Allotments 4 All

Hi all. when I left  the UK last year I promised  all my A4A friends I would get together some Canadian/US seeds that you can't get over there and send them over for a parcel swapsie.

Following on similar lines to my previous ones but a  few gentle rules are necessary so please take a while to consider before you ask to join in.

Open to UK and European friends who are contributing members of A4A.

Please only take a few seeds so that everyone on the list gets a few of the original seeds and replace what you take with seeds of your own.

Please do not send old seeds.

Please  leave them in their original packets even if there is only a few left.

No-one will be added on after the parcel leaves me so the list inside will not change.

Participants will not be kept secret, a list will be posted in advance so we know where it is at all times.

I am requesting a  maximum 3 day turn around to try to keep it moving quickly.

I  would like the parcel to come home so need  someone who is happy send it back to Canada once it is finished there as I have plans for the seeds, I will enclose UK stamps to go towards the postage.

Note I am buying these seeds specially for this swap so if anyone has any special requests for seeds they have seen on line  let me  know. I will enclose them if I am able.

The parcel will not go out till mid April as I am in the US early April and will be searching shops there too. I will take names till April 9th.

You MUST PM me if you are interested,but also please leave a message here too as a backup.

All ideas welcome as always.

In the event I have a huge number of participants I will draw names from a hat as I cannot make a second parcel  this time.

XX Jeannine

I'd love to join in please Jeannine, I'll pm you.

Thank you for organising this, it sounds fantastic.

Hi Jeannine,

Can you count me in too?

This sounds like an exciting swap.  ;D

Thank you for organising such a transatlantic treat.

MP

I'll PM you my details.

Ok this sounds exciting.

jumping up and down.....please miss can i join in, please miss, i promise to be good and follow the rules.

;D  ;D

Can I join in too please.

QuotePlease  leave them in their original packets even if there is only a few left.

Is this your seeds or the one's we put in?

Thanks for organising another great swap.

Neil

Hi Jeannine,

I'd love to join in too please, it sounds fantastic.

Thanks for arranging  ;D

would like to join in to sounds like a great swap

I'm interested!

I would also like to join.  I also have some varieties from Canada and have more than I need of each variety.

Yes please, is there anything this end you might be looking for? Will PM.

Just one thing are we allowed to send seeds to Canada.  I thought that they had to have hygiene certificates etc.

Yes and no.We do it all the time but are careful how we phrase it on the box. It is very rare to go missing. I had one in the Uk from the US that customs stopped but the seller had listed the whole lot on the outside of the box, and that is the only one I have had a problem with and i have bought and sent Internationally for years.

XX Jeannine


Robert PM please as I get a copy into my  home mail at and I file them in a folder for that purpose.

I don't have any requests for stuff coming here Hilary  will take pot luck for the plan I have for the seeds.

Hi Jeannine
Please add me in too.
Anne

An Add on..I forgot



You must at least  get proof of posting when you send your parcel on recorded is better still.


XX Jeannine

Anne please PM the deatails

Any room for a little one? (Okay, not that little!!)
I've done a lot of swapping on other sites, and manage to pick up some unusuals, if there's anything in partic. you're looking for, please let me know, and I can but try!
Will pm you.

Hi jeannine,can i join this great adventure swap.If you dont have somebody to send it back to you,i will do the honours to send it back to canada.Thanks a lot for organizing such a big swap.

                                                        greetings from holland,ruud.

I would love to join in please, the promise of exciting and interesting seeds is too tempting  ;D

Jeanine there must be some seeds that you particularly want same as you have offered particualar seeds so please say which ones you want.

I would love to join but as Im moving around then I wouldnt know which address to give you.

If you do this next year then Ill ask to join then.

Thank you jeanine, its a great idea.

Jackie

I would love to join in please  :D

I'd like to join in the fun too please...... ;D ;D ;D

Can I jump in too please Jeannine?

Ninny

Hi, Will pm you - would love to join this as well if you still have room.
:) Suzanne

It's no good  - I can't resist requesting to join......and I was going to try to be good this year and not over indulge ;D
I will PM you, Jeannine -  and thank you for organising it all.

I would love to join in please is there anything you can think of that you might want to try and I will gladly send.  :)

I would love to join in too Jeannine if I may please.
I will p.m my address now.

Please add me to Your list

Thanks
David

I would be interested, I will pm you. Thanks for organising.

Bumping this one as I don't any of the folks I promised stuff  when I left  not  to see it. XXJeannine

i'd love to join please

Would also love to join please.
Will pm you.  Thanks Jeannine.  :)

This sounds so exciting - I would love to part of it.  I'll PM you my address.
:D

Picked up loads of stuff from Westcoast seeds today so half way finished with the huntin'and gatherin'

Got the Tyee spinach for the folks who wanted it, please remind me.
XX Jeannine

Ohh exciting- I am off to seed swap tomorrow inc HSL  see what I can do.
Off for a lie down.

"room" for one more?...

Just caught up with your post Jeannine, we'd love to join in please

Will pm our address  :-*

Please can I join in.
Although I am getting married on 12th June and hopefully away for a few weeks honeymoon then so if it gets to me about that time may neeed to push me back.
Becky

Hi the list is getting long now but I will leave it posted till April 9th  as I said earlier..please remember that it is a swap I promised to my contributing  A4A friends  when I left last Easter so to be fair  to them it will be restricted to folks who were reistered prior to April 13th 2009. I still am waiting to see a few of those names . I realise that this time it will bump some good newer posters but I have bought  this seed which cost quite a lot of money  specifically for the swap as a thank you to all the friends who sustained me when John and I were ill  over the last couple of years  and emotionally helped me get ready for my big move!! A regular seed swap would include everyone and there will be one of those later in the year probably with saved seed etc in it.

Regards XX Jeannine

I'm not asking to be part of the seed swap, but I do remember your promise to your friends in the Old Country before you and John left,Jeannine, and it's so wonderful (and characteristically generous) of you to do this.

Even so, given that the swap will start with you and end with Ruud returning the parcel to you, and allowing everyone 3 days to turn the parcel around & send it on its way,& factoring in postal delivery times,  you may have to think of the eventual time this will take and calculate the no. of peeps you can realistically include also...for those down on a long list, their planting dates may well be past the optimum - get my drift? Deciding who to include's gonna be a tough call :-\
 
Papers in a hat and a blindfold John drawing them out, perhaps? Oh! and you could put it on U-tube and we could all watch ;D

Most seeds will store till next season if they arrive too late for this.

I am not putting any seeds like onions,leeks  etc that only have 1 year life. The package contains many of the varieties I have mentioned in the past eg. In fact I can tell you some of what will be coming off the top of my head.

Shasta Cauliflower
Tyee Spinach
Mokum carrots
Peaches and Cream corn
Fortex pole/filet beans
Some oriental brassicas
A super deep red lettuce Merlot
A couple of hot peppers
White beets, yellow beets
A pumpkin grown for seed snacking
A red flowered sugar pea..you can eat the flowers ans shoots too
Collards
Japanese turnip
White carrot for stews
Couple of very early toms
Different summer squashes,
extra early striped butternut squash+ others


This is just some of the ones I have in my head.  Oh and I just remembered Stevia seeds..this is the sweetener you can grow yourself.

I will add as many folks as I can and if every body takes only a bit of seed it should go around, I did buy the big packets where I could.

What a laugh Lish, blind folding John, if he couldn't see,he has  poor hearing  and he would forget where the hat was.!

!Yesterday he heard about somebody on TV or something who had got old and couldn't pick his wife off the floor after she fainted,, he said he could do it.. so I lay down.It should be on Youtube,, we laughed so much he couldn't have picked up piece of paper and it ended rather quickly when I made a dive to the bathroom!!

XX Jeannine

Hello Jeanine, it looks like a whole bunch already on your swap. If there's room Id love to join in.

I will pm you now. :D ;)

bump  :D

How the heck did I miss this, happy to jump on board if there's room...but happy not to , if its a pressure.  I am having a "funny day"...... :)

I haven't forgotten, it is not going out till after next weekend as I said in the original post , names will be going in the hat.XX Jeannine

Bump..

Names are going in the hat today..midnight my time which is 8am Saturday morning for you, so there is still time to jump in.It  is a swap promised to A4A folks when I left the UK on April 13th last year, so if you joined on or before that date you are eligible.

Not to worry if you joined after, I have something else planned for you.

I will post the names after midnight tonigh then close this post ans start a new one for progress.

I do hope those of you who have asked to participate have sent their addresses. If you don't think you did please send them.

XX Jeannine

Jeannine my mouth is watering  ;D

She's such a tease ;D

Neil

 Seed parcel list of runners!!

The list is only from  folks who were registered with A4A when  left the UK on 13 April last year with one exception.I have chosen to add 1 other person to the parcel list  who has gone way out of her way to help me although she actually joined three days after I left.

I am sorry this swap was so restrictive but I have a plan for everyone  to join in later in the year that the folks below won't be able to join in!!


So  in no particular order

Ruud
Star
Jayb
Goodlife
mpdjulie
Suzanne
Tinshed
Ninnyscrops
DebP
Flowersof shona
nilly71
grawc
markfield rover
Robert Benchley
Mushy pea
Squash 64
Hector



I will start a new thread when the parcel leaves here which should be by Thursday and post the names in the order it is going round. It is going first to JayB as she has seeds I sent already to add in, and it will be going last to Ruud who will post it back to Canada. There will be some UK stamps in the parcel to go the person who has to send it over to Holland to Ruud to help with the extra postage.

I have all  the addresses

XX Jeannine

Thank you so much for organising this Jeannine.  I was so excited to see my name on the list! ;D

Woohoo! I'm there too! Thanks Jeannine! 8) 8) :-*

I'm over the moon. Thank you for doing this :)

WOW !!! im shocked but very happy, thank you sooo much Jeannine ((hug)).

I am already looking for some very long distance pigeons to bring the parcel safe back home. ;D ;D ;D ;DThanks a lot jeannine to let me participed this swap.

 ;D ;D ;D

Thank you Jeannine for organising such an exciting swap.

(I hope you add a few of those fascinating pink striped April fruiting tomato seeds)  ;)

MP

Thank you Jeannine, it's so exciting  ;)

Neil

Ahhhhh..... ;D...... :-*

This is so exciting - thank you again, Jeannine ;D

Oooooooooh ready and thank you Jeannine x

Lovely-thanks very much Jeannine ,off to look through my seedy drawers,including the heritage ones.

Thank you, not sure I deserve to be here, but very happy  ;D

Yes, what to add?  Mmmm I love this bit

Jeannine, can you send the parcel a few days before letting us know, I hopefully won't get my undies in a knot then waiting for it to arrive ;D

Ok Jay be I cqan tell you a fib if it makes you sleep better XX Jeannine

Just caught up with this thread again, can't wait. Thank you so much for organising this.  :)

Picked up the last seeds in nthe US today so mit almost ready to start it's journey.XX Jeannine

OK, to enable JayB to get a few nights sleep and at her request I have not posted the parcel has left.


But now it has!!!. I am not allowed to tell you when but a hint is that I have had 4 good nights sleep since it left.

There is no list of addies inside as just in case it is stopped there will be no info. I will send a list od addies to Jay be who can pop it int the parcel at your end.

So, into the hat went the names and came out as below..except the first and last as previously said.

JayB
Star
Markfield Rover
DebP
Hector
Squash 64
grawc
Nilly71
Tinshed
MushyPea
mpdjulie
Goodlife
Ninnyscrops
Flowers of Shona
Suzanne
Robert Benchley. Robert there are UK first class stamps  in package to cover postage  to Ruud in Holland
Ruud

Enclosed is a jiffy bag for specials.. eg if you want tio send something to anyone on the list put it in this bag and mark in clearly who it is for and NOT FOR SWAP.

I have bagged all the Canadian new seed into small zippies, there is one bag for everyone for each variety, please  don't take more than 1 bag of the same variety as there would not be enough to go rouns and I really wanted to make sure everybody got a bit of everything I sent. Each  varieties little zippies are together in a bigger zippie with the original packet so you read about it..please do not through out the empty packet!! There is another large zippie marked  "PUT YOUR SWAPS IN HERE PLEASE, and for goodness sake don't mix them up LOL.You can of course swap about with this bag as in any usual swap.

Some of the seeds were quite expensive so you may only have three or four in your wee zippie.eg I have sent seeds of a mini cuke Piccolo which I found interesting,  see   Westcoastseeds by the way..and a courgette called Ambassador which grows upright. There is a very very  early Watermelon in too.They will all grow quite easy in the UK.

Most you cannot get in the UK but some you may know.

Have fun..sorry to make the rules a little tight but this way everyone on the list gets a bit of the Canadian seeds

I will start another thread now for progress.

XX Jeannine

Thank you again for this, very kind of you

Hi Jeannine,
I've copied and saved your instructions so I won't have to rely on my hopeless memory.
Thanks again for doing this, I'm really looking forward to seeing what's in the parcel. :D

Ohh...are we there yet...? I can't wait...! ;D ;) ::)

Jeannine..is there anything you wish to find for yourself in the parcel..?..other than few supprises.. ;)

Quote from: Jayb on April 12, 2010, 08:35:27
can you send the parcel a few days before letting us know, I hopefully won't get my undies in a knot then waiting for it to arrive ;D

Just don't wear any until you get the parcel...problem solved :P

I'm not wearing anything with zips on 'till it arrives in case I get more confused (not that difficult!)  :o

Ninny

PS Thanks again Jeannine and keep by your 'puter in case of emergency questions  :)