flowery daydreams

As the idea of buying a house starts to look more like it might become a reality for Bunny and I in the next year, more and more of my daydreaming energy goes towards what I would do to make a generic house into our home. Some of it's simple stuff: print out and frame our favourite pictures, dust off and hang our art, get our furniture out again to enjoy, maybe new dishes in the kitchen and just general decorating. Finding display places for the model cars and motorcycles Bunny's working on. All that's the easy stuff.

But we also want outdoor spaces. We want a garden. Gardens, actually. Nevermind the fact that I'm allergic to springtime, I can deal with a few sneezes. We're both pretty set on having a productive vegetable garden, growing squashes and beans and peas, potatoes and beets and carrots, lettuce and spinach, tomatoes (for Bunny) and brussel sprouts (for me). Asparagus and some berry bushes, because both are delightful and perennials make life easy. A big pot overflowing with our favourite fresh herbs.

There's something about being connected like that to the food you're eating, you know? About putting your time into cultivating something and getting to enjoy the fruits of your labours. When children eventually come it's also a tool that we'd like to use to teach them about food, and about the value of caring for the land and work. Plus I have a handful of childhood memories that sneak into the back of my mind and remind me just how delightful peas fresh of the plant are.

Friday though I got sucked down the flower-gardening rabbit hole. Since I felt crummy and wasn't up for much more than sitting around reading listlessly between trips to the washroom I somehow started googling how to grow lilacs from cuttings. Because those lilac trees I mentioned loving at my mom's house? I fully plan on cloning those to grow in our yard.

As much as I want vegetables I'd also love to be surrounded by the pretty colours and scents of flowers. The lilacs, of course, but also other plants that bloom later into the season. Given that we plan on focusing on growing vegetables, I'd prefer to focus my perennials than annuals. A handful of rosebushes artfully spaced around the front and back yards. A lily bed, hopefully with a variety of early and late blooming varieties. Lilies are, after all, my favourite. Daffodils for their bright yellow colour and trumpeting blooms, and tulips. While they're not my favourite bulb flower, a field of tulips is rather stunning and I love the history of tulips in Canada. A tulip bed is also a little bit of a shout out to Bunny's family history, so there's that.

Do you garden? If so, what are the most rewarding plants you grow?