The Giddy Gardener

We have officially relocated to our first home. This past week has been hectic and my patience has been minimal. I'm verrrry lucky to have a partner with considerably more patience than I happen to possess. Anyhow, that's another story!

I'm definitely excited about all the gardening opportunities our new cabin has. I wish I had this place well before now so that I could've planted my own wedding flowers. We're saving a ton by using a wholesale flower farm and creating the bouquets ourselves, but this would have saved even more! Alas, I am just now getting my own garden.

As a first time gardener, I clearly need to do a bit more reading. At first I was only thinking about vegetables and herbs, maybe the odd flower here or there. Now I'm hoping to have some native plant species, some organic veggies, and a couple shrubs as well. I also have some invasive species I'm hoping to pull although they are mostly along our driveway and out of the way of the garden.

I've read a couple books on companion gardening that focused on veggies, so I have the knowledge I need to determine which veggies are getting planted where. Next, I  need to read more about when to plant what. I have some seed packets, but have realized that some of the flowers I was looking forward to planting are things you plant in late fall. The picture above is of Common Camas, a native plant species. I am looking forward to trying to grow some, but just discovered I shouldn't plan it until late fall or early in the new year. I think it's too late now.

Does anyone know a great source for information on different plants and when to plant them?

Frugal Flowers

I knew nothing about the costs associated with flowers and bouquets until I got engaged. I immediately started drooling over the gorgeous bouquets in magazines and on web sites. I especially loved orchids! Then I started visiting some florists and that's when the price shock hit me. At first I was upset and thought I would have to grow my own flowers and use daisies as my bouquet (not that there's anything wrong with daisies, they can be pretty for the right style of wedding). Then I started to do my research.

I wanted my flowers to be eco-friendly and budget friendly. I soon realized orchids would have to go. Any flower that can't be grown in my home town has to be shipped in and that adds all sorts of carbon emissions and eco-friendly no-nos. Then I started to consider flowers that would go a long way, meaning I would require fewer stems to get the same effect. I settled on hydrangeas. Now the question of budget came into play.

I was definitely not willing to pay someone to tie a few stems of hydrangeas together (how hard can it be?) and a friend of mine had recently gotten married and made her own bouquets, so I knew it could be done. Better yet, she had the contact information of a local flower farm where you can buy the stems at wholesale prices - saving a bundle by not paying the mark-up to the florist!

We ended up meeting with the wholesaler and placing our order for hydrangea stems. We'll pick them up the day before the wedding and make the bouquets the night before. It shouldn't take more than an hour and voila - budget and eco-friendly flowers!