Ella!!!! So good to hear from you. No problem about no swap this year, we're just glad you checked in. So sorry about your father's passing and all you illness. Take it slowly, one step at a time. And check in when you can. I have some pictures I can share but will have to come back, dealing with a sick cat today.
Name: Deborah Orangeburg, SC Zone 8a Don't Sweat the Small Stuff!
Ella and welcome back. This year has been yet another crazy and hectic one for me as well. I did get some seeds planted, but nothing special--just the typical begonia, marigold, bell pepper, etc. I hope that others are having a more successful gardening year.
Have checked in here for years! You are all with me in my garden, it is bursting with perennials annuals and vegetables from piggy swaps. Fir the last couple years I did swap on garde.org aka allthingsplants.com
Dave set up a very simple tool to do swaps and it is easy on whoever sponsors the swap. Several people from piggy swap are on there.
What made me look at this thread: I have beautiful bee balm getting ready to bloom and even tho this is a North American native I grew it from seeds from Joanna sudenius from Belgium. I recall she was seriously ill does anyone know how it turned out?
Name: Deborah Orangeburg, SC Zone 8a Don't Sweat the Small Stuff!
The last I heard, she had overcome her illness and was on the mend. But that was a good while ago. I'll see about sending her a cmail or even a snail mail. BTW, please do post pics of your bee balm. Natives plants come from seeds, so do post away. I have rudbeckia, Prairie splendor echinacea and balloon flowers from piggy seeds.
I hope all you Piggies are surviving this summer. It has been extremely hot in the middle of Texas and no rain for months until yesterday. It has rained more today, and we are grateful for every drop. Our cows are eating hay already and have been since June. I just hope we can find enough hay to buy that we can keep some of the cows through the winter.
Ella, I'm very sorry to learn of your extended illness and especially the loss of your father. I hope you are gaining strength and staying well. I've missed the Piggy Swaps for the fun with the other Piggies, but I am so glad you have not tried to host a swap with all you have been through and had going on. I realized I did not have the stamina to host any longer and passed on the one I had hosted for years on GW. I missed sorting through all those little packets of seeds, but it was time for me to let someone else take over.
My "garden" this year consists of what the landscaper set out last year, at least what survived the 8 degree weather we had for several days last winter. If it were not for the drip irrigation, I'm sure all of the remaining plants would have died this summer. My magnolia tree, which I had grown from a seedling I received in a trade on GW over twenty years ago, turned completely brown after a few days of 110 degrees. I don't know if it will grow new leaves or just expire.
I have one acanthus mollis I sprouted from seed growing in my kitchen window. It has only one leaf, but it is growing. My veggie garden is mostly not planted. I'm hoping for more reasonable weather and will try a fall garden. lol Right now there are two straggly tomato plants, five small collards, about a dozen peppers, and four or five squash plants about six inches tall. The johnson grass shaded them and kept them from shriveling up. That's the only good thing I can say about johnson grass as it spreads like crazy, has rhizomes that go to China, and is very hard to kill.
We gardeners are a resilient bunch and must be optimists to keep on trying to grow in spite of the lemons coming our way. When I start feeling depressed, it's about time for my monthly infusion at Texas Oncology. I go there because the infusion to prevent rejection of my transplanted kidney has to be done at a facility with a Medicare Part B license. I am surrounded by people fighting cancer. It's my reality check, and I leave with an infusion of gratitude as well.
Name: Deborah Orangeburg, SC Zone 8a Don't Sweat the Small Stuff!
Stay well Patricia and thanks for updating us. Hopefully the weather will cool down some along with some rain soonm and you can get that veggie garden going.
Hi Dianne, it looks really quiet here. I hope Ella is doing well. Maybe someday she will want to reopen the barn.
But in the meantime, some of us are seed swapping over on NGA. Dave put together a really fabulous system set up just for seed swaps. You should check it out.
There's one open for next year that I'm probably going to join but I'm sure there will be others as people offer to host a swap. You can even offer to host a swap if you want to. Anyone can.
Here's the one I'm talking about, I was just in this swap, hosted by DogsNDaylilies last year and it was great fun!! https://garden.org/apps/swap/view/31/
I still check in here from time to time, also hoping Ella is okay. I know she has a lot going on with her health, her computer, and then damage to her home. If anyone has heard from her recently, please let us know how she is.
I participate in several swaps on Dave's other site, the National Gardening Association, and the one I used to host on Houzz/GardenWeb, the What's Left On My Want List Swap. The WLOMWL Swap is finishing up right now with its fifth host over many years. I think it's stronger and better than ever as each host has tweaked it a bit to make improvements. There is still only one Piggy Swap, however.
The NGA swaps are similar as we get a certain number of picks per day, but the element of fun (like oinking and waiting for Rick to be nailed to the barn door!) is missing. There are lots and lots of great seeds being shared, however. They are the next best thing to the Piggy Swap.
Some, but not all, of the Piggies have migrated to those swaps. I hope we all get back together here in the Piggy barn soon, but in the meantime check out NGA Swaps and GardenWeb Swaps. Both are friendly sites and are very welcoming to new participants. In fact, since we are on Cubits, everyone may be a memeber of NGA already. If not, it's free and easy to sign up. We'd love to see all the Piggies there!
I especially recommend the NGA swaps hosted by DogsNDaylilies, poisondartfrog, and ishareflowers. Some of the swaps are called lightning rounds because all the seed grabbing takes place in one day, and unless you have fast internet, you are somewhat disadvantaged. My internet creeps along at 2 mbs, so I don't take part in lightning rounds.
I hope all you Piggies are staying warm and cozy this winter and have a beautiful spring very soon!
Hey everyone Haven't been here in soo long and haven't even typed in so long good to know it all comes back to ya :rofl:
Hope everyone is doing well, wondering about Ella weather has been so bad where she is just hope she is still all together and Ella so sorry to hear about your father.
I've got six orange milkweeds in my flower beds and not one leaf has been munched on, no eggs not even a milkweed bug? NO Monarchs at all and haven't seen any where I volunteer at (it's a big farm at least 80 acres) soo sad! Getting ready to plant 10 blue milkweeds sometime next week if weather permits it's been so hot and muggy can just barely get out there to pull a few really bad weeds.
Anyone else having the same problem? I had more milkweeds for the last few years but our winters the last two years has been so rotten that I've lost a lot of plants. I only had two Monarchs last year!
I've been thinking about Rick lately he said it rained so much there wondering if he's still water logged or the weather is changing for him, we got rain all winter and now all summer so far too not enough sun for the flowers to grow right my cleome plants are just barely 2' tall and blooming! I lost 4 butterfly bushes this year too Bought two of those miniature ones and they were going on their third year this year and can't find any more around here.
Name: Deborah Orangeburg, SC Zone 8a Don't Sweat the Small Stuff!
I'm with you on the crummy wet weather, which had now turned super hot and muggy. We're miserable and so are the plants. Lots of loss over the winter too.
I hope that someone elsewhere is having a better gardening experience.
LeBug wrote:Hope everyone is doing well, wondering about Ella's weather has been so bad where she is just hope she is still all together and Ella so sorry to hear about your father.
I've been thinking about Rick lately he said it rained so much there wondering if he's still water logged or the weather is changing for him, we got rain all winter and now all summer so far too not enough sun for the flowers to grow right my cleome plants are just barely 2' tall and blooming! I lost 4 butterfly bushes this year too Bought two of those miniature ones and they were going on their third year this year and can't find any more around here.
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Sorry about all the lemons! I hope things are looking up. You have been greatly missed. 
This year has been yet another crazy and hectic one for me as well. 
I did get some seeds planted, but nothing special--just the typical begonia, marigold, bell pepper, etc. I hope that others are having a more successful gardening year. 
Haven't been here in soo long and haven't even typed in so long good to know it all comes back to ya :rofl:
Bought two of those miniature ones and they were going on their third year this year and can't find any more around here. 
