Garden Shop

One of my favorite things about gardening is having an excuse to go to the garden shop.

It seems to have the reverence of a library and the creativity of a fabric store all rolled into one.  Well, those and an overpriced restaurant.

I have a "thing" for cacti.  And by thing, I mean a deep, abiding, eternal attraction.  But $12.99?  Really?  I think you can get that same cactus at the grocery store for $1.99.

This is what some people call the orchid section.  I like to call it the expensive section.

This orchid is truly blue.  It is also truly $89.99

I want to buy trees like Lizzy wants to meet Justin Beiber, badly.

But some things will just have to wait until I'm a millionaire. (Sadly, Lizzy, you may have to wait to do that for your dream as well).

Why am I in love with all the expensive things?

I guess the plain stuff is pretty too.

Or maybe I could settle for a combination of both?

I like it when they make their tools look as pretty as the flowers.

But it's these tools that make me drool and covet.  I dare you to look at these tools and not drool and not covet.  If you can look at this picture and not do either, I will give you a prize.

If you passed my dare, your prize is that you get to look at this next picture.  Carpe Diem!  Also, Covet Diem, because that is what I'm doing again when I see this sign.

After awhile, I tried to stop looking at garden accessories and inaccessible price range products.

This is mint.  I love the smell.  I love the feel.  I love the look - it reminds me of stuff they grow at Disneyland.

I stuck my finger in this one, it didn't bite.

My secret dream is to one day have the job of naming plants.  So that I could just look at a plant and say:  That looks a little like lava and nothing like a rose, I think I'll call it lava rose.

I think someone couldn't agree on a name for this one.  How else can one plant have a name like Full Sun Candytuft Purity?

I think they had to add the word "golden" to make "creeping" sound less creepy.

Alison and Morgan.  You are the closest one in the family to having the next fourth child.  And by the official, unspoken rules of The Fourth Child Club, the child will technically be mine.  Therefore, I insist you name her Lithodora.  We can call her Dora the Explorer Four-a, for short.

Beautiful, to me, is a green flower.  They are fulfilling their purpose while remaining loyal to the leaves that gave them strength to grow.

Do you want to know what is not beautiful?  Wearing shoes made out of thin white material in a wet, puddley garden shop.

I always thought the popular rainbow garden balls were slightly tacky, but I'm beginning to understand their appeal.  Look at the way it captures the light of the sunset.  It's like you can hold the entire sky in your hand.

PS Let's play a game of I Spy.  The first one to find my reflection in the rainbow ball wins a prize.

The prize may or may not be that you get to name your next child Lithodora.