Farmer's Almanac Weather Prediction for Ontario: "Pleasant early spring weather."
Ugg. I can't believe it has been almost a month since I last updated here. I really shouldn't even be doing this now. I should be working on client stuff. But I needed to do this. Otherwise the guilt would have killed me. I don't know how many people out there have been *dying* to hear about my life with plants in the last month. But let's pretend for a moment that I'm a superstar and everyone cares. So here's one for the fans.
The first great thing I did since Canada Blooms was a quick visit to The Old Paper Show and Sale. Thanks to Chris for driving. When we got there it was closing in half hour so I didn't have lots of time to meander about looking at stuff. I basically zipped around trying to see everything I could. I hadn't been to this show in about 8 years. I was surprised how much of the paper products were things I have cluttering up my apartment. Things I just haphazardly slap up on the wall were neatly packaged in plastic and cardboard and sold at inflated rates. However, since I'm such a sucker for printed paper I was willing to pay.
I got lots of plant related items. For instance I purchased an amazing Park's Seed catalogue from 1967. Gardening hasn't really changed all that much since 1967. That's not a pleasant observation. Alot of the plants (especially annuals) that are popular now were popular then. I want to tell you more about it but I can't locate it right now. Too much chaos around me. Paper everywhere. Clearly my attachment to paper is just a little too secure.
 The thing I am the most thrilled about are these amazing plant collector cards. Erin sent me scans of a few she had and I have coveted them ever since. So when I saw tons of them being sold at the paper sale I went crazy purchasing several at the inflated rate of 50 cents and a dollar each. Some of them are from cigarette packages and some are from Red Rose tea. They are small, thin cards with an illustration on the front and text on the back. They come in themes such as "Gardening Hints" or "Trees of North America". Can you believe that people used to get these things free when they purchased a pack of smokes? Brilliant. No wonder they can't legally do that anymore.  I would buy cigarettes just to get the cards which would inevitably lead to a mulipack per day habit.
I also got a book for putting the collector cards in. The album holds the "Wild Flowers of North America" collection and it's full! The design inside is beautiful, the cards are brilliantly illustrated... it's a work of art. It reminds me a lot of the sticker album collections I used to have. You know those albums you could buy for 25 cents and then you would buy the sticker packs for like 50 cents from the corner store? You never knew what you were getting in a pack. That was the thrill. To this day I achieve that thrill every time I go to a yard sale, or a thrift store. What will I find today? What crazy thing that I didn't know existed will come into my life? Okay I have to admit that I also get that same feeling when I buy a pack of 100 fish stamps (or whatever theme) from the stamp store. Yes I do get my thrills from strange places. And yes I do collect stamps. Like I said, I like paper.
A week or so ago I finally got around to starting my tomato seeds. I said I wasn't going to do seeds this year but then I got all these seeds from Canada Blooms so I had no choice. I did them in jiffy pots. I just knew that I would never get around to doing it proper so I gave up and bought the jiffy pots with plastic black base and clear hood from Walmart on my way home from a client meeting one sunny day whenever ago. I have no concept of time anymore. Too much work. When you work all the time, at any hour of the day, you can't really break up the week according to workdays and weekends. My seedlings are getting big and doing great. The second set of leaves are just starting to appear on some of them. I'm even growing tomatillos this year. Very exciting. Jane sent me the seeds last year but it was too late to start then.
 The urn plant (Aechmea fasciata), I bought at Canada Blooms flowered. When I bought it the bracts were up but the flowers hadn't come out yet. They are actually multi-coloured. We painted and redid the bedroom/tv room over Easter weekend and I can't tell you how good the silvery leaves of that plant and all the other plants look against the new colour. It's a rich, warm, chocolate brown. Some would say shit brown, but they don't have any sense of colour so screw em. Terracotta looks amazing next to it too. I'm really proud of the room. It is the nicest room I have ever lived in. I'm also really proud of the plant. So proud in fact that I've taken at least 20 photos of it. I'm like a parent when their child reaches one of life's many trivial yet sentimental milestones. Only a plant flowering is far less trivial then the senior prom or the spring semi-formal so I'm justified.
 A whole bunch of plants are coming up in the side garden. I'm not sure what to do because this is the same side garden that the City plans to turn into a "garden". Only no one has said anything about it yet. At this point they had better do it because I gave away at least three quarters of my plants. At this point I think I'm going to replant the remaining plants on my balcony once I build planter boxes. I still have tons of day lilies, a large current bush, black-eyed susans, some asiatic lilies, and a large lavender plant. I think there's more but I can't remember off-hand.
I also launched a new site this month. It's called Donuty. It's about donuts. Apparently I wasn't busy enough and I needed a new "make work" project.
previous entry
| 
