This is from an email forward… Childish, but it made me giggle. Warning: not for the prudish. Happy hump day!

Ikea Hacker has a great post showcasing “hacked” Ikea products used to create planters and even a mini greenhouse.  

I like the Asker utensil holder converted into a hanging planter, above, and the table, below, which utilizes three different Ikea products to make a table with built-in planter.

And of course there’s the Heavy Petal hack: Fniss wastepaper basket into herb containers.

Heavy Petal is Canadian Gardening
magazine’s “hot link” of their Winter 2007 issue. This makes me feel
all proud and glowy. Welcome CG readers, and thanks, CG for the mention!

It’s official: my family grows the best weed in town.

What? Not something to be proud of? This is British Columbia, you know. And this is award-winning weed.

Before you get all “well, I never!”, let me explain. My mom’s garden club has a yearly competition. You know – best rose, best foliage, best berries. That sort of thing. And then there are a couple of just-for-fun categories, including best weed. To my knowledge, no one’s ever entered cannabis, but my mom now has a ribbon hydroponic growers would covet…

Best Weed

It’s a doozy, isn’t it? And well deserving of recognition. Congrats, mom. Heavy Petal salutes you!

I mentioned a while back that I was going to France, but in the frenzied lead up to our flight, I ran out of time to do the actual “Okay, I’m leaving” post. So voila – I’m doing it now – albeit a bit late. Posts may be infrequent for the next two weeks, and I may not be able to respond to comments. But I will be reading them! And as usual I love to get your comments.

I’m writing from my sister’s apartment in Oberkampf, a funky neighbourhood in the 11th arrondisement. My husband is asleep on her couch, tired from a day of walking the Bastille market; a sunny picnic (which the French pronounce “peek-neek”) of our market treasures (the best cheeses ever, saucissoun, baguette, olives, and a really decent 2 Euro bottle of Bordeaux, followed by nougat and macaron) by the Seine; and finally a walk through the Marais, the old Jewish quarter – capped off by the best falalel ever. As you can see, we are travelling on our stomachs.

I do plan to see quite a few gardens while in France and will write about them as soon as possible. You can also expect photos of garden shops and florists, and general floral prettiness. A bientot!

I introduced you all to Esther, official Heavy Petal farm animal representative, back in January. Well, yesterday I received the cutest birth announcement ever (sorry all you new moms and dads – you can’t beat fluffy little black sheep!): Esther, my adopted sheep, has had twins. How cute are they?!

Read more about Esther’s babies, and those of her sheep sisters here. (Thanks to Mandy Corry of the Schacht Fleece Farm for the photo and lovely announcement. You made my day!)

I apologize for my absence, especially my insistence that it’s been May 1 for, oh, the last three days.

I’ve been sick with a cold or flu or some such grossness, and when I get sick I basically just sleep. I have been sleeping for almost two days straight, with small jaunts to the loo and one particularly ambitious foray to the couch. (It didn’t last – I quickly realized that daytime TV is not worth sitting upright for.) So anyway, I finally just made it into the shower (yay!), and the exertion it took nearly sent me back to bed. However, before I head back to bed, I’d thought I’d write a quick post to tell you that my blogroll has just been fixed.

Probably the only people who have noticed that my blogroll hasn’t been updated in months are bloggers that have since written me off as a total bitch for not adding their blogs. Well, it wasn’t so much bitchiness as laziness – and I apologize regardless. In any case, it’s finally fixed and I can now add new links. I’m an all-inclusive linker, so don’t be afraid to email me for a link exchange.

In the future, I intend to categorize my links according to location, but baby steps… baby steps.

(Say in creepy voice-over actor voice:)
- Have you always wanted your own Versaille-style parterre but can’t afford the maintenance staff?
- Do you love the idea of a bouncy castle but lack children to justify the purchase?

With Tjep’s Urban Garden you get both parterre and bounciness all in one! The go-anywhere, inflatable Urban Garden can be used for sitting, lounging or jumping on.

(Inspired by Versaille, it’s part of a travelling installation called Tribe Art. The functional art piece will be used for a diversity of events.)

Via MoCo Loco.

Heavy Petal has been shortlisted in the first-ever Mouse and Trowel awards. In fact, Heavy Petal is a finalist in two categories – Best Design of a Garden Blog and Best North American Garden Blog – which is truly humbling.

Thank you to all who took the time to nominate this little blog! I feel grateful and truly honoured. Now go vote for the finalists! Voting is open until May 11.