Sunday, June 5, 2011

Floral fever...weekend bliss!

When it comes to garden centers and all things floral I have a serious problem...
Trouble Not Spending Money!

I am frugal in many other areas...
but this area is a major weakness
it's really not a bad thing

I could be a compulsive gambler...
and have nothing to show for my money.

Flowers woo and charm me
and it's easy to see why...
when I look at these cheery blooms
I see Mother Nature smiling.


pretty and drought tolerant 
Osteospermums


White Begonias
white alyssum
 violet lobelia
osteospermums 
in yellow and fuchsia

 a planter of all white flowers
geraniums
silvery dusty miller
petunias and bacopa
all from the Garden Center.



I also attended a hardy plant sale
put on by a group of master gardener's.
It was a cash only sale 
and 
I went without checking the money that I had in my wallet
I'd forgotten that I had spent some already
so
what did I do?

I spent all of the cash on hand right down to a few red cents...
can you imagine just how annoying it was for the people in line up behind me?

Surprisingly they seemed to take it in their stride and made comments about how we gardener's are a frugal lot
and wasn't I clever to limit my spending
one $20 bill and the rest in...
loonies, toonies and small coins!



succulents
which I will plant together


major purpurascens
a lovely and interesting bloomer.

I have been planting and potting these up
my hands are filthy even with garden gloves
they have a few holes
(I'll be adding them to my list of things to buy)
but it has been a fabulous sunny weekend to play in the dirt!

Pictures will be shared in a future post
stay tuned...

It's time to make dinner 
and I am feeling fatigued
so
I am simply opening a jar 
Stonewall Kitchen's Traditional Marinara sauce and serving it with pasta.
I know to listen to my body
and it's OK not to make everything from scratch!

Next on the agenda...
my nails!

Hope that you had a fun weekend!

8 comments:

La Vie Quotidienne said...

My you have had lots of fun! Everything you got is wonderful...love all of the colors, especially the Osteospurmums. You live in such a wonderful area for gardening. Enjoy!

Susan B said...

Oh, I love the look of freshly planted pots and gardens! You have some nice choices here. And it's true that one can get so much for so little (money) when it comes to buying plants.

Jane and Lance Hattatt said...

Hello:
What fun you have had - right down to the last few cents!! This seems to us a most enjoyable and totally harmless way of 'spending' time and you have wonderful things to show for it. Lovely.

If you do not already do so, as the Cerinthe goes over it will drop large, very conspicuous black seeds which may easily be picked up, stored over winter and sewn in pots the next year. It really requires no effort and will give you masses of this very, very pretty flower.

mette said...

I can understand spending even one´s last cents on buying something desirable. In your case, flowers ; )!

materfamilias said...

I know what you mean -- bookstores and garden nurseries somehow seem like virtuous spending, even though my charge card might not always agree. I remember once reaching the point where I got a $50 gift certificate at a specialty nursery somewhere between you and me (it's since closed, sadly). That was the good news, delivered to me in front of my husband, who quickly did the math and realized that the bad news meant I'd already spent $500 there! Ooops! but we're still enjoying the results of that spending many years later, whereas other purchases are long gone, right?

I used to have Cerinthe in my garden, and it self-seeded itself back for quite a few years, but I haven't seen it for a while now. So pretty and, as you say, unusual -- enjoy!

Jennifer said...

I love buying flowers too...i try to spend $ at the local growers and not the Big Stores...Perennials are a good invest since they come back each yr...but annuals give that great burst of color maintenant!Here in the US there is always the credit card..our local grower also gives Bucks Back...for $ spent...i think I earned $15 in free plants but must go back in July to redeem. Can you imagine things are sooo busy at the Jersey Shore in summer last yr I never got back to redeem them...hopefully I can get there this year!
Jennifer aka Gigi

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

This time of year I have very hard time not spending money on plants. They are so tempting now and combined with the sunny weather we had it's hard to resist. I love your new plant choices! Somehow my hands always get dirty while wearing gloves too.

the fishermans cottage said...

Lovely show of flowers, I'm the same when it comes to garden centres, they are so entising.. I try and stick to seeds now :) x