For plant nerds and other kinds of garden wackos the Web has been a great tool. Like many other people with compulsive hobbies that cannot be understood—let alone controlled—with it in our lives we can do just about anything. Just recently I met a friend through a gardening Web site and it is the first time in many years that I have had to explain to people: “Oh, how did we meet? Online of course, we met on a gardening Web site called Davesgarden. We were talking about plants.”
Last night I sat at a dinner table, with my friend and her partner Bill, explaining to people I used to work with at the Gordon house how we’d met. Since most of the attendees at this potluck were retired folks, and my new friends are retired folks too, you’d think that any kind of odd asides wouldn’t occur. Nevertheless, people were kind of laughing a bit when we explained how we’d “met online”. Maybe it’s nice to know that such things are still not completely commonplace. I guess I’m just glad that is not the only place we meet other people.
Davesgarden
Recycling Items for Seed Starting Needs
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In the time that I have been trading seeds with other gardeners online, I have seen a lot of recycled items. Usually it’s simply the puffy envelopes, then sometimes it is a bank deposit envelope with seeds in it, but this trade, this one really surprised me! I love recycling, but, cigarette wrappers just seem wrong.
Trading Seeds
StandardI am so excited now about being a member of Davesgarden.com. You don’t have to be a member to trade, but if you are one, the trading is a bit easier, otherwise, you can only send out a few messages per day to others you’d like to trade seeds with elsewhere. Now is the time, typically, when I begin sorting my seeds, arranging them into their drawers for simple storage. For several years now, the system has worked really well and I still use it.
My little set of drawers was a smart item I purchased from IKEA. I use it to hold the bi-weekly groups of seeds planted one after the other until the last-frost day in Portland down in my basement with lights and heat. I sort the larger groups of seeds into bags. They are labeled for two planting periods: right now (outside) for a natural winter stratification, and after the last frost.
Now that they are arranged in their spots awaiting planting, I am trading online, shopping online, and I am adding to the Excel spreadsheet slowly.
This year I germinated hundreds of seeds, but this next year I intend to be a bit better, and not attempt quite so many. Let’s hope that’s true. I need to take care of myself and my health, and enjoy my plants, not hate them.
