Wear a Life Jacket...

(This is how you feel before you watch the ad)

This ad makes a compelling argument to always wear a life jacket. It's scary... 

Weaving: My Current Obsession

I'm obsessed, absolutely obsessed. I want to weave. Not a casual, "hey guys, how's it going? Weaving would be nice..." But, a completely "I see weaving, tapestry? wall art? baskets? I NEEEEEeeedddD to do it now. I need to do it yesterday. I just neeeeeeddddd to weave.... Ahhhh my passion is so great, I need to weave."

Hopefully my school work lessens soon so I can fulfil my current life dream :)

Update: Azalea Trees

Update:

They are blooming! I love those cute little buds. So cute, and totally worth being patient for.

Love It!

Jostaberry?

I just found my new hobby: trolling craigslist for plants and garden things. In my search I'm discovering new things I've never heard about. Jostaberries? The add says that they taste like a cross between gooseberries and blackcurrrents.

I have a gooseberry plant in my garden. Before I had this plant I'd never tried gooseberries before. I can't comment on the deliciousness of the fruit because I think I'm picking them before their ready, so they don't taste as good. I'll try to be more patient this year and report back my findings ;)

Patience Patience Patience... I'm working at getting more of this stuff all the time. :) One day when I have a child, I'm super sure it'll come in handy.

VanDusen Garden Plant Sale: April 27th

I've never been to this plant sale. I've heard it's like the Army and Navy summer shoe sale but for gardeners.

The news paper did an article about surviving this plant sale.

And here's the catalogue of plants available.

I'm not one for crowd, but I may check this out.

Happy Weekend Everyone :)

What Shall I Wear Today

One of my favourite things to do is to create jingles for mundane things during my day. Sometimes these jingles are just one liners that I will sing over and over again. Here are my lyric(s) for getting dressed:

     what shall I wear today, what shall I wear
     ohhhhhh ohhh
     what shall I wear today, what shall I wear
     (repeat until you're dressed :) )

This parody is from the Pippy song, what shall I do today?

I also sing this to Ror when she's decided on which sweater to wear. I hold out both sweaters and the ones she licks is the one she wants. It's the cutest thing!

Found: on Craigslist

I was trolling craigslist and found this beautiful garden! I love how this person has so many different plants and lawn ornaments. 

I've missed the plant sale, but here's the link to view the other photos :)

Growing Cut Flowers

Some people leave their flowers in the ground to grow. I however cut cut cut them! Arranging flowers can be so peaceful and meditative.

I was watching a movie this weekend and one of the characters referred to cut flowers as carcasses surrounding him. I can see his point, but I actually think that cut flowers are lovely and want more in my home.

To make cuts flowers last, I find that changing the water daily can make flowers stay fresh for almost 2 weeks.

Found in Last Year's Garden

As I was cleaning out last years garden I found this large carrot! How amazing is it that this little guy survived winter. I Love It!

I'm definitely not going to eat it because it's a little gross looking, but I love that my garden wanted to give me one last gift before I weeded it and planted for the new year.

whack-a-mole your bamboo

Bamboo... Bamboo... Bamboo...

The best and worst thing about bamboo is that it grows so quickly and so thickly. If you're looking for a plant that will create fast privacy for you from your neighbours, this is your plant. Beware, bamboo will lure you in with is beautiful stalks and leaves, but it will never leave. It's pretty much a weed. My building's landscaper planted it so I don't have a say about it's abatement.

My frustration with bamboo is akin to the whack-a-mole arcade game.

no matter how many time you hammer down on that darn mole, it will return...

Rory Lately...

Action Shots:

This is the process Rory takes to come outside. She's a very untrusting dog... ;)

 Look at those cute furry paws. Their nickname are "monster paws" because they are so unruly.

This is so Wonderful

(Photo credit from the Detroit free press website)

I was surfing the web and found this beautiful love story. It's about an Ohio couple who died 15 hours apart. I definitely like to think this happened with my grandparents. My family says that my grandmother died of breast cancer, and my grandfather of asthma. I've always thought that my grandfather died because he couldn't' live with out her.

Found on a Walk

I was on a walk with one of my most favourite people and we happened upon this Pansy. It was growing out of a crack in the cement. How adorable is that!

You can see that surrounding it are weeds and dead leaves. This little guy just wanted to grow no matter what the surrounding :)

Nom... Nom... Nom...

Huge Problema...

I have this awful habbit of wanting everything tv characters are eating. Even if I'm not hungry and someone on tv is eating pizza, I'll start to want it.

The absolute worst is when I'm watching Gilmore Girls (which I do about 3 times a year). I'm addicted to Lorelai and Rory's adventures. Hence naming my dog after Rory.

Currently munching pizza...

Eat Like a Gardener

I have to admit that I'm a total germaphobe. I clean my bathroom all day long when I have people staying with me... ;) Sometimes, when people tell me about their germaphobic habits, I think "wow, that's awesome I should do that too..." Thus making my obsession with ridding my house of germs even worst... hee hee hee

When you're gardening without garden gloves your hands can get insanely dirty and stained by the dirt. I'll be scrubbing and scrubbing but sometimes the dirt has seeped into the crevices of my hands and I just have to wait it out. (this usually happens at the beginning of the season when I've been deprived of gardening all winter long and I'm too excited to start, that it's what I call 'spare of the moment gardening')

One time I was at my cousins house and the scene went a little like this:

*** me, jennifer (my cousin), and sandra (her friend) are sitting in the living room. my cousin's friend wanders off to find a snack***

S: hey Jen, do you mind if I have some cheese puffs?
J: I don't mind, have as much as you'd like

*S walks back to the group with a small bowl of cheese puffs and chopsticks*

me: ummm..... umm..... ummmmmmm.... what are you doing?
S: eating cheese puffs?
me: but... why are you using chopsticks?
S: I don't like my fingers getting the gross orange stain :)

*in my head: bing! bing! bing! eureka!* I can use this for eating snacks after gardening hashtagbestthingever :)

Ever since this eureka day, I've also been eating my snacks with chopsticks. It works! No more cheese puff fingers, or icing sugared fingers for me. Food Finger Free since TwoThousandandThirteen, nom nom nom...

Propagation: Succulents

At one of my previous jobs I took over the responsibilities of watering the office plants. We had 5 floors of a building, but only a couple of floors actually had plants. I found a ficus tree that only had a couple of leaves on it and decided to nurture it back to health. It had some straggly branches that I trimmed and put into a cup of water. As the weeks went by, I noticed white stringy things started to grow out of the ends that were in the cup of water. This turned out to be new roots growing!

That was my first experience with propagation. Ever since then I've become addicted! My succulent grave yard is an testament to my propagation skills...

Succulents are actually relatively easy to propagate. Step 1, trim off a leave or branch. Step 2, leave it alone. Step 3, when it starts to grow roots spritz it with water. Step 4, voilà new plant from old plant.

If you want to get fancy you can dip the ends in cinnamon, or rooting liquid (purchased at the garden store).

silver linings to life

When I moved to Victoria, BC I found that everyone was so nice! People said thank you to the bus drivers and held doors open for people. When I moved back to Vancouver I missed the charms of a smaller city.

I set out to change this. I held doors open for people, said constantly said thank you to all service industry people. After a couple of months... I found that people started to hold doors open for me to!

The next thing I'm trying is what I call "Three Things". At the end of the day I must list out loud three things that happened that made my day great. Even when I'm having a bad day this seems to help it end on a nice note. Hopefully this works nicely for you too :)

to do or not to do... bulbs

Do you pull bulbs and winterize them or do you leave them in the ground?

I've found that if I leave bulbs to their own devices they start to multiply on their own. As the years go by you'll have more and more flowers.

The downside is that if you have limited garden space you won't have a lot of room to plant other things during the summer if you leave in the bulbs.

The first couple of year I left them in, then last year I wanted more space to I dug them out. I didn't do the regular recommended winterization and to my surprise they started to sprout again in their paper bag. I replanted them all this season, but I'm debating about removing them again once they have flowered....

solutions to a dilema... edible flowers

Photo credit from about.com

I was on Pinterest the other day and discovered that some flowers are edible! I love how you can add some flowers to pretty up your salad. I'm a little curious as to what edible flowers taste like. Luckily I found this great chart for us. Read the disclaimer at the bottom of the article, because this could become dangerous very fast ;)

Throw Back Thursday: Neglecting Zucchini

This is terrible... but once I had a community garden plot many blocks from my home. Because it was so far away, I didn't take as much care as I should have with it. To my surprise after weeks of neglect, I went by one day to discover this beauty. It was the size of my arm!

I'm going to try Zucchini's again this year. I'll try the neglect method again in hopes of growing one of these beauties again :)

Never Again Radishes.. never again

My friend planted radishes once, and it looked so easy that I tried for 2 years... The things I learned....

1. Radishes don't like to be over watered
2. Radishes need to be thinned out
3. Radishes like sandy soil
4. Radishes don't like to be in my garden
5. I don't like radishes...

When I finally did get a small crop of radishes I didn't eat them because I realized I don't like radishes.

Words of Wisdom: Plant things you like to eat. This way when they grow you can enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Lesson Learned, I shall hence forth only plant carrots and beets :)

Planning you Garden: Organization and Minimization

The second step in planning my garden is organizing my seeds and tools. This way I can see what I have and what I need. I'm relatively new at gardening so I don't have a plethora of gardening tools. My method of not breaking the bank, is to slowly accumulate the things I need. 

Last year it was gardening sheers and a straw broom. This year it's a shovel! I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to get a shovel. I've been using the tiny ones for potting for 2 years. 

I know it's insane to not buy a shovel when you need one, but gardening can become extremely expensive. I also have a motto of one in one out. If I buy a new sweater, I must give away a sweater. It goes for everything in my house. It's hard sometimes to make the tough decisions of what to give away, but this way my house isn't busting at the seams. The only exception I have is if I'm buying something I don't already have.

Here is my gardening box of things needed to be kept indoors 

Guess which one holds the gardening tools :)

These other boxes hold a bike helmet, and regular tools.

Ta Da.... Seeds, Seaweed Fertilizer, Mesh for garden fencing and to keep away birds from the blueberries, Twine to secure things, and Sheers.

Reading Lately: Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Have you ever read a book and loved it so much that you wished upon yourself a major head trauma to induce amnesia so you could read it again for the first time? I have so many of these books that I've started to keep a list for my friends and family, in case this fated day ever actually comes to fruition.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette read like a tv show. Which makes total sense because the writer is a script writer as well :) I'm not going to tell you any more because I don't want to spoil it for you. Read it, I know you'll love love love it like I do.

Life Tips from my Plumber

I have this amazing plumber. When he comes to my home and fixes things, he always looks around and gives me tips on other things around my house. It's like a two for one, how amazing is that?

The other day he fixed my sink chomper (aka garburator). The conversation went a little like this:

Plumber: I was at this guy's house the other day to fix blah blah and he didn't know to turn of the main water line when you leave for a 3 week long vacation! Can you believe that? He's a doctor!

Me: Oh really? That's insane, of course you turn off the water...

Plumber: The guy just thought that if he didn't leave on any taps that it would be fine. So much can go wrong when you aren't at home. A waterline could burst and no one would be there to stop it from destroying your home.

Me: Yeah...

I played along because I didn't want my plumber to think I was dumb like the doctor, but in all honesty I wouldn't have thought to turn off the water leading to my home...

Life Tip: Turn off the water line when you go on vacation
Life Tip Two: Play along in conversations so you don't seem dumb ;)

How to Choose a Great Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe is a lot easier to identify when it's ripe. 

Opposite to Honeydew, when I'm at the store I'm very choosy with this melon. I like it to not have too many pot holes. When there are too many I find that the melon ripens bad. When it starts out with less, then the melon is sweeter. 

When this melon ripens the pot holes come. The best way for me to tell when it's ripe is to squeeze it. When it gives a little during the squeeze, there are a couple of new pot holes, and it smells sweet, that's when I know it's ready :)

How to Choose a Great Honeydew

After years of choosing bad Honeydew I think I finally got the hang of it. 

When I'm at the store I'm not too choosy with which melon I bring home, the magic is in letting it ripen once you're home. When you first bring it home the skin will be very dry and smooth. 

When it's ripe you'll start to be able to smell the sweetness and the skin will be come moist. It's hard to describe. As you run your hand around the skin it will be like there's a think layer of moisture on it that provides a little resistance.

It may take some trial and error to discover what I mean, but once you understand you'll be able to enjoy a perfectly ripe melon.

Egg, Eggs, Egg Shells

Eggs are not my favourite thing to eat, but I do for my garden ;) Tomatoes thrive on the calcium from the shells, and sprinkling some around plants will help to deter slugs.

I save up all my eggs shells throughout the winter. Here's how I prepare it for the garden:

 Put the shells into a blender. 

Using a butter knife to crush them first will give you room to put more in.

Turn on the blender. 

 This is what it looks like after the blending.

Voila shells for your gardening need.

These will keep for a year in a cool dry place.