I have enjoyed reading and learning from it. One of the suggestions made there that I have taken to heart is to reuse materials for planters. You may remember in a previous post that I had taken a jade clipping and placed it in water, hoping for it to sprout. Luckily for me, it did start to grow roots! 
So taking the advice of my new text, I planted it in an old lamp shade. It was perfect timing: an old IKEA lamp purchased in Toronto has just died permanently, so what could be better than recycling the parts?
The weather has been getting warmer here, and I have hopes that today I can move all my plants outside. The pepper has been out for a while, and despite some near freezing evenings, it has survived. According to the weather forecast, the nights are getting warmer and we should be past any danger of frost. My only and greatest fear now is that a squirrel should dig up one of my lovelies. So everyone send wishes to guard against them!
The lamp shade was not the only everyday object that got reborn into a planter. We had just finished a large Kikoman shoyu (soy sauce) container around the time that the avocado was sprouting. After drilling a couple of holes in the bottom, it is a perfect place for the avocado tree to grow! Look how beautiful it is now.
