Washington Gardener Seed Exchange 2021 Details

UPDATE:
Our Seed Exchange 2021 registration period has ended.Email confirmations are now going out to all registrants.

We are holding our postponed Washington Gardener Seed Exchange 2021 on Saturday, 4/3 at Brookside Gardens. (Sorry, the event at Green Spring Gardens is canceled.)

As we are following all COVID protocols and maintaining social distancing, the event will be very different in format from previous years and requires advance registration for all attendees. PLEASE READ ALL OF THIS CAREFULLY SO YOU ARE PROPERLY PREPARED.

As one of last year's attendees, YOU get first dibs on registering for a time slot*. Then, in a few days, I will open up time slots to current Washington Gardener Magazine subscribers. Finally, a week or so after that, we will open up any remaining slots to the general public. Only 1 time slot per person, if you sign up for multiple slots they will be deleted. COVID regulations require that time slots are NONtransferable. If you cannot make it that morning or wake-up not feeling well, the slot will just be left empty.

The big changes are: no speaker programs, no goody bags, and no door prizes. This will just be purely several rows of tables with seed packs on them plus a few tables for free garden books/catalog/information - and seedlings! Since we are later in the season, the other big change is you can bring seedlings to share (as well as houseplant cuttings, summer bulbs, etc.)! It will help a great deal if the seedlings are already placed in individual little cups/pots and labeled well. We require everyone to maintain social distancing and wear masks. I hope many of our attendees will also have had their vaccine by then. You will enter through a side door of the auditorium and should NOT go into the Visitor Center lobby area and exit through a separate side door. There is no measuring of what you brought versus what you take. We ask that folks limit themselves to what they will personally grow this year. Some tables and items will be marked with "1 each" or similar signs, so that we can have enough of certain items to go around. There will be NO onsite registration or fee charged. We will set out a tip jar for donations at the event and also have a small sales table with Washington Gardener Magazine back issues and subscription sign-ups. Another way you can support the event is to donate using the online tip jar at http://seedswapday.blogspot.com/ (see the "donate button"on the top, right-hand column).

BRING a tote bag(s) and/or a tray to collect and carry your selected items home in.

Here is the SCHEDULE:

10am-12n Drop off seeds**/seedlings/garden books etc. at the front door of Brookside Gardens' Visitor Center - do NOT enter the building - there will be volunteers with a rolling cart/empty boxes there to accept and bring in items

12n-4pm We will let in groups of 10 attendees every 20 minutes* to select seeds according to your time slots. We ask you to not bunch around the front of the building. Please wait in your vehicles, take a walk around the gardens, go run errands, etc. until your time slot is about to start.

*Don't worry if your time slot is later on in the day, we plan to hold some seeds back so not all the "good stuff" is set out at the 12noon start to make it more fair for those with later times.

**You can also mail your seeds for the swap (labeled seed packs only - no other items will be accepted in advance!) to arrive before April 1 to:
   Washington Gardener, 826 Philadelphia Ave., Silver Spring MD 20910

HERE IS the registration link for a time slot:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E094BADA822A64-washington  

Registration is now closed.

We hope this event gets seeds into the hands of more home gardeners and wish you all a happy growing season!