Marigold Potager

05/26/2026

'Tis that time again. Time for me to get off the fb gardening pages for a while.

Right now, those pages are about killing all the things.

While people claim to care about the birds and wonder why we have less of them, care about the bees, care about the pollinators and butterflies... they care more about having perfect plants with no holes or spots.

So.. they will spray. Good bugs/larvae they cannot yet see will die and thus they will have a bug problem all summer long. It breaks my heart to think about these things.

I know this is controversial with a lot of gardeners but the truth is that it is all connected.

So I will take my annual break from those pages and enjoy my companion planting : )

Holes and all ; )

This photo of ladybugs eating aphids from my dahlias is from last fall.

05/24/2026

Happy Sunday! Today's post has really great garden inspiration, as always, loads of recipes, tomato tips, painting tips (I really want to freshen up our indoor paint), and so much more...

Well, hi there! Happy Sunday! Are you all busy bees? Planting your veggies, sowing your seeds, and getting your patios summer ready? Now that it is the actual May 2-4 weekend, we are all good to go…

05/24/2026

This week's post is about pests that you are seeing in your garden right now, what to sow and grow... basically, it is time to plant it all! Happy Planting - Tanja

It’s the May 24 weekend. No, not the long weekend, that one was early this year, but the actual 24th of May… a great time for planting your tender plants in most all parts of Canada. Ya…

05/23/2026

Wondering how to keep your flowers blooming all summer long in your hanging baskets? This slow release fertiliser with a higher middle number is the one that you need for more blooms.

Mix into the soil when you are making the basket.planter pots.
Add a bit on top for purchased hanging baskets and planter pots.
Reapply in July.

As an Amazon Associate, if you were to purchase something through one of my links, I make a small commission. Thank you for your support of my blog : )

Showstopping colour. Boost your flower power with Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed Ultra Bloom Plant Food. Gives flowering plants more of what they need, so you get more of what you want: bigger blooms with spectacular colour. Packed with good-for-plants micronutrients to help plants grow strong and vib....

05/23/2026

CARROTS - many of you are probably sowing carrots right now, this weekend, or have just sown your carrots.

I find that they come up really quickly in warm soil, take longer when the soil is cool. Carrots can take from 5 days to 21 days to germinate.

The key to carrot sowing? Water, water, water. Water them daily, or even twice a day. You can cover them with burlap (or something) to keep the soil moist for longer. They do not need light to germinate. Check under the cover daily, remove when you see some of the carrot tops showing, the rest will soon follow.

If you forget to water, wait for rain that does not come, etc... let the soil dry out, your carrot seeds will die and you will have to resow your seeds.

As it is so dry this year...
- Make a furrow to sow the seeds in.
- Water the furrow before sowing the seeds.
- Cover the seeds with 3/4 to 1 inch of soil.
- Water the rows/the bed.
- Cover with burlap, a board, anything to create shade (optional).
- Check on the seeds daily by lifting cover. Remove when you see germination.
- Water, water, water. They need moist soil to germinate.
- After they germinate, decrease watering to twice a week.
- When they are of a good size, use weeping hoses or drip systems to deep water the soil once or twice a week.

05/22/2026

Well, hi there! Happy Friday!

Here are today's Five Things Friday. Things on my mind, right now, at the moment.

1. What a gong show this morning is, lol. We have guys here to shingle the old (cute) shed. The shingles were curling so we wanted to do it before it started leaking. Of course, nothing is going smoothly. It feels like a Monday, I swear!

The Co-op charged us for shingles but loaded us up with ridge caps... similar, but these things are just used on the peak. Oh, bother! therefore, the guys decided to take a break and will come back with actual shingles so they can finish the job.

Hubby would have done it but his elbow still hurts from when he did the shop at the ngp greenhouse. That was also a gong show roofing job, but that is a story for another day ; ) Something about shingling jobs, eh?

2. I have a busy weekend of planting this weekend. All my pots, the peppers, tomatoes, start my cukes in the greenhouse.... busy! And I am here for it!

I am excited to get it all planted, for my summer colour to come. It seems like the past few years, spring has been long in coming, but then we have a long, warm fantastic autumn that goes well into November.

I hope I did not jinx things by saying that, hahaha. You never know what Mother Nature decides to do ; )

3. Today is my grandsons' 10th birthday. He is all excited to be hitting double digits. I did not know that double digits was a thing that warrants extra, lol. How old am I, eh?

Some of my ngp friends will remember little Gagie, when he was just a pudgy little scrap of a thing, as he hung out with Nan at the greenhouse a whole lot. He is now a tall string bean!

4. We are going to have a banner year for fruits this year. My apple tree is humming with bees as the entire thing is covered in blossoms. Best year yet for the tree while we have been here. Just going to be loaded with apples.

Same with the new Romeo Cherry that we have on the other side of the shed. It is still young, just planted last spring, but is going to have loads of cherries, too.

The rhubarb grows many inches per day! It is crazy how much it likes that spot. I hate that spot (did not plant it there) but it is thriving so I am not moving it! I just give it some compost each fall and in spring it thanks me with tons of stalks.

How are your fruiting trees and shrubs this year? It is a dry year here on the west side of Canada, so maybe that is why we have more blooms than usual?

5. I need a new gate on the other side of my house. I wanted to get a cute, peaked one but because it attaches to the house, there is no room for one.

This is what the contractor recommeded instead. What do you think? Too top heavy?

I'm not sure it suits my aesthetic at all, looks out of place. The picture is AI so the pergola would not be separate from the gate, lol, it would be all in one. It was just to give me an idea of what it would look like in the space.

Happy Friday, have a great weekend ~ Tanja

05/19/2026

I was visiting with my daughter on the long weekend, telling her that her garden was looking good, and then asked her what all she had planted/started so far. She said just onions and sweet peas. Gulp.

I asked what else she was going to grow? She mentioned lettuces, kale, and other things that could have gone in the ground weeks ago.

She then said that I had not told her it was okay to plant them yet, so she was holding off till warmer temps 😩

It appears that reading my blog, where I post what all can be started, direct sown, planted out on a weekly basis is too much... something. She has no time to read a blog 😭.

Okay. Huh. Can I just say.... if you have time to google stuff up, scan through fb gardening posts, watch TikToks, etc..., then you definitely have time to scan my blog that has timely info weekly, lol. Just open it, scan it if you do not want to read it. There is a lot of info on there.

This also makes me wonder if I should bother to keep blogging at all, even though I really, really like it. Maybe videos and fb chat groups are what people want... and I am not that gal : ( (but that is besides the point, for today, at least)

That said.... GET OUT THERE AND SOW ALL YOUR SEEDS TODAY.

Seriously. All the seeds! Flowers and veggies! Some may be too late to sow now (in case you did not read my 'Plant This, Not That' post, lol. But you will then learn by doing. Right?

My tomatoes, planter pots, handing baskets will all go out this weekend. You can probably do them right now, today, if you want to.

Grow some food, you all ; ) Sow your seeds, plant your starter plants. If they bolt, they bolt. The bees will love those flowers.

In the picture is my lettuce bed from last year, with cauliflower, nasturtiums, and sweet alyssum.

05/19/2026

A brand new sign. So now you know where to go when you come for a workshop... though I usually leave the gate open on workshop days 😁😉

05/18/2026

Frost warning tonight in most every parts of Alberta.

My greenhouse heater is already plugged in!

05/17/2026

If you missed the spring planting window (probably had snow, if you live on the prairies), try growing these other veggie ideas instead.

This is a bit tongue in cheek… of course, you can grow anything you like. These are ideas for what to grow/plant at this time of year, if you missed out on the cool spring temps. Curly kale i…