May Day Update

Here is what I learned yesterday:

1) Corn gluten will not kill thistles. It will not kill anything, for that matter. It works by preventing seeds from germinating or germinated seeds from growing or something like that. Thus, I am about 6 weeks too late to try this natural, weed control method. In a normal year, it would probably still be effective. Since spring came 3 weeks early this year, I'm out of luck.

2) RoundUp is banned!!!!

Cartoon credit: Graeme MacKay, MacKay Editorial Cartoons

"You didn't know this???!!" You are probably thinking. No. For some reason, I thought it was still allowed. It is just soap after all. Thank you, McGuinty government for totally screwing up my lawn (that will be another rant, I promise). So, what does this mean? It means I need to dig my thistles out. Unless, of course, I sneak it back across the border or find another way to get my hands on RoundUp. I would also have to apply it in the dark when I get it. I would never do that....

3) My neighbourhood is THE garage sale neighbourhood. I hit up six garage sales in an hour, just touring the streets near my house and I reached 2 conclusions. The first; living in a good neighbourhood results in sweet garage sale finds. Evidence- see below. Secondly, if I ever decide to have a garage sale, I anticipate success. I overheard one seller's disbelief at how many people had shown up, including one shopper that came at 7:30 when she was setting up and bought her 'big ticket items' as she brought them outside.

All that said, I did get my lawn cut, raked, over-seeded, then raked again. I also bought some netting and laid it down over the newly seeded areas. Hopefully it will deter the birds from eating all my grass seed before it sprouts.

Now, to share my garage sale find!

What's garage saling without some knick-knacks? The shells are for my renovated office, the porcelin figures for my farmhouse bedroom, the blue bottle to add to my collection, and the brass elephants... well, I just loved them!

Don't they look right at home, on the mantle with this succulent?

It's hard to see, but this gold, gilded mirror is beautiful. If I don't like the gold finish, I can always paint it silver and grey for my office. The treasure chest I scored for $2, and the glass terrarium was $5. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet either, but my friend has one and I love how it looks in her living room, housing all her wine bottle corks!