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We have been blessed with the most amazing weather for the Thanksgiving weekend. Truly a weekend for giving thanks. This year, we are doing a potluck kind of dinner as hubs is away for work. Usually he makes the entire meal but this year we are dividing up the meal. Yes, it takes three of us to do what he usually does ; ) My brother and the nephews are making most of the meal, aka the ham, roasted veg, and scalloped potatoes. Dinner was going to be at his place but it is hunting season, so he has no time to clean house and clear the dining table for all of us. Understandable. Baby Girl is making the yummy desserts. I am providing a freshly cleaned house, a lovely tablescape with the prettiest candles (from Homesense, you all!), the wine, and homemade dinner rolls. Here are this week's lovely Bits... Fall garden chores. This is the perfect weekend to do your fall gardening here on the prairies. Lovely weather, lovely sunshine. These easy to grow perennials! They grow in most all zones, including here on the prairies. Tough as nails, easy to care for, don't require tons of water once established... pretty much perfect, eh? I love most all of them. Had them at the last place, will take me a while to get them all here at the new place, but I'm working on it. Besides being drought tolerant, they are also terrific for birds, bees, and butterflies, and you know that is how I roll! It must blue kitchens week, check out these 3 lovelies! This pretty blue kitchen. So pretty! I could easily have lived with this hue, I think. The perfect blue. The only thing I would change about this kitchen is the pulls, but that is a me thing. I don't do round ; ) I love that faucet, too! This blue kitchen is also amazing! Love the glass shelves in the windows, that is on my list here. So much to love about this kitchen, including the view! And one more blue kitchen that caught my eye this week. If you are looking to make a blue kitchen, this is your week for ideas, eh? Love the sink, window area. Love that sink, the tap, the windows, and those lights are so pretty, too - though not sure I would go with them. I just love to look at kitchens (homes and yard, too) and the details, take little bits of inspiration that I maybe use, maybe never do. I hope you can take some bits from them, too. Love the cafe curtains in the last kitchen nook. I have a nook, I have cafe curtains, hahaha, so thinking of looking into making something similar for autumn. By the way, fabric is expensive, especially if you like linen, so my best tip is this ... go to Homesense or Amazon and buy a lovely tablecloth to make into curtains. Inexpensive to seasonally change out your curtains. That may just be a Scandinavian idea, but I love it. Let's bring that here! I found some beautiful new drapes for the living room to use in winter (insulate and create the feeling of warmth), am just waiting till I have washed my windows from dog drool, nose prints, and painted up the sills that Berkely has scratched up. The drapes will look so lovely for Christmas, too! I have had many requests for the details of the renovation, colours, tiles, and such, so as the gardening season slows down for winter, I will share all the bits and bobs. This outdoor seating area (see up top), dinner party, is a gardener's delight. I really like those spooky lights, too! Recipes! By the time you read this, I will probably have made mushroom pasta bake so can give you my thoughts on it. It looks so good that I cannot wait to try it! (So... I did make this and it is amazing. So simple and it rivals any mushroom pasta bake I have ordered at restaurants (they are often my go to meal) but I made changes according to what I had at home, so is not exactly as the recipe - I used canned mushrooms instead of fresh, dried shitake instead of porcini (love the toothiness of these mushrooms), and balsamic instead of red wine vinegar, no mozza, just a bit of parmasan. Use what you have at home, don't feel like you have to make any recipe just as is.) Have you ever wanted to make up a weekly or monthly menu but not known where to start? This will help! The Best Hosting Tips that we learned from grandma. I liked this one. Especially the bit about the kids : ) Not to be forgotten, these yummy seasonal apple recipes! This apple crumb cake looks like an easy to make, casual dessert. Maybe even for Thanksgiving? Apple cider toffee? Count me in! And one more... check out this yummy Apple Cider Doughnut Bundt Cake. The garlic planting how-to is coming up in a day or two! Happy Sunday! We are doing the dinner tomorrow so today is cleaning and planting bulbs day. Happy Thanksgiving ~ Tanja

We have been so very busy! Fall harvest and canning is a big job in itself, then add in garden clean up and getting ready for winter, and it quickly adds up to some crazy busy weeks. Here are the 3 things I do each fall to prepare the potager and gardens for winter. STEP ONE Do a thorough garden clean up. A long time ago (2016), I was reading an article about David Mattern who oversees the vegetable garden at Chanticleer Gardens, and his proactive approach to pest control, among other things. The entire read was super interesting, but what really caught my eye was when he said that cleanliness is next to godliness in the vegetable garden. I was reading the article the autumn after I had madly battled brown marmorated stink bugs (loads of them) all summer, in my potager. They were living (and procreating) in the strawberry plants but were going after the raspberries, corn, and tomatoes, as well. They completely destroyed every corn cob that year. So when I read that David removes all plant debris, all vegetative matter, takes everything out right down to the compost, in order to keep the garden clean and pest free the following spring, that really struck a chord with me. Bugs will overwinter in plant debris, under leaves, and in the stalks and stems of plants. In spring, they wake up right there, in your food garden, ready to eat anything they see. They will be on your wee spring seedlings, or just beneath the soil, waiting to eat and burrow into your radishes, beets, carrots. Ever since then, we have done the same and it has made all the difference in the amount of pests we get (little to none- I kid you not!). This one step is by far the best thing you can do for a pest free garden. I ripped out all those strawberries, I had about 120 plants - alpine, ever-bearing, and June-bearing. I composted most of the plants and moved the others to a bed far away from the potager, close by the roses, flowers, and blueberries, instead. Oh, I got rid of the stink bugs by flicking them into a pail of soapy water first. Filled that bucket! Then I removed all the vegetation, all the plants, their leaves, and the weeds, too. The only thing left standing in the food garden was the asparagus (cut back to 6 inches), and the vegetables that overwinter in a zone 7 garden (carrots, parsnips, celery, brussels). These are all harvested before spring, so if any bugs were lingering, they are removed in the dead of winter. I moved my fall and winter veggie bed up by the strawberries. It is also harvested by late spring, so is cleaned up and no bugs are carried forward to the summer crops. So, transfer that advice to this garden on the frigid prairies, in my zone 3 garden. I have no fall and winter garden, no veggies will be harvested in February here (hah), and I have no asparagus plants to cut down, as of yet. We have removed all the plant material from the garden beds, except the celery and carrots. Will leave the carrots in till November, so that they get sweeter with the frosts. They will then be harvested, tops removed, washed, dried, placed in a bag with a few air holes and a paper towel, put into the crisper in the spare fridge. The celery will be pulled shortly. Till now, we have just been harvesting the stalks, as needed, for cooking and canning. I do a good last weed and a thorough clean up. Did you know that raised beds tend to have less weeds than in-ground ones? And are easier to keep tended? That is why we have added a few more beds this fall! The beds are generally packed full of plants so weed seeds have no place to land in the garden. STEP 2 Practice no-dig/no-till gardening. I adopted the no-dig gardening method a dozen or more years ago and never looked back. Why adopt no-dig, no-till? First - your body will thank you for it. No more digging, turning, tilling, messing about. Just run the hoe over the bed to knock down weeds and weeds that may be germinating right under the soil that you cannot yet see. Do the edges of the beds really well, that is where they tend to end up. I use a Winged Weeder, a triangle hoe to do this as the blade lifts up and weeds, but also the pointy wings go along the sides of the bed so well. Second - every time you till or turn the soil, you bring weed seeds to the surface to germinate. If you start tilling a weedy bed, you will have weeds forever as the weed seeds come to the surface, go to seed, giving you more weeds each time. Third - most importantly, the humus and soil life is being shredded each time you rototill. There are all sorts of beneficial microorganisms and mycorrhizal fungi threads under the soil that make your soil better, and thus make your plants stronger and healthier. Nature is providing you with healthy soil, doing all the work for you. If you till, you end up having to feed your plants and repair the soil - paying for things that nature was already doing for you. I run the hoe through the soil to knock down weeds. If the weeds do not have flowers on them, I just leave them be on top of the soil to die. If it is warm and rainy when you are doing this, rake up your weeds! Especially hairy bittercress, that stuff will re-root itself in the blink of an eye. THAT SAID... Now, some of you are going to say that you have to till because you have really compacted soil. Tilling will actually make it worse. I know it looks all nice and fluffy, so pretty after it has been tilled, but you are breaking up the particles of the soil, the humus, so that they end up compacting even more densely, meaning that you have to keep tilling to keep the soil from turning into concrete. Here are two things that I think do not do damage and may be helpful to your soil... Get a cultivator rather than a tiller. This short tined machine will fluff up just the top 4 inches of topsoil, leaving the fungi threads and soil life alone. It breaks up that hard crust that sometimes forms on top of the beds, blends in your compost, manure, soil amendments, and also uproots small weeds. For growing root crops, especially, use a broadfork. A broadfork is a garden tool that I have wanted for years and years, but they tend to be pricey, so I make do without. The broadfork aerates your garden, adds air to the top few inches of soil without damaging the soil texture below or mixing up soil layers. I would especially like this for my garlic bed so that it can set in good, strong roots in loose, friable soil. How to use a broadfork. STEP 3 "Feed the soil, not the plant" is the foundation of organic agriculture, whether in a garden setting or a farm setting. The third step in my potager clean up is to feed the soil with compost or manure so that I never ever have to use fertiliser. I switch it up between manures and composts from year to year to attract diverse soil life. The more diversity you have, the better your soil is, the healthier your plants are. Dump in the used soil from your hanging baskets and potted plants, too. If you have great soil, you only need a half inch to one full inch of compost on top of your beds. Rake it out and allow the soil life to work it down into the soil. If your soil is poor and you are trying to amend it, make it grow better foods and flowers, use more. If it is a bed that is empty of all plant material (your food garden) top it with as much compost as you can afford/fit in. I like to go about 3 inches deep. If it is a flower bed that you are wanting to improve, push a couple inches in and around your perennials. Do not give compost to your trees or shrubs now, feed those in early spring. If you have hard, compacted soil, add lots of compost or manure right on top of the soil. The soil life will aerate and improve your soil quality, you just need to feed them with this organic matter. You can use branches, leaves, grass clippings, all sorts of organic matter, but I would top that all with a bit of compost or manure just to keep the bugs from overwintering in the vegetation. The secret to making sandy soil better is feeding it with organic matter. The secret to improving clay soil is organic matter. Organic matter to feed your soil life is the answer to poor soil of any kind. It attracts soil life that will aerate and feed the soil (think worm castings). They compost down the matter which in turn makes your soil amazing. Remember the steps... you do not need to dig it in, just spread it on top and walk away. Let nature do what nature does best. In my yard - we had such terrible soil (provided to us by our landscaper last year), the garlic did not thrive, nor did the dahlias and cosmos. We moved the two 6"high raised beds into that area (more on that in the next post), put them right on top of the ground, leaving space in front for flowers and at the back for the dogs to travel along. The beds are open to the soil below, we filled the beds to the brim with compost that will feed the vegetables next year. This patio bed will be a thriving garden. All the raised beds were topped up with as much compost as it took to fill them to the very top. These beds are 2 feet deep so were lasagna gardened. The bottom is filled with straw, leaves, branches, all sorts of stuff that will continue to break down and feed the soil life to provide me with great soil. The beds will sink for a few years yet, as those things compost down. The greenhouse had the same poor soil as the patio bed so although the tomatoes did alright, they certainly were not amazing. The bed was topped up with a good 4"to 6" of compost. Expecting great things next year! WHAT ABOUT THE LEAVES? and COVER CROPS? I don't personally do cover crops but I think they are great. I prefer to chop and drop, especially around fruit trees and shrubs (orchard and food forests) rather than cover cropping, but that is a personal choice. Do your homework, find the right cover crops for your needs, try them in a small area first. Leaves are garden gold and leaf mould is fantastic. I don't add leaves to my vegetable beds for the reason stated in step one, but I use them everywhere else. They can stay on the lawn, they get piled into the raspberry bed, perennial bed, flower beds, around trees and shrubs. I occasionally rake some of them up and pile them up for leaf mould next year that feeds my plants. WHAT NOW? While the raised beds are ready for winter, I still have lots of yard work to do. Pots to clean, shed to organise, clean up to do. The leaves have barely started to fall yet and I really want to pile them up in the raspberry bed this year. I gave it some compost already but I want to improve the soil friability and add more nutrients. I will be planting my garlic this weekend so that it has time to settle in before the hard frosts and snow arrives. Here on the prairies, the garlic farms are planting theirs now, so I do as the pros do ; ) If you are one of my island followers, you really have loads of time to plant yours. I have planted as late as December some years. I will be sowing carrots, lettuce, onions, beets, spinach, and some flower seeds at the end of October here on the prairies, unless we get a dump of snow. In that case, I will sow them in the greenhouse. I know that the carrots, lettuce, and flowers do well sown in October, the rest are a trial. You never know till you try. Do not sow carrots now on the island, or the west coast. They will not have time to size up and then will just go to seed in the spring. Instead sow around winter solstice - I like Christmas week. That is it. That is how to put your garden to bed for winter. Follow these 3 steps and you will have an amazing potager next year. Truly. Great crops and few pests. I used to hold a show and tell workshop about these steps at the acreage, plus show how to plant garlic. Next year, when all is set up, I will have my free garden winterising workshop here at the new house! Looking forward to it already ~ Tanja

We started making this fantastic 'green tomato relish' many, many years ago. It has since became a household staple here at home, and with my kids, as well. It is made from our own garden grown green tomatoes (grab them before they ripen!), peppers, and onions. Add some spices and that is it. We all love it because it is a bit tangy, not sweet, is not full of sugars like store bought relish is, and has a bit of crunch to it. This is not a chutney, there are no fruits or sweet bits in it. Chow chow is is the perfect topping for all sorts of meats, sausages, egg dishes, veggie dogs and hot dogs, is a great burger topping, makes yummy homemade tartar sauce, great in tuna salad ( or faux tuna salad made with chick peas), on meat loaf… truly so versatile and yummy, you will be adding it everywhere. We go through tons of it annually. One batch makes a good 6 to 8 pints. I like ours in smaller jars, this year’s batch filled 18 of the 250 ml jam/jelly jars. *please note that this has to sit overnight so takes about 24 hours to make. Here is what you need…. 7 lbs green tomatoes, chopped very finely 5 medium sweet (green, red, yellow... any colour) peppers, cored, seeded, and finely chopped. 5 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped 1/4 cup of pickling salt 2 1/2 cups of cider vinegar 1 1/2 cups of sugar 1/4 cup of pickling spice in a cheesecloth bag 2 tsp dry English mustard Chop the vegetables finely. Combine chopped veggies and salt in a large bowl, mix, cover, and let sit overnight. We use a variety of pepper colours to make the chowchow more colourful, if we have them on hand. Green for the bite, plus red, yellow, or orange for the visual appeal. The next morning, strain the veggies in a colander. Press out the excess moisture. Set aside Combine the rest of the ingredients in a pot, boil over a medium-high heat. Simmer for 10 minutes and then add the veggies to the pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium to simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Stir often. Remove veggies from heat and get rid of the spice bag. Spoon mixture into hot, clean, and sterile jars, leaving 1/2 inch (1 cm) of air space to the rim. Stick a knife into the relish to get rid of any air bubbles, or smoosh with a spoon. Wipe the rims clean, and seal. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes. This recipe is truly wonderful, I hope that you will give it a try, may just become a staple in your pantry, too. This relish is such a great way to use up your green tomatoes. We make sure to gather enough green tomatoes annually, before they all ripen up, in order to make this chow chow. This recipe is from the ‘well preserved’ cookbook by Mary Anne Dragan. The whole book is amazing, if you want to do a lot of canning from your home grown garden, invest in this book. She also has a new one out for small batch preserving, which I totally want to get! I make a lot of small batch jams and pickles as the fruits ripen in the garden, but would love to make even more. These books are great investments. Happy Canning ~ Tanja

First day of October today. Feels like the summer fairly flew by, doesn't it? And here we are in fall and soup weather. Hubs and I have had a super busy week. The house is clean (for about 5 minutes anyway), laundry is all done, sauna has been scoured, deck washed down from all the dust, back windows cleaned, garden beds harvested and emptied, and the shop painted. Oh, and canning. We now have lots of green tomato chowchow and pickled beets in the pantry! We have been making this green tomato chowchow for many, many years. It is our go-to topping for burgers, dogs, meats. This crunchy, tangy relish is so good! We use our own tomatoes, peppers, and onions, so we know it is all organic, nothing in it that should not be. As we harvest and clean out the gardens, we are adding two new beds and raising two of the others. Just making wee changes that will help to improve the soil as we can layer on more if we raise the beds a little bit. The easiest way to do that is to add some sides to the beds. Could we mound them up? Sure we could, but the dogs would tramp that into a big mess, I think. More on the new beds and such in the winter prep blog post coming next week. Speaking of improving the soil, I shared this podcast on the fb page today... it is wicked good! You really need to read it/listen to it! So many takeaways from this one. I get all inspired and hopeful when I read these podcasts... not everyone is killing every bug out there, lol. We are not alone, you all ; ) Are you an organic gardener concerned about the decline in insects? Are you worried about the decline in bird populations due to the decline in insects? To make a difference, this read about ecological gardening is for you. These 10 steps will help make a difference on our planet. I do all of these things, but do some better than others. One of the things I need to figure out better for next summer is water for the critters. I am great at water conservation but less so about knowing how to provide the insects with a clean water source. Birdbaths are hard to keep clean at our place as the dogs think they are raised water bowls... both are drooly dogs so create a lot of slime in the birdbath. Bugs are a necessity for the circle of life. The more we kill off, the less of the other species/animals/critters we will have. Birds are going extinct! Plant flowers and walk away from those aphids, caterpillars, and leaf hoppers, the good guys will take care of them. Sort of on that same tangent, I have shared this before, I think, but here are some cool season flowers that you can sow this fall for earlier and sturdier flowers in spring. I have my seeds at the ready, will be sowing them next week, as soon as we top up the beds with more compost. Check out all the great seed offerings at Salt Spring Seeds, a lovely small seed house on Canada's west coast. I thought this read about Johnny Appleseed was pretty interesting. So sad about the prohibition! Find out more here. What a lovely yard and cottage! Check out all these lovely ideas for your patio, no matter how tiny. Some of these spaces are very small and yet so chic. Give your patio/yard a serene Scandi look with these tips. I thought this little ghost garland was adorable. I would make this if I had littles living at home, is so cute! Might make it anyways! And then add these cute and simple to make ghost candles! These two yummy apples recipes.... Apple muffins with crumb topping and super easy apple dumplings. Check out all these breakfast recipes, everything from breads to smoothies. Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. Raspberry swirl bread. This looks delish! You can, of course, use any jam you like instead of raspberry, but raspberry happens to be my favourite ; ) Oat and wheat sandwich bread! Egg salad with pickled celery! This looks delish! I will be pickling some celery to give this a try. As soon as autumn hits, I start thinking about soups. Forget salads, soups are where it's at. This minestrone soup has only 175 calories per bowl. Check out this yummy vegetable soup, too. I love that she left the beans in their pods! Have the bestest of weeks, you guys ~ Tanja

Autumn has arrived on the prairies. Leaves are yellowing and falling, nights are cool, a couple have even been a bit frosty. Our busy harvest season has begun in earnest. Time to start emptying out those beds. We've had such a great vegetable year. The raised beds were filled with garden clippings, straw, branches and such last fall and then topped with compost from Kamen Landscaping! Everything has grown superbly. Check out these Lutz Green Leaf beets! They are huge and tasty. The tops are near 2 feet tall! As I had planted many companion flowers to attract the predatory insects, we had very, very little leaf miner damage. If one likes beet greens, this one is the one to grow. Our grandson spent the day helping me in the garden and his grampy with the shop build. He really enjoyed digging up the spuds, said it was like a treasure hunt! That little fella has been helping us with yard chores since he was knee high to a grasshopper. I harvested the gorgeous Birds & Bees sunflower heads for feeding the birdies in winter, but am regretting not planting more of them. I'll be sure to sow a whole bunch along the back fence line next year : ) Gardening Bits This post, though it's just a simple list of shrubs, had me pulling out my planner and taking notes, mapping out a landscaping plan for the front yard revamp happening next summer. Get your journal ready!. This is a very, very beautiful yard! Lots of landscaping ideas, flowers and shrubs around every corner. An enchanted glade of a garden amid forests and rivers in northern Sweden | House & Garden (houseandgarden.co.uk) This yard is so pretty! Butter Wakefield's London Garden | Outdoor Spaces | House & Garden (houseandgarden.co.uk) This garden though... this wee allotment garden is my muse, I absolutely love it. The ladybugs were everywhere yesterday as I worked in the garden. While I do not recommend buying bugs for your garden, I highlly recommend attracting them. Here are the best bugs and how to get them to make your yard their home. Predatory Bugs: Good Guys In The Garden - Dave's Garden (davesgarden.com) How to save Sweet Pea seeds from start to finish. Really great directions and simple to do. Check out these great new seed introductions at Renee's Garden Seeds for 2024, like these nearly black scabiosa flowers! Homey Bits How do you feel about dark brown cabinets? You all know that I love white everything, but some of these have me saying 'hmm', in a good way. Free printable calendar for your 3 ringed binder. Come with options for weekly food planner, a gratitude tracker, goal planner, notes, all sorts of extra things. Really pretty floral border, too. I love this so much! DIY Sunflower Centerpiece with Pinecones and Reclaimed Wood (thepondsfarmhouse.com) Recipes These 15 cake recipes! Wow! 3 protein bowl recipes. These look so yummy! And good for you, too. This soup - healthier slow cooker creamy tortellini soup! Tort soup is my favourite, looking forward to making this one! We had another stretch of our fence done last week. Our yard is a pie shape with a long back fence, but it is not a straight stretch, has a couple of angles in it. Last year, we did the straight stretch along the very back. This year, we did the angled part, with the gate. Next year we will do the south side, maybe even the north side, he he he. Time and budget will dictate ; ) Anyway, I really love this new corner! We moved the gate out from the corner, a bit to the side, so we can create a curved pathway to come through the pergola, and make a lovely flower garden in that corner. Have a Great Week ~ Tanja

I recently received an email from Chatelaine magazine with fall recipes, including what they were calling their classic apple crisp. I was excited. Thought they were going to share the recipe that I have been making for the past 46 years from a really old Chatelaine cookbook. My first ever cookbook actually. Alas, it was not the same recipe. They had changed it somewhere along the way. So, it might be a classic but it is not as old and classic as me and my cookbook ;) I start making this dessert in late summer, as soon as the apples are ripe on the tree and keep making it all through the fall and winter months. I triple the recipe for Thanksgiving and potlucks. I love it with a cup of tea in the afternoon while I watch The Midwives, or for breakfast. I mean, it has tons of fruit so has to be good for you... right? It sinks down a lot when you bake it so add as much fruit as you want! I tend to prefer a bigger fruit to crisp ratio. Peel and core your apples. The recipe calls for 5 or 6 medium sized apples. I often use as many as 8 or 9. Place the crumbly topping evenly over top of the apples. Place in 375°F oven and bake till browned on top, 30 to 40 minutes. That is it. This recipe is bomb proof, you cannot go wrong. Preheat oven to 375°F. 5 to 6 apples (feel free to use more) 1/2 cup large flake oats 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed 1/2 cup butter or margarine Peel, core, and slice apples. Place in a baking dish. Place the other ingredients into a bowl and mix them together well to create the crispy topping. I use a pastry blender but you can use your fingers or a couple of knives to shop up that butter and mix it all together. The mixture will be rough and crumbly. Chop butter into pea sized bits. Evenly spread the topping over the apples. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Tastes great warm or cold on it's own, or serve with ice cream, cream, cashew milk, oat milk, vanilla almond creamer... My Favourite Variations Use a combination of apples and pears together, bake for a bit longer. Pears and cranberries are amazing together. I may even like this combo more than the apple. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes as pears take a bit longer to soften. You can easily double or triple the recipe to bring to Thanksgiving dinner or potlucks. You can play with it and add any spices you like - ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg.... We prefer it without and the recipe does not call for any, but you make it yours! I really hope you enjoy this recipe! It is one of my all time favourites, one that has stood the test of time ~ Tanja

The autumnal weather continues to be beautiful here on the prairies. The nights are cool, often dipping to single digits, while the daytime temps are lovely and the breezes are warm. Perfect weather for yard and garden work. This week is supposed to be a little cooler, with a risk of frost. I have my sheets ready to throw over top of those tomatoes... just in case. They are so close, I am taking no chances. You can see and feel that fall has arrived though. Officially, it is a few days away yet, but everything is looking a tired and past it's prime. Here's what is going on this week in the potager, aka the food garden. Pots, planters, hanging baskets. My planters and hanging baskets are coming down this week, even though they still look pretty amazing. However, I am over it, over them. Seems I'm suddenly done with all the pink. It stood me well all summer long but bring on hues of gold, red, and orange. I stopped watering to let them wilt down and dry out the soil. This make it easier for us to remove the plants from the pots. Hubby is going to dump the smaller pots into the garden beds, soil and all, to add new soil life and micro organisms to the gardens, but we will leave the soil in the big pots and just refresh them with compost next year. I'll tell you all about that in spring! If you are planting autumn colours in your pots, just add a bit of compost or bagged manure, that will be enough to feed them till the frosts or elements take them down. Leaves - What to do with them when they start falling from the trees? 1. In your flower beds, you need not do anything at all. Leave them on top of the beds to compost down with the elements. They provide winter shelter for ladybugs and other beneficial insects and then will break down to feed the soil life and improve your soil. 2. Mulch them up and spread them out on top of your garden beds to improve soil friability, feed the soil life, and fill your soil with nutrients. This is the route that I'm going to take with mine. 3. If you have a large compost bin or pile, toss them in there to break down into garden gold that you spread around your plants in spring. 4. Leave them in a big pile, make a wire cage to keep them from blowing about, if need be. They will break down into leaf mould that is a fabulous feed for your plants, your gardens, your trees and shrubs. I particularly like to put it around my strawberries in spring. Tips from the pros about watering your trees in fall... Don't. Zone 3 - The pros say that if you are watering your trees at this time of year, you are keeping them green and growing. Stop watering now until they have lost all their leaves. This is kind of a hardening off process that helps them get ready for winter. After they have lost all their leaves is when you can give everything a good, deep soak. Zone 7- On the west coast, this is a great time to plant trees! Before the rainy season begins. The weather is cool enough that they are not stressed from the heat so they only need a deep soak once a week or two till the leaves fall and the rains start. Powdery Mildew Many of us have mildew on our cukes, zukes, squash and pumpkins by now. This just comes with the time of year, no point in doing much about it as the heavy morning dews will just keep bringing it back. Tis that time of year. Mildewed leaves can be tossed in green bin or composted. The mildew will not harm the soil in any way. To prevent mildew in summer, make sure that you have great air flow around your plants, and water at soil level in mornings (ideally). I have so many leaves as I grew pumpkins, winter squash, and zucchinis this year, that some will go in the bin and some will be placed with the potted plants on top of the beds to rot down and feed the soil. Tomatoes My paste tomatoes are finally blushing, some have even turned red. My beefsteaks are ripening and being harvested while these pastes are just hanging out, not a worry in the world. They should have been ready a month ago already! It's the craziest thing. They are determinate varieties (Heinz 2653 and Martino's Roma) so have a determined life span but these guys are well past their due date, still flowering, still fruiting, still growing. I have pruned and pinched them back twice already! This is super unusual but must have something to do with the weather this summer. Whenever something happens that does not make sense, I put it down to mother nature throwing another curve ball ~ hah! Anyways, they all look terrific, so I will leave them as long as I possibly can as I prefer vine ripened tomatoes. I am sure we will get enough ripe ones to make at least one batch of tomato sauce but if most stay green, we will make a big batch (or two) of our super yummy green tomato chow chow and bin the rest. So it goes. Read this article about how to help your tomatoes ripen indoors in all sorts of different ways, for ideas if your tomatoes are also still green. Oh, just want to mention that all of them look great, not a one with BER. They were watered every 3rd or 4th day with a long, deep soak all summer long, and now just once a week. They are just perfect. If you are getting BER, try watering less often but good and deep. It is hard to do, seems wrong, but just keep telling yourself that they do dry farming in Italy and hey, your grandma only watered once or twice a week, too, as she had to carry the water. Also, remember how you planted them really deep? Doesn't matter one iota if the top inch or two is dry as those roots are down deep where the soil is damp. My Pink Berkeley Tie-Dyes, Ruby's German Green, Bloody Butcher, plus the cherries are tasting just fine. I also have some lovely Mystery Keepers in the greenhouse. They are late tomatoes and will not turn bright red. They stay a light pink on the outside but watermelon red inside. These keeping tomatoes are placed on a beer or pop flat, not touching, and placed in the cold room or pantry. They will keep for many months. I have had some last until late February! Potatoes Mine are ready to be harvested. The tops have completely died down (except the row in front) so they should have a pretty decent skin on them to help them keep well in storage. We ate all the Norlands this summer! None left for storage. Thank goodness we grew those Jazz potatoes, too! I mean, I'm not really bothered as we grow food for eating, but is always lovely to fill the pantry, too. Especially with the cost of food these days. To store your potatoes, let them die back completely, like above. Then lift them, wash them, lay them out to dry, and place in a cardboard box in your cold room for winter. You want to place them somewhere that they will stay above freezing but cool and dark. The cardboard box works great as it absorbs moisture, does not allow it to build up inside the box, and keeps the light out so they don't go green. Onions When your onion tops start to fold over at the neck, push the rest of them down, too. Leave them sit for a few days so that they stop growing, start to shut down, and cure better for storage. If you are going to use them right away, you do not need to do this. Once the tops start to wilt, lift the onions and place them out to cure. Ideally in a shaded area with good air flow. If you wish to braid them, wait till the tops are brown and no longer full of moisture to prevent mould from setting in. I cut the tops off, clean up the roots, and store them in a basket. Everything else.... The rest of these beets will be harvested for pickling, just leaving a few for Thanksgiving dinner. They are being watered once a week till then. I have twisted the tops off of the brussels sprouts to put energy into the sprouts, help them plump up some more. They taste better after a frost or two, but we will be harvesting one or two plants for Thanksgiving regardless. The carrots are being left in the raised bed as long as possible. I want a couple of good frosts to sweeten them up before I harvest them. They will have the tops cropped off, washed, dried, and placed in a plastic bag with a few holes punched into it and a paper towel. Replace the paper towel once a month in winter, place in fridge crisper, they should keep nicely till next summer. Truly! Cukes and zukes are old and tired, time for them to go. The winter squash will be left on the vines till frost kills the leaves (probably this week), and then I will place them on the counter, or in the warmth of the greenhouse, to finish ripening. The bean tower is going crazy. Lots and lots of yummy Kentucky Wonder pole beans. I think that is the catch up on most of the things. I also have celery growing so well, baby lettuces, scallions, basil and other herbs, etc... all being harvested when needed. Journaling! I bought myself a fresh new day timer from Homesense the other day. There is something so wonderful about starting with a fresh new journal, isn't there? All those empty pages to fill with thoughts and dreams and ideas for next gardening season. First thing I started with is flowers and veggies to sow in October. There are many more than the ones I have listed in my journal, but these are the ones that I am interested in sowing and growing : ) I like to start with a new day timer/journal in fall rather than spring, to write down my thoughts on the summer while everything is still fresh in my mind. What did well in summer, what did not, and what to change. Like these baskets! I have three baskets hanging from the hail guard that bugged me all summer long. While they flowered beautifully all summer long, the colours were too pale and soft, did not stand out against all the greenery of the raised beds. Next year, I'm going big, bold, and bright. Never Stop Dreaming ~ Tanja

I bought my first mums this week. Slowly starting to merge into autumn. Is funny how it happens... One day I am loving the pinks and purples and then suddenly I think they look too bold and flashy, just too much. Suddenly, all I want to see is orange, brick red, and gold. I have no idea where those mums are going to go as of yet, but I have 4 of them to put somewhere, and am on the lookout for more. Autumn Garden Bits These seeds are on my buy list for next summer. I love verbena bonariensis but it has always been so hard to find! I used to let it grow wherever it popped up on the acreage, with the hopes that it would self seed everywhere. I always had a few plants but never enough ; ) This article about how to get rid of flea beetles. I know it is the wrong season for this read but maybe pin it for spring? I use companion planting to attract the beneficial insects who get rid of these guys pretty quick, but the problem is that the flowers are not always flowering as early as flea beetles show up. In that case, what I like to do is plant a few radishes as sacrificial plants. Sow a row, a border, or a few plants and let the beetles go at them. Leave them be when they go to seed, as well, for the pretty blossoms that attract pollinators while the radish leaves work as a lure crop. Sow a row of onions or scallions beside your leafy plants to keep the beetles away, as well. How to make your fall garden the best ever. Please, please, please read the bit about fertiliser! So important. Autumn Homey Bits Make your own foraged wreath with these great ideas. This read is about the white oak flooring but I loved it more for the beautiful photos of the house. The kitchen, the foyer, the closet... you need to check it out. So many lovely ideas or just drool worthy pictures. That blue is almost the perfect blue, too. I have been asked about finding the perfect sage colour many times... this read might just have the answer for you. Great sage hues from light to dark. Remember the article last week about how to make your honey oak cabinet colour work? It was so good, right? Well, this week it is how to make your cherry cabinets work! They are all so great, love the kitchen with the duck, that lovely eating nook, but wow, that bathroom is to die for! Autumn Recipe Bits Where do you stand on pumpkin spice coffee? My daughter gave me a cup of coffee, nice and strong and black... but then I smelled it. Ugh, you guys, the coffee smelled like canned creamed corn! The taste was less yucky but I'm sticking with my unflavoured dark roasts ; ) These apple turnovers. Oh my! Need to make these asap! This recipe for skin on applesauce! Heart smart leek and salmon pasta. I feel like this needs a bit more veggies in it, but is a good starting point. This squash and spinach pasta dish! and if you like that one, check out these other fall pasta dishes, too. Back to school is the perfect time to pick up a day timer or journal for your gardening needs. I like day timers as I can keep my notes in there, what to sow now, what I want to grow, plus this year's garden is fresh in my mind, so I journal about what I want to change for next year. I am making lots of changes next year! In this picture, see some of the seeds I am sowing In October for earlier blooms and edibles next spring. Hope you enjoyed this week's Bits of Autumn. Happy Weekend ~Tanja

Happy Sunday! We're in that weird in between phase... not summer anymore but not quite autumn either. Maybe that is just me though? Oddly enough, I am a bit sad that everything is still so green rather than the beautiful golds, oranges, and burnished reds of autumn. Don't get me wrong, I am nowhere near ready for winter to come though! There is still tons to be done in the garden. Today is my day to harvest everything that is ready to go and then make plans on what to do with it all. Do I make more fridge pickles? Do I bake? Seems like the perfect baking kind of day. I most definitely need to do something with all those zucchinis and then post the remainder on Facebook for someone else(s) to enjoy the bounty. I pulled most all of my cucumber vines this morning. While they are still producing and flowering, they are just so very powdery mildewed from our cool nights and high dewpoints. I just want them gone, lol. My zinnia/cosmo bed is super spectacular this year! Blooming like crazy. The only drawback is that I put it on the side of the house so only see it when I go in or out of the gate. Note to self... grow the zinnias beside the patio next year (behind that cucumber vine basket), and move the garlic or potatoes (or both) to the zinnia bed instead ; ) Check out these lovely Russian and German Reds that I purchased from a local farm to add to my planting stock. I also have some of my own stock to plant, as well, but most of them were just mediocre in size this year. This makes me so sad. You know what they say though... feed the soil to feed the plants. I need a lot of feed to make this soil better. The soil that the landscaper bought me last year was hard, lumpy, horrible. Not sure if this is what the 'garden mix' I purchased looks like in real life, or if it the landscaper ripped me off.... I know which way I am leaning, lol. Karma though. So, even though we will be feeding this soil a lot, lot, lot, this fall... I still need a new place to plant the garlic. I am thinking that zinnia bed sounds like the perfect place as that is really great soil. While writing my latest post about front yard food gardens, I came upon this fantastic article for how to prune fruit trees to keep them small. Best of all, no special type of tree is required. No dwarf rootstock. You can do this with any of them! I am so keen to give this a go. How cool, eh? Especially for those of us who are vertically challenged ;) Do you struggle with pollination on your squash or pumpkins? This article explains it all! These arbours! I love several of them, especially the first one that just seems to say come on in. Is so welcoming! Can't wait till next spring, when we start fixing up the front yard. An arbour instead of a fence will be perfect. Planting a natural garden. There are some really lovely ideas in this article. Love those flowers, want to implement more of them into my landscape next summer when we do the front and side yard revamp. Also wondering how I can implement that split cedar fence idea into my pollinator strip this fall.... This was an interesting/informative experiment about how to best store your tomatoes. Homey Bits Table setting ideas for Thanksgiving... can you believe that is just 4 weeks from today? Eek! This is a cute and easy autumn diy for those of you who like to dress up the table. Well, if this isn't just the smartest idea ever. Whether you are renting or maybe you just want to put up temporary curtains while you are renovating, this is a terrific idea! Holy doodle, this is one of the prettiest farmhouse yards I have ever seen! Everything is just so nice. Love the berry bushes in the netted-shed thingie... what a great way to keep your berries from getting wormy or eaten by birds. Recipes I made a batch of those super crunchy fridge pickles using apple cider vinegar instead of the white, and no sugar added. On this Whole30 elimination diet (for my allergies), I am not allowed any sugar at all, so thought they might work better for me if I used a less tart vinegar. Well, they are okay, but not surely not amazing like the original recipe. Just don't have enough zing. They need more... To make them again, I would omit the water altogether and use just 3 cups of the apple cider vinegar. I am really enjoying that crunch though, so adding them to everything. All my veggies hashes! If you are cutting sugars out of your diet, or just prefer a milder pickle in general, use the apple cider vinegar instead of the white. You will like them, they are yummy... just don't add any water at all ; ) Or, if you prefer, add 1/2 cup white vinegar to add that wee bit of extra something something. Check out these grilled cheese sandwich ideas. Maybe it's because I cannot eat bread this month, but these ideas have me drooling. I mean, who doesn't love grilled cheese, eh? I am saving all these ideas for October and then will be making them all, one by one ; ) And this one, for those of us who love chickpeas. This garbanzo spread can be used as a sandwich spread (great sandwich ideas given here, too) or as a dip. So yummy! Kind of reminds me of a sandwich I would get back in the day from a wee bistro called 'Carrot On The Run'. Vegetarians rejoice with this one! This yummy seasonal treat... easy apple fritters! Oh my goodness... yet another lemon berry loaf. It is called a Lemon Yogurt Anything Cake so you do not have to add berries, you can add poppy seeds instead, or nothing at all. Check out this fabulous recipe. We are going to have to have a bake off with all the lemon cake recipes that I have shared with you ; ) A great recipe to help you use up those zukes - zucchini bread pancakes! And this zucchini lasagna, too! Last, but maybe the bestest of all? Check out these amazing espresso chocolate chip cookies! Have A Wonderful Week-End ~ Tanja

I was asked how one designs and builds raised beds to create a food garden in the front yard. I'm going to throw out several ideas as I don't know what the actual yard looks like, her personal style, or the bylaws as they vary depending on where one lives. Some places will allow raised beds and full on food gardens while others will want you to be more subtle. In this post you will find edible landscaping ideas to suit you, your house, your style, and your neighbourhood. It is really long but I hope you enjoy the scads and scads of information. You all know that I am chatty, like to explain everything! So in this post I have also added tons of pictures to help you choose your style and get ideas. All pics have the links added to give credit to the original poster and for you, in case you want to look further into the information. What's The Look In Your'Hood? I highly recommend growing food all over your property, from front to back, back to front. The more food, the better... but keep the look of the neighbourhood in mind before you start your build. Style your edible landscaping in a way that aesthetically fits in with both your house and the neighbourhood. No one wants bylaw coming by to give grief. Plus, it is super easy to make it pretty so that the neighbours love it just as much you do. If you are in a mature neighbourhood with older homes, yards may be planted up right to the sidewalk, withy little to no lawns, so you can happily plant a lot of food and plants in the whole yard, along with flowers, of course, and have your yard fit right in. How pretty is this front yard food garden, eh? On the other hand, if you are in an area where most of your neighbours have lawns or stones, more minimalistic plantings, you will want to plant your food in a way that suits the house and the neighbourhood. Think subtle, like these rectangular beds as above. Could also be three beds along the right hand side of the yard, leaving a bit of an open courtyard area. If you live in an area with traditional homes, where your neighbours tend to have a lawn, a foundation flower bed, and maybe one tree out front, you can pretty much go any way you like... modern, carefree, or somewhere in between, as in the pic above. Formal or Informal? Another thing to keep in mind is whether to lean towards formal or informal designs. I love very formal with all the squares, rectangles, and nice straight lines. I match my planters on the left side with the right side. Balance is everything. Informal designs have curves, circles, and winding pathways that might lead you to a secret garden, arbour, or keyhole garden. They tend to look more natural and carefree. What To Plant? Plant up your front yard food garden with a blend of ornamental and edible plantings, adding perennial flowers, shrubs, and trees in with your edibles for year-round interest. Fruiting trees, vines, and shrubs are the easiest way to grow food in the front yard and no one is the wiser. They look just as pretty as anything else. Apples, pears, cherries, peaches, apricots.. grow anything you like to eat. Our last potager had grapes and blackberries growing beside the climbing roses, blueberries and currants in with the shrub roses, plum trees, apple trees, and even a peach tree growing throughout the yard, alongside the ornamental plantings. Blueberries, if you are in a temperate zone where they grow well, look as beautiful as any ornamental shrub. Their foliage turns red, orange, yellow in the fall - just stunning. If you are in a colder zone, like my zone 3 prairie garden, you can grow currants, elderberries, haskaps, nanking cherries, jostaberries, gooseberries, and more, in amongst your flowers, or grow them as a hedge instead of cotoneasters. Plant a Saskatoon instead of a lilac if you have room for a larger shrub, or one of the new cherries from the Sweetheart series (Romeo, Valentine, Juliet, Cupid, Crimson Passion, Carmine Jewel. These guys all grow anywhere from 6 to 12 feet tall and almost as wide. Vegetables look pretty and will blend right into the flower garden. Swiss Chard has such lovely stems, dinosaur kale grows tall with dark green crinkly leaves - looks so pretty), lettuce comes in so many colours, tuck it in everywhere or make a 'patchwork quilt' with the varied colours. Grow garlic and leeks anywhere with their pretty strappy foliage, tomatoes on stakes or in cages amongst your dahlias, peas and beans up towers or on the side of an arbour, alongside your clematis and climbing roses. Herbs, like chives, basil, thyme, are so pretty that they can be used anywhere... border plants in a formal bed or dotted here and there. Lavender and hyssop, too. Careful with mint as it will spread and be hard to control, even in colder zones. For more ideas on how to incorporate edibles into your landscape, this potager planting article is superb. So, now that you know you can grow anything you like in the front yard... how do you design the actual beds? Design Ideas 1. This is dead simple. The easiest way to make your food garden look intentional is to make a large kidney bed, or a berm bed, that runs across the front of your yard. Don't want to hide the house? Make it along the side of the yard, or in an L-shape for even more garden space. Make it a little bit raised, distinct from your pathways and lawn. Like this picture above but plant it up as a food forest. Here are two good reads about creating a food forest. This one and this one. The second one explains and shows you how to blend ornamentals with edibles. 2. Add an arbour or pergola, something with height to grow vining veggies on and add interest to your garden. Helps pull it all together. 3. Plant it up with ornamentals and edibles. Add the bones of the garden first.... a fruit tree or two. maybe an ornamental tree, depending on the size of your planting area. Add some fruiting shrubs, plus ornamental shrubs, roses, and perennials for colour and interest. Perennial flowers like lilies, black-eyed Susan, coneflowers, salvias, and catmint are hardy, pretty, and will give you colour and food for the pollinators from spring thru fall. Each spring, add plenty of both vegetables and annual flowers in amongst the 'bones of the garden'. The Nuts and Bolts / How-To Build the Beds When planning and building your beds, keep in mind the look you are after, and the cost. Raised beds, like in the picture above are very practical, they warm up faster in spring, provide great drainage, and in places where there is rock or hardpan under the surface (like Vancouver Island), they give you the depth you need to grow food. Raised beds can be made out of wood, rocks, bricks, corrugated metal, or metal feed/water troughs. Anything that will hold the soil in the beds, as simple or fancy as you like. To grow most any vegetable, you only need 10 to 12 inches of growing depth. In this depth you can grow everything from root crops like potatoes, carrots, and parsnips, to tomatoes, cukes, and everything else. On the island, we placed the beds directly on the hardpan and built them in place, they were not anchored to the ground except with some rebar to keep the sides from bowing out. These taller beds we built here are made mostly the same way. For the how-to for how we build our raised beds, see here. The drawback with raised beds is that they can be quite costly to buy or build, materials may be hard to comes by, and they might not fit in with your look or style. If you are on the prairies, or can go down, is easy to build the beds directly in the ground. It becomes more difficult if you want that natural look but live on a rock. Building a berm, a raised bed with no sides, is the way to go. It gives you the depth you need for the roots, works for everything from trees and shrubs to flowers and veggies. Taper the sides down and mulch after planting to retain moisture, keep weeds from germinating, and make it look finished. The mulch and soil will not spread into your lawn or pathways (adding this as that was my worry when we built the beds in the picture below). Build up the bed to at least 12 inches high. We went 12 to 15 inches high when we built our front yard berm bed on the island (above) as it sinks a bit with time. Where we planted the trees, we dug a hole that was really big and a foot or two deeper (we used a tractor) but if you are on hardpan in a temperate zone and do not have access to a tractor, you can give more root room by planting into a bottomless large planter, like a half wine barrel with no bottom. You do not need to do this with shrubs, they will do just fine in your raised berm. Do not do this on the prairies, your trees will not survive being above ground. To make it easy to build a berm bed right on top of your lawn, use the lasagna bed gardening idea. Also called hügelkultur. Place down some cardboard to smother out the grass. Wet it down. Top with all sorts of garden waste - tree trimmings, leaves, vegetable vines and plants, dump out your hanging baskets and summer flower pots on it, soil and all. Top with garden soil or compost to plant into. I hope you made it all the way through this super long post, and I that you find it both helpful and informative for getting started on your front yard food garden. Happy Food Growing, My Friends ¬ Tanja

We had the family over for dinner on the long weekend, just a casual dinner and get together. Our wee grandies found these new dill pickles that I had made earlier in the week and went through nearly a whole jar! They are great tasting and they're super fast and simple to make, too. Hubby and I tried them on our burgers and loved them. Highly recommended. These dilled pickles are perfect for making small batches of pickles as they ripen on the vines... or in winter, buy a cucumber or two and batch them up. Homemade pickles any time at all. I go around each Saturday or Sunday and pick all the cucumbers that are ready. Some go into the fridge for salads while the wee ones are used for quick pickles. I did not plant up a big bed this year so do not have enough to can a bunch for the pantry, but the few vines that I have are giving me enough for a litre or two at a time. Enough to share :) You do not have to use any special cucumbers to make these. If you don't have pickling cucumbers, or are making pickles in winter, just use any kind of cucumber... baby Persians cut into quarters for icicles, or I also like to pickle long English cukes sliced nice and thin. Filed cucumbers work just as well, too. Step 1 - Wash the cucumbers. Pickling cucumbers are prickly! They are not smooth like long English or baby Persian types. If the prickles bother you, wear gloves while you scrub them off. Give them a good scrub with a soft brush under cold water to take off dirty bits and soil. Step 2 - Cut off both ends of the cucumbers - this makes them crisp. Step 3 - Pop the clean cucumbers into a bowl and top with ice cubes. Let set for 1 to 6 hours. This is the key to the crispest, crunchiest pickles you have ever tasted. If you picked your cucumbers a few days earlier (stored in fridge), this will also help crisp them up again. Step 4 - Make the brine, bring to a boil to melt the salt and sugar. Step 5 - Let brine cool to room temp. Step 6 - While your brine is cooling, smash a garlic clove or two with the side of a knife, place in bottom of each canning jar. Step 7 - Add some peppercorns to the jar. No real measurement. I added a teaspoon to each of my jars. Step 8 - Place a generous amount of fresh dill seed heads and fronds into each jar. Step 9 - Stuff as many cucumbers into the jars as you can fit. We made 2 jars of sliced pickles for burger and sandwich toppings, and 1 jar of whole mini cucumbers/gherkins. Step 10 - Top with the cooled brine (I pour it into a measuring cup as it has a spout so filling the jars is easy). Screw on the lid, does not have to be a canning lid. Any jar and any lid is fine. Place in fridge and let sit for at least one day for the flavours to meld, longer is better. I found that this recipe made enough for three 500ml/pint jars. Can easily be doubled. Brine: 2 cups water 1 cup white vinegar 2 teaspoons pickling/kosher salt 2 teaspoons sugar (I used 1) Cucumbers Peppercorns Garlic cloves Dill Make sure to use cooled brine. These dilled pickles will keep for up to 2 months in the fridge. Is not shelf stable, do not put in the pantry. You do not need to use canning jars, can be any clean jar. Variations... Use Apple Cider Vinegar instead of white vinegar for a less tart, mellow flavour. Add veggies with your cucumbers - carrots, cauliflower, onions, peppers.... Make it spicy by adding a red pepper flakes or fresh jalapeno peppers. Hope you enjoy these super crunchy, quick, easy to make dill fridge pickles. Happy pickling ~ Tanja

Hope you are all having a wonderful Labour Day weekend! We are getting prepping for a family dinner with baked beans, ribs (veggie alternatives, too, of course), smoked corn on the cob, salads... Hubs got a new smoker this summer so loves a reason to put it to work. All the things in this week's Bits post are heading into fall territory, from the gardening advice to the baking and décor. I finally feel like we are in the right month to post about autumnal things as the weather has cooled a bit, the leaves are starting to yellow, the wind is blowing the leaves about. Today it really feels like autumnal out there. I have some really great Bits for you today! Kinda excited about all of these things... Garden Bits... Adding a pop of interest to your garden with gold and variegated shrubs or plants. I love the yellow hakona grass! That is going into my front yard next year, for sure. We will be revamping our front yard next year. Taking out some of the old and unhappy shrubs, replacing them with something hardy, self reliant, with a bit of colour, too. This article gave me tons of ideas. Love the variegated dogwood - not too big, not too small, and not green. By the way, if you have time and funds, this is the perfect time to go pick up some of those plants... they are on sale and you can see what looks great at this time of year. I really need some more hydrangeas (cheeky grin)! Having a hard time growing spinach? Here are some tips for the best results. Sow some now for a harvest this fall. If you are in a warmer winter area, they will rebound again in spring to give you an extra early crop. Can be sown in an open garden bed or under cover. I have some coming along in my greenhouse, amongst the tomatoes. See how long it lasts before a hard frost takes it out. Here are some ideas for what you can still plant right now to harvest this fall. Also, how to store your crops over winter. Are you wondering about cover crops? The best ones to grow? These fall tips for making your soil healthier. You know what they say... feed the soil to feed the plants. Have you tried drying hydrangeas before with no success? Kim has all the tips here. Homey Bits Here are 5 pretty fall ideas for decorating with mums. I love this antique moss container. Going from summer to fall with your home decor, and this super cute coffee station. I am so envious of you all who have a spot for this! This amazing, super gorgeous old house in France. The article is in Swedish so either press translate, or just enjoy the stunning pictures and drool a little with me. Check out this amazing small kitchen makeover for under $500. Seriously great ideas and fun to watch, too. Along that same line... are you wanting to do a kitchen makeover but not change out those 90's honey coloured cabinets? Maybe they are in great shape, maybe you love them, or maybe you hate them but are on a tight budget but want to make affordable changes to make you love your kitchen again. Check out this post, it is so good. The kitchens all look amazing! I am in love with a couple of them! 5 colour palettes that will freshen up your honey oak. If you like charming cottages, a little bit of 'hygge' or 'lagom' or Scandi style, you will love this super cute cottage in Sweden (see the green doors at the end? Love those. Makes me think I should go green with the patio doors on the shed, and then check out this rustic English cottage with the most wonderful courtyard, too. The garden at this cottage... hearts in my eyes! The home is okay but the garden is so pretty. Recipes. I am sharing all these lovely recipes with you all now so that I have them saved for October, when I can make and eat them. This month, starting tomorrow, I will be doing the Whole30 elimination diet. I have done it once before and now they are offering it with a plant based option (yay!). So, no sugars or grains for me this month, but next month I am back on! You may know that I suffer with allergies and hives on the regular but the last two months have been really bad. Yes, I get it... mom passed away, the dog has been sick and we were considering putting him down (he is doing great, btw!), we are dealing with the estate, so there has been a lot of emotional stuff and stress lately, but the hives certainly do not help the situation, lol. So... time to do the elimination diet and give my poor body a break. If anyone is interested in doing this diet with me, we start tomorrow. It is completely free, except for the foods you eat. This salsa recipe! Wine charcuterie board ideas... love these. What a lovely way to catch up with friends and enjoy the changing season. This super easy pasta dish recipe with tomatoes from your garden. All these apple recipes look amazing to me. They are on my list to make in October. Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts (cider, not vinegar!). Apple Cinnamon Rolls! Cannot wait to make these. The ladies in my coffee group love cinnamon buns of any and all kinds, am sure these will be a big hit! French Onion and Apple Grilled Cheese Sandwich. These look amazing. They have onions, apples, cheese, and prosciutto. Does that not sound drooly? Honeycrisp Apple and Feta salad! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend with family, friends, good food, and lots of gardening - hah! See you here real soon again ~ Tanja