I recently learned about this wonderful thing called guerrilla gardening. It's big in London, England. I was even more thrilled to learn that there is a local chapter of guerrilla gardeners right here in Toronto. Fantastic! There's something I'd like to get involved in, I thought. Not a week after I became aware of all of this exciting anarchy activism, I even picked out a plot that I would love to see rescued from neglect. It's near the subway and see it every day on my way to work.

That very same week, I noticed someone filming an area of broken concrete directly across the street from my chosen patch. Within a day or two, the concrete was gone and the space was full of large boulders, one of which was etched with a sign proclaiming that these stones were generously donated by a corporate sponsor. There was a team of workers and a camera crew doing interviews.

Within a couple of days, there was a garden.

And this pissed me right off.

How dare these corporate bastards come in and spend money to do what hard working concerned citizens are willing to do for free! How dare these self-righteous jerks come in and beautify my community just so they could boast about how generous they are! More importantly, how dare they out-garden what I thought my little patch of land might look like if I could get some people together to help me pretty it up?!?!

Okay, my initial reaction was definitely a gut one. After some venting and some swearing and some thought, I grudgingly have to admit that what they've done is, overall, a positive thing. Did those workers really care about what they were doing, or were they going through the motions for a paycheque? Probably the latter, but in the end maybe it isn't THAT important. At least there's a garden. Sure, it's tucked behind a subway entrance on a hardly-used road that seems to lead to some kind of industrial area, but at least it isn't a patch of cracked pavement anymore. That's got to count for something. And maybe it isn't as grassroots as I would like it to be, and maybe the people involved were doing it more for recognition than for the love of gardening, and maybe it's a little too flamboyantly "LOOK AT ME, I WAS DONE BY PROFESSIONALS!" for my tastes, and maybe I'd secretly like to plant some really invasive weeds among the perfectly landscaped....landscape...... But really, if they'd put up a store or turned it into extra parking space, I probably would have complained that they could have turned it into green space.

So, back to my garden!

I'll begin with the bad news. The bad news is that my pea plants are pretty much done. One has died and the other is on its way out. I'm also continuing to have aphid problems. I thought my kalanchoes were just very thirsty or done flowering but it turns out they're swarming with the little buggers. I've had to hack it back to just leaves. A bunch of other plants are also infected. Argh. I'm battling them off though, more on that below.

Now the good stuff. I purchased a cute little 3-level plant stand at the thrift store for $11. I'd seen it before and passed on it, but when I went in the next time and saw it was still there waiting for me I had to take it home.

Now my butterfly-attracting flowers can actually reach above the balcony railing instead of sitting behind glass. I have the insane hope that I might be able to attract hummingbirds too, but they probably don't fly this high. Then again, I've found nothing online to suggest they wouldn't be around or interested in my flowers.

Not one but TWO tomatoes have sprouted from my ever-expanding tomato plants. Wow, these things drink a LOT of water. The bottle-feeding is working well, but I have to refill the bottles at least twice a day. If I really watched them all day I'm sure they'd go through more than a few refills.

I still can't seem to stop buying plants, even though I have a pretty big collection now and am constantly having to get bigger containers as the babies out-grow their pots.

Let's do a run down, in no particular order.

Outside
- Firecracker Columbine (aquilegia)
- Dark Red Mohave (bracteantha) a.k.a. Strawflower, I think
- October Daphne (sedum sieboldii)
- Amarilis
- Upland White Aster (soldago ptarmicoides)
- Black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia hirta)
- Fireweed
- Little Wonder Peas
- Supersonic Tomatoes
- Green Peppers (grocery store variety)
- Rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis)
- Sugar Baby Watermelon
- Chives
- Thyme
- Butterfly Weed
- Wild Bergamot (monarda fistulosa)
- 'Kimono Orange' Celosia
- Cupid's Dart
- Calibrachoa (MiniFamous Sun Violet Veins)
- Calendula
- Kalanchoe (blossfeldiana entretien)
- Night Scented Nicotiana
- Mosquito Plant (pelargonium x van leenii)
- Clovers (that I found growing in another plant I bought and decided to keep them)

Inside
- African Violet + 1 successful clipping
- Jade
- Calandiva
- Baby Necklace Plant
- Aloe
- Somona
- Chinese Lantern seedling
- clipping from an unknown tree someone abandoned behind my apartment building

Yikes. I have broken the 30-mark. I really should stop getting new plants. Especially since I also have a substantial collection of seeds, many of which I haven't tried planting yet.

Speaking of ridiculous numbers of things, I now have 100 new pets. I've taken the plunge, and have started vermicomposting. (Who knew there was a Worm Digest magazine?) After getting the run-around from one bait shop, I found another that was willing to sell me some Red Wigglers. I wasn't sure how many I'd need considering there are only 2 of us and we don't cook every day, so I thought I'd start with a 1/2 pound, which they told me was 100 worms. So that's 100 lives I saved from certain death as fish bait. Beat that, Humane Society!

I read that worms regulate their population according to the space and amount of food they have, much like rodents in captivity. The difference is that the adult worms die and let the babies replace them, unlike rodents who eat their young. Who would have thought that worms were so noble?

The bin is made of a cheap latch-top container I got at Canadian Tire that I drilled air & drainage holes into and covered with black tape to keep light out. The whole set-up cost about $16. Oh, and I put a $5 winter boot mat that we already had in the house underneath it. A black garbage bag probably would have sufficed but the mat was just taking up space anyway.

The worms seem to be adjusting to life in our kitchen. You're not supposed to disburb them too much so I have to stop myself from feeding them every other day, but I have fed them a couple of times and everything seems fine. I'm starting to realize just how much of our garbage waste is compostable. I went through our (embarrassingly gigantic) pile of recyclables that had yet to be taken down the to our building's dumpsters, and a lot of it I salvaged as bedding material for the squirmies. We get quite a lot of junk mail. Also, besides vegetable scraps from cooking, tea bags, etc. from the kitchen, I can throw in bits of my plants that I prune off. And then there are all of those random things you don't think of as compost material - shopping receipts, the labels off tinned food, the "Jesus Loves You" pamphlet you get from the Village Of The Damned girl who corners you while you're waiting for the bus... Apparently you can reduce your waste output by as much as 40% this way. Plus - free compost!!!

In other news, I came up with a new recipe for my aphid spray. I found out recently that ginger is a good insect repellent, I suppose because it burns the way lemon does. I was looking up its uses because I had just brewed a batch of ginger tea for myself and was wondering if it would be good for fertilizer. So I added strong ginger tea to lemon juice, some water, and a drop or two of environmentally friendly soap, and then just for some extra kick I added a bunch of tobasco sauce. Ok, it doesn't smell as nice with the tobasco in it, but it works very well! In fact I have to be careful when I spray it because breathing in some of the mist is enough to make you cough. I've decided I should grow some hot peppers so I can use the seeds in the spray instead of resorting to hamburger condiments...

So that's what's new in what now passes as my garden.

Ahh, the first full day of spring. It's Easter weekend and I didn't have to go to work today. Okay, it's still barely breaking 0C but who cares, life is good.

Time for a picture-intensive update on my wee plantlings.

I'm looking forward to actually getting some plants outside and starting a little container garden on the balcony. First things first though...