Nic and I really like plants and greenery around the home. He’s a little better with keeping them alive than I am, so that’s nice. Over the years I have killed cacti, a beloved venus fly trap, lots of different herbs, and who knows what else. With Nic’s help, hopefully I’ll keep my wonderful plants alive a little longer than a season.

Ferocactus

I bought this cactus back in the spring from IKEA, and spent hours scouring the internet to find out what kind it was, so I would know how to take care of it. Eventually, I discovered what I didn’t know for my previous cactus: water once a month. Whoops.

Bir’ds Nest Fern and Norfolk Island Pine

In our wedding ceremony, Nic and I wanted to have a unity tree to symbolize our marriage. We had our parents bring soil and water from our childhood homes and then we “planted” the tree. (I have that in quotations because I was wearing a white dress obviously, and didn’t want to get that dirty.) We chose this type because we won’t have a house with a yard for the forseeable future, so we needed something that could survive inside in a pot. Nic’s dad, who is a gardener, suggested the Norfolk. It’s definitely an interesting shape, and I like it.

Bird’s nest fern

A few weeks after moving to Toronto I found this fern at Metro for pretty cheap. It’s supposed to freshen up your air, but I really bought it because it looks really cool.

English Ivy

Nic and I share a love for ivy, so one day at a market buying corn, I impulse-bought this English Ivy. At the top of the window is a nail, so I decided to make a “macrame” hanger for the plant. I found lots of tutorials on the internet, but for my first time I used twine from Dollarama and this one from My Little Sunshine House.  Remember that when watering it, you should put it in the sink. We have cupboards above the sink, so the loop on the plant hanger fits perfectly on the knob so that all the extra water goes into the sink.

Nic’s palm tree

My Jade plant

 I love jade plants, and I’m not sure where that obsession came from. Yet again, I made an impulse purchase at Home Depot in the spring, hoping that having more greenery than my sharp cactus, would help with my depression. It defintely did. The beautiful pot is from IKEA.

The left side

I have no idea what kind of vine that is on the left, and since moving a couple times, Nic has lost the tag. Oops.

Nic was given a clipping of a jade plant from our friends Maddie and Alina, and it’s interesting to compare our two plants.

He also has grown this avocado plant from a pit starting sometime last fall. It’ll be another 6-7 years before we find out if it will grow any avocados, but it’s so cool to watch plants actually do their stuff.

That aloe plant is from IKEA, the short growths were used on Nic when he got a sunburn in July!

What’s next?
We’ve been growing some green onions from the roots, and used the first batch yesterday. We will probably continue with growing food from scraps, both because it’s cool science, and because produce is expensive.
On the same note, I’ve been hunting for a mint plant for our kitchen garden, but that hasn’t worked out. We might end up just growing some herbs from seeds (is that what you do? lol).
We also love succulents, and sinceo our hens and chicks from the wedding centrepieces didn’t propagate well, we’ll probably try another one.