Garden 2026 Update #2 Fruit Trees, Spring Projects & Painting the Garden

My latest garden update for 2026 here in zone 6a in southwestern Ontario Canada.

Year #3 with blossoms but no fruit visible at all for Harry, my Italian Plum Tree. 

Maybe next year is the year everyone's hoping for!

The Honey Crisp apple blossoms look promising. 

I did a pretty hard prune last season with all fruit trees and berry bushes 

so we'll just have to wait & see how well they bounce back this year. 

 Potted Bleeding Hearts at the back garden pond. 

Beautiful pansies that self-seeded and survived the harsh Southern Ontario winter. 

Beautiful Forget Me Nots are all over my yard. In Pink, blue and white. 

Lovely spring strawberry blossoms throughout the strawberry beds. 

Felix & Oscar, the Odd Musical Tin Rooster Duo standing guard over Victoria, the rhubarb that over-wintered in the massive compost bin after I pulled her and tossed her out. Victoria has been re-homed back into the garden between grape vines, and next to the strawberries. 

I've finally repainted my DIY raised metal bed (it's 2 window wells I bought on FB marketplace years ago) with the same paint I re-painted the garden cottage. I think it's called Misty Green. Somehow, the camera at this angle picks up some sort of muted yellow? 😄 In any case, it's a fresh new upgrade from the battleship gray the metal bed used to be. 

This might be the worst "before/after" image ever 😂 but it's only because the camera really didn't capture the HUGE difference in color. On the left the metal bed is classic gray. On the right, it's a soft green.  In real life, it's a 10 million percent improvement in how the garden looks. Also, the bright green and purple pots seen here have been part of a project to "Paint the Garden", to beautify the space, and add a wonderful pop of color to every area of the growing spaces. 

We inherited my father in law's park bench after he passed away in 2020, and it's been in need of some real TLC for a long time. That happened recently, with a quick pressure wash.  

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you've enjoyed what you've read here, and if you have any thoughts or questions please feel welcome to leave a comment. 😊

Turkey Bacon Soup Recipe

As requested over many years, here's my favorite use for leftover Christmas or Thanksgiving turkey. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family has! 

4 cups chicken broth
2 c. water
½ c. chopped green onions
½ c. uncooked rice
8 slices bacon
½ c. butter
¾ c. flour
½ t. salt
¼ t. poultry seasoning
¼ t. black pepper
2 c. half & half cream
1 ½ c. cooked & diced turkey meat

In a large pot over medium heat, combine broth, water, green onions and rice. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer about 35 minutes. In a large skillet cook the bacon, allow to cool then crumble & set aside.

When the rice is tender melt the butter in a medium saucepan over med-low heat. Stir in flour salt, poultry seasoning and pepper. Cook and stir until smooth and bubbly. Stir in half & half cream until thickened – about 2 minutes. Stir cream mixture into rice mixture, add turkey and bacon, heath through and serve. Great with warmed, crusty bread.

Garden 2026 Update #1 - Planning, Winter Sowing & Some BIG Changes!

My garden planning updates are mostly for me to keep a journal of what works, what didn't, and what I can do to improve my efforts.  I've decided to make them public to help anyone who might be along the same gardening  journey as me. I sure hope you find them helpful!

GARDEN PLANNING

Now that Christmas and New Year's celebrations are over, it's time to get back into the garden mindset and get to planning!  While I always look forward to the last few months of the year when the garden is put to bed and things are a little slower, I also look forward to gearing back up and getting ready for another amazing year of growing. 

This year planning it's a little more enjoyable since my sister-in-law gifted me a really cute little, spiral, lay-flat garden journal. She had no idea but over the winter I've been busy creating some custom, personalized garden journals and coordinating garden supplies myself!  For the last few years I've been using a simple, plain 3 ring binder and notebook paper but I've opted to create some custom binders as well as lay-flat spiral journals that can easily be taken out into the garden for quick note taking. Just a little prettier, and personalized so they make a wonderfully endearing garden-lover gift as well.  You can see the newest lay-flat spiral journals and 3 ring binders here at my zazzle shop. 

WINTER SOWING

The first update this year is the winter sown seeds. Last year I discovered winter sowing for the first time and sowed many seed types. It was tremendously successful for my Sunflowers, Yarrow and Chamomile. Much better germination rates and stronger, taller plants than I've ever grown. Checking in with my notes & updates from last year reminded me I needed to add more rain water intake holes in the tops of my containers, and more drainage holes in the bottom. So I've done that with a little help of my hot glue gun by simply melting the holes in my dollar store lidded totes. This year the winter sown seeds are Purple Cone Flower (Echinacea) and Lavender. 

GARDEN CHANGES

My garden plans this year are to make some pretty big changes, that make growing & tending to the garden even easier. Since I built my first garden beds many years ago I've made some pretty ambitious choices but now I'm dialing it back quite a bit. I gave up the "experiment" garden last year and dedicated that space to what I know grows really well here in growing zone 6a. To make that even more useful, my plan is to rebuild that bed and reduce the size slightly to make room for another comfortable seating area right in the middle of the garden. While I will lose a small amount of growing space, I still have more than enough to grow what we eat and what grows well, so adding the seating area is just an added bonus that benefits anyone spending time in the garden.  You can never really have too much comfortable seating tucked here and there in your garden. 😊

This year I'll be growing less than what I've grown before (no potatoes, onions or beans) but will be growing some sweet potatoes in a new bed I built last year & using the main trellis for Sugar Baby pumpkins. I just prepared the organic sweet potatoes today, so they'll rest here on the heat mat & grow their slips, and hopefull they'll all be ready for garden planting come spring. Next to the sweet potatoes are a few pots of cinnamon basil I picked up recently. I love basil but I've never tried the cinnamon variety so I'm really looking forward to that.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope this helps you in some way as you begin to plan your own garden.  Please feel welcome to leave a comment or question & have an awesome day! 💖

EASY DIY Christmas Basket Add-Ins: Dried Fruit and Spice Simmer Pot Pouches

One of the easiest DIY add-ins to any Christmas basket is a fun and festive Christmas Simmer Pot filled with dried fruit and spice.

Here's the recipe I used to make mine this year that has all the same ingredients I use in my Hot Wassail that simmers in the crockpot all day on Christmas eve.

3 orange slices, dried

6 apple slices, dried

6 whole cloves

2 cinnamon sticks

1 T cranberries, chopped & dried

1 sprig dried pine or rosemary (optional)

Pour the entire contents into a small pot with 3 cups of hot water. Let simmer over low heat. Add more water as needed.

This recipe is kitchen tested, and it works really well for a 6+ hour stove top simmer.  You can also remove from heat at the end of a day's use, let cool and use the next day.  2 days is the longest recommended use for optimum scent infusion.