Compare and contrast

It’s almost exactly three years now since I returned to Gabriola, determined, amongst other things, to reclaim my once-upon-a-time garden, which had, in my absence, been reduced to this.

And now it looks like this.

Even if the scorecard on vegetable growing has been bloody awful (and that is going to change this year), you have to admit the transformation is pretty bloody amazing.

Anyway. A weekend in Vancouver last weekend which included a WISE women meet up and trips to various garden shops. I have a shopping list of things I cannot get on the island: more stargazer lily bulbs, some (affordable) ceramic pots, a cushioned cover for the plastic mesh fold up chair (now that the herb garden has been moved, I actually have somewhere level where I could sit and read near the house) and… some pink flamingos! (Yes, yes, I know: kitsch beyond words, but come on. Also totally fab.)

Discover at Home Hardware that chaise lounge cushion covers are (a) fairly hideous and (b) cost more than I thought they possibly could. Decide to see if they’re cheaper/less hideous elsewhere. As we’re leaving, Catherine spots a couple trying out an on-sale zero gravity chair. (Don’t ask me why they’re called that.) She thinks Bob might like one, tries it out, decides, yes, she should get one. The chair looks pretty nifty to me. I ask her if she’s sure she only wants to get one. (I see some arguments over who gets to sit in the chair in their camping future.) She realised that, of course, she needs two. Salesperson offers to fetch a dolly to transport chairs to car. While we’re waiting, I look at chair again. Wait a minute, I think, this chair is the same price on-sale as one of the hideous cushion covers. I try out chair. Oh, my god, it really is comfortable. Why am I buying a cushion cover for a crap chaise lounge when I could, for the same price, get this great garden chair?

Total no brainer.

So, yes, I get the chair and the ceramic pots and the pink flamingos.

Oh, and some more stargazer lily bulbs to plant in the other ceramic pots.

And, while I’m at it, decide to get a clematis to replace the wisteria, killed last year by my crap soil. No crap soil for this baby. Replant it in nice, big pot near the fence where it will eventually spread, looking bootiful.

While I’m in Vancouver, two of the butternut squash seedlings have sprouted enough for me to realise the mystery seedling planted by Krys bears a passing resemblance and could indeed by a successfully sprouted courgette.

Plant all three out. Actual vegetables growing (along with the already planted out beets and the well sprouted peas) in my raised bed! Okay, it isn’t the first time vegetables have looked as if they were growing in my garden, only to flower and perish, but this is the all new raised bed with the quality soil. This is going to be different.

Think it might be time to go sit in my chair.