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Spring like things are happening! Days are getting longer, with the official first day of spring just a few weeks off! Though today is a bit of a chilly day, I am excited about the arrival of spring. Hope springs eternal in this girl! I have so many gardening things on the agenda for this month but exactly what gets done when will depend on what the weather does. Will we get more frigid temps? More snow? Any rain towards the end of the month? Here are the things on my March Agenda Greenhouse Getting the greenhouse ready for action. Hubby will be home mid-month to help me empty out the greenhouse so I can start prepping it for spring planting and growing. In winter, it is our hold-all area for patio furniture, flower pots, wagons, all sorts of garden and yard supplies. Time to haul all that stuff out of there... even if it sits in a snowbank for a few days/weeks, hah! Whether your greenhouse sits empty in winter or does double duty as a storage centre, March is the month to clean it up and get it ready for planting. Pick a nice, sunny warm day to get in there to dust out the dirt and cobwebs, top up the beds with a bit of compost if you did not do so in fall, hang up a rod or two for hanging baskets, set up your planting area soil, compost/manure, pots, trays, all that stuff. Get yourself ready to go. Pruning of trees and shrubs happens this month, on any nice warm, sunny day. Ideally the snow will be gone when we prune so that we can get rid of suckers and anything that might have been damaged at the base, but if not, we can always do that bit later. You really need to get the water spouts (branches that go straight up) on the fruit trees before they bud out though. We don't have much for food trees, just this one apple tree that you see in the picture, and a Saskatoon, but quite a few ornamental trees and shrubs. Everything has been very well cared for, so is just to keep it up, nothing major needs doing. I love the shape of our apple tree, it is so good! If you have currants, gooseberries, jostaberries, that sort of thing, you want to get in there and just clean things up. Take out anything dead, damaged, diseased first, then you take out criss-crossed branches, just opening it up like a vase so light gets into the shrub for more berries and better tasting ones at that. If you have weak arms, wrists, or have arthritis in your hands, like I do, this tool is indispensable for pruning larger branches. I used to have to throw myself on top of the loppers, using my body weight to do the pruning! This wee mini chainsaw is perfect. Seed Starting My last frost here is between the 11th and the 25th of May, depending on the source one looks at, so I am using the 20th just to make certain. If last frost happens earlier, that is fine, too. Just means I can put the plants out to harden off earlier. To make it easy to keep track of what to plant when, in my planner I find the last frost date and count back 12 weeks from that date, putting the # of weeks till last frost at the beginning of each week. I am currently 10 weeks out. In Nanaimo, you are 7 weeks out (April 28th). How do you know when to start sowing? On the back of most all seed packages, it will tell you how many weeks before last frost to start seeds indoors. So, last week I started veggies that said to start 10 to 12 weeks before last frost. The veggies on my grow list that I started were peppers, eggplants, celery, red and yellow onions. To prevent lanky seedlings, I start things on the latter end of the recommendation. This week, I've been starting a whole bunch of flowers; marigolds, sweet alyssum, calendula, thunbergia, dahlias (from seed), zinnias, asters. You can also start coleus, lobelia, and all sorts of perennials, if they are on your grow list. I wish I had some geraniums as I would take cuttings now for a whole bunch of plants to put into my baskets and planters this summer. Geraniums are my flower go-to's. Next week, I will start some more veggies again, anything that says to start 8 to 10 weeks before last frost. For me, that will be broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, parsley and chives. Tomatoes I will start at the end of March. *tip 1- if you are growing vegetables inside a greenhouse, grow some trailing alyssum to put in baskets inside the greenhouse for organic pest control. (more on planting flowers for pest control coming soon.) *tip #2- if you are a smoker, wash your hands well with soap and water before you play around with soil, seeds, or transplants, especially tomatoes and peppers as they are very prone to tobacco mosaic virus. My greenhouse is not heated or insulated so I will not be using it for the heat lovers until late spring, with a portable heater brought in for the cooler nights. I will, however, be able to put the cool weather veggies in there earlier. If it is super chilly still, I will use the mini greenhouse that I purchased last month for a greenhouse within a greenhouse and double the warmth (4 degrees warmer than outside). Till then, if I need to get stuff outside to prevent stretching, and also make room on my seeding table, I'll put my plants into clear tote bins that I can put outside for the day and bring inside again for the night. They are light and stackable, so super easy to move about and won't take up a lot of room. They have small ones at the dollar store for about $4 or $5 or get larger ones from box stores for a bit more money. Once you see bulbs for sale at the shops, or when yours in storage start to sprout, is time to pull out some big pots. Pot up the bulbs and place in a heated greenhouse or in front of a bright, cool window or patio door. I've mentioned this before, but in case you missed it earlier, I use this brand of potting soil, or Sunshine #4 for my seeding as it is nice and porous, has lots of perlite in it for the roots to easily grow and spread. What I forgot to mention though, is that I use this potting soil for everything. I use it for transplanting, hanging baskets, every pot and planter I make. So, if you do a lot of growing and planting, get a big cube of it. I will get a couple of cubes for the greenhouse but for right now, inside the house, two of these bags is plenty for my seedlings. The seeding phase is the easiest. A bit of bottom heat, potting soil, pots, and away you go. The seedling stage is where things go off the rails. People get stretched out, weak seedlings that are prone. Bugs will always go to stressed out plants over healthy ones. Seedlings get stretched out if they are grown too warm or not bright enough. Sounds like inside the house, doesn't it? Ideas to prevent this stretching out after germination? 1. Do not start seeding early. The earlier you start, the sooner they need cool and bright. 2. If you have a sunroom, heated bright porch, or heated greenhouse, grow your seedlings in there. Keep it at about 10°C (50°F). 3. If you have to stay inside the house, you will have to find the coolest part of your house and invest in some kind of lighting system for 12 to 16 hours of light daily. 4. Or, if you are like me and not getting grow lights ( I will be getting a fancy heated greenhouse so the lights will no longer be needed next year) once your seedlings have been potted up into their own individual pots, put them in those plastic totes - out in daytime, in at nighttime. Place in a spot where it is about 10°C, so that may be in dappled shade (natural light is brighter than inside your house). The trick is to keep seedlings cool-ish and bright. Oh, and keep them on the dry-ish side. They need damp soil to germinate but afterwards water only when they soil starts to dry out. I will post more as we see what the weather brings us ; ) Happy Almost Spring ~ Tanja

The month of January fairly flew by with all the planning and ordering and here we are in mid February already! This month usually drags for me, tends to feels like the longest month of the year but this year it is going much faster as we have the reno going on and lots of planning to do. Thank goodness.. however, that is not gardening related so I still tend to get a wee bit of itching fingers! Here are some of the garden ramblings going on in my head right now.... To help with that, I have been getting all my ducks in a row. Garden plans have been made up, seeds and supplies pretty much all ordered. Getting ready for spring has really helped with the itch. Jeez, that kind of sounds like a disease, haha. Spring is less than 6 weeks away as I write this, the weather is glorious, even here on the prairies. I know there is yucky weather yet to come (snow, rain, cold, who knows what mother nature will throw at us yet), but this sunshine and warmth certainly does help lighten the winter blues. I am always willing to play around with direct sowing and trying my hand at winter sowing. I just sow and wait for things to come up when their timing is right. The seeds just know what to do. You cannot do this with everything but you can push limits with cold hardy veggies and flowers, things like peas, sweet peas, lettuces, carrots. Back in the 90's, when I lived in the Edmonton area, I used to toss some carrot and lettuce seeds in a garden bed beside the garage in late fall, before the first snows came. It was a sunny, bright area, the snow always melted away from that bed early from the reflected heat of the white siding, everything popped up much earlier in spring. I will be plating around with this again this fall! I found a local guy to build me a great little greenhouse to be my season extender for late tomatoes, melons, cucumbers maybe, and get an early start with hardy spring greens. It is not heated or insulated, so would not be worthwhile (dollar-wise) to heat this greenhouse till April and May, with a small heater at night, just enough to keep the chill off the warm season crops. Can also pop that heater back inside in September, if needed, to finish off those late summer veggies. The heated she-shed greenhouse is still in the works, we hope to build it this summer, but for now is a dream in my head, a draft on paper, and a bunch of ideas on Pinterest ; ) Here are some gardening things you can do this month to keep your itching green fingers happy. I found four different calendars for when to start your seeds. I love the first one, gives you a pretty accurate timeline for most things. I just found the 4th one and I really like that one, too. 1. when to start seed - A Way To Garden 2. When to Start Seeds Indoors - Free Printable Seeding Guide (zone3vegetablegardening.com) 3. SM403_Planting_Chart_Northern_BC.pdf (shopify.com) 4. Seed-Starting Date Calculator | When to Start Seeds Indoors | Johnny's Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com) The only thing I really disagree with is the peppers. Hot peppers can take a really long time to germinate and all peppers are slow growing so they can be started in February in pretty much all parts of Canada and stay in 4 inch pots till the go outside or into the greenhouse. They do not grow fast like tomatoes so go ahead and start them as soon as you want to, especially if you are growing the super hots. The hotter the pepper, the longer it usually takes to germinate. Needs bottom heat and humidity dome until germination occurs, and then bright light and cool-ish temps. Here in central Alberta, my last frost date is May 20 to 25. On the island, in Nanaimo, I always used April 28th as my last frost date. How to grow peas... such good instructions from start to finish. I used to put peas and sweet peas into the ground on a nice week in February or March when in my zone 7 home, here in the zone 3 I will push that back by 4 weeks and pick a nice day in March or April. Just like the winter sown carrots, they will do nothing until the temps and daylight hours are just right. Nothing to lose by trying, eh? My favourite peas are the Tall Telephone (they grow super tall) and the short container Little Crunch peas from Renee's (in the picture above) that I use as border peas. Just a fun tip. This is one of my most favourite things to do as it is pretty and can be hung on the patio. As soon as you start seeing strawberry plants or roots at the shops, pick them up and pot them up with some pansies, violas, alyssum, or other flowers to make the basket more colourful, feed the bees, and attract pollinators. Pop the strawberries into a garden bed in fall. What can you start this month? Peppers and eggplants, both take a long time to grow. Onions and that whole allium family, if you have not already done so. Most all perennial flowers and some annuals can be started now. Petunias, geraniums dahlias from seed. Many herbs can be started at this time. Celery, artichokes. The office, my head, my planner, are all getting pretty full of gardening supplies and ideas! Those are some of the ideas and things flitting around in my brain right now. Hope you are all getting into your happy zone with your garden ideas and dreams. Happy Dreaming, Planning ( Sowing?)~ Tanja

Growing new plants from cuttings is super simple and saves you bunches of money, too. Most all annual flowers for your baskets and planters can be started from cuttings, as can your shrubby herbs. For flowers, think fuchsias, geraniums, lantana, sweet potato vines, verbena, coleus, bacopa, just about anything at all. For herbs, woody ones like lavender, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, and oregano are super easy to start. Sweet Bay is also easy but takes a super long time to root out, but more on that below. My garden is still frozen so I find the easiest way to start new herbs is to pick up the fresh herb packages at the grocers but if you live in warmer climes and have the plants, you can take cuttings from your existing plants. Supplies required... 1. High porosity, good quality potting soil. I like Sunshine #4 or Promix HP. 2. A pot with drainage holes to put your cuttings into, 3 to 6 inches wide. 3. Pruners or scissors for harvesting your cuttings. 4. Exacto knife to trim the ends of the cuttings sharply. 5. A dibber, pencil, stick, something to make a hole in the potting soil to put your cutting in. I use that old green marker. 6. A label or piece of masking tape to put name on the pot. 7. Marker or paint marker to write on label. 8. #2 Rooting powder. There are three types of rooting hormone #1 for soft tissue cuttings (fuchsias, geraniums, etc..) #2 for semi-woody cuttings ( rosemary, lavender, most houseplants, etc... ) #3 for hard-wood cuttings ( roses, grapes, shrubs, etc...) You want your cuttings to be straight pieces with no branching, about 4 inches long. Carefully strip off all the bottom leaves/needles, leaving just a few at the top. For cuttings with bigger leaves, like this geranium, take off all the side leaves, keeping just one or two at the very top. 1. Fill pot with potting mix, do not push it in but instead lightly tamp the soil in with the bottom of a drinking glass, your fingers, etc... You can use plastic or clay pots. 2. Water so that the soil is damp but not soggy. 3. Use pruners or scissors to take cuttings from the mother plant. You want to have a 4" to 6" stem if possible, however some plants are just smaller so, take the longest that you can. Cut just below a leaf node as that is where the roots will begin to grow from. Do not use the older, woody stems, but instead take cuttings from the side shoots, the new growth, the branches, the tips... whichever part is green and pliable. 4. Remove all but the top two or three leaves. This is where you may need to use the exacto knife if the leaves are tough, like with a Sweet Bay Laurel. Rosemary can just be stripped carefully with your fingers and the 'leaves' used for your cooking. Geraniums and fuchsias, etc... you can just pinch the leaves off with your finger nails. 5. If the leaves are really big, you will want to cut them in half, like the Sweet Bay or Hydrangea ... 6. Cut the bottom of the stem onto an angle, this is where the exacto also comes in handy. 7. You may need to dip your stems into water in order to get the rooting hormone to stick. Then dip into the rooting hormone. To avoid contamination, I put some powder into a small dish, plate, cap or lid and dip it into that instead of the bottle. 8. Use your dibber to make a deep hole in the pot for the cutting. Put cutting into the hole to just below the topmost leaf node, about 1/2 of the cutting should be underground. For 6 inch cuttings, place them 2 to 3 inches into the pot. Push soil firmly around the stem. Geranium cuttings... push them in all the way to that topmost leaf node. 9. Place as many cuttings into the pot as you want, as long as they are not touching each other. 10. Water them in. 10. Cover with clear plastic bag, then tie or band into place if it does not fit snug and tight to keep in the humidity. 11. Place into a bright location, though not in direct sunlight for 2 to 3 weeks. You will likely not need to water during that time at all, but if you see that your soil looks like it might be getting dry, remove the plastic, water, and replace cover. Bottom heat speeds up the process but is not necessary. 12 In two weeks time, begin to check your cuttings carefully for rooting. Gently pull upwards on the cutting. If you meet with good resistance, it has formed good roots, slight resistance, means it is well on it's way and needs about another week, and no resistance means no roots have yet formed so re-cover and leave for another week. Do not pull so hard that the cutting comes out of the pot, just check gently for resistance. 13. When they have formed good roots, you can remove the plastic and leave until you have time to pot them up. The gently use your dibber to loosen the soil around the new root system and lift the newly rooted cutting from the pot to be replanted into it's own pot. Tips and Tricks You do not want ever your cutting to dry out. The plastic bag helps to keep them moist a bit longer. Or, if using a plant tray on a heating mat, just use the humidity dome that comes with it. Clay pots will dry out faster than plastic ones do so keep an eye on the plants, check them daily. Water the soil as needed to keep it moist. Misting daily with a light spray will help keep moisture in the cuttings until they root. The Sweet Bays (use #3 rooting powder) take much longer to root in but are now ready to go into their own pots. The geraniums in the back have already been potted into their own 3 inch pots and are making lots of new growth. Ready to sell/plant up in a few more weeks. You are now on your way to free new plants! This burgundy ivy type geranium is one of my all time favourites and not always available so I like to take cuttings of it to have many new ones for years to come. Happy Growing ~ Tanja

This Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake is absolutely 5 star amazing! I will be making it again and again, have already put it on make list for when it is my turn to host the neighbourhood ladies coffee date! Can hardly wait till April! You may remember that I resolved to eat only real food (Dr's orders), when possible, and on a budget? That is why I made this cake... and put most of it in the freezer. I want some yummy homemade snacks available to me when I get the nibbles to keep me away from packaged snacks during the renovation. Now, that is not to say that this cake is low fat, low sugar, or super healthy, hah! It is none of those things. It is, however, made of real ingredients, tastes great, and is just meant as a treat now and again. I had all the ingredients at home already except had run out of flour. Luckily, that was on sale at the grocery store last week and I always need flour, so sticking to budget buying. I had made a couple of small changes to the original recipe (find changes below recipe) as my kitchen is in boxes due to the renovation. It is so moist and yummy, cannot brag it up enough. To see the original recipe, see the link HERE , these are the instructions for the way I made it. Ingredients 2 3/4 cups flour ( I used unbleached) 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt (I used Pink Himalayan) 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 cup butter/margarine 2 cups sugar 3 large eggs 3 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tbsp lemon zest (I could not zest as the kitchen is packed in boxes, so did not add) 1 tsp vanilla 1 cup no-fat Greek yoghurt 3 cups of blueberries (dusted with flour to keep them from sinking) Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 2. Grease and flour bundt pan. 3. Mix together dry goods, flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda, in a separate bowl. 4. In another bowl, beat together butter and sugar for 3 minutes - I did not have a mixer (due to kitchen reno) so I softened the butter in the microwave first and then used a good ole wooden spoon for the mixing. 5. Add eggs to butter mix, one at a time, stir in between each. 6. Add flour a little bit at a time. Stir in gently. 7. Blend in lemon juice,zest, vanilla, sour cream/yoghurt with wooden spoon. 8. Fold in blueberries. 9. Spoon batter into greased and floured bundt pan. It is very thick! 10. Bake for 60 minutes, check for doneness. Add 5 to 15 minutes, if needed. Mine took 65 minutes. To keep top from getting too brown you can cover with aluminum foil. 11. Let cool before taking out of pan. This was super easy to make, too very little time to put together but takes a long time to bake. Is dense, moist, and tasty. I would definitely add the zest, if you can, it would add that wee extra bit of lemony-ness. The original recipe has a lemon glaze that you can put on it but I figured it was rich enough, sweet enough, yummy enough, that I did not bother with that.... plus, I have no idea where the icing sugar is right now, hah. Maybe when I make it for the neighbours? Will see. I made just a couple of really small changes... no fat, thick Greek yoghurt instead of sour cream, 3 eggs instead of 4, a titch extra baking soda, no zest, and no mixer used, just a wooden spoon. I channeled my grandmother and figured if it was good enough for her, it was good enough for me. However, I softened the margarine in the microwave first, so maybe not quite the same ; ) Can be left on counter for a few days. Is. So. Very. Yummy. Happy Baking ~ Tanja

The list of things to do in the garden in January is pretty slim no matter what zone one is in, but even slimmer in my Zone 3. This month really is mostly all about the planning and the dreaming, and that is what I have been doing. I ordered my seeds shortly after Christmas. Others plan for new year's parties, I browse for seeds. The last order came in just yesterday, so I am now all set to go. The seeds are organised in the order they will be started. This is a trick I learned at a greenhouse I worked at many years ago. Of course, their seeds for each department were in huge flat totes rather than a wee wooden box like mine. I started hundreds of perennials from seed back then. I was already crazy about heirloom tomatoes back then but that was not my department at this particular greenhouse, so I kept that crazy at home ; ) This year is a bit of a learning curve for me as I have much smaller yard and gardens, but my goal is to get as many veggies growing on the property as possible while still leaving room for the dogs to play and roll about. Here are some odds & sods tips of hings to do or think about... How to go about deciding what to order, what to grow, and when to do it? 1. Make a list of everything you want to grow this year. Not sure how? See HERE! 2. Go through your seed stash to see what you have, what to toss as is too old, what to buy. 3. Make a garden plan. Mine always changes somewhat when I get in the garden, but having an idea of how much room you have to grow in will be a big help when ordering. 4. Decide what to grow from seed and what from starter plants. 5. Order veggie/flower seeds. 6. Buy supplies you need to start seeds indoors. Common Mistakes We All Make 1. Starting too early - this is a biggie and happens to both experience and beginner gardeners as we are all itching to get started. There is no hurry! Anything you want to start from seed can be done later than you think. Is better to have a small, healthy starter plant that takes off quickly than a large one that struggles to adapt. You have time! I will keep saying this to remind you! 2. Not realising that cucumbers and squash seeds germinate and grow very quickly. This happens so often! As cucumbers and tomatoes are both warm weather crops, many think that they should be started at the same time. However, unlike tomatoes and peppers, they germinate and grow super fast so should be started just 3 to 4 weeks before you want to put them out. They will be of a perfect size to transplant well. 3. Keeping struggling plants too long. If your transplants are not growing, pull them out and stick in some new seeds. One year (2021), I planted a couple of cucumber starts in May and they were still the same size in July, no matter what I did to them. They were not too large at planting time so should have been fine but they just weren't. I direct sowed a few more seeds in that same bed in July and was harvesting in August while the others did nothing and took up valuable garden space. This same thing applies to starter plants indoors, as well. If they are buggy, struggling, not thriving, or maybe you left them outside too long when they were being hardened off and they fried or froze, toss them and start new seeds. You have time, is okay. Plants that can be started this month, if you really are itching to get growing... onions (seeds) leeks celery peppers - if you have room for when you repot them. Otherwise, wait till February. herbs like oregano, thyme, chives from seed lavender and rosemary from cuttings petunia pansies geraniums Happy Planning, Dreaming, & Ordering ~ Tanja

As I was watching my favourite weekend show, The Lost Kitchen on Magnolia network, I was thinking that in this time of crazy food costs, I need to go back to thinking more like Erin does. She comes up with a fabulous 12 course meal from locally grown produce, seafoods, and meats for her restaurant, building her menu around whatever is on the weekly availability lists. Eating local and fresh is healthier, and shopping sales and in season is cheaper, so important as food costs have sky-rocketed this year. If you are lucky enough to live where you can harvest carrots, parsnips, broccoli, brussels, leeks from your potager, hardy greens, green onions from your cold frames, try building some/most of your weekly meals around your harvest, supplementing with items from the grocers or farmer's market that are in season and on sale, so are affordable. If you live in a colder zone on the prairies, as I do, shop the grocery stores and the farmer's markets for those in season fruits and vegetables that are on sale, listed on the first page of the flyer, usually. All things have a season, if you buy in season produce, you will save money. Buying out of season goods, like strawberries in winter, cost a lot of money as they are coming from afar. This week, I was able to get a big bag of apples for $3.99, broccolini, bean sprouts, potatoes, avocadoes were on sale, as well as grapes, and cucumbers. You all know I dislike cooking, only make things that are easy and fast to make. I like to eat fresh, easy, simple foods. Oh, when I need to turn my oven on, I make sure to make it count. I am cheap like that, hate to turn it on if I don't have to. So, I make double batches of breads, cookies, crisps... as many things as I need or want for the week(s) ahead, all in one shot. This week I made apple crisp, the perfect dessert on these cold, wintery days, and pho for supper(s). I am eating great tasting foods, saving money, and eating healthy, too. *The pho is gluten free, and mine is vegan, but you add your protein of choice. My Apple Crisp recipe is one I have been making for nearly 50 years now. It comes from the Chatelaine Cookbook (the first cookbook mom gave me, at the age of 12 )and is super simple. 5 apples, cored, peeled, and sliced. 1/2 cup butter or margarine 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup large flake oats Place the sliced apples into a Pyrex baking dish. Mix together the other four ingredients with a pastry blender/cutter till the butter is in small pea sized pieces. Put the crumble on top of the apples. Bake at 375°F for 30 to 40 minutes. The top will be nicely browned and the fruit will be tender. Serve warm with ice cream or cream. I like it with Silk Coffee 'Cream'. This covers dessert and a couple of breakfasts, too. *Don't get too caught up on how many apples you have, is easy to modify the recipe to more or less fruit. I like a bigger ratio of fruit to topping as it is healthier, so I usually add more. **You can absolutely add cinnamon and spices to your taste, if you like. I like mine super simple, just tasting of fruit. My take on Pho is super simple to make and with almost any ingredients you like. I am a vegetarian so I make mine with tofu and mushrooms but you can use any meat, sliced thin, or shrimp. I do not make my own broth, but you certainly can. The tetra paks of pho broth were on sale this week so I bought 3 to have extras in the pantry. It is gluten free and vegetarian. 1/2 of the container of Campbell's Pho Broth 1/4 cup of dried shitake mushrooms 1/4 to 1/3 of the block of extra firm tofu, pressed Splash or two of Tamari (gluten free and vegan) Vegetables chopped into small pieces (this week, I am using 1 julienned carrot, 3 broccolini, and 5 snow peas) Handful of Bean sprouts Vermicelli noodles 2 Green onions for garnish. I think these guys just finish the dish so nicely. Pour the broth into a pot, use the whole thing if you are cooking. I use half a container to make two meals so if you are cooking for 2 or more people, use the whole thing. Break the mushrooms into smaller pieces, add to the broth. Add vegetables that take some time to cook into the broth, in this case, the carrots, broccolini, and snow peas. Cook for 10 minutes while you are getting your tofu ready. Cut pressed tofu into small thin pieces. Fry till slightly crispy, then add tamari and continue frying until crisp and full of flavour. Add beans sprouts. Add vermicelli noodles. Cook for two more minutes. Using tongs, I pull out the noodles and put some in the centre of the bowl, then start adding in the veggies and enough broth to make it soupy. Top with the crispy tamari tofu bits and green onions. Heart healthy, inexpensive, use what you like and have on hand. I will keep sharing recipes now and again. They will never be fancy schmancy, just simple, easy and quick to make. Happy Healthy Eating ~ Tanja

January is all about planning, dreaming, and ordering. I make lists and ideas in my journal, add to them or make changes, right up until planting time. We made plans, followed through on them, added some more, and then ran out of time to finish the job. This is good, it leaves me more time to ponder. The bones of this new yard are amazing, the former owners were avid gardeners but not food growers so we had to do some tweaking to make room for greenhouse, gardens, raised beds, and fruit trees. If you are in planning mode, have recently moved to a new house and yard, or are making changes to your landscape, here are a few tips that will help. Planning is key! Live with your landscape for a little bit. As you sit outside sipping your morning coffee and evening wine, watch where the sun is in the yard and for how many hours. We moved into this house in mid-July so spent a lot of time sitting on the back deck and just watching. I noticed that the north corner of the house, back by the big spruce tree, got a lot more sun than I thought it did. The sun was there from late morning all the way till 5-ish, and then got several hours of evening sun as the sun rounded the house to set in the west. Lots more sun than I thought, at least 8 hours. Perfect spot to stick a wee greenhouse! Jot down notes and observations in your journal, start drawing up plans on what to put where. How to plan your new yard, potager, and landscape? I just recently read that you can Google Earth your yard and screenshot it, making it super easy to put your plans directly into your yard. This shot of my house was taken prior to the changes we made so is not usable for my future planning (drat!) so I did not bother to blow it up for my planning. Draw out your yard on a piece of paper. Add any existing structures to the drawing if they are staying in the landscape. Then start adding the elements to it. Mark out north and south on your drawing so you know where to put trees, structures, etc.. so that they do not shade your beds. 1. Figure out your big hardscaping items first. Are you putting in a shed? Gazebo? Pergola? Trampoline? Firepit? Patio? Swing set? She shed? Pond? Greenhouse? Arbour? Need a pathway that takes you from house to garage, or to the shed, etc? Place all of the large items and hardscaping on your drawing first as they are hard to fit in later. 2. Where is the best place for your garden beds/plot to go? You want 6 to 8 hours for a happy, thriving food garden. It does not all have to be at the same time, in one stretch. Maybe you have a north facing yard where you get 4 hours in the morning and another 3 or 4 hours in the evening as the sun sets in the west. 3. Plan where your trees will go. Keep in mind where they will cast shade in summer (so as not to shade your new beds) and remember to check how large the tree will be at maturity before you plant. Most fruit trees come in semi-dwarf, which can still be a fairly large tree in a small yard at 12 to 15 feet tall and wide, but some also come in micro-dwarf/mini-dwarf. For both ornamental and edible types, I go with small trees or large shrubs. 4. Next, add your shrubs to your plan. Maybe you want to add some climbers to the arbour or rose bushes in amongst your fruiting shrubs to attract the bees and pollinators. Add those to the drawing, even if you are not sure exactly what you will plant, plan for them, give them a spot, and decide how large it can be. 5. Then come your perennial flowers, fruits, and veggies that will be there for the next 5 to 20 years. Things like asparagus, horseradish, rhubarb, strawberries. It takes asparagus 3 years (from roots) and 5 years from seed to start providing you with spears so you want them in asap. 6. Last thing to go in is your annual flowers and veggies. As long as you have the beds planned for them, you can plant them up annually any which way you want. How to plan your potager with annual flowers and vegetables coming up in another post. What are our plans here and how are we going about making the changes? 1. Following those tips listed above. We started by planning out the hardscape, the buildings, pathways, and patio. We decided where the fancy she-shed will go and how to make a bigger, more suitable patio for the dining and entertaining we want to do. The wee greenhouse, the arbours, and pathways. You can see the changes we made last year HERE! 2. We then put in garden areas along the fence line and big, long raised beds on one half of the long yard, leaving a good stretch of yard for the dogs to play, roll, and run. Make a plan that suits your lifestyle. *** Plan for how large the plants will be at maturity! Tree size matters a whole lot! 3. When you begin buying and planting, fruit trees and shrubs take the longest to establish, so plant them first. Most all fruit trees start to produce at about 5 years of age, so if you buy a 2 year whip, you get reliable fruiting in 3 or 4 years. Shrubs reach maturity 3 to 5 years after planting. I always tell people at my workshops that fruiting trees and shrubs are just as pretty as ornamental one, and they give you food. Have room for a small tree in your yard? Pop in an apple tree, pear, cherry, Asian pear, peach. Depending on where you are, your gardening zone, plus your micro-climates in your yard, you can grow all sorts of fruits. Instead of spiraeas, pop in a blueberry, saskatoon, honeyberry, blackberry, raspberries, jostaberries, gooseberries... Mix your ornamental plants with your edibles for an attractive looking yard that feeds you, feeds the pollinators, and keeps the neighbours happy, too. We have all sorts of established ornamental trees and shrubs in the yard so have decided to put in an 'orchard' along the south fence line. Really, it is just a row of fruiting trees running along the fence in our most protected area of the yard, but I am calling it my orchard ; ) The orchard will consist of one or two hardy apple trees that are dwarf or micro dwarf and have good storage, considering Gala, Norkent, or Goodland. Maybe an espaliered apple, too, as they take up little space. 4. Fruiting Shrubs... a) We have a really lovely, big berried Saskatoon that we just love. The berries are huge and sweet. The dogs loved them! We had to move it last year, with the new fence, right in the middle of the hot, dry summer. It looked like heck for the rest of the year, the leaves all shrivelled up but the stems were pliable, so we are hopeful that it has made it. Will see what happens in spring. If it does not make it, we will most definitely put in another one, probably a Thiessen. We may just put in another one anyway, just because they thrive here and are yummy. b) Blueberries- are more of a novelty here but we are going to try a couple in a sheltered spot that will fit two of them. We will be going with the Chippewa for it's great, big berries, and then either a St Cloud, Brunswick, or Northblue. Worth trying though keeping the ground acidic enough for them to thrive and fruit is the hardest part here on the prairies. Blueberries are self-fertile but produce better with friends so we always go with at least two different varieties. c) Grapes - We have a blue one already, likely a Beta (great for jelly), but want to try the Somerset, as well. We think we have the perfect spot for it, so is worth a go! d) Raspberries- are a must! We have three plants right now and are not sure if we will plant a couple more of just wait for them to spread, as they tend to do. Raspberry jam is my absolute favourite! We are right smack dab in the middle of the province so we occasionally get chinooks but not as often as Calgary does. Chinooks can wreak havoc on your early flowering fruits, like pears, apples, and raspberries. If you are north of here, you can grow the summer-bearing raspberries (floricanes) but if you are south of here, you should go with the ever-bearing types (primocanes) so I think I will try some of both and see what happens. Here is a list of cold hardy raspberries. If you are one of my followers from the island, zone 7, I would plant both types! If you like Haskaps/Honeyberries, you might plant those instead of blueberries on the prairies, as they are much hardier. I have grown them before, when we lived northeast of Edmonton and found that they require too much water in order to stay tasty. They were so bitter that the birds would not eat them! As I am very thrifty with watering, I won't be planting these in my yard. I have heard from other growers and bloggers that some varieties taste good, but some are very, very yucky, regardless of how much water one gives them. If you want to give them a go, you may need to trial a few kinds but pull them out if they are yucky, put in a different kind! Truly! Life is too short for yucky berries. You will need two varieties as they are not self-fertile but I think they are sold as sets at most all nurseries. 5. Perennials Fruits and Flowers. Strawberries - While I am not a big fan, hubby and the grandbabies love strawberries so therefore they are a must have. If you want to grow them mainly for making jam and for freezing, get June-bearing strawberries. They make the really big berries that you see at the shops, they also fruit in a 2 to 3 week season, so you get lots of berries all at one time, making it easy to jam them up. The ever-bearing or day neutrals are nice to have in the yard for snacking. Rhubarb - very hardy, grows everywhere, we already have a nice, big one here on the property that is thriving by the hose bib. A must have in every garden : ) We have tons of lovely ornamental shrubs and perennial flowers here on the property already, so will sit with it a while and see how things grow. We know that a side yard revamp is in the works, add a few roses and blue and white perennials, but that is all I know so far. The rest of the ideas for planting are still brewing in my head and journal. I hope this helps get you started with your landscaping plans. If you are stuck, I highly recommend you hire a landscape designer to help you put your thoughts and ideas on paper. They are able to give you ideas that might not have even occurred to you, help you pull it all together. You might just get a basic drawing, or you might prefer a detailed 3 to 5 year plan, or you may want them to do the planning and the work. All are great ideas to get you to where you want to be. Happy Garden Planning ~ Tanja

BIRDSEED WREATHS - FOR THE BIRDS .... Part two, which one did the birds like best? The three birdseed wreathes have been hanging on the large cedar for several weeks now, long enough to get an idea of which one is the most popular with the birds ... For all three recipes and their how-to's, see HERE. Wreath Number One... (the light coloured one on the right-hand side) This one seemed to appeal mostly to the wee little birds, they are really enjoying this one, flocking around it and pecking away. Is also still looking solid and very pretty hung up on its green ribbon. Wreath Number Two - the one on top with the green ribbon and suet on top. This is the one that was made with both peanut butter and suet. Sadly, it broke in half about a week after it graced the tree. The top half I left hanging on the tree while the bottom half, mostly still intact, was placed on a large tree stump in amongst the Salal ... All kinds of birds really seem to enjoy this one, are pecking around on the ground, in and around the Salal, looking for all the tasty little seeds that scattered everywhere. Next time I make this, I will add the same amount of peanut butter but will add about 1/2 cup more of the rendered suet, the 'glue' that holds it all together, to try to prevent it from cracking in half again. However, it may also simply be that I did not mix the seeds and suet together long enough or well enough, as we can see that the extra suet settled in the bottom of the pan. Perhaps it just needed more stirring? Turns out that the pups also really liked the peanut butter and suet covered seed, which I noted as I scooped up all the bespeckled evidence from the yard. Wreath Number Three... the larger one on the left, with the white ribbon This is the larger wreath, made with suet alone, no peanut butter, from Martha Stewart's recipe. It is holding its shape well, staying strong and solid. One side seems to be getting a wee bit more attention from the birds and so it needs to be given a bit of a turn ....to keep it from getting too weak/thin that close to the ribbon. It seems to appeal more to the mid-sized birds than the wee little ones. In summery... I would say that all the wreaths are a hit. They are pretty to look at, fun to make, all three appeal to the birds. I do not know the names of all the birds in my yard beyond nuthatches and sapsuckers, but I can say that all three wreaths are getting their fair share of attention. Different kinds of birds seem to prefer different wreaths best. In the end, I ended up choosing to make the two suet ones rather than the flour one, as it seems to me that suet and nuts are likely better for the birds than flour and syrup. A more organic, bird-friendly choice. I make the peanut butter one the most, wreath number two. Yep, even though it fell apart. It seemed to be the one that most all of the birds went to the most. However, I think it wins with only the smallest of margins .... Therefore, pick any one of these great recipes, make it .... and they will come ; ) For a later update and to see how I overcame the breaking/cracking, and how to frost your wreaths, please see HERE!