MGAP Annual Plant Swap: 2011

The MGAP Annual Plant Swap at New Hope Farms
April 30, 2011


MGAP members place their plants in the Red Barn in the appropriate category, browse all the plants, and relax and enoy the snacks provided by the Botonical Belles while waiting for the "Cow Bell" and start of the swap.

MGAP members place their plants on the appropriate table to guide other swappers in their selections.
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A drawing for the door prizes on the on the table is followed by a reminder of the rules for the swap at the ring of the Cow Bell!.
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The swappers wait impatiently for the Cow Bell to ring and signal the rush to tag that "special" plant for their gardens.

The tradition of the mad rush for that "one" special plant goes back to the "Land Rush of 1890 in Oklahoma"
when folks waited for the signal that started the dash to grab free homesteads

In 1890 it was an Army bugle. At the first notes of reveilee sounded by an Army bugler, the participants were off to gather the bootie.

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What does this have to do with Master Gardeners?

This is the mad rush into the Red Barn at New Hope Farm seconds after the cow bell sounded


Like a hoarde of locus, the swappers strip the tables of all the greenery. .

The swappers depart leaving the empty Red Barn and the empty tables
that have sent new and different plants to gardens in the MGAP community.