Garden Network

It amazes me how easily gardeners all over slip into their own world during the growing season and then get back into the networking habit during the off season. Every year I talk to more gardeners and network and meet more gardeners during the winter. Seed exchanges and plans for plant swaps for the following year. It occurs to me that the people that are the home gardeners are the most patient people ever. Even when a small garden, I realized that I let my own correspondences slip during the growing months and have only just now gotten back into email and phone calls.

I'm also amazed at the generous many of my gardening friends truly are. Seed swaps and cutting exchanges. I've only really recently started to really swap and it is just stunning at the amount of plants there are on the "swap market". Purchasing seeds is nice, but exchanging seeds is better. This is not only because the seed will be fresh and the plant known, but because of the intricate threads that are woven by each of us. That guy that knows that lady who has the daughter-in-law that just loves to grow that thing you're looking for! That is so much better than just going to a website and just buying it.

In the past few months, I've corresponded with several very excellent people and have swapped with them and I really thing that these are going to be lasting relationships. Will I ever step foot in their gardens? Probably not. But I know without a doubt that if they have something I want, they'll be more than happy to share and I'll do the same.