Plant Love

I love plants, always have. I've had a fascination with them since I was a kid. In college I took several summer jobs working at plant nurseries. I learned all about scientific names and growing techniques. In college I even contemplated going into botany or landscape design as a major. My weakness seems to be sad plants. Perhaps it's because I'm thrifty but I like finding good deals on plants that are a little stressed or sad, taking them home, repotting them and giving them care until they are back to thriving. Most of the plants on the property were clearance plants.

Last December I went to the feed store to get some animal food and there sitting outside in a rack were a bunch of clearance bulbs. They were all marked at 90% off and I knew if I didn't buy them they probably would have chucked them in the dumpster soon. So I bought all of them, it was like a whopping $6 for four massive bags of bulbs. They were mostly mixed tulip bulbs but there was a bag of some unidentified flower bulbs in there too (still not sure what I planted). So I got home and found the mildest day in December to go plant all of these bulbs. I put most of them up at the top of the driveway next to the road. Now every time I pull into the driveway I'm greeted with a colorful display of tulips. It was such a good find and this fall I plan to buy even more...maybe at full price (gasp!).

I planned on that being the end of the blog post but had to add my find yesterday. Once again I make my trek to the feed store (I always find the best stuff at the feed store apparently). There in front of the store was a pallet with some really sad bushes on it. They had gone through a freeze without being protected and had their leaves froze off. I've been planning of adding several berry bushes to our property this year. We already get gallons and gallons of blackberries each year and thought we needed raspberries and blueberries too. So when I went to investigate the sad bushes on the pallet I was delighted to see they were blueberry bushes and they were 50% off. Score! They had eight of them but I could only fit six in my SUV unfortunately. I'm excited to have fresh blueberries for the kids to pick.