Seed exchange

Thank you for all your comments regarding my daughter's "moral education". For now I think it will just be left alone as she is not worried about it and chances are my evil looks at her teacher every time I go to the school to teach the older classes has been a bit of a warning to her. However, if anything similar happens again I will not be able to hold my tongue.... Casey, I had seen the program you mentioned and was very impressed - for anyone who hasn't seen it there is a very good program about a teacher in Japan dealing with a class in Kanazawa - I wish he was at our school! The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=armP8TfS9Is

The other day I was in the garden planting seeds. I have very few obsessions in life, but seeds seem to be one of them! I have packets and packets of seeds which I know will never germinate as they are too old, but I throw them in the ground anyway. I have packets of seeds that I really don't know what they are, if they are appropriate for my area, or what to do with them if they actually germinate and grow properly, but I plant them anyway! I have some real favorites that despite the differences in climate I have managed to get to grow well here. But at times I think I am in a bit of a rut and end up turning into one of the old Japanese women around here - planting exactly the same things every year at exactly the same time of year. Of course my things are a little different to what the Japanese women are planting, but the process is the same. This year I have done reasonably well at cleaning out my boxes of seeds (yes, that is plural!) and thought that it might be interesting to do a seed swap with anyone is interested - to get a bit of variety into my garden. Of course there are many logistical problems with this due to customs laws etc. in different countries, different seasons in different hemispheres etc. but my basic idea is that anyone in any country would send a packet of their favorite seeds, with instructions for growing (if the packet is in any language other than English) and one favorite recipe that they use for the final product to the other members of the swap group and then they would receive one packet of seeds from each member in return. If anyone is interested please contact me at jotomooka (@) gmail.com and give me your e-mail address, postal address, general size of garden (planter boxes on balconies, small, big, very big!) and any seeds that you really DON'T want.... I'll leave it open for a week then send you the list of people interested for you to send seeds to.
If the stupid rain will stop I'll try to get out and take some photos tomorrow of the current state of the garden.... in between shuffling kids to gymnastics and swimming!