Pandemic Savings and New Splurges

This is hilarious to me - I just finished a nursery order for almost $500 - except I have to wait for delivery in May.
We organized a just-above-wholesale on-line Plant Sale for our Master gardeners & placed an order this morning for over 9000 plants - over 100 plants per customer. I think everyone has Spring Fever!
And I just started the plan for expanding my straw-bale vegetable garden this year.

My other "pandemic splurge" is also plant related. I added 3 new plant stands in my living room windows to showcase my very happy houseplants. For years they were crowded onto the top of an old trunk that now lives at my daughter's house.

Sue

@sueinmn Sue, you and your husband could be a traveling team. He could do the cleanup and you could do the planting. I miss the old days when my friend and I did for each other - she tended my garden (which is in total disarray now despite having grounds person who does cleanup at the beginning and end of the season) and I made her meals! It was perfect.
JK

Under that snow out there - and all the way around the house - are all the gardens I can possibly manage! A few years ago, we put in permanent edging to curb my urge to add new beds all the time. Last year I spent the pandemic summer thinning and taming the two largest beds in back to make maintenance easier. This year the front beds will get the same attention. I even bring in teen helpers to do the leaf removal, dig old shrubs out & mulch, and adult "share the plant" helpers to thin & transplant the hundred of perennials.
Sue

@sueinmn I love beautiful yards with gardens, I just wish I didn't hate doing that stuff myself! I guess I'm sort of like Jake. He likes to eat but not to cook. I like to admire pretty yards, but not to maintain them. When ours is looking good out back I sit on my screened-in porch and enjoy it. I am really not much of an outdoor person.
JK

Superb idea, @contentandwell!! @sueinmn and hubby could easily swing by my locale on their return to Texas. Consider me pre-registered!!! How lovely, too, that you and your friend had such a wonderful arrangement! Talk about a great working partner friendship! Awesome.

@fiesty76 ,@sueinmn, @contentandwell, Hello, All! Well, ain't this wonderful! You're speaking my language, now.

I cheated several days ago....on the way home from a quite difficult to get to PCP/pot doc visit that was mis-scheduled probably by me, I was pretty down, had rushed and foregone doing something I wanted to do, was concerned about my son at home not doing well, and generally grumpy about the world. I passed by a used to be gas station/wine shop/closed re covid19 whatever, and it was filled with absolutely fantastic, generously full flowering hanging baskets, indoor/outdoor plants, petunias, vinca, salvia, geraniums, hibiscus, and gobs of other beautiful specimens from the nursery I love anyway. I wanted to take everything home. So, I did!

Not planting at this moment, as I can't with increased hand/wrist pain and son, so I bought him 2 overflowing yellow/whit/red hanging baskets for outside his den French doors, 2 same colors and one lavenders/purples/yellows baskets for me, a nice sized fig for my bedroom window where I sit in my recliner and chat with you folks/watch tv and rest if not having a great day and need to stay upstairs. Also, a second indoor plant....have to go back and write down the name as it's new to me!!! Love it, needs filtered lite only and perfect for my den's special spot.

Let's just say I didn't spend what Sue did on her almost wholesale order, but came close on my totally retail order. Put in my car and I got to take them out and find them homes. Could barely pick up the baskets! Loved the day, the time was healing, the walking through vibrant colors and talking/sharing with customers and the retailer filled me with joy and pure happiness.

I felt I was back! Life was back! Some normal was back~ And, it was. I've enjoyed all those plants every day since, talk to them several times a day, my birds and squirrels seem to appreciate the beauty. I was exhausted. but oh, so very happy. Amazing the joy this small stop did for Rob and me.

Sue, since you're scheduling your gardening tour and preregistering, plan to turn a bit southeast and stop by my place. Jacksonville, Fl. You need to visit the sunshine and ocean and beach after this winter and the last couple years....I need your help desperately! BTW: got a new walker! Sunnyflower on another site mentioned this one and I almost fainted. I've been looking for this for years, since I first was forced to use a walker....bright red w/yellow flame and purple weren't around, so I have burgundy, like the rest of the world and pout! Now, I am proud owner of a very hot pink walker, light enough for me to p/u, with a black/white striped zebra bag and basket! I'm a hot mama now....and getting prism glasses and sunglasses..no more double vision!...Kate Spade black w/red roses frames, sun glasses Tiffany black w/silver glitter on the bottom and gold 'arms'. Both quite large, too. This quality of life stuff is great! Thanks, Chris, @artscaping

Blessings all. elizabeth

@ess77, Celebrating your wonderfully renewed spirit with your find and purchase of a rainbow of lovely plants! Life doesn't get much better for some of us than spending time surrounded by nature's bouquets of heart thumping beauties! I'm trying to resist my first nursery visit until clearing more weeds and preparing more beds with homemade compost. The longer I wait though the fuller my car will become as more and more plants arrive for sale!

Congrats, too, on your new stylish, trend setting walker! Life sounds good indeed!!! "This quality of life stuff is great!" Indeed it is!!!

Restocking art supplies at the local fix for my habit. Yippee!!!

@fiesty76 Well, fiesty, hope you've had some chances to get your hands in the dirt. I still haven't been able to do that yet, but have several baskets I want to put together, just need to get these fingers/hands and body a bit readier. Wanted to walk outside today, but it's raining now so should give it a rest for a while. I did a really dumb thing last night.....stayed up all night catching up on 'thousands' of Connect emails! Believe that? Dumb. Had a challenging day w/son and chose some quiet time upstairs, alone and in my own thoughts/yours. It helped us both, but I forgot to move. Was watching several good mystery shows, zoomed out of this world into a fun one. Guess I'll rest some, enjoy the flowers from inside and let their beauty engulf my spirit.

The beauty is around, we have to open our eyes and see. Sometimes it's a challenge , but if I remember to breath from the diaphragm, let my muscles and bones relax the endorphins get moving and I get going. So glad to have my flowers, my beauty. My mother was my 'dig in dirt' mentor, among many other things. She was such a dear, talented lady, loved her African violets and all things lovely. She was much like Sue...in fact, her name was Sue. Very active in the community, member of the local garden circle and became president of the city garden clubs. and on and on....I miss our flowers....enjoy the day, enjoy your beauty and many blessings. elizabeth

@parus, Sounds like you have your priorities set for a win-win! Yay to you!