Marigold Potager

08/28/2026

Well, hi there! Happy Friday, eh?

That makes me think about a Canadian TikTok reader that I saw make a comment on an American's post saying that he never uses or hears 'eh' where he lives. I am thinking... like where do you live, dude? I use 'eh' all the time, in both speech and in writing. It just makes sense, eh?

Anywho... I digress, lol, as I tend to do. Here are this week's 5 Things Friday. Things on my mind at the moment, nothing earth shattering or important, just..... things.

1. We had a fantastic time last weekend. We drove up to Saskatoon to visit my son and dil. He had his last day of work before taking a few days off, as school starts up again very soon.

If you remember, my son had been an electrician for many year and then decided to go back to school to be a lawyer Just one year to go! That will be 7.5 years from start to finish, quite the commitment!

The drive is long (and kinda boring, hah!) but it was worth it to see my boy and to have a bit of a getaway. My last chance to go somewhere this year.

We did not have a holiday this year with hubby's esophagectomy (removed his esophagus due to cancer) and the long recovery time. Plus...

2. This Monday, I go in for my 2nd new hip. Eek! Almost exactly 11 months to the day of the first new hip.

Sadly, that means my gardening season is pretty much over. It depends on what late October is like, whether I will get out there to work in the shop with seed saving and such.

Hubby is in an all fired hurry to take things down so that he does not have to take care of things. Ugh! I feel like they had such a late start with our cold spring and early summer that I'd love to leave everything up as long as possible. I see his point though, as we know how much work it is daily to take care of things, plus to clean up in the fall.

When do you all take your baskets, pots, and gardens down? We usually like to have things pretty much done for Thanksgiving weekend.

3. School starts up again on Monday for the littles. Doesn't it seem so early? I swear that this month flew by!

We have tried to soak up every moment of the great weather this month, sitting outside and watching the birds and bumblebees in the yard. Enjoying the flowers.

It will all come to an end all too soon.

4. My cucumbers are going crazy now. We are making our super crisp fridge pickles, going to can some of the others for the winter, and fresh eating like crazy.

As for tomatoes, we have had 3 ripe ones so far, hahaha. Some are blushing, most are hard and green still. If we have a lovely September, we may get some of our canning tomatoes ripening in time to process them... otherwise they will have been a royal bust, this year.

Squash are doing okay. Not prolific by any means, but enough to eat and make zucchini bread. I have only shared twice this summer, which is really unusual.

Root crops are fine... carrots, beets, even celery has had a good year.

How has your harvest been? Are you praying for a long, nice fall? Or ready to harvest it all and be done with it?

5. For those of you who follow my blog/garden journal, I am going to do a photo dump and try to get out several posts this weekend, before I go in for surgery.

I have tried to get out an August post a few times already, but with all the babysitting and other things that have happened, I have always run out of time. So, a good photo dump will work as a journal entry, eh? August has been lovely in my yard and garden this year. A very different year than usual, but absolutely fun and interesting to watch.

As mentioned last week, we have had more bumblebees than I have ever had in one summer before. Not sure why, but they have been super fun to watch.

The birds deposited sunflowers here, there, and everywhere, and I decided to leave most of them to grow. Some made it, some were run over by the dog, some were taken down by the rain/hail/wind...

Have a great weekend. I may or may not be on before the operation. Lots to do in both the house and garden to prepare and not near enough time to do it all.

Happy end of August, my friends ~ Tanja

Here is a mish mash of photos from the yard, most were taken this morning.

08/20/2026

I am doing my 5 Thing Friday on a Thursday, as the next few days are going to be pretty busy.

So, here are the 5 things on my mind right at this moment, nothing in particular, just sharing my thoughts.

1. Fall is here 😭 - while the daytime temps are fantastic, maybe even too hot (lol), as soon as evening comes, the temps drops real fast!

This is when you will start getting powdery mildew on your squash and cucumber leaves, btw. The dew point, the nighttime temp difference, this equals the perfect conditions for p/m.

Try to not wet the leaves when you are watering. Water during the morning, ideally, or daytime, so that the leaves have time to dry completely before the temp drops.

You will get it anyway. It is inevitable. To slow down the spread, cut off the leaves as they get mildewed. You do not need a lot of leaves to finish ripening the fruits, or even to make more zukes and cukes yet.

Yes, you can compost mildewed leaves. It is a physiological issue (caused by the conditions).

2. I have a date for the other new hip. At the end of the month, I will be going in. Yes, this month. Eek! I am petrified, lol, but hopeful. That epidural is what worries me the most. Scares the heck outta me. Need to do a whole lotta deep, slow breaths over the next week or so ; )

3. This means my summer is basically over. I will be back to doing some things in October, though not bending down to plant garlic or more spring blooming bulbs.

Will see how the fall goes. Hubby is already talking about taking down my pots and baskets so that he does not have to water them 😭. I feel like they just started doing their thing not long ago!

That said, I hope the weather stays nice well into October, even November, so I can sit on the deck and enjoy the sunshine. Fingers crossed!

4. I have noticed that the winged aphids and thrips have found my yard. If your roses, zinnias, dahlias start to look weird - not opening all the way, dirty looking blossoms, a bit wonky and just not right, you have thrips.

Thrips are tiny little black bugs that look a bit like one of your tiny bottom eye lashes. They are tiny but cause a lot of grief for flowers. To find out if you have thrips, snip off a bloom, hold it over a white sheet of paper, give it a shake or a hard tap... the thrips will fall onto your sheet of paper.

What can you do about it? Nothing. Truly. You are wasting your time spraying with soap sprays, Neem oil (banned in Canada, btw), any of those things. They are tiny, they hide inside the blooms, you would be spraying till the cows come home. Systemics used to go into the tissue of the plant, so (of course) when the bugs bit into the tissue, they would ingest the toxin and die. Systemics were taken off the market while I still worked at Hole's Greenhouses, so over 20 years ago now.

What do I do? I snip off the affected blooms and wait for the next flush of flowers. These bugs go through your yard in waves, so will not reinfect the new blossoms. Yes, this really sucks for the dahlias that we wait so very long to enjoy.

5. As for the winged aphids., well '!@*% #'. Lol. That is what I think about that. I have been finding them on myself after I do pruning, deadheading, watering, anything near the plants. They are on the dill! But!... so are the ladybugs. Yeah for ladybugs coming to the rescue.

Honestly, this is the time for all the pests. Soon, we will also be inundated by flea beetles. As soon as that happens, I start taking down my gardens.

You can vacuum up the flea beetles, if you like. That helps. There are so very many of them, when they come around, that I just give up, lol. Again, spraying does not do much. Charles Dowding says he uses the yellow sticky strips, but I find that I also catch the beneficial insects so I won't do it.

I have loads and loads of great big bumblebees, this year. I have never seen so many in all my years of gardening. I am loving it! So, no sticky strips for me : )

Hover flies will soon be out in full force, too. If you are looking for pollinators to come to your yard (and organic pest control), bring in a few fall mums near your garden. The hover flies absolutely love fall mums!

When I worked at Holes', we would fill tables and tables with fall mums in all colours and sizes. The hover flies were in heaven! It was an amazing sight to see. We would have to keep telling people that they were good guys that do not bite or sting.

So... those are my thought on this lovely Thursday! Have a great weekend, enjoy the weather. We are supposed to get another thunderstorm tonight. I am here for it! Bring them on, lol. Islanders know why I am so excited about them (they are super rare on the east side of the island).

Oh.... I also have loads of poplar sawfly larva on my aspens. They have denuded three quarters of the tree already. What can I do about it? Nothing. They are too high up, there are too many. I just count my blessings that they would soon start yellowing and losing their leaves anyway. Besides, my little sparrows and chickadees love them!

08/17/2026

Good morning, friends. Happy Monday!

I have been awol for the past week, busy with babysitting the grandies... and stuff. I don't know what stuff, but must have been busy with something, lol.

Here are some thoughts for this morning... not sure if I can come up with 5, but let's see.

1.SHOPPING - Can you believe that August is more than half way done? This month has truly flown by. Kids go back to school in under two weeks time!

I'm going back to school shopping with my daughter and granddaughter, this week. I haven't done that for decades, hahaha, when my kids were still in school. That was a very long time ago.

I mean, my son has one year left of law school, but I don't need to go back to school shopping with him ; ) In case you're new here, my adult son went back to uni, got his degree and then went to law school. He has one year left of school and then a year of articling. We are very, very proud.

Anyhoo, very much looking forward to a shopping day with the 'girls' : )

2. HOLIDAY/TASKS - Did you get away at all this summer? We did not (insert sad face here). It has been one appointment after the other with/after hubby's esophagectomy.

We didn't even get any of the tasks checked off the list. We try to do one or two projects each summer. This year was going to be the front gate and the back pergola, but they have been pushed back till next summer.

With any luck, both of us are healthy, no more surgeries, lol, and can check these things off the list. The pergola is definitely listing to one side and the gate is in dire need of help.

Do you do a project each year? Is it just me?

3. PAINTING - We also try to do little tasks indoors in winter. Luckily, after the huge reno we did inside after we moved in, there are only little things left to do. I would love to get the inside (and the outside, lol) painted again, to freshen things up, but I think even that is waiting till next year.

Hey... not quite colour drenching, but what do you guys think about painting the trim and the walls the same colour, same sheen? I think that is what I am going to do (get done). so say nice-ish things, hahaha ; )

I got that idea here and think it looks so fresh. https://www.thegritandpolish.com/blog/the-best-warm-white-paint-color-for-old-homes-farrow-and-ball-slipper-satin

4. WEATHER- Okay.... now to the important stuff... how does your garden grow, this year?

I will say that I think our weather this year has been even worse than 2020. That year sucked in general, as we all know, but the summer was really cool (on the island), we only got about 3 weeks of warm weather in August and then fall came. Garden still grew well enough, though it was a strange year.

This year has been cool here. Spring sucked, early summer sucked. We got 3 weeks of summer weather and now it feels like fall already. What is going on? Thankful not to be in Edmonton though, they sure have got the short end of the stick (weather wise).

I'll post a garden update soon, but I can tell you that we have not eaten even one tomato from our own garden yet! My gardening soul is dying, lol.

5. That said... I have had a lovely summer. I have been sitting outside and enjoying the sun whenever it has been warm enough, or puttering in the garden to take advantage of the season.

I have made a point of visiting family/friends at every opportunity. Dropped in for a quick coffee or glass of w**e for a chat. We have spent a lot of time with our sweet grandies.

I have tried new places, done new things... making sure to prioritize people over 'chores'. There will be giant dog hair bunnies rolling down the hallway (wear your shoes when you come over) if I get a better offer ; )

I've even gone to events and things. I am usually one to say maybe and then back out at the last minute.

Hope you are having a lovely week. All my best ~ Tanja

Ps, still no word on the new hip surgery date.

08/13/2026

Found this bee sleeping on my echinacea the other evening. We have had so many big bumblebees around this summer, more than I can remember seeing in a really long time.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is indeed borage growing with the coneflower. They have melded into this lovely bee haven, this summer.

08/07/2026

Happy Friday, friends!

Here are this week's 5 Things Friday... things on my mind, right at this moment. Nothing earth shattering, just my thoughts on this day.

1. Weather - Need to start with weather. What would my Friday posts be without me whingeing about the weather, eh?

I had to turn my heat on this morning. Yep. August 7th. I have nearly done it all week long, but kept saying... 'no, it's too early'. So, I would wear a sweater and flannel bottoms all morning, till the house warmed up some. Today, I finally said enough is enough and turned the heat back on. It is what it is.

The days warm up okay, but it is like fall weather already. As soon as the evening hits, the temps dip fast. Is usually 10 degree when I go to bed, and only 8 when I get up in the morning. Like... c'mon, eh?

2. Tomatoes - That said, this is probably great weather to help the tomatoes ripen. When temps are too high, tomatoes do not want to ripen. The perfect ripening temp is between 20 and 25 degrees (according to experts) so we are right in line for that. Nights and morning are cool, but our day time temps are perfect... for both me and my tomatoes.

I have removed a whole lot of foliage (I have such great soil!) and will remove some of the blossoms today. Any flowers will not have time to both grow and ripen, even if we have a lovely, warm fall. I also fed it with an organic tomato fertiliser, this will also help them start to turn red.

If we have an early fall, with early frosts, there will be no sauces or salsas this year. With our late start to summer, we need more time!

3. Fruits - While most people are having a great Saskatoon berry year, we got about 18 berries between both shrubs, hahaha. This is just their 3rd summer though, so am hoping that next year is finally a good berry year.

They have shot up to 5 feet already, so a big difference in height from last summer.

- We are going to have loads of apples. I foresee a whole lot of apple juice coming soon!
- Grapes are doing great, too! And so far, crossing my fingers, we have very little leafhopper damage. Even the Virginia Creeper, a leafhopper magnet, is looking great... so far. Luckily, the bugs just make the leaves look crappy but do not affect the grapes.
- Raspberries... a fantastic raspberry year. Last year was so wet that my raspberries were watery and bland tasting. I just left them to the birds, let them fall to the ground. This year, though, they are abundant and yummy!

4. Hip - Well, I have had the pre-op appointment so now I will get a new hip somewhere between 1 week and 3 months ; ) A rather large window, so no preplanning is possible.

Wish I knew what to plan for with the garden, but at this point, I am hoping that it takes a month or even two months, so I can enjoy the garden... I feel like things just got started! I like to add more bulbs annually, but think I will not order any this year with the timing so unsure.

5. Hubby is getting another scope and stretching on his esophagus today. The one they made out of his stomach due to esophageal cancer. We are hoping this is one of the last times and eating becomes easier. It has been a long road...

My grandson is doing great, too, after his twisted bowel removal. Said that it only hurts to laugh or cough. So thankful for that. What a year it has been. I have been a wreck, honestly.

That is today's weekly recap... thankfully, there is nothing exciting or earth shattering going on right now. I have had enough of that stuff!

I am staying in the moment, enjoying this summer, regardless of the weirdness, enjoying coffees and visits with friends and family.

Bought myself a small watercolour/sketch book yesterday so that I can work on the daily doodle that I shared in this post https://marigoldpotagerdiaries.blogspot.com/2026/08/weekly-dose-of-inspiration-august-long.html

I am no artist but they say you get better with time and practice, so going to do both. It will help with my holiday gift tags and card making... you all know how I love to diy those!

Wishing you all a great weekend. Hope that life is treating you well. What are you doing this summer? How are you making the most of it? Love some ideas to help me make the absolute most out of the year.

08/05/2026

Good morning! I had a few familiar names follow me yesterday. Thank you all so much for following... but sadly, it was for the old blog, the one that I am no longer going to be posting on.

If you happened to sign up by not reading to the end of yesterday's post, you may have clicked on the wrong link 🤔😬

The new blog is super easy to sign up to, no bells and whistles needed for this one...

https://marigoldpotagerdiaries.blogspot.com/

08/04/2026

The final hurrah and link to my new blog. Hope to see you there. All my best to you ~ Tanja

So… this is the final farewell post from this blog. I have now moved to Blogger, a free blog site, where I will be sharing photos and updates of my garden, a garden diary, of sorts. I love to…

08/01/2026

Holy doodle! Can you believe it is already August? That summer is halfway over?

I missed yesterday's 5 Things Friday so here are my Five Things Friday on a Saturday ; )

1. My mil has arrived and is pretty much set up in her new digs. Little bits to do yet but considering it has only been 1.5 weeks, hubby has been a rockstar!

2. We've had a lot of these smoky mornings, where it looks very foggy. The morning temps have been cooler so I take advantage of it to cool off the house before the afternoon heat hits. Today is supposed to be 34 degrees!

3. My peppers are thriving and making peppers. Yay! I truly wasn't sure if it was worth keeping my starts this year, as they were so small at the beginning of the summer due to that cool start we had. Gave them a few shots of organic kelp fertiliser and boom! They grew, flowered, and are 'peppering' (hah). Thank goodness.

This summer, I am growing my peppers and eggplants in large pots sitting in the garden bed rather than in the greenhouse. They are on the south side of the house, by the wall, so they can bask in the heat.

4. The greenhouse is a jungle of cucumbers and tomatoes. Boy, are they ever thriving! No ripe tomatoes yet (deepest of sighs) but soon!

5. That is about all we have been doing this week. Helping gma get a new car, new furniture, and getting her settled. Today is grocery day and I think she is moving into the new apartment.

Weeding and watering is also going on, that is never ending. Unlike poor Edmonton (getting too much rain), we are getting nothing. Feast or famine ; )

It is the weirdest summer ever. I still cannot believe it is halfway over. Just one month and kids go back to school. My youngest grandie starts kindergarten this year 😭 Where does the time go, eh?

Hope you are having a lovely long weekend! Camping, gardening, chilling... whatever is your thing to do, I hope you are able to do it.

That makes me think of one of the book club meetings I was at. One of the ladies said that she does not garden as it interferes with her camping. I, of course, said that I do not camp as it interferes with my gardening, hahaha. I mean, I wouldn't camp anyway, unless it was a bougie cabin, but still it would have to be short so I could get back to my garden ; )

Have a great day ~ Tanja

07/27/2026

The cherries from our loaded little cherry tree made 6 pints of tart cherry juice.

This juice is said to help you sleep better and lessen joint pain. It is very strong though, so I add a splash to my 'bubbly water' or my chamomile tea before bed.

07/24/2026

Well, hi there! Happy Friday!

Here's this week's scoop on the 5 Things Friday that are on my mind this morning.

1. We are having another smoky day today. It sure does make a temperature difference. Turns a 30 degree day into a temperate 25, but that is the only good thing about it, eh?

Hoping you all are safe from the fires 💙

2. My grandson is home from the hospital and doing well. Thank goodness for the fast healing powers of little boys! He'll be back to his old self in no time.

The dr's figure that he should be able to eat a very normal diet after he heals, with the amount of intestines that they removed. Thank goodness!

3. It was my turn to host the neighbourhood ladies coffee klatch yesterday. Well, mine is actually next month, but I may be laid up with another new hip so did a switcheroo.

I had hoped to hold it in my studio out back but even with the smoke it was too hot outside. Kinda muggy feeling. Somehow, just being out there turns a coffee klatch into a garden party instead. The yard is starting to look nice, flowers blooming, cherries ripening, grass still green, veggies growing and ripening...

Anyway... maybe I'll have a garden party next summer ; ) ... unless you all wanna stop in this weekend, hahaha. I have the w**e!

4. My mother in law arrived yesterday from Ontario. She is making the move to Innisfail at the age of 86. Amazing, eh? She is going to love it here. She came from a small town, even smaller than ours, so is going to love the feel of our lovely little town. And the family dinners... well, she might have to turn off her hearing aides, lol. It will be a whole new experience for her to have all this family around, ranging from age 5 to 65.

5. While she was in Ontario, I was not allowed to say anything about hubby. Now that she is here and sees that he is well, I can share that we have had a heck of a year.

Hubs had cancer of the esophagus. They found it late last fall. So, he did the chemo thing first and then went on to the surgery. In case you do not know, as I did not, they remove the entire esophagus and build a new one out of his stomach.

Surgery was a long time ago and went really well, but as he is diabetic, the healing took 10 times as long as usual. It has been a 'thing', you all. We were told 8 to 10 days in hospital, then come back for stretching a few times.

Well.... he was in the hospital for 10 weeks! He still goes back every 2 weeks for a stretching (they stretch where they sewed his stomach in at both the top and bottom) but thankfully, life is slowly getting back to normal now.

I have been a bit of a wreck this whole year, so I apologize about the lack of postings, the inability to come up with things to share with you. I tried, I really tried, but some days I just did not have it in me. Many days, actually, lol.

I hope that life now starts to even out, get back to normal-ish. Yes, I have a new hip to deal with that will slow me down a bit, but when that is done, I will be better than ever ; )

I hope you all have a really terrific weekend. I hope you are all safe from the fires! I hope you are all healthy and happy, enjoying the summer weather ~ Tanja

Ps - Oh, and I found a way to add a follow to my new garden diary 'blog', in case you want to check that out. There is not a lot there yet, but there will be ; ) https://marigoldpotagerdiaries.blogspot.com/