The Lab in the Garden Café

The "Mom" of my air layered quince

Cherry blossom - lab's success story

Maintaining lovingly the café always comes with few heartbreaks. I have experienced loss of some of my beloved plants thru various reasons, ranging from climate extremes, neglect, lack of info on how to provide proper care. A few years ago, I was delighted to be able to propagate my quince thru air layering. among the three air layered, it looks like only one might survives  

(；´ﾟДﾟ)ゞ

Looking at my old photos I realized that I have probably performed plenty of experiments in the café/garden. Some were successful - survived, some perished eventually.  I have read from gardeners' forums that all seasoned gardeners have experienced death of established plants under their care. I mourn the loss  of my plant babies and eventually move on, hoping to learn from my journey and pray for more luck.

One of my early experiments, that perished...

With all the loss and few victories in my gardening journey, I came to realize that the café conceals a laboratory, where my experimentations are being done to ensure my plants' survival. The lab is not an intimidating place, it's a space where my hope for my plants' healing manifests. Two of the success stories from the lab that I can share - the cherry plant that I bought online, with the lab's help, it survived the transport shock. The lavender (the last photo) that was left out during autumn and winter, it survived freezing temperatures and heavy rain. 

The main goal of the "lab" for now is to hardened my Japanese Maple seedlings before placing them in their own pot, to avoid sharing the same fate of this unfortunate fella (photo above),  while this gentleman in the photo below ensures the safety of my plant babies from pesky squirrels.  

My "lab" in the café

The future goal, I would love to have my dear Princess get involved in the lab/ garden / café, I wish that all of her beautiful memories from the café would inspire her to be creative and smart lady.

The survivor

The Garden Café

My garden babies

The patio has evolved into a garden café...it is an ongoing project especially during spring and summer. 

The café is where I put all of my love, energy and where love is celebrated. It has been my escape and source of comfort during challenging times. It's space for my Concha to relax while watching the kids from our neighborhood play in the yard, tea and bbq parties are being held during sunny days.

To evoke happiness and inspiration, I displayed some of my favourite things in the café, It will go through regular changes, but hopefully the welcoming feeling in the café stays the same.

The Princess in the cafe

Maybe who knows, someday you would find yourself enjoying a cup of tea or coffee in my café, while being harassed by my gardening partner. Don't let his size intimidate you, he can only sniff you to death...

The gardening partner

My Retail Therapy

My love affair for variety (dollar) stores started way from my early years in Canada (mid-2000s). The neighborhood's dollar store was my first therapy to fend off homesickness and where I spent my initial "splurges" from my humble paycheques. One of my little splurges was a set of wooden decorative balls; I remember gifting my mom a few of them a while back. 

My greatest find in Dollar Store

I have expressed my love for them in my old defunct blog which I am planning to write a new post about in the future.) | ू*꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ)｡oO

Then, one day, I happen to visit a local 100-Yen shop in Vancouver and my mind was blown away by the cuteness of everything they carry б（＞ε＜）∂ 

100 Yen rice bowls

Back then I really like the idea of making unique pots, 100-Yen stores have become the main source of inspo and new materials.

During the lockdowns when I was finally able to materialize my ideas, after watching several youtube tutorials, my patio now is filled with Asian bowls and teacups. 

100 yen garden ornament

I don't want to say that my love for dollar stores has faded, I admit that I no longer visit them as much as before, my preference lately are the 100-Yen stores, they are now expanding to other cities lately, but my greatest finds from dollar store shopping was still the set of wooden balls that I now proudly display in my back yard. I cannot find them in any dollar stores anymore, but luckily my mom returned the wooden balls to me as she doesn't share my aesthetic taste, so lucky me! !(•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑ 

I still get homesick once in a while, and when my body is urging me to go for (retail) therapy, there is that place that gives me the feeling of coming back home...