Lavender Blu: Very Demure, Very Mindful

In a mattter of days this phrase has taken over the internet. Brat Summer is over, we’ve moved on to Demure Girl Summer. It seemed like the perfect title for a post where I visit a Lavender Farm in the country. On my recent day trip to Durham Region, we stopped at Lavender Blu Farm, a small eco-family farm that’s been making artisanal lavender products since 2007. This quaint farm is located in Seagrave, Ontario, along the Sideroads of Scugog. Their mission is all about cultivating calm, something I can totally vibe with. The farm offers a variety of events throughout the summer including yoga, painting, and lavender picking. It can also be booked as a wedding or event venue. I would love to do yoga there! I loved learning about places to visit in the Durham Region, I had no idea there were so many farms an hour away from Toronto. The area is full of great places to check out including markets, pubs, museums, and galleries, see a full list at sideroadsofscugog.ca. The studio has lavender hanging from the ceiling and features over 80 lavender-inspired products. You will feel calm the moment you walk through the doors. The whole atmosphere of the farm is relaxing. Here’s to living a calm life! P.S. If the title of this post makes absolutely no sense to you, read this and watch this. It’s a TikTok thing and it’s taking over!

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Take a Visit to The Sunflower Farm!

This week I visited The Sunflower Farm on the edge of Lake Simcoe along the backroads of Brock, Ontario. If you’ve been looking for a great summer adventure with family or friends, get to Durham ASAP. The sunflowers are only in bloom for 2 weeks! Durham Region is about an hour from Toronto and is made up of eight cities and towns; Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Clarington, Uxbridge, Scugog, and Brock. On my adventure with the Toronto Blogger Collective and Durham Tourism, we visited four of their scenic rural routes, A Country Path, the Leaksdale Loop, Backroad of Brock, and the Sideroads of Scugog. I will share more about each route in my upcoming posts! I truly loved visiting The Sunflower Farm! We got to meet Ursala, the farmer of this multigenerational family farm and she introduced us to the animals including the cutest little goat named Feta. The farm has thousands of sunflowers, a sunflower-shaped trail, and plenty of great spots for taking photos. You can also purchase merch or sunflowers to bring home. Planning Your Visit to The Sunflower Farm Something that made the day really special was travelling around the area with Town Trolley Tours. Our hosts, Michael and Pauline, took us to each stop in their replica “San Francisco Trolley”, sharing stories about their lives, the region, and playing tunes on request. We even had a sing-along to The Tragically Hip! You can rent the trolley for events, weddings, and more, details here. If you’re looking for a great activity to get in before the end of summer, I highly recommend taking a trip to The Sunflower Farm and North Durham. There’s lots to do in the area! Check out durham.ca to see their curated collections of farms, markets, breweries, wineries, historical sites, and attractions. You’re…

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Planting A Herb Garden w/ ChatGPT

Today was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and I decided to get my hands dirty and plant a herb garden. I’ve been super excited to breathe some life into this raised bed container we had previously used to grow cannabis. She’s got a green thumb! I saw something on the internet recently that said you should plant certain things together and wanted to make sure I did it right. Sooooo, we called upon our trusty friend ChatGPT to see which herbs should be planted together. 🤓 We put in the exact size of the container and the different herbs, then asked which should be planted together for optimal growing. In less than the time it would take to Google, I knew exactly what to do: oregano and basil beside each other, chives and cilantro together, and peppers to separate the dill. It even had instructions as to which herbs preferred more sun. It was such a therapeutic experience getting my hands into the soil. The fragrance of these herbs as I planted them was divine. I look forward to more rooftop BBQs and adding fresh herbs to our meals. Cheers to new adventures in gardening and tastier meals!

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Day 578: TikTok Plant Hack – Aerial Roots

Spent the whole weekend working on my room and WHOA what a job it was. On Saturday I had a bit of a meltdown once almost everything was outside on the roof, the thought of putting it back was overwhelming. Thankfully I stuck to it and am nearly done putting everything away, throwing out the carpet, and organizing my stuff. I also watched the entire season of MAID on Netflix, kinda sad but a good show. In other news, I am SO happy with my plants. Saw a TikTok Plant Hack (PlantTok) about putting an aerial root from a monstera in a small glass jar to help them grow. It works! I’ve got two tiny glass jars on different plants and a bunch of new leaves sprouting. It took about 2 weeks to see new growth. This monstera is the same large plant that I shared cuttings from in my post the other day. I am yet to post anything on my own TikTok yet but I must say, I am loving all the plant hacks. Learned so much the last few weeks and look forward to growing more and more plants over the winter.

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Day 569: Plant Mama – Propagation!

I’ve mentioned my love for propagating plants a few times and I am so proud of my latest creation! I have successfully propagated two different types of Monstera. I took a few cuttings from my biggest plant, Monstera Deliciosa, the most common variety of monstera. I grew the cuttings in water for about 2 months and planted them in rich soil today. They’re flourishing! The leaves seen here with the holes are Monstera Adansonii, a plant I picked up a few weeks ago from The Urban Gardener. This beautiful plant was healthy and primed for cuttings from the day I got her. I grew the cuttings in water + root hormone and they grew had 1″ roots in about 2 weeks. I can’t wait to share these plant babies with friends and build my little jungle at home!

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Day 235: Living in the Woods, Propagating Plants

IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL OUT TODAY! I spent most of last night preparing a presentation for a meeting and once we showed the client today, I was ready for a break from technology. I’d been growing some pothos cuttings in water for the past few weeks and decided it was time to plant them. I took out each of the roots, potted them in fresh soil, and fertilized with banana water. I hope they all live so I can share the new plants with friends. Propagating plants has been one of my favourite things of 2020. ? WATCH THE INSTAGRAM REEL Gonna remember 2020 as the year we lived in the woods, I grew my hair out, started running, exercising, propagating plants, tie-dye, eating healthier, sewing again, & loving myself more. ???

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Day 134: Growing Roots

Cut my own hair about a month ago and it’s growing nicely. I’m not sure how long I intend to let it go but this is the longest, strongest, and darkest it’s been in over a decade. Started using a lightening spray I found in the cottage bathroom and one of my cottage friends asked if I had my hair done! ? I’ve had bleach blonde hair for so long but I actually really like how it is it now with the roots. Ran 4.5km in the morning and did some work for a couple of hours. Emily arrived mid-afternoon and hung out in the kitchen with me working on her crafts. Repotted my aloe plant that was busting out of its pot, growing roots with tiny pups all over the place. Checked Pinterest for what to do and I really hope they all live through the process! I have a Plants & Garden board on Pinterest here with all kinds of resources for growing indoors, outdoors, and plant care. Over the pandemic, I’ve been propagating my pothos plants and have two that are really starting to grow in their pots after growing roots in water. Come winter, I hope to live in a greenhouse! I’m a nature-loving Taurus and I love taking care of my plants!

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Planty Places in Toronto

Last night I went deep into a hole of finding and following Instagram accounts that are beautiful plants and planty places. Scrolling through Instagram content has become so much easier now that you can put multiple links in Instagram bio. I’m sure a lot of you at home will be desperate to do this too! Some were very easy to find because they had large followings on platforms like Instagram. Although, I did wonder if they had used Buzzoid.com to achieve such fantastic figures. Over the last month, I’ve really pared down everything I personally own and cleaned TF out of my bedroom, closet, and set up a new home office space. It’s been a lot of work, to say the least. I want to reward myself and bring life to the space with MORE PLANTS. This post is not sponsored I was just looking for some planty places in Toronto and I put them here because I found some really good stuff! Allan Gardens Conservatory Warm, beautiful, green, great spot to lift your spirits, take some photos, and make you forget it’s arctic outside. This place has a long history you can read about on toronto.ca. The have 2 Tropical Houses, a Cool Temperate House, Palm House, Tropical Landscape House and the Arid House which has unusual cacti and succulents. It’ open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., 365 days/year, with free admission, and is wheelchair accessible. Super cute for dates or BFF hangs. Afternoon sun is best. I’m sure I’ve been there since this photo was taken on a cold day in November, 2011 for FAJO Magazine. I loved those Jeffrey Campbell shoes from Nasty Gal so much. Plant World THERE IS A PLANT SALE FOR ALL OF THIS MONTH. Saw this on FB and you can find more…

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