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The Best Vegetables for Beginning Gardeners
If you are just starting out into the world of vegetable gardening, the last thing you will want to do is choose hard to grow vegetables. My list of the best Vegetables for beginning gardeners will help you to choose those with the greatest chance of success. If you don’t have room for a large […]
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Gardening Hacks – 20 Clever Ideas to Make Light of Your Garden Chores
These clever gardening hacks will make light work of garden chores and many recycle common household items into useful garden products. A win-win any day! I love to write about clever ideas that gardeners can do to make their garden chores easy. Sure, it is easy to throw money at a project, but with a […]
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Budget Front Yard Make Over for Summer
My husband and I recently finished this budget front yard make over in an afternoon. I love the way it turned out. I am all about gardening on a budget. With the amount of garden beds that I have, (8 and counting!) I have to be. I had a neglected Pine tree garden that was […]
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Creative Planters – Why Didn’t I think of That?
It seems that almost everything that is found around the house can be turned into creative planters. No matter how large or small, a plant seems to be able to find its way into anything with an opening large enough to put in some soil. Typewriters, bicycles, cowboy boots, paint cans, child’s wagons and even […]
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48 Uses for Plastic Grocery Bags – Creative Ways to Recycle Shopping Bags
Don’t throw those shopping bags out. There are dozens of uses for plastic grocery bags! Plastic or paper is a question often heard at the check out of the grocery store. Even though paper is better for the environment, I usually choose plastic, because I know that I will be reusing them. Plastic grocery bags […]
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How To Winterize Garden Tools
Now is the perfect time to winterize garden tools. The garden will be resting for a few months but tools still need TLC. Once the cooler weather sets in, and thoughts of the upcoming holidays come to mind, that last thing we want to think about is gardening. But trust me, your garden tools will […]
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Using Tea Bags – Recycling Tips for Home and Garden use.
Here is my list of 15 ingenious ways for using tea bags in the home and garden. There are so many different ways to reuse a teabag (other than obviously making another cup of tea). Tea bags are not just for tea! You may not be English and have a cup of tea at various […]
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Cut and come Again Vegetables
Teach your child the joy of gardening with these fun projects using cut and come again vegetables. This vegetable garden hack is easy to do and makes use of vegetable parts and pieces that would normally end up in the trash. Vegetable gardening is so rewarding. But not everyone has the space for it. There are […]
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Collection of the Best Cheat Sheets.
This collection of cheat sheets give you a handy way to find the info you want quickly. Sometimes, I just wish there was an easy way to have all the great information that you find online handy in one place, don’t you? Cheat sheets are the way to go. These helpful graphics and charts make […]
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How to ripen Green Tomatoes Indoors
I recently had to figure a way to save my crop quickly so I decided to ripen green tomatoes indoors. If you have been reading my blog, you will know that I had a run in with the squirrels in my garden. It was totally heartbreaking for me to see the damage they did to […]
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How to Water Dry Hydrangea Flowers
Did you know that it is very easy to water dry hydrangea flowers? We all know how wonderful the blooms are as cut flowers but drying them makes them even more long-lasting! One of my favorite garden flowers is the hydrangea. My bushes are lovely this year and also very surprising. My soil has turned […]
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Growing Potatoes in a Trash Bag
This project for growing potatoes is a simple and yet very effective vegetable garden hack. Just combine everything into a large trash bag. The potatoes will grow in the bag itself, saving the space for other veggies and works really well. I’m a meat and potatoes kind of girl. No meal seems quite complete with […]
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Planting Tip for Big Pots – Use Packing Peanuts
Packing Peanuts = Light pots and Less soil I love the look of large planters. They bring nature onto patios and decks. Many stores carry very large designs that are just gorgeous. But large planters can be cumbersome and heavy to move around because of their size. They also use a lot of soil which […]
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Weird things you Did not Know you Could compost.
I am a huge fan of composting for vegetable gardening. The end product is wonderful for your soil and also makes use of things that are otherwise discarded which end up on the refuse piles and leave a big carbon footprint. The home is full of unusual compost items that you may not have ever thought […]
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Newspaper Mulch – Control Weeds and Help Your Soil
Newspaper is a great product to use to control the weeds in your garden. It is beneficial in both flower and vegetable gardening. The newspaper adds a barrier that keeps weeds from growing. It retains moisture in the soil and adds organic material as it breaks down. The worms just love it! Making newspaper mulch […]
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Growing Thyme – Fragrant Herb – How To Grow
One of the delights of gardening is growing herbs. They are simple to grow and add tons of flavor to your recipes. Growing thyme is easy. The plant is a perennial that comes back year after year. It is a fragrant herb that I use in cooking all the time. There are quite a few […]
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Creative Hummingbird Feeders
These creative hummingbird feeders will attract the delicate birds to your garden with their colorful red designs. I am always fascinated when I see hummingbirds flitting around my garden. They are so delicate and seem to defy all rules of aeronautics as they hover over flowers gathering nectar. Hummingbird Feeders for any garden setting You […]
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DIY Humming bird Nectar
My mother recently gave me a hummingbird feeder and I checked out the cost of nectar at local stores. Everyone loves hummingbirds but keeping feeders full can become quite costly. Why pay retail prices when making your own DIY hummingbird nectar is such an easy to make and budget friendly garden DIY? Make your Own […]
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Growing Clematis – Great Vine for Mailboxes
These tips for growing clematis will help you give this vining plant a home in your back yard. Last spring, I repurposed an old mailbox into a place for my garden tool storage. I planted a few different plants around the base, but I was never happy with the look of it. I decided I […]
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Backyard Retreat Ideas – Some of My Favorites
These backyard retreat ideas are perfect for a lazy day. From a simple stone chair to a lavishly planted shady nook, these are all my idea of a great backyard retreat. We spend a lot of time in our backyards. They are a place for relaxation and getting a recharge from the day. Why not […]
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Growing Garlic from a Single Clove
Growing garlic is very easy to do. All you will need is a single clove to grown an entire head of garlic. But you can’t just buy garlic from the store and think that it will grow into garlic heads. Most of the garlic sold in the supermarket has been treated so that it will […]
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Nasturtiums as Companion Plants Help your Veggies
I’ve always loved garden nasturtiums in my flower beds. But there are many other ways that these fairly common plants can be a great addition to your vegetable garden. Companion planting is a method of planting plants together so that they benefit each other in some ways. Some enrich the soil and others attract attract […]
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Saving Seeds from Heirloom Beans
My family comes from a long line of vegetable gardeners. I can still remember when my great grandmother had her vegetable garden, I used to wander through it when I was about 6. My grandfather on my mother’s side also had a huge veggie garden. (we used to snitch peas from it, hoping we would […]
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Hydrangea Wreath – DIY Fall Door Decoration
This pretty hydrangea wreath uses the beautiful big blooms of a mop head hydrangea bush for a door decoration. My hydrangea bush flowered late this year and gave some lovely color to an otherwise fairly bare garden bed. Did you know that you can make a holiday hydrangea wreath from hydrangea flowers that are done […]
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Propagating Tomato Plants with Cuttings
Most of the time when cuttings are mentioned as a means of propagation, it is with house plants. I decided to try it this year with tomato plants from my vegetable garden. Propagation is the art of taking one plant and using parts of it to make another. Sometimes this is done by division, such […]
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Butterfly Bush Makes Great Cut Flowers
I have several butterfly bushes, also knows as buddleia, in my garden beds. I love them because they attract butterflies and bees like no other plant in my garden. My main butterfly bush was put in a large island bed early this spring, when it was about 12″ tall. It is now at least 5 […]