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July is coming to an end and that means it’s time for a garden update. This is the month where the garden truly starts to come into its own. The plants are getting well established and if the conditions are right, might be flowering or starting to produce. One of the biggest struggles this month was the heat and lack of rain. Only in the last week of the month did we get any rain. Growing a garden that focuses heavily on cool-weather crops and then having steady heat in the summer does not mix well. So how is the garden holding up in theseRead More →

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June ushers in the arrival of the gardening season. For those who live in the North, you know how short and generally cool our growing season can be. That’s why it’s so important to get things in the ground on time. Of course, no two growing seasons are the same. In fact, the month started with abnormally high temperatures. Then in the middle of the month, our nighttime temperatures dropped to near freezing – which is quite normal but felt extra cold after that early heatwave. Needless to say, this has been quite an interesting start to the garden season but I won’t let thatRead More →

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Gather your outdoor solar lights, lawn chairs, and garden gnomes! It’s time for the June 2021 Use It Up Challenge. This month we are focusing on outdoor decor. Chances are you have some outdoor decor, and depending on the size of your yard and how often you use it, you may have quite a bit. But are you using all that you own or is most of it sitting in your shed collecting dust? Let’s take this month to focus on ensuring we are truly using these items and any that we are not, are sold or donated to ensure we aren’t holding onto clutter.Read More →

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Grab your seeds, trowels, planters, and soil. It’s time for the April 2021 Use It Up Challenge. This month we are focusing on seeds. Garden season is fast approaching. In fact, some may already have started their gardens, especially if you live in the southern climates. However, for those of us in the North, there are a few weeks to go before we can safely get our hands in the dirt. Since many plants can be started indoors, this is the perfect time to work on using all of the seeds you have accumulated over the last few months or years. So grab your seedsRead More →

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September is coming to an end. This is a big month for the garden. It often signals the end of the growing season, which also means the scramble to get the last of the harvest done. After having an unseasonably hot summer, September quickly brought in those cool fall temperatures. We experienced several nights of negative temperatures with several frosts, which did a number on the plants. In fact, I cannot believe the difference between how the garden looks now and what it looked like at the end of September last year. It’s amazing how much of a difference there can be each year. ThisRead More →

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August is a strange month for the garden. It is when most of the plants are producing like crazy yet at the same time, it’s when everything starts to slow down. That is the side-effect of growing in a cool and short garden season. Well, most years it’s cool, however, this year was abnormally warm. Not only that, but there was a distinct lack of rain over the course of the month. Even with these challenges, the garden did pretty well this month. Without further ado, here is the August 2020 garden update. Let’s see how everything is growing. August 2020 garden update What’s growingRead More →

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As the garden season shifts from growing to harvesting, it’s important to have a place to wash those freshly picked vegetables. That’s where a DIY veggie wash station comes in handy. Whether your garden is large or small, every gardener will benefit from having a veggie wash station. No more being hunched over washing the dirt from your harvest. Now, all you need to do is place the veggie on top and give them a thorough spray with the garden hose. This is especially handy for root crops like radishes, carrots, and potatoes, that tend to be covered with more dirt. As an added bonus,Read More →

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July is the month that the garden starts to come into its own. Since everything has been planted and had at least a few weeks to grow, it’s easy to see the potential that the garden has. The plants may still be small, but at least it is the first month that the garden really starts to shine. Not only that, but some items can be harvested by now – usually herbs. Of course, this also means that there are only about 2-3 months left of the growing season. It sounds crazy since it only just began, but that is one of the downsides toRead More →

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The start of the garden season officially arrived in June. Where I live in Northern Ontario, our average last frost date is mid-June, which means it’s safe to plant after that day. Now, there are exceptions to this, as some plant varieties do well with frosts and cooler temperatures. Even though I got an early start to the garden this year, planting as early as March – though it meant bringing those plants in every night for almost three months – June is when the vast majority of the garden was planted. Now that the planting is complete, I thought I would share a JuneRead More →

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For years one thing that has been missing from my garden was a potting bench. I knew I wanted one, but they weren’t something I could find in the stores and if I did they were very expensive. Over the years, I had considering making one myself. However, having never built anything before, I wasn’t sure I could do it. But this year I decided to throw caution into the wind and make my own DIY garden potting bench. After looking at random pictures of potting benches, I knew what I wanted mine to look like. As part of all of my May garden prep,Read More →