You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
Dave’s Garden has grown, and grown, and grown… and every year newcomers to our site come across a reference to a “Roundup” and wonder what it is, if it isn’t the weed-killer. In a nutshell, a DG Roundup is a gathering of gardeners for the express purposes of swapping plants, meeting fellow gardeners and breaking bread together.
But, how did that ‘ DG tradition’ ever start in the first place? Back in those days we were all newbies to a newbie gardening site and few, if any, of us knew one another except as screen names on the site. Oh, sure… we swapped plants by mail but that was about all the personal interaction there was. Then our beloved Roadrunner, Jo, posted that she was coming from Arizona in the summer to visit her son and his family in Crossville, Tennessee. She wondered if any of us lived close enough to get together for lunch on a Saturday. Well, Katie, bar the door!
As many members began to answer Jo's invitation, that small luncheon became like Prissy in Gone with the Wind, and just grew. Not many of us lived close enough for a day trip so we began looking for motels, but some folks had RV’s and some folks had tents. Keith and Donna (Jo's son and daughter-in-law) finally located a new small facility (Rockytop) that had a few rooms to rent, plus spaces for tents and RV hookups down by the lake and bath houses, and a large new community building. They both worked very hard to help make the first RU happen. In fact, we all did!
Well, if we are all gonna stay overnight somewhere, how ‘bout a community meal? Or two? And, since we are all gardeners, how about if we bring some extra plants to swap on that Saturday morning? Since not everyone can come early enough for a Friday night cookout, let’s move it to Saturday afternoon after the plant swap. Oh, there will be kids (and dogs) so let’s plan some fun things for them too. Maybe a campfire after dinner, with music and storytelling? Since the volunteer cooks will be busy all afternoon after the plant swap, what if we schedule some fun things for the adults and kids inside during the afternoon heat?
We ended up with 70+ folks attending for the events covering Friday through Sunday. Members (we had no subscriptions back then when DG was small) came from as far away as Texas and New England. All the Admins came… Dave and Trish came separately so someone would be home during the afternoon, and Terry came with her DH. Most of the members attending (we have lost only a few) are still members: Roadrunner, her son Keith and DIL Donna (TnMom)), Vic and DH Hank, GrannyLois and her dear departed DH Michael, Elena and DH Al, Mystic, Melody, Yardbird and DH Lamar, Azalea and DH Doug, Badseed and her (then just 5) daughters, Gardenwife and Howie, Horseshoe and his daughter Alex, GeorgiaRedClay and his DW Bobbie, Calalily, JustDot, Iris, me, and I’m sure I have left some out.
There were group classes on propagation led by Calalily, a macramé class and a cornhusk doll class taught by Melody, and Smilin’32 and Flowox taught some craft classes. Carol7 and Vic organized steaks on the grill for our big meal together and EVERYONE brought side dishes. There is no act more social than sharing food (breaking bread) although sharing plants is right up there, too. Wow, what a feast we had!
I have to tell you that having the main meal looked very iffy for a bit. The community building was so new that there were NO tables and chairs yet, just several large refrigerators. The owners brought in several truckloads of new tables and folding chairs just as our steaks were cooking!
Many folks donated door prizes and Jo drew numbers. I think every person received 2 or 3 door prizes. Someone, probably Gardenwife, the made poster-sized individual letters for each of us to hold for a group snapshot, and she and our very own Dave took group photos. Kimberly also made Memory/autograph books for everyone.
The evening festivities included Horseshoe playing his guitar and singing about his “Size 10’s” around the campfire and telling some tall tales for the youngsters and adults alike. After that we had a sing-along and Elena made songbooks with the words to many songs. She and her DH also brought some guitar-playing friends.
The weather was beautiful, the plants were beautiful, and even the people were beautiful!
Photo Credits: Thanks to Dave, Gardenwife, Horseshoe, Melody, Mystic, JustDot and GrannyLois for all the great shots!
About Darius Van d'Rhys
I have a 'growing my own food' obsession that comes from my overlapping interests in cooking, nutrition and gardening. I am also a "teacher", a writer, a builder… and a craftsperson and... and… and many other things, LOL. In fact, I guess I am a generalist, and a Seeker.
I live in the southern Appalachian Mountains on a hillside with a creek in front, and drive a 15 year old truck I lovingly call “My Farmer’s Ferrari.”
Roadrunner, Jo, posted that she was coming from Arizona in the summer to visit her son and his family in Crossville, 
Tennessee. She wondered if any of us lived close enough to get together for lunch on a Saturday.
community building. They both worked very hard to help make the first RU happen. In fact, we all did!
and his daughter Alex, GeorgiaRedClay and his DW Bobbie, Calalily, JustDot, Iris, me, and I’m sure I have left some out. 
just as our steaks were cooking! 
The evening festivities included Horseshoe playing his guitar and singing about his “Size 10’s” around the campfire and telling some tall tales for the youngsters and adults alike. After that we had a sing-along and Elena made songbooks with the words to many songs. She and her DH also brought some guitar-playing friends.
