Allotments 4 All

Sorting through my seeds yesterday  I am toying with the idea of doing an International  seed and swap parcel. I usually buy my seeds in larger sizes that I need and always have too many. Here buying the second size is very little different to the small packet  so I always have something to trade.

It would mean the person who gets it last would have to ship it further, I think the last time I added a few pounds to the parcel to accommodate that.

The advantage to you over there is often you get things that you would't usually see unless you buy globally. I think the last one went to the UK, Holland and  Spain after it left here.

Is anyone interested.

Offer , if it goes will be open to all A4A folks who have been registered awhile and are seen to post. Exact specs to follow.

XX Jeannine

XX Jeannine

Hi Jeannine - 'one more sleep' and I'm on my way  . If your round robin takes off you could send the package to me at my sister's (as long as it will fit into my suitcase  ).

I'll call you in a few days.

Tricia xx

Sounds fun Jeannine, love to join in if I may  and also be happy to post back to you.

That's very generous Jeannine.  The last one was legendary.  Would love to be 'in'. 

Any special requests for the type of seeds to return to you?  I have a bean, called 'Breglia Romano' that could be similar to your special bean (if I read and understood the description right) and would be happy to include a few seeds for you to compare.

If I may ? No volcanoes this time!  We could add a few stamps as it passes around! Nice thought on such a wet day.

I would be interested in that too I have lots of seeds and would love to expand my lot.

I love the idea of adding a few stamps too along the way to cover international postage,
Nora

I would love to be included.  Like the idea of adding a few stamps to each parcel as it goes round too.  Getting quite excited.

  me too!..please?

OK, you are on..Tricia it may not be ready in time for you going home as there is some stuff I want to order that will have spares in, it will be doubtful if they arrive in time but I will try my best..give me the date you Leave again, I can always send it guaranteed overnight to you if I manage it.

Markfield . absobloominglutely no volcano this time, that was awful.

Galina the seeds would be great, I will pop a few of mine with your name on so you can see too.

JayB, thank you, you can be postmistress.

For the others do you want to know who is getting it when or do you want us to play..your choice.

Is there anything from across the pond anyone wants in particular, let me know as soon as you can. Take a look at Tatianas, I am sending an order to her and I do already have a lot of her seeds already,

Do you all remember the Mayoral Blue squash..I was sent a few seeds from Queensland Australia, they were originally grown by the Mayor of Grafton who  bred this very sweet small blue squash, he would not ever share his seeds, he apparently grew them for many years. After he died a relative decided it was time to share the few he had and by luck, the friend I had in Australia worked with a woman who knew the relative and he was talking about me one day at work and that he was shipping seeds to me, this friend piped up, told him the story and offered to try get me a few,, she did,. so I got just a few of what they called Mayoral Blue. I  grew them in the UK the year the floods hit Hull so lost the plants. When I came here I shared the few remaining seeds with Tatiana , I think we had about 4 each  we both grew them , mine were struggling and I lost two plants and I didn't think they would make it, but they did  they were isolated and I got just two fruits which gave me a good amount of seed, Tatianas also did well and she now has them on here site. I am pretty confident that we are the only two folks outside on OZ that have them, so there may be a very few of them in the parcel to anyone who SERIOUSLY wants to start to grow them, but I need to know that ahead of time so I can mark them with names.

There will be some flowers in this one as my clever daughter was at a yard sale this year and came home with a box full of  new , unopened , indate Burpees seeds for pennies , some annuals and some perennials. I will post what they are later and if no one wants them I won`t add them.

I wonder if Ruud is about..

XX Jeannine

At the risk of being a party pooper there are strict rules about who can send seeds to Europe from the American continent or anywhere else in the world and vice versa - all designed to control the spread of pests and diseases.   

You need to be a recognised, licensed supplier or risk confiscation by customs.

You are not a party pooper , it is not  WHO can send , it is WHAT can be sent and WITH which paperwork if need be that is important, and although you are a UNION you all have different no nos as to seeds, I am aware of them.

I definitely  do not have to be a licensed supplier to send seeds to Europe. I have been sending them for years and I investigated all that the law demands so I knew what I could do. I have sent packages  clearly marked garden seeds. I have even had them opened , then closed and sent on their way as the contents did not contain any seeds that were not allowed. I am VERY aware of the restrictions over there.

XX Jeannine

I'd be glad to be part of this. I miss the round robins, though I'm well aware of the problems we had before. If it's only open to established posters that shoul hopefully avoid the problems this time.

Quoteto anyone who SERIOUSLY wants to start to grow them

.......

Yes Robert I agree, it is unfortunate but I guess we all had to bide our time and the swap parcels seem to go on so eventually everyone would be included that was regularly around. There can be a fair bit of value in one and volcanos aside I think it is sensible to be prudent.

If I can get it ready in time I will get it to Tricia to take back with her..oh yes she should be travelling today I think.

XX Jeannine

I would love to be included.   

But there is a bit but.  I think I did the last one and it turned out to be very frustrating indeed.   Someone stripped all the good seeds out of the packet on the way round and replaced it with out of date seeds and things they did not want.  So it became a very poor deal after a time.  Luckily a few people rescued it and topped it up.    The postage here has changed so it has become very expensive to post things, they charge for it as a parcel and do not like anything lumpy.

I suggested people PMed the cost of the postage on arrival and departure to prevent weight loss but some people felt they were being accused.   Though actually once I started that most people put in considerably more than they took out.   

It arrived back to me less than 1/3 of the starting weight!!!   

Also some people were very slow at sending it on.     Someone had it for more than two weeks.   They had all sort of excuses, but I rather said they should have put their name further down the mailing list if they were too busy to take part.   I PMed everyone individually to check they were ready and waiting after that and imposed a time limit for sending it on.  After that most posted it the next day after receiving it.   

After that Jayb did one where she received the seeds from everyone and then send out what people requested from the list.    That way is more expensive on postage because you have to pay twice, but at least you can guarantee everyone gets a fair deal and gets something worth having.   In particular it is very dependant on the time of the organiser.

I have to admit, some years ago in the Uk someone ran off with one, he happened to get it straight from me too. He vanished, I quickly got another one together and started again and we were finem I lost one in the volcano thingy and sent a new one too but the lost volcano one showed up several months later and was sent back to me as I don't think it had left Canada.

I am b=not too concerned but I will put rules on mine re participating, turnaround and some instructions for swapping in the parcel

XX Jeannine

Forgive me asking but what is/was the volcano thing?

Quote from: lottie lou on October 15, 2013, 12:25:49
Forgive me asking but what is/was the volcano thing?

When that volcano blew off in Iceland other year and caused airtraffic problems...mail got delayed and Jeannine's parcel got lost

Always happy to take part in the exciting seed swap! Inevitably there will be those who take or give more than others but I've been involved in several parcels over the years and overall think its been great, always the fizz of excitement as you receive it! We got Jeannine to do a lottery to decide the order of receipt last time if I remember correctly, I think that worked well and there were several packets with named envelopes for specific members which also worked ok I think.

I think before we go any further it may be a good idea to say this will not be an fat envelope it will be a parcel.  I don't know exactly  what UK postage is like now but I do know that it is far  less than Canadian and less than the US, Canada has one if the highest postal rates anywhere so it will be quite costly to send over there but should not be costly to send around the UK or even too bad to return it.

I will do the draw again for who gets it when so if anyone has any holiday dates I need to know. I will ask for PMs later down the road.

XX Jeannine