Thursday... Shopping...

Well... Not actually shopping, but post-shopping.

I worked and re-worked my plant sale "wish list" while I was at work today, and re-printed the list before I left.

Then I came home, killed a little time and watched TV with Christopher, and headed for the Friends School Plant Sale Volunteer Pre-sale. It was, honestly, the first time I've ever been to the sale to shop. I've been there to set up, I've been there to straighten trees, but I've never been there to shop.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I headed over there to arrive around 8pm, because I had heard that when the Pre-sale starts at 7 there is usually a line and... well... chaos.

I took with me a big plastic storage bin so that I wouldn't have to deal with cardboard flats or a shopping cart. I figured I would carry the bin and fill it, and then quit shopping when it was full.

Of course, the lure of the shopping carts was too strong, so I put the bin into the cart and then started shopping. I had already mapped out my path, so I went straight to work and had checked everything off my list in about half an hour. I deleted a couple of things as I went, and added a couple of things as well. (The four-pack that includes Basil, Oregano, Thyme, and Sage all for $3 was too good to pass up.)

And, yes, I went a little too far. But only a very little. The plants didn't all fit in one layer in the bin, so I put some in the cart. Not wanting to deal with leaving the cart and bringing up my car, I was able to lightly stack them all into the bin for the walk back to my car. Looking it over, I figured I did pretty well. Not too many... Not too few... Just about right.

At least I wasn't one of the people with a three-tier hand-made cart full of plants. Or the people standing in the middle of the aisles with no clue what they were doing. Or the people pushing a shopping cart and pulling a wagon. Or the couples with exhausted-looking kids - each with a flat filled with plants.

When I got home, Christopher came out to see what I had brought with me, and we did some re-tallying. It's kind of an amazing amount of stuff, considering the relatively small cost. I can completely understand why people make this their yearly gardening plan.

(If you're in the Twin Cities, the Friends School Plant Sale runs Friday through Sunday. You can find details about the sale - including pricing and plant photos - at: http://www.friendsschoolplantsale.com/. Oh, and I'll be volunteering in the Trees and Shrubs from 6:45pm on on Friday night.)