Sunday Bits #34

Happy Father's Day Sunday, my friends! We are having a wonderful rainy weekend. No watering the garden, no yardwork to do, a great weekend for baking and crafting.

Hubby is at work this weekend so there is no get-together happening at our house. Instead, we will be having a Canada Day party on the 1st to celebrate not only Canada's birthday, but also my birthday and Father's Day, too. Tossing them all together for one great big fun, family day.

It is only 11 degrees outside today... my poor tomatoes. Grateful for the rain but wishing it was a bit warmer!

Gardening Bits

I wanted to start with this great short video about attracting ladybugs to your garden. Is quick and informative, and I love the bug house idea at the end!

Build this covered raised bed. This is super cute and easy to make, would be awesome over your brassicas, like cabbage, that tend to get so buggy, or to keep slugs out of your lettuce, flies off your carrots or onions to prevent carrot rust fly and onion maggots.

Help your plants beat the heat. How to Help Your Plants Beat the Heat - Dave's Garden (davesgarden.com)

Read this article for really practical summertime watering advice. With nearly 20 years of greenhouse experience and advice giving, the one thing I have learned is that people really, really love to water.

There are so many variables to consider, like wind, sun, rain, location, etc, but the most practical way to figure out how much water you need is simply to stick your finger in the soil. Potatoes, onions, and root crops do not want all that water and will not thrive if over-watered. Tomatoes and peppers become watery and bland tasting, perhaps mealy, as well, if you really go heavy on the water. Less really is more when it comes to veggies and water.

This is such a pretty and informative article about growing flowers. It was always a goal of mine to grow more flowers at the last homestead. In the works was growing mainly just tomatoes and flowers to sell, plus my own food garden, of course. Didn't happen but I still read everything I see about growing flowers for cutting. Whether you want to grow a few for yourself, or enough to sell for bouquets, this is a lovely read. Growing a Cut Flower Garden — The Grit and Polish

Seeds - Renee's Garden Seeds is having a sale right now. I have been growing from Renee's seeds for a good 20 years. They are always the first to germinate, have the best germination rates, and I love the varieties and selections they offer. Want to save on next year's seeds? Here is the link to the website to take advantage of the sale. If you sign up for their newsletter, you can also get 10% off of your entire order : ) Catalog | Renee's Garden Seeds (reneesgarden.com)

Recipes, Décor, and Other Bits of Things....

With all the talk about parties and flowers and such, maybe you want to host a good old fashioned Scandi style Mid-Summer Party this year? Here are 5 easy tips to host your own Swedish style mid-summer fest.

This dilled potato and pickled cucumber salad might just become my new go to! Only thing is that it requires some thought the day before and I am more like a 15 minutes before type of gal...

This strawberry lemon pound cake, you guys! I think this is going on the Canada Day dessert menu! Cannot wait to try it! I love pound cakes, I love lemony anything, so this looks like a great addition to my cake repertoire, to go with the blueberry lemon cake.

Don't you just love peonies? I had a small peony bush grow in my tomato bed that produced the two little flower buds that you see here. I don't even know what colour this peony is as I had no idea it even existed. So happy to have found this lovely volunteer in my garden! If you love peonies and have a few more flowers than I do, check out this post about creating a beautiful peony bouquet. It is so much more impressive than mine, haha.

Are you downsizing your home? We just did that last year, and I tell you, it was hard! One of the hardest things to get rid of was a dining set that had home come with us from Germany and gone from house to house (6 houses) for the past 28 years. We kept this west coast dining table (yes, we had two dining sets, lol) that fit beautifully into our open floor plan home but is a bit too wide in this new house. We love it because, without the leaf we can seat 6 to 8 at it, with the leaf... well, the whole fam-jam fits in just fine. Despite having to move the sofa out of the way when we have family dinners, I do not foresee getting rid of this table ever, unless we happen to find an affordable banged up, chippy, narrow, antique, super long table.

Read this great article about downsizing - Home Downsizing: 5 Ways to Cope When Your Family Doesn't Want Your Stuff - On Sutton Place

In case you missed it the other day, here is my post on how to have fantastic planters (and baskets) all summer long.

Happy Father's Day to all you great dads out there ~ Tanja