The Marigold Potager – A Zone 3 Prairie Garden

This week’s ramblings are pretty much all fall oriented. Some are things you can do now while others are tips for what you can do in spring to have an amazing fall garden next year. Hope you enjoy the reads : )

We have finished most of the garden tasks for the year but the leaves have yet to fall. Another week or two is needed before we can just rake them all on top of the perennial flower beds. We just pile them all on top of the beds and walk away. My raspberry patch is so much improved since we started doing this a couple years back.

Our postal strike has now turned into a rotating strike so mail is moving again. I got my box of bulbs (whew!) and hope to plant them all up this afternoon. Okay, I will sit and supervise while hubby plants them for me. His first time ever. While I am 3 weeks post surgery (tomorrow) and healing very well from the brand new hip, I am not yet near ready for crawling in the garden.

Check out how big and beautiful the Music (porcelain type) garlic is that I ordered from Vesey’s. Hubs was able to get this in the ground the other day so I am now at about 120 bulbs for next year. I like to grow around 100-ish, as that gives me enough for our own cooking, enough to keep some over for next year’s planting, plus extras for gifting. Homegrown garlic is something I love to give at Christmas time : )

Wondering how to figure out how many cloves of garlic you get per pound or per bulb so you can plan and order accordingly? Find that information in my Ultimate Guide to Planting Garlic Successfully .

Your Autumn Garden

• How To Prepare Your Garden For The Winter
• Leave the leaves – the new, easy way to deal with autumn gardens
• When Should You Mulch in Fall – and Which Plants to Leave Alone
• when inner conifer needles turn yellow or brown
• Discover how to create a perfect autumn border Fall is a great time to pick up the plants to make your fall border garden sing next year. The trees, shrubs, and perennials are available at most all garden centres right now, and they are all on sale.
• 10 Plants for Autumn Colour
• calculating the impact of leaving the leaves, with max ferlauto – if you want to geek out about leaving the leaves, this is a fun article, with lots of great information. I was amazed by the results. Get your geek on ; )

Bulbs & Tubers

Have you dug up your dahlias yet? Here on the prairies, most of us dug them up some time ago as we had an early frost. I decided to not save any tubers this year, just saved some seeds. I will buy a few pompom types in spring and grow these seed dahlias instead.

• Perennial Tulips: Polly Nicholson on How to Grow Native Species
• Gardening 101: Growing Tulips the New Dutch Way
• Expert Advice: 10 Tips from Old House Gardens for Planning a Spring Bulb Garden

Pollinators

• Lawn-Free Front Yard Ideas
• Pollinator strips for wildlife-friendly gardens explained
• 10 Essential Insects You Need in a Garden
• How to Create a Log Pile Habitat for Wildlife in Your Yard

Seed Saving

• 7 Easy Flower Seeds to Collect in Fall / Easy Garden Seed Saving Tips – YouTube
• How To Save Zinnia Seeds – The Marigold Potager – A Zone 3 Prairie Garden

I am in love with these storage jars for my herbs and saved seeds. They are going to look so bougie on the shelf in my potting shed ; ) For the herbs, I used the premade stickers that come with the jars, but I used my Dymo label maker for the seed labels. Love the black on clear tape, but there are many other options ,if you prefer something different.

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Veggies – Growing & Storing

how to store garden vegetables for winter We have carrots, potatoes, and onions going into the cold room this weekend.

• The onions are in an open mesh basket (like a moss basket frame) and last super well in our cold room, all the way till spring.
• The potatoes are in a cardboard box with the flaps closed. The box breathes and absorbs moisture so keeps them from getting mouldy. We used to keep them on our garage doorstep on the island, in a box. The garage was not heated or insulated. Our cold room should stay around the same temp (not sure about humidity) as we are in a very cold winter area now.
• The carrots are in a big box and will be topped with peat moss to absorb extra moisture, and . Wash and remove the tops. I read about the Peterson Storage Method somewhere last week but cannot find it now to share with you. He uses a tote bin, puts a black garbage bag with the 4 ends that you tie together. Takes off the tops of the carrots, washes them, dries them well, puts them in the tote, tops with peat moss, and then ties the bag up but leaves an opening for the air to escape/tote to breathe. If you have an extra fridge and lots of room, top the carrots, wash them, put them in a ziplok bag with holes punched into it. Place a paper towel inside the bag, with the carrots, to absorb moisture. Replace once a month.

Cucumbers masterclass: best expert content – Cucumber growing advice from various bloggers.

Homey Bits of Inspo

Kitchen Trends 2026: The Trending Features To Know About I love most all these ideas, especially the last one. Wish I had a kitchen to renovate ; )

Kitchen of the Week: Colorful, Open and Full of Personality – what a gorgeous kitchen renovation! Love how they integrated the table into the island.

I know it is a bit early, but I couldn’t not post this. Christmas wreath making: a florist’s step-by-step guide. This is a great guide to making your own wreath. Do not be afraid! It really is easy and so much fun. Psst.. if you do not have moss readily available, stuff the ring with bits of cedar or fir, whatever greenery you most of, instead.

Recipes

• Hamburger Gravy Recipe – this gravy (or one like it) is one of the things I miss the most as a veggie. But!!! Now that you can get lion’s mane mushroom crumble at most all grocery stores, even us veggies can have ‘hamburger’ gravy : )
• Healthier Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini Vegetable Soup. This one gets four to five stars across the board, so I had to share. Sounds amazing. Perfect fall soup.

• No Chill Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

I just wanted to end today’s post with great big thanks for your amazing support through my Amazon links. You all are amazing. Thank you so much ~ Tanja