Bits of This & That #12 (flowers, vintage vibe, soil, cool veggies)

Happy Sunday morning! We have a foggy day today, making it feel kind of gloomy. Sounds like a perfect day for crafting or garden planning. I have a hankering to make some of my own reusable grocery bags, has been on my wish list for a while. Maybe today is the day?

I have had such a wonderful week. The weather has been sunny and mild, hubby is home from his away-work, grandbabies came for a visit, had a long phone call with my good friend, and my seed orders are starting to trickle in. I'd say that make for a pretty good week.

Here are my links for this week. All sorts of great things but a whole lot about flowers, it seems. As soon as I started thinking about flowers for the potager and blogging about them, all sorts of posts arrived in my emails about growing flowers!

Check out this bevies bar idea if you are cutting back on caffeine this year. Or just because you want some alternatives for warm drinks when you are coffee-d out. This coffee bar is actually a cute set up for non-caffeinated beverages, has ideas and recipes, too.

This is the BEST link! How to calculate how many veggies you need to grow to feed your family. Save this one, you guys! It is a good one. I will be bringing this up again in other posts.

How to grow microgreens. Is that time of year. The cost of greens at the grocers is insane, we need some fresh goods to put in our sandwiches and salads. Here is another link that has a how-to video, really explains so well how to grow those microgreens.

Winter Sowing Lets You Get A Jump Start On Spring. Here’s How (chatelaine.com). This article explains all about winter sowing in an easy, understandable way. If you are itching to get something started now, this is for you. For the rest of us, we start this next month and just do planning and dreaming this month.

11 Old-Fashioned Flowers to Create a Vintage Vibe in Your Garden - Pond and Garden Ideas. Flowers that are hardy and beautiful, that stand the test of time... but still make you think of you mom's garden, or grandmother's ; )

This gorgeous flower border though! Wow! So beautiful. This kind of border was my goal at the last house with white, blues/purples, and pinks as my colour scheme (see pic above). I should have added that lively chartreuse to really make things pop!

This flower garden post from a Canadian blogger in the interior of BC.

Beautiful perennials that are hardy and attract bees to your garden, feed the beneficial insects that do so much good in your potager.

Winter Gardening Tips From Your Growing Zone – Mother Earth News. What do now in every zone.

4 Ways to Use a Cold Frame - FineGardening. I just picked up a mini greenhouse/cold frame. It will get here next weekend, so will tell you all about it and how I am planning on using it in my zone 3 garden.

These are some great veggies to prestart in spring, or to direct sow after the last frost. 8 Cool Vegetables to Grow from Seeds – P. Allen Smith (pallensmith.com)

I got the idea of planting petunias in the food garden to control pests from P. Allen Smith. See the blue in the beds? Love that added pop of colour. Will tell you more about what flowers to choose for your potager in the next post.

How to get your soil ready for spring planting! Get Your Soil Ready for Spring: 3 Essential Steps to Hit the Ground Running (growveg.com)

This is a great house tour. While the kitchen is beautiful, it is really the exterior that caught my eye, the porches, the patio. Really pretty and lots of affordable ideas to make your patio look amazing this summer.

This shop is in Vancouver, a lovely Canadian shop with all sorts of really pretty things for the house.

I don't know about some of these Home Decor Trends, but some are super cute. Did you know that mushroom decor is a thing? That is kinda cute, eh? I love mushrooms!

Gosh, this sure is a pretty backyard in a nice simple way. Nothing crazy, over the top, just simple design that looks just right in the long backyard.

This 3-Strip garden trial by Charles Dowding shows how forking your garden makes for reduced harvests. New to CD? Sign up for his emails, they are super informative. No need to turn your soil or fork in that compost.

Interested in vermicomposting? Inside the house? Making your own garden gold to feed the potager? Here is a simple and inexpensive way to get started.

The Flowers and How to Plan Out Your Potager posts are coming up next, so stay tuned. Have questions or want me to write about something that is causing you angst? Let me know!

Happy January ~ Tanja