Hi,
We live on a lake in North Central Iowa. Our houses are close together so our gardens are small and full. We've grown heirloom tomatoes at a farm 9 miles from here since 2006. This year was such a bad year for growing tomatoes, I decided to pull up stakes and make room to grow them right here next year. The green beans were nice this year.
We have a raised bed beside the driveway. I am having to give up lilies, iris and daylilies to make room for tomatoes. I also cut down a tree to have full sun.
When the snow flies, I start whittling down the list of what we can grow. We may have room for 20 plants compared to the eighty we grew this year.
We have a few hostas and mostly mini's due to the size restriction here.
We started an
Annual May Get-Together 8 years ago with 12 people and it has grown to as many as 55 attending. It will be held in Boone, Iowa for the next two years. It has been held in Chariton, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and here at my house near Manson, Iowa.
What we do is different every year. Thanks to Moby's suggestion, we even changed our name this year to
G.I.G. And that is very appropriate because it is
quite a GIG! We have had talks on growing Tropical plants in the MidWest, growing Roses, Hosta Workshops, Lily Worshops, Hammered Botanical Prints . . . last year, my cousins came and spoke . . . they are master story tellers. We had a tour of a Kaleidoscope Factory. We're always uncovering Iowa's little secrets. Laura even taught us how to tat which is almost a lost art. We have many extremely talented friends. Last year we even had a ride around the lake in a beautiful trolley.
Door Prizes are always popular; many of them are hand made by the people who donate them. Depending on the location, there are new nurseries to visit and antique shops to visit.
We are also a very sharing group. The
Plant Swap always brings plenty of plants to share with everyone. Individual trades are arranged ahead of time. So the Plant Swap turns into a free-for-all event. Moby organized that last year.
And, of course, there is always
Food, which is my passion.
merigold has been in charge of that the last two years and has graciously agreed to take on the task again this year.
I am owner of the cubit,
Yum Yum Divas and you'll find me there most of the time, putting in recipes, writing articles, and answering your cooking questions. I also frequent
Homemaker's Haven. Candyce keeps me in line there with maintaining the household. She's a good taskmaster. I lurk a lot at the Hosta, Lily, Iris, Daylily, & Tomato cubits as well as reading at the Tea Party cubit.
This week we are working on nailing down the exact date and will be letting you know that as soon as possible. Last year, the week-end of our gathering was the opening day of the
Boone Scenic Valley Railroad & Museum. nannybee (Nancy) is contacting them this week to be sure they will be open next year for our week-end. We won't post a date until they assure us they will be open for us.
Here is the link:
http://www.scenic-valleyrr.com...
Other nearby attractions are the Butterfly Wing at Rieman Gardens at Iowa State University in Ames. We highly suggest you catch that. I was a docent there for about 4 years and it is amazing to walk through. We also have the Iowa Arboretum nearby.
Stay tuned as we solidify the plans for May 2011; considered yourselves welcomed and thoroughly hugged.
Arlene
Trolly has arrived and people are starting to board
I'm a little northwest of mid-west but I'm hopin' you won't mind me poppin in to visit and learn 
