Interest in the June 13 Plant Swap for the MIT community is blooming, with dozens of gardening enthusiasts planning and potting what they'll contribute.
The idea for the event came from Cheryl deJong Vossmer of Campus Police as a way to bring together amateur gardeners and enable them to share their extra plants and gardening supplies.
The Plant Swap is scheduled for Friday, June 13 from 11am-2pm on the brick area outside Kresge Auditorium (in case of rain, the event will be held in the Kresge lobby). Participants will receive "chits" for their plants or garden supplies that can be swapped for what others have contributed.
In addition to plant-swapping, some of MIT's own gardening experts will be on hand to offer tips and advice. These experts include Tom Coppi, Rob Lyons, Ken Manning and Ernie Morrison, who are gardeners in the Grounds department of Physical Plant; Talitha Fabricius, landscape architect in the Planning Office; Bill Flannery, gardener at the President's House; and Andy Turcotte and Steve Wiswell, gardeners at Endicott House.
The planning committee for the Plant Swap includes the following gardeners: John Butts, Grounds; Ms. deJong-Vossmer; Dee Dow-Chase, Center for Advanced Educational Services; Norman Magnuson, Grounds; Meg Manderson, Sloan School; Laura Mersky, President's Office; Robert Randolph, senior associate dean, Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs; Diane Tavitian, Department of Architecture; Janet Snover, Community Involvement team, and Phil Walsh, Campus Activities Complex.
Gardeners who would like to participate in the Plant Swap are asked to contact Ms. Snover, x8-5993, , to indicate what kind of plants and how many they expect to bring to the event.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 4, 1997.
