many pleasant and knowledgeable people were there and so helpful. One of my new favorite people, Michelle, came bearing plants that she had no name reference for and took home some new stuff for both the house and garden. She is a longtime friend of Mel's, and well, let's just say they are both LIVE WIRES and a lot of fun..... Willie was a new friend also, she told me that she had been looking for a good general gardening club in the area, that was not special for hosta or roses or what have you. I told her that is JUST what we want to develop here on the local level. A local business owner, Cindy, was out of town but is very interested in doing the spring swap! There was also members of the Linn County Rose Society that came but their knowledge is way beyond rose care. Several people stumbled in and were not sure what was going on, we assured them we were not totally in control either, but welcomed their presence. I had printed off the "our story" info from these pages and some other info to provide those arriving as to what was the intention of the meet. Some people had NO plants to speak of at home but they not have some and lots of seeds! Jerilyn told me she would take anything we had and I loaded her up on seeds, making sure she would not hold it against me in a few years when the cleome take over! There were lots of house plants, starts off lots of perennials plus many types of seeds. Mark and Suzanne came towards the end, but I assured them that most of us would still be there at dark talking about plants, if they had the time. We gathered a mailing list of 42 names for the next event, also several email. We had a fish bowl out for donations, and tried to mention to everyone that it was there to provide funds for mailing the notice of the next swap. I think there was maybe just a handful of people that DID NOT put in something, but some of them either had no real interest or a few just did not have the means at this time of the month/week..... and that is just FINE! Hope they come back and bring a friend! All said and done, I would do it again next month! We had about 100 people total come by on Saturday. We have many people that think this will REALLY blossom in the spring, and with 40+ people/families newly added to the local list, we should have a great turn out! As Greg put it, Iowans need a reason to get out and do something that is not their ordinary rut, and this could be it for lots of us! by Larry |
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