Plant - Rummage - Craft Sale

We are having a giant, eight family sale on May 7! It's going to be a rummage sale and a plant sale and a craft sale and probably some baked goods too and anything else people can think up to sell.

I am focusing mainly on plants. I will have many hardy hibiscus, lilac bushes, bee balm, garlic chives, strawberry plants and much else. I will also have other things from the house that I am cleaning out. It is, after all, a rummage sale.

If you are going to be in this area on that day, do stop in!

We are having it right on the corner of Veterans (Innisfil 5th sideroad) and Salem Road. It's a very busy corner coming into town, especially on the weekends. It's also just a few short blocks from the Georgian Downs race track, which will also generate a lot of traffic.

Do come to see us there!

Spring is Here! Finally!

Finally! After a very long and cold winter, all snow has disappeared and I am digging in the dirt! Things are growing! Above is a picture of one of my most valuable plants. It's a hellebore and I grew it from seed!This will be it's second summer. If you know anything about hellebores, you know that growing them from seed takes a great deal of patience and sometimes two spring seasons. I am hoping more of the same seed will sprout this spring, maybe. Germinating hellebore seed is tricky. They are very expensive plants to buy but so beautiful and very hardy! This one was growing in the snow!


I also have primulas from seed. These little babies are doing well after their winter's sleep! I love primulas!


This year I am putting in a second cold frame. My first cold frame is already full! It is planted with all my tender bulbs. I just planted them directly into the soil in the bottom of the cold frame. They can grow in there permanently, although I will put one dahlia in the "chair". They filled the entire cold frame space and so I need another one. I have a small portable greenhouse, but it is very small and doesn't even hold my seedling trays, much less the larger trays of potted up plants. Don't take that wrong. I love my little greenhouse but I need more room.


It has been a couple of years since I installed the first cold frame. I had forgotten about the rocks! I think the builders buried all their excess rocks and boulders beside the deck where I have decided to put the cold frames! I can use the rocks in landscaping but they sure to make the digging a lot of work! Some are so heavy I can't lift them and just have to roll them out. Sometimes I sit in the hole and roll them out with my feet. (Anything to keep from having to ask for help! I'm ever so slightly independant...) Needless to say, I'm quite dirty when I come in (and my friends wonder how I get dirt in my hair! lol! I'm happiest when covered from head to toe in dirt! You?)

It will be well worth the trouble.

I am considering making a three sided compost bin with pallets (skids) that sits beside the two coldframes. It will be so handy, right beside the deck where I can just walk out and toss the kitchen compost bucket in it during the wintertime.

That's a project that can wait until I have nothing else to do...(LOL! Now, that's funny!)

Lasagna!

Hubby made us a fantastic lasagna on Saturday! We needed to use up the ground spinach and the pesto from the freezer. It was really, really good and much appreciated!



Hubby and I cook ahead on the weekends, making a fridge full of food to last the week.

I don't usually do the daily "cook dinner" thing, especially during the growing season. I'm not really very domesticated...

Snow! and A New Wolf Painting

We had snow last night! Snow! Unbelievable! It came down thick and hard and stayed! Needless to say, I was not gardening in the snow this morning :-(

Will spring ever come? I had such high hopes this year. My poor little seedlings are struggling with the lack of light and the cold temperatures. Some are refusing to sprout in this!

It has been raining a lot with tornado winds...or snowing. This is giving me more time to paint. I'm a glass-half-full kind of person! I've been painting a lot lately, since the weather has been so bad.

I just finished this one a few days ago. It's almost life size, 40" tall. It's a gray wolf. I called him "Lobo" which is what one calls a single lone wolf. It is for sale, if anyone is interested. I'd like to get $250 for it, plus shipping. Click on the picture to see a larger, high resolution photo of it.

I like painting the wildlife, especially wolves. I think I will start painting wolves again. I painted nothing but wolves for years until I got so tired of them I had to stop.

Since I couldn't garden this morning, I took up the chainsaw and spent most of the day cutting wood. I cut down an entire large old apple tree, cut up the large branches and started on another tree. My arms were like lead when I came in after lunch but I'm thrilled with what I got done today! My chainsaw and I are buddies!

For those of you who do not know me, yes, I'm a girlie girl with long hair who bakes pies and makes cookes... :-)

Wine Update

I was wrong when I said that the wines were all finished. They are not. The rose petal wine and the pea pod wine are ready to drink. Both are lovely, the rose petal being my favourite of the two. The lilac wine and the dandelion wine are not ready yet.

The lilac is close and I would drink it before buying more, but it still has a "jet fuel" flavor.

The dandelion has a long way to go, although it is developing well. According to the recipe, it is not suppose to be ready until aged for two years, but that recipe is old. Since the development of the turbo yeasts, aging times have changed.

They are all aging in the cool, dark cellar. I don't think the rose is going to be around a lot longer... Must make more of that next year and rose hip wine, as well. I am growing a lot more rugosa roses this year!