Poppies and Seedling Update

Tags

flowers, garden, poppies, seedlings

Good Morning!

Ahhhh, Friday….here again.  Love it.  Today I’ve got a little update on my seedlings for you. Yes people, I’ve got germination. I now have little sperm-y looking sprouts coming out of many of my seeds. It looks like starting seedlings in the fridge is working fabulously! Now I have to plant them and try not to kill them…no promises.

Check out my cosmos….

A zinnia sprout….

And the flower I’m most excited about is the poppy…

I’m a huge fan of poppies. They are so delicate and come is such gorgeous colours. Not only are they lovely but they are also highly symbolic and political.  Firstly, in Canada they are a symbol of remembrance for fallen Canadian soldiers and are a common symbol around Remembrance Day in November.  However, the papaver somniferum variety of poppy (the opium poppy) is far better known as the culprit from whom the illegal narcotic drugs opium and heroin originate.  These flowers are more than just a pretty face.  That being said, I’m going to focus on their pretty for today….

Photo sources:  1, 2 (discontinued), 3, 4 (narelle), 5 (sold), 6, 7, 8 (Jamie Beck), 9 via, 10, 11

Love the chair by etsy seller Green Gage Vintage (unfortunately it’s sold), and I’m not big on tatoos but that poppy tat is truly body art.

Have a good weekend!

Starting Seedlings in the Fridge

Tags

flowers, garden, germination, herbs, seedlings, starting seeds

Hello all!

I am lucky enough to have a have the use of an amazing backyard/garden space with my apartment.  And let me tell you, it’s a real luxury to find that with a one bedroom rental apartment in Toronto.  I had a great sized backyard with the house I sold 2 years ago, post break-up, and it’s one of the only things I knew I would miss.  I find gardening very relaxing and therapeutic and so my backyard is real blessing.  Last year I tried to start flowers from seed and they did ok….for a while….and then their growth stunted, and  they died.  I started a few more earlier this year but most didn’t even germinate.  (The few that did germinate, I didn’t take very good care of and they died).

Despite this, I am determined not to have to spend a ridiculous amount of money on annuals and herbs this year so I enlisted some additional advice from my co-worker Erin. Seriously, Erin is the plant whisperer, her plants flourish and she always has the best tips.  She told me of a method of germinating seeds by putting them in the fridge so I decided to try it out, and I thought I would share it with you today.

Tools:

seeds, paper towel, water/spray bottle, tweezers, baggies, tape or labels, marker, a fridge.

Step 1: Wet the paper towel

Step 2: make a small square with the paper towel, and spray with more water if needed.

Step 3: Place seeds on the square, if need be space them out using tweezers if they are very small seeds.

Step 4: Place the paper towel and seedlings in a baggie.

Step 5: Make labels with the name of the seed and date.

Step 6: Label the baggies

Step 7: Put them in the fridge

Step 8: Wait…

Once they start germinating and produce tiny seedlings, I will plant them in soil using tweezers.  I hoping this method will get me more germinated seeds than I have been getting. Now this won’t necessarily help me grow the seedlings after that. But I figure the more seedlings I have, the higher chance of getting actual flowers/herbs will survive to plant in my garden. I’ll keep you updated.

Does anyone else have tips or experiences growing plants from seed?

Have a great day,

Friday DIY – Spice Jars

Tags

chalkboard paint, containers, cupboard space, cupboards, mighty life list, organzing, spices

Good morning!

Remember when I started writing my Mighty Life List? And then in this post I said there were a few things I thought I could do fairly quickly?  Well, up until last night I hadn’t really completed any of them. In my defense (yep, here come the excuses…) some of them were worded as “do more of this, this year”, so I have started a couple. But this morning, my friends, I’ve actually completed one – I organized my spices! OK, so it might have been the EASIEST of the items on my list, but it’s done.  And today I have a little DIY to share with you about what I did.  But first, for the sake of showing the extremes, I’m going to embarrass myself and show you just how terrible my spices looked before…

Seriously, it looked crazy, and was taking up a whole shelf in my cupboard.  They are in various containers, disorganized and just plain ugly.  I needed them to be be in containers that were pretty enough to move them to my open shelving. So, I took a trip to one of my favourite stores….um, Dollarama….and bought the pretty jars below. And then made a stop at Canadian Tire and picked up some chalkboard spray paint.

Next, I took painters tape and made a square outline on one side of each of the jars, and I sprayed each of the squares with the chalkboard paint and let them dry over night.

After they had dried over night, I removed the tape and I had a whole bunch of these…..

Last but not least, I used chalk to write on the spice names and filled ’em up!

So much better, no?  My spices are ready for their coming out party!

I’m so excited about how they turned out.

The best part?  More cupboard space!  Next up, re-organizing my cupboards, which I’m actually excited about doing.

Wow, talking about re-organizing my cupboards is a really pathetic way to end a Friday post….so instead I’ll end with this….

via

Have a great weekend!

Kisses,