Friday, March 06, 2009

Bulk Shopping for Plants and Stuff

Though we may live many, many kilometers from urban civilization, we do attempt to do some power-shopping when we are traveling down south. While I like shopping locally, we (like many others up here) like to avoid travelling north with an empty vehicle, so we fill the space with supplies from these giant bulk-purchase stores. This keeps us stocked with boxes of toilet paper, crates of cereal, and huge bags of dog food. I like picking up some garden-related stuff as well, having found some begonia and dahlia tubers at the Saskatoon store this week. While I am generally a hard-core perennial grower, I use annuals and tender perennials for containers. They are also useful to spice up the perennial beds in August when some spots are looking a bit bland and flowerless. Besides, I've never grown dahlias before, and I plan to enjoy their showy flowers in my garden for the first time.

On the other hand, resident-lawnmower-man comes home from Costo with purchases like this:

He says he plans to eat it all himself. Personally, I can't see how any person could need or want two litres of sauerkraut! I keep telling him that sometimes, you don't need to buy large amounts of things. For example, the pinon nuts that went rancid before we ate them all. Spices are another good example of things that go bad before you can eat a pail-sized amount of them.

On another note, this is why I admire and love this animal. Kona has a perfectly nice doghouse, but it's a nice sunny day at a balmy -19 degrees C, so why not nap in the sun? She's a husky-malamute and loves being in the snow. I don't think she's pining for hot summer weather at all.

10 comments:

Sarah O. said...

Kona is awesome. Clearly, she lives by the maxim "seize the day".

As for dahlias, I hope you enjoy growing them! I've been working them into my garden more and more - I know some people groan about digging them up and storing them at the end of the summer, but I think they are totally worth it. What is your frost-free time period? Do you think you will have to take any measures to enjoy the full bloom period?

Gardenista said...

Sarah - that's a good point about the dahlias. I know my neighbour has grown them, but I don't know if he started them early indoors. I probably start mine indoors, as our frost free season is around 90 days.

RURAL said...

Looking forward to seeing photos of the Dahlias this summer.

I am with him on the saurekraut, love it, probably could eat a 2 kg jar over a few weeks....

Jen

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Thank you for the giggles this morning Gardenista ! .. the Costco purchase is priceless : )
I'm with you on the dahlias !
Kona .. what a beauty she is, and I'm with her about the HOT weather .. phew !

Anonymous said...

WINE saurekraut eh? What kind of resident lawnmower man are we talking about here?!?

Ha ha.

Our heat is currently broken on 'high' in our condo and when I saw Kona's picture I was slightly jealous!

:-) Kandace

kate smudges said...

I suspect Kona loves the winter more than the summer ~ that is a great pic of her.

I had to laugh reading about your forays into the city. It reminded me of my parents who love shopping at costco and are regularly trying to cajole me into taking some of their great deals home with me. Why they'd buy 2 dozen cans of something is beyond me! I hope my mum doesn't see the 2 liter jar of sauerkraut ~ she'd be in heaven.

With the dahlias, I have to get them in really early here to have them in bloom before frost. Learned that the hard way ~

Anonymous said...

http://www.saskbirder.com/2009/02/birding-at-candle-lake.html

You may wish to add Nickovitch's Birding site to your site. We enjoyed such a visit from him as he took pictures of our resident guest Rufous~sided Towhee Cheers Sandra

Barbarapc said...

Kona is a charmer - our Saint Agatha used to lie in the snow as if it were a cozy blanket. I laughed when I saw your Costco bags of bulbs - fun to think of someone at your latitude & longitude fiddling around with bulbs that must have come across in the same container. I had some problems with fungus and rot in mine, hope you do better - suspect they were slightly damp and overpacked and stacked. Bought some begonia corms on sale today, they'd sprouted nicely and I figured, since I took the bulbs back....I should be handcuffed.

Garden Lily said...

I'm afraid to visit Costco anymore... They have some unique food items, but the shelves need to be adjusted to fit them in the fridge!

Kona is gorgeous. She looks so content in that photo.

Nancy said...

Your Kona is beautiful.

We live in to extremes - I'm in Southern California where it's suh a mild climate. We will be in drough conditions this summer and will have to cut back on our water.

I would love to visit your part of the world and can't wait to see your flowers in bloom.