I picked up this nifty hanging basket at a greenhouse near Waterloo on a recent trip to the parentals. I’m hoping for a bumper crop as it has already grown quite a few flowers.

So when we head up to the schoolhouse to work on weekends, we can look forward to strawberry daiquiri when we return to the city. Or at least a decorative strawberry on the side.

This lettuce should keep us in salad for a little while. And for the boys?

Well who says you don’t make friends with salad!

Reblogged from Illustrated Bites:

It’s time to upgrade from the cardboard boxes collected from the local grocery store. I’ve found a few on Etsy that are also a bit of an upgrade from the local box pet store.

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I like this teepee. I saw it recently in a magazine and it will be great if our fat cats can get out of it.

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This felted bed is cute but it looks like something that would get chewed mighty quickly.

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This one is great but alas it appears nicer than our current furniture. It will have to wait until we get new furniture as well.

Definitely some things to think about!

Well some new planters anyway. It was a bountiful winter with lots of sun in our condo so all the plants have grown and grown. But now they all need new pots and quick.

I am having trouble finding something beyond the old clay pot. I’m on the hunt for some new homes for these green guys.

For example my aloe is in a great glass planter I got as a gift from a great plant shop on Queen Street here in Toronto.

Poppies

I’ll be stopping there soon but I’ve also found some nice stuff at West Elm.

There is this as well.

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And of course, when in doubt I generally end up at Ikea.

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This one is nice as well

Nothing is really jumping out at me though. Anyone have any recommendations for shops in Toronto?

After a winter of thinking and planning but not actually doing much (well we painted a bathroom and fixed a counter here at the condo) it is time to think like spring and get into renewal mode. Time to get my head out of catalogues and magazines and do some decorating, repairing, gardening or something at least.

I think I will try to do one new thing each week. Let’s see how this goes. Any suggestions?

The new picnic table we built last fall needs staining. And it needs to be broken in as we haven’t even christened it yet!

We have a lot of gardening, painting, and repairs to get on with, both indoors and out. That front door needs painting and so does the bathroom.

We have also managed to accumulate a pile of stuff here at the condo that will end up at the schoolhouse so we will have to figure out where it will fit. We are never without stuff up there.

So this long weekend we are making our lists. Here’s hoping we get some of it done!

By the time fall rolled around the beating western sun had burned most things off and I was left with skeletal stems and wiry vines. Not a pretty picture.

Oh the herbs fared well and we had fresh rosemary into January which was great. The catnip kept everyone happy and the chives made my scrambled eggs a lot nicer. But the rest was a not a bountiful harvest.

Carrots seemed a good idea at the time but I’ve not got the space to let them grow into something that doesn’t look like one of Gollum’s appendages.

The peppers went well both hot and sweet. We’ve always got dried chilis for soups and well, chilis. They may be on the list. Or maybe we just stick with herbs and flowers and a couple of experiments like a lemon or an avocado.

It’s back to basics on the balcony so I can contend with the actual garden at the schoolhouse!

There appears to be some solid reasons to build with a thought to considering the environment as you go. I think a lot of this would be relevant whether you were constructing from new or adding on to an existing site. That would sort of be the best way to recycle don’t you think?