Fun Facts... About Me :)

1. I love reading. I love reading fiction, non fiction, cartoons, everything. If you follow me on Instragram you’ll have seen all the books I’ve devoured lately.

2. The one thing I crave when I’m feeling sad is a nice run. There is something about running (even in circles) that calms me and helps me work things through.

3. I took up sailing a couple of summers ago and it has become my happy place. Whenever I hear water, I’m instantly brought back to the peace of a sailboat.

4. When I see Shelties, I tear up. My first family dog was a Sheltie. His name was Meister (pronounced My-ster). My bedroom door didn’t close all the way unless you pushed really hard, and he knew that and would sneak into my room at night. I miss waking up and almost tripping over him.

5. I have kept a journal ever since I was twelve! I still have them all and occasionally will re-read the drama that was my life as a teenager. It's crazy that more than half my life has been documented. I hope upon my death, someone burns them all. No one should have to read the thoughts that went through my head during puberty ;)
               Fun Fact (within a Fun Fact): Any time I ended an entry and I was in school,
               I would always end by writing, "I have to go and do some homework now." Yup,
               I was 100% a nerd :)

This Week's Garden Haul

It's just the best when flowers bloom together so you can make a cute bouquet. 

This one is made up of a mixture of Anemone, Dusseldorf Pride, and Basil Mint. 

I got the cup from a local potterer at Commercial Drive's Car Free Day.

I braved the torrential down pour, but made it home alive ;)

(a better shot of the cute Dusseldorf Pride)

I put them on my desk right next to my computer. A lovely sight for when I'm writing :)

Alpine Strawberries are blooming and ripening in full force. Ror and TheDapperGentleman are mostly benefitting...

Although... TDG doesn't like peas, so these lovelies are all for me.

Delicious dinner with garden fresh peas. mmMMmm mmMMmm mmMMmm.

Fun Fact: If the flowers in your bouquet aren't fragrant, add some fresh herbs to spice them up. The basil mint in this bouquet is giving it something special. Next time I'm going to try Rosemary.

Liven Up House Plants

Over the years I've found cocktail sticks with figurines on the tops and used them to liven up the indoor plants. I like to create little scenes and stories to go alone with them. I feel like it adds whimsy to my plants and livens up the mundane life of indoor living.

I find bonsai trees relaxing, so I put this little glass panda next to it. Now they can enjoy the tranquillity together.

(these are vintage cocktail sticks, and a turtle)

In this scene everyone gets long whether you are a land animal or an aquatic one. They get along so much so that they are dancing around this Myrtle tree.

This white tiger likes to be in the jungle that is create with these Shamrock stems

This owl pair enjoys hooting around together is this smorgasbord of jade.

Fun Fact: households need 3 medium sized plants per person to properly purify the air

Beware: The owls are metal so they are in the plant that get little water. You also have to clean these figurines once in awhile because the soil can discolour them.

Alpine Strawberry and Two Pea Harvest

(p.s. this is my amateur strawberry styling ;)

Alpine Strawberries are almost a weed. Their strawberry seeds create new 

strawberry plants easily and readily. I would almost call this an infestation, if they weren't 

so delicious.

ROR takes most of the tiny berries as her cut for being my gardening side kick. 

Here are the first and second harvests I've been able to wrangle away from that wily fur-highness (as in royal highness for fur people). 

Honestly, I just made up that nickname and love it! Fur-Highness will be added to Ror's long list of new nicknames.

Fun Fact: Peas are extra sweet when they are half the size they normally should be. I must confess, I only know this because I'm impatient and pick peas before they are fully ripe.

mmMMmm mmMMmm delicious

First Strawberries...

BaBing, the first strawberry of the season :)

She's just small, but soooo tasty... 

I can't wait for more of you to grow grow grow, 

ripen ripen ripen. 

So I can Nom Nom Nom all summer long.

Fun Fact: I've found that the strawberries I buy from the garden centre that year will grow fruit 1 month sooner than the ones that come back from the previous year. 

Purple Magnolias

Update:

The Purple Magnolia Tress have Bloomed.

Fun Fact:
Container Magnolias bloom 1-2 months after trees planted in the ground. Don't be alarmed when the Magnolia trees in your neighbourhood have bloomed before yours do. It just means that you get to enjoy Magnolia trees longer :)

Container Gardening: Fig Trees

(These are pictures from right after I planted the trees)

Figggggg Trees

My mom has multiple fig trees in her garden. Every year when the fig are ready to pick she dehydrates them and shares. This is one of the best times of the year.

This tree came already in soil. I added a banana (for potassium), egg shells (for calcium and irrigation), and coffee grounds (for nitrogen) to the garden soil. Other than that I put it in it's new pot home and watered it constantly.

Later in the season, an important step is to add netting to the tree. This will save you from fighting birds for the fruit ;)
Can wait to munch on some figs later in the summer...

Fun Fact: Fig Trees fruit on 2 year old branches.

Fun Fact 2: Fig Trees planted in the ground will create runner trees. Then you'll have a forrest of fig trees.

(This is after a couple of weeks, look at those beautiful leaves and tiny baby figs)

Container Gardening : Chrimson Gala Apples

(This is after I followed the below steps)

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Gala apples I love you

Gardening can be very precise. I can get overly excited at times, so this precision doesn't always get executed. In my research for container gardening for fruit trees there were a lot of steps where you had to do exactly what they said. I took this as suggestions, rather than hard facts. Hopefully this delinquency works in my favour...

This is what I did, only time will tell if these were the right steps. I'm optimistic because I've always done things a little differently when it comes to gardening.

One: soak the bare root tree in water for 4-6 hours

Two: add soil to the container and place the tree into the pot. If you have a grafted tree, make sure the grafted part is above the soil line.

Three: Trim back the branches by a third. Make sure there is one leader branch and a couple of smaller branches below the leader branch.

Four: Water, water, water. Make sure the tree is continually moist. As September approaches reduce the water to once a week so the tree can start winterizing.

Five: I use the seaweed fertiliser and coffee grounds. In the summer I do this once a week. As the summer ends, I cut this back so plants can winterize.

I guess my imprecision is working because the branches are growing :)

Six: Add something to the top layer of the soil to keep it moist. You could add mulch, burlap, I chose this succulent ground cover plants that I found at Home Depot. 

Fun Fact: Fruit trees need friend trees so that bees can cross pollinate. I only have one this year, but hopefully when plants go on sale at the end of the season I'll get another. 

Fun Fact: the secret about Avocados

My best friend Tati makes the best avocado omelettes. One day when I was over at her house she only had a shrivelled up avocado in the fridge. To our surprise... it was perfectly ripe!

Since, I've been experimenting with keeping avocados in the fridge... And... found that once avocados are ripe, if you put them in the fridge and they will keep at the perfect ripeness for at least 2.5 weeks.

Enjoy this tip, it will save you from eating 2-3 ripe avocados in a day so they don't go bad ;)

Dear Strawberries...

Dear Strawberries,

I used to hate you, until i grew you. Then I discovered I only hated non organic strawberries.
So sorry for the confusion.

Your friend,

Bee

In the past I've found store bought strawberries to be watery and sour. Berries from your own garden are sweeter because they're usually (if you're patient) allowed to ripen more before you pick them.

Later in the summer I'll post a strawberry post about all the different kinds of strawberries I have, stay tuned :)

For now, this is a friendly reminder to pick some up. If you can, pick up a couple of different varieties because as the season progresses they're harder to find in the stores.

Fun Fact: The most common strawberries on the market are the Everbearing Strawberry. However are they the most fun? I'll leave it up to you.

Tea Poem for the Tea Lovers

There once was a girl who loved tea

with a passion that anyone could see

Because she was so crafty

and felt her house so drafty

she started a growing spree 

Jasmine scented mint tea

Jasmine flower tea

Chamomile tea (not so great fresh)

Jasmine plant with flowers you can use for tea (Not all jasmine plants are edible, most are toxic)

Fun Fact: as these Jasmine flowers age, they turn pink then purple 

Natural Air Fresheners

One of my favourite things about herbs is how abundantly they grow. If you find you have excess, cut some like you would flowers and put them in a cup around your house. I usually use lemon balm to make my home smell lemony fresh.

If you plant anything from the Mint family, plant it in a pot, not the ground. They will become weeds if you plant them in the ground. However,  you can plant mint around your property to ward of unwanted critters. I also use a mixture of mint essential oils and water to spray around as preventative care.

Fun Fact: Dry your mint and use it in the winter for tea. Mint tea is a natural way to calm digestion problems :) Look for my Drying tips later in the summer.