Jenn Crookston

5 Tips to Get Kids Gardening

June 10, 2016 by Jenn Crookston

Do you love planning out your garden? Do you eagerly anticipate all the delicious food you’ll be enjoying after all the hard work of caring for a garden? This is one of the highlights of Spring at our house!

But there always seems to be one downfall.

Life gets crazy and everyone gets busy, and no one wants to help. It turns into a bit of a Henny Penny situation…everyone wants to enjoy the delicious garden produce as long as I do all the work! And I bet it’s not just our family.

Over the years, I’ve come up with 5 tips to get kids gardening. These are easy tips for busy families, and they’ll help your garden look its best all summer long!

These 5 tips should help cover a variety of children’s personalities as well as their daily mood, and it’s nice to have a surprise in your back pocket if yesterday’s plan doesn’t work today!

5 Tips to get Kids Gardening

1. Get them their own tools

Everything is more fun if you’ve got your own supplies (bonus points if they’re cute and they match!). It’s also easier for kids to work with tools that fit them, and when it’s easier they’re a lot more likely to want to help!

(photo source)

2. Let Them Choose What You Grow

If they’re excited about the food you’re going to grow, chances are they’ll be excited about working in the garden to keep their plants healthy and growing strong. You can even give them a section of the garden to be in charge of. If they do all their own weeding and watering and harvesting, they’ll have a great sense of accomplishment!

3. Involve Friends

I know this might sound strange. What kid wants to go somewhere else and do chores? I’ve found that when kids are working with their friends, they don’t seem to mind the work. It can be fun if they’re working together, and popsicles are the perfect payment on a hot summer day!

4. Let Them Earn Money

If your child is driven by money, offer to let them have a produce stand with the extra veggies! We always seem to have a plethora of certain veggies (zucchini comes to mind!). Your produce stand can be as easy as some baskets set out on the curb, a folding table, or something as cute as this⬇︎

(photo source)

5. Work With Them

I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t matter if it’s a job inside the house or out in the yard, our children work harder and more happily when we’re working with them. I like to set aside about 30 minutes several mornings each week to work with my kids, weeding and cleaning up the garden area. This allows the kids to ask questions and get guidance and when we’re all working together, the work gets done quickly.
What tips do you have for getting kids to help you in the garden? Let me know in a comment below!

4th of July BBQ Decor

June 4, 2016 by Jenn Crookston

Looking to update your 4th of July BBQ decor? Try this fun layered look with paper fans, banners and garlands!

Plus, I’m sharing sources for everything you see here so you can recreate this patriotic look for your BBQ.

4th of July BBQ Decor

Paper Fans and Confetti (My Mind’s Eye)
Stars & Stripes and Flag Banner and Red, White, and Blue Pails (Target Dollar Spot)
Table Skirt, Blue and Silver Star Garland (Zurchers Party Store)
RWB Balls in the vase and Fountain Type vase decor (Hobby Lobby)
Lightbox and Letters (Heidi Swapp)

What’s great Red, White & Blue decor without a barbecue to go with it? Nothing beats an “All American” menu for a fun family get together!

4th of July Menu

Hamburgers (don’t forget the avocado for an amazing burger!)
Hotdogs
Steak
Chicken

Green Salad
Potato Salad
Chips (lots of varieties)
Fresh Fruit (watermelon is a must!)
Veggie Tray

Punch
Soda

Strawberry Shortcake
RWB Fresh Fruit topped Sugar Cookies
Funnel Cakes
Homemade Frostys

I mixed and matched the paper fans from three different decor lines at My Mind’s Eye: 4th of July, Red and Blue. They may have come from different lines, but they all coordinate perfectly! (For a great deal, shop right after the holiday, if you can wait that long! You’ll have to wait for nearly a year before you can use it, but the wait will be worth it if you’re patient!)

Don’t be afraid to use some height in your decor for added dimension. And if you feel like more layers would be better, add as many as you want. The most important design element is that you love it, so have fun with it and make it your own!

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July, with beautiful decor and lots of great food!

10 Veggies to Plant Now to Save Money Later

May 18, 2016 by Jenn Crookston

Hello! So glad to you’re here!

Do you love fresh, delicious produce, but you also love saving money? Then you’re in the right place! I’m sharing ten of my favorite veggies that not only taste better grown at home, but’ll keep more green in your wallet, too!

I am blessed with a household of children who love to eat veggies. When I hear parents planning/plotting ways to get more veggies into their children’s diet I say a silent prayer of gratitude that isn’t a battle I have to fight!

But because we love our veggies so much, we tend to fly through them, especially during the summer months, when it’s hot and a heavy meal is too much. This year, instead of running to the grocery store every other day, we can just run out to the garden!

Let me start by saying, if your family hates tomatoes, growing them yourself probably won’t make your kids suddenly love them (even though they definitely taste better than store-bought!).

So before you start planting, think of things your family enjoys and build around that. Eat a ton of spinach? Plant a ton! Love kale, but hate spending $5 every week for a bag of organic baby leaves? Put that on your garden list. Save money by planting what you’ll actually eat and cross them off your grocery list!

There are a ton of great veggies that grow well here in Utah. My list saves me money every year and they taste amazing fresh from the garden (and yes, I know a tomato isn’t botanically a vegetable, but in our house it falls into that category!).

Click NEXT to see what 10 garden veggies are saving me money!

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Mother’s Day Flower Garden in a Basket

April 30, 2016 by Jenn Crookston

Welcome! I’m so glad you’re here.

Do you love gardening and giving beautiful gifts? Then I have the perfect project for you!

I’ve been bitten by the gardening bug this year. I have been enjoying getting my hands dirty and creating beautiful things with flowers. This Mother’s Day Flower Garden in a Basket quickly turned into a favorite project!

I love when an idea turns out how I hoped it would when I imagined it. What I love about this project is that it is easy to customize, it can be as big or small as you want and can include a variety of flowers.

For this project you’ll need:

Favorite flowers
Basket
Potting Soil
Basket Liner

For my particular basket I collected some of my favorite flowers and an old Easter basket. The Easter basket was blue and that didn’t work for what I wanted, so I started by painting it white. I was happy that the basket liner fit well inside which helped make everything look nicely put together.

The reason I call this a Flower Garden in a Basket is because in a big enough basket you can place the plants inside the basket in their original container making it easy for the receiver of the basket to plant the flowers in their yard or into flower pots if they want to. For my basket I took the flowers out of their containers but kept them separated with additional potting soil which will still make them easy to remove from the basket if that is what is desired.

This basket contains the following flowers/plants:

Cordyline Indivisa Spikes
Pansies
Trailing Petunia
Red Nancy
Bowles Cunningham Periwinkle

If they stay in the basket they’ll fill in beautifully and look fantastic on an outdoor table or on the porch. If they are taken out of the basket they’ll be a wonderful addition to the yard or another flower pot.

I can’t wait to put a few more of these together to give to some of the best Mother’s I know!

Here are a few breakfast recipes sure to make Mom smile when you make her breakfast in bed Mother’s Day morning!

Stuffed French Toast Casserole ~ Breakfast Burritos ~ Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes

Best Plants for Window Boxes

April 23, 2016 by Jenn Crookston

Welcome! I’m so glad you stopped by!

Are you looking for the best plants that will really stand out in your window boxes this year? Flowers that will thrive, even in uncertain Spring weather? Then you’ve come to the right place! I’m sharing 6 of my favorite picks for gorgeous window boxes.

Those who know me well know that my house and I just aren’t best friends. I probably couldn’t have picked a house with an exterior that I like less! But since an all-new exterior isn’t in the plans, I have to do what I can to make it as pretty as possible.

A few years ago I finally convinced my husband that we needed flower boxes for the windows. We’ve had varying degrees of success, so this year I am determined to get these window flower boxes prize-worthy! You know what I’m talking about, right? Jaw-dropping window boxes like this one from The Lily Pad Cottage.

Isn’t it just beautiful? I’m in awe.

I needed some advice to start out right in my quest for gorgeous window boxes, so I headed to Western Gardens to get some help. Andrea answered all my questions and gave me some great tips that I can’t wait to share with you!

Prep Your Boxes Correctly:

Replace the liners in each flower box. I was amazed at what this did to make everything look better immediately!
Fill the liners a little less than half full with styrofoam packing peanuts. This will reduce weight and save potting soil, and allow more air and water to get to the roots.
Fill the rest of the liner with fresh potting soil, like Gardner’s Gold.
Plan out your flowers. I planted earlier in the spring than normal, so I made sure to choose flowers that were all cold-tolerant (since April snow is a thing here!)
Ensure you have doubles of every flower, if you need to make matching boxes like I did.
Don’t overfill your boxes. Let your flowers get established before you fill in gaps.

Window Box Flowers (left to right, repeated in each box):

Pansy Frizzle Sizzle Mix
Primrose Danova Mix
Vinca Bowles Cunningham Periwinkle
Ranunculus Bloomingdale Mix
Pansy Delta Premium Beaconsfield
Pansy Matrix Lemon
Pansy Frizzle Sizzle Mix

The same rules apply to window boxes as porch pots. To create a truly awe-inspiring display, you need a filler, a spiller, and a thriller. See my tips for porch pots if you’re not sure what this means!

Pansies and primrose are great fillers with a lot of wonderful color. The Vinca will spill beautifully over the sides, and the tall, red Ranunculus is currently thrilling my boxes!

As these flowers grow and spread, they will fill the boxes nicely. These flowers should all last several months, depending on how quickly our Utah weather turns hot.

Two final tips for healthy window boxes:

Check the water regularly. The heat from the house may increase your boxes’ water needs.
Fertilize regularly for the best blooms. I use ferti-lome blooming and rooting soluble plant food, which is perfect for big, beautiful blooms. Click here to see why I recommend this one!

I can’t wait to share how my window boxes progress this summer. Here’s to growing gorgeous!

While I’m waiting for my flower boxes to fill out, I’ll be enjoying these delicious recipes with my family:

Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies ~ Spinach Salad w/Poppy Seed Dressing ~ Strawberry Lemonade Cookies

8 Tips-Planting Early Spring Flower Pots

April 16, 2016 by Jenn Crookston

Welcome gardening friends!

Do you love seeing splashes of color in the early spring? Especially when winter hasn’t quite worn off yet, and the landscape can look a little gray and uninviting?

I’m here to help! With these 8 Tips for Planting Early Spring Flower Pots, you can take your yard from winter-blah to spring-wow!

I am very excited to start gardening this year! So excited, in fact, that I have no desire to wait for Mother’s Day to get planting (here in Utah, Mother’s Day is about the time to start).

But I didn’t want swing and miss this year, so I headed to Western Gardens with my mother-in-law Sue (my personal go-to flower guru) and we consulted the experts there.

When we first arrived at Western Gardens I couldn’t help but notice all the beautiful flowers they already had in their pots out front.

8 Tips for planting early spring flower pots, to help pull your yard out of the winter blues and into the happy colors of spring!

Sue and I both loved this pot! Since it’s still quite cold, I was impressed with how much color was in the pot and how great the flowers looked. Some even had ice sitting on them, and yet here they were in their vibrant beauty!

To make sure we were doing everything possible to have the best chance of success, we asked a Plant Pro from Western Gardens to help us out. Andrea answered all of our questions and gave us so much great advice! I appreciated her friendly personality and really appreciated that she never once made me feel foolish for my lack of knowledge.

I was thrilled to discover such a wide variety of flowers and plants that are cold-weather hardy and perfect for early spring flower pots. With our temperamental Utah springs, we can have beautiful spring-like weather in February, only to have snow on the ground in April. With these cold-weather flowers, I can have blooms all spring long.

8 Tips for planting early spring flower pots, to help pull your yard out of the winter blues and into the happy colors of spring!

8 Tips for Planting Early Spring Flower Pots:

1. Talk to your local gardening shop (if you’re here in Utah, visit Western Gardens in Sandy, Downtown Salt Lake, and West Valley City). Ask them what flowers and plants work best in your area for early spring planting. It will vary depending on your location and climate. To make the most of your pots, you’re going to want expert advice!

2. Choose a filler, a spiller, and a thriller (these are different flowers that will fill in the pot, spill down the sides, and thrill the eye…think grass spikes)! Click HERE for more details.

3. Gather other necessary supplies:

Styrofoam packing peanuts (enough to fill each pot 1/3 full)
Fresh potting soil (like Gardener’s Gold)
Fertilizer (like ferti-lome blooming and rooting soluble plant food. The high middle number (9-58-8) is responsible for the flowering of plants and flowers, which means it’ll help your potted plants/flowers have beautiful blooms − or if you’re planting fruits/veggies, this helps with food production.)

8 Tips for planting early spring flower pots, to help pull your yard out of the winter blues and into the happy colors of spring!

4. Fill your pot 1/3 full with styrofoam packing peanuts (they partially fill the pot without adding weight, and allow for air and water to have room to move around the roots of the plants). Fill the remaining 2/3 of your pot most of the way with potting soil (leaving a few inches of space at the top, you’ll need it in a few minutes!).

8 Tips for planting early spring flower pots, to help pull your yard out of the winter blues and into the happy colors of spring!

5. Arrange your flowers in the pot before you plant. Here I’ve got my plants all laid out to get an idea of how I want the pot to look when it’s finished. Once you’re happy with the arrangement, then start potting each one (don’t forget to gently tear some of the roots on each flower before you plant it, this helps the roots spread into the surrounding soil and promote growth).

8 Tips for planting early spring flower pots, to help pull your yard out of the winter blues and into the happy colors of spring!
6. Add more potting soil once all your plants are potted, to fill in any holes.

7. Water your flowers to make sure they’ve got a nice, fresh drink to help keep them perky. Don’t oversaturate your pot.

8. Fertilize, dead-head & water your flower pots to keep them looking their best all spring! Fertilize regularly (organic and chemical fertilizers have different instructions, read carefully! We recommend organic for pots, as chemical fertilizers leave a salt residue), remove expired blooms (so the plant’s energy can go to make new ones!), and water when soil is just barely moist (don’t let it dry out).

8 Tips for planting early spring flower pots, to help pull your yard out of the winter blues and into the happy colors of spring!

The plants and flowers featured in my pots are:

Fillers:

Pigeon Purple Flowering Kale (perennial)
Flowering Cabbage (perennial)
Candy Tuft Tahoe (perennial)
Pansy Fizzle Sizzle Mix (annual)
Pansy Matrix Lemon (annual)
Ranunculus Bloomingdale Mix (annual)
Pansy Delta Premium Beaconsfield (annual)
Primrose Danova Mix (annual)

Spillers

Red Nancy (annual)
Bowles Cunningham Periwinkle (annual)

Thrillers

Cordyline Indivisa Spikes (annual)

8 Tips for planting early spring flower pots, to help pull your yard out of the winter blues and into the happy colors of spring!

I am absolutely in love with how my pots turned out! And with these tips and advice, I know I’ll have beautiful pots all spring. A few of the plants I chose are perennials (they’ll come back year after year), so when they stop blooming, they can be replanted in the ground for next year!

These flowers will all last several months, and possibly through June, depending on how quickly it gets hot. I love that my pots are already planted, and that I can add other flowers as some of them expire, to keep some beauty outside my home all spring, summer and fall!

8 Tips for planting early spring flower pots, to help pull your yard out of the winter blues and into the happy colors of spring!

Now that all my flowers and plants look so beautiful, I need some new pots for them! I think that will be my reward for keeping them pretty and healthy all season.

Here are a few more things to love about Spring that you can find over on my blog!

RHW Collage
Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies ~ Spinach Salad w/Poppy Seed Dressing ~ Strawberry Lemonade Cookies