Marigold Potager

06/14/2026

Take advantage of this lovely weather to do your w**ding, feed your baskets and pots, catch up on yardwork. Tips in the blog post on what to use and what to do... plus caterpillar update.

This month is fairly flying by and the list of things to do in the garden is ever so long. We have had a dreadful spring but this weekend is lovely, so we will do what we can while the sun shines, …

06/14/2026

A yellow lady's slipper in my shade garden. It shows up quickly each spring and then disappears sometime in the summer, not to be seen again till the following spring.

This week's read has so many great ideas in it, everything from gardening, to design, a sleepy mocktail, dementia preventing...

Well, hi there. How is your weekend going? We have the Daines Rodeo going on here this weekend so the town is bustling. Love seeing the town full of folks having fun. Luckily, the weather has turne…

06/13/2026

A quick 5 Things Friday (on a Saturday)

1. This is rodeo weekend in Innisfail. Lots of things going on. The pancake breakfasts are on for all who are interested and the parade starts in half an hour. It will take a while to wend it's way down to our end (the very tail end of it) so I have a bit of time to type before I gotta split!

2. The crappy weather is gone... at least for the next 3 days. We truly have had the most miserable spring ever. It has been so cold. The garlic is absolutely loving this rain though, has grown about 6 inches in the last couple of weeks. It's crazy... in a good way : )

This lovely weather couldn't have come at a better time. Sunshine for the rodeo! and... we have so much planting and w**ding to do.

3. We have purchased 3 new small fruit trees to plant around our patio.

We lost our large mountain ash last spring so lost our privacy, noise and dust barrier. The amount of dust that now comes into the house is wild. Who'd have ever thought one tree could make such a big difference, eh?

So, we are now planting a bunch of small trees (15 to 20 feet tall, no more than 6 to 8 feet wide) around our patio. With time, these trees will give us back all that we lost, plus fruit, too. If you are looking for hardy, small trees, here is what we are growing...

- Muckle Plum (ornamental with pink flowers, does not fruit) planted last summer.
- Spring Snow Crabapple (ornamental with white flowers) last summer.
- Gladiator Crab (ornamental with purple foliage) planted last summer, over by the potting shed.
- 2 apricots - a Casino and Westcot (both get a bit wider at 16 feet)
- TreasuRed columnar apple tree.

The apricots will likely only fruit every 10 years, lol, as they flower so early in spring, but they are small trees with a pretty canopy. We also have a micro dwarf apple tree planted there (never gets taller than 6 to 8 feet).

3. The caterpillars still abound. I keep knocking them off my roses, blueberries, and the small trees, so they do not completely strip them of leaves. They are too new and might not recover. I don't care about the ones on the aspens as they are mature and can handle the leaf loss.

We have no BTK left at the stores in town so is just a game of knocking them off daily. Sigh.

4. Keep in mind to only leave one or two borage plants in your garden as they get huge. They also self sow everywhere so you will never need to sow them again ; )

Borage is full of minerals so add the pulled seedlings to your compost bin or leave them on top of the soil to compost down.

Growing borage in the tomato bed and strawberry bed will feed them great minerals throughout the growing season, plus attract pollinators for bigger harvests.

5. That's all I can think of today. Have a great weekend, enjoy the sunshine and the Rodeo!

Tanja

06/10/2026

I always notice these rustic ribbed flower pots in garden magazines and garden posts. I think they just look fabulous.

This set of two on stands is from Creative Co-op so we know it is great quality. https://amzn.to/3Sy58iE

But this one also caught my eye... https://amzn.to/4uwJQ2v

I kind of love this set of 4 (10") shallow galvanized planter pots. They would look great with herbs in them, sitting on a bench or potting table outside. https://amzn.to/4xrTSoj

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 : )

06/10/2026

So this is happening... masses of caterpillars all

06/07/2026

Early June in the garden... is a struggle here on the prairies, in our zone 3 gardens.

Well, we had about two weeks of absolutely stunning weather, broke records all over the place… and then Junuary happened. It has been so cold for the past week. We have struggled to hit the h…

06/07/2026

Well... after that week of gorgeous weather, we now have Junuary. Cold, miserable, but at least we got some rain!

Well, hi there. Happy Sunday! How are you all doing? Do you ever get grumpy for no particular reason that you can figure out? I had a day like that yesterday. Everything was annoying me to no end, …

06/05/2026

Hi friends! Happy Friday!

Here are 5 things on my mind, right now, on this day... for my 5 Things Friday.

1. The month of May was probably the driest that I have experienced in a long time. In fact, I cannot remember such a crazy May.

We had snow, we had cold, we had drought, and we had record breaking heat at the end of the month. Wild ride.... and now, the month of June is looking like a Junuary : (

2. My greenhouse plants are all fine, despite going as low as 4 degrees. That extra protection from the wind and cool air, I suppose, plus warm soil in the raised beds.

My flowers all look fine, even the begonias! However, the tomato bed does not look great. Some have purple leaves, which means that they got too cold and may struggle to get going this year : (

How did you all make out? What is the weather like where you are?

3. I have so much w**ding to do again! That rain woke up all kinds of seeds. Not just the ones in my garden beds that I was unable to keep up with watering (zinnias are looking great), but also the w**d seeds. Hahaha. Careful what you wish for, eh?

The dandelions are also spreading their fluffy seeds everywhere right now. The schoolyard, across the street from us, is full of white fluff. Eek! I really hope they do not take hold in my grassless front yard.

4. The garlic is growing so well now with all that rain! I have struggled a bit with finding the best place to grow garlic at this new house. This year is looking to be a really great year.

I still did not get 100% germination, which kinda sucks, hahaha, not going to lie. Am so used to the garlic just thriving without me doing much of anything but feeding the soil annually. However, at least 90 to 95% of the garlic came up just fine and is looking tall and strappy, so I'll take that as a win.

How is your garlic doing? Any issues? My island readers will be harvesting in just over a month, while those of us here on the prairies are waiting till end August. I can hardly wait! I haven't had homegrown garlic in the house since March!

5. If you are a local, I have ordered too many flowers this year, as usual ; )

I will post the extras on here and on the Innisfail gardening page. They are all from a local grower, ethically grown so no neonics, of course. Bee safe flowers : )

Wishing you all a great Friday, a great weekend... and hey, let me know how you all are making out, eh? Garden growing well? Struggling with anything? Weather sucking? Weather great? Let's chat gardening : ) Tanja

06/02/2026

Grossed out by all the tent caterpillars? No to fret says Ken Fry, the bug guy.

On another note. I used to work with Ken's wife at Hole's Greenhouses, many moons ago. Whenever there was some new big bug thing going on, she would get the scoop from Ken so we could share the deets with our customers.

Read the full story and comment on TheAlbertan.com

06/02/2026

Grossed out by all the tent caterpillars? Ken Fry, the bug guy, says not to fret.

Read the full story and comment on TheAlbertan.com