Tips & How To's

7 Plants A Black Thumb Can Keep Alive

May 24, 2016 by Sydney Anderson

Hi there, I’m so glad you stopped by!

Are you prone to killing innocent plants? Are you a self-proclaimed black thumb? Well, take a deep breath, I’m here to help!

I’m sharing 7 beautiful plants that will change your luck and grow your confidence (along with your plants!). Take it from a former black thumb, these plants are a breeze to take care of!

I’ve always admired beautiful gardens and flowers. Trying to have them in my home was another story. Part of the problem was forgetting to water them, and then overwatering when I did remember. The other part was buying the wrong plants and flowers for my area.

No matter what I did for years, every thing I planted died within a month. But not anymore! I am happy to say I have now kept three (four including the wine glass succulent in my office) houseplants alive for 2 months and a garden full of beautiful plants and flowers (that survived last month’s crazy warm/cold weather mix!).

House plants are easier to keep alive since you don’t have to worry about climate changes. If you’re a little nervous about keeping your plant babies alive, start here.

Click NEXT to see my favorite houseplants!

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7 Best Flowers for Beginning Gardeners

May 20, 2016 by Jennifer Day

Hi there! I’m so happy you’re here!

Are you just starting out in the gardening world and looking for a great list of flowers that are easy to grow AND beautiful? Then you’ve come to the right place!

But first, I come to you with a confession—I was a Black Thumb most of my life. What’s a Black Thumb you ask? If a Green Thumb is someone who can make a garden blossom and grow, a Black Thumb is the opposite—a plant killer.

Yes, it’s true.

I grew up with parents and grandparents who loved gardening, and who created beautiful yards and gardens every year. Their yards were curated beautifully and I loved spending time with the fragrant blooms, feeling a sense of tranquility and peace in their spaces.

When we bought our home several years ago, I thought for certain that I would have that same ability.

But, I was wrong. I should have known better. After all, I almost killed a nearly-unkillable plant while working for my Dad in college. I’d only remember to water it when it started wilting. And that was about once a month!

After a sad attempt at gardening the first Spring in our home, I basically gave up altogether. My husband takes care of our lawn and landscape, and we have never actually had flower beds—just beautiful trees and bushes. Things that are hard to kill!

This year, however, my black thumb has turned GREEN, and I hope you will join me on this journey!

Because I’m a beginner too, I am going to share with you 7 of the best plants for a beginning gardner. So grab those gardening gloves and shovels and let’s get to work!

Click NEXT for 5 TIPS before you start planting your flowers!

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Cool Season Vegetables vs. Warm Season Vegetables

May 19, 2016 by Vanessa Myers

Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here!

Are you itching for beautiful weather so you can get your veggies planted? You are not alone! Fresh vegetables are the highlight of most gardens, with fresh, healthy and delicious produce. Just make sure to plant the right veggies at the right time to get the best results!

Vegetable garden season is upon us and many gardeners are happily planning out their shopping trips to the nursery. It’s tempting to put out every kind of vegetable that you want to grow, all at the same time.

However, it’s important to know whether the types you are planting are cool season vegetables or warm season vegetables so that you can plant them at the appropriate times and help ensure the best crop possible.

Click NEXT to see the Cool Season Veggies and when to plant them!

Image by *Jay~bay* under a Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives License

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10 Flowers for Beautiful Hanging Baskets

May 11, 2016 by Kirsten

Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here!

Do you ever see gorgeous hanging baskets that are filled to the brim with blooms cascading down over the sides, and wonder what kind of flowers they are? And how you can get your hands on some to beautify your own yard?!

Hanging baskets can add so much to a sunny wall, or brighten up shady areas with flowers that flourish in the shade. I also love giving hanging baskets as a gift for those who are getting up in age or have bad knees, because there is no kneeling down in the dirt required, and choosing the appropriate flower can bring the receiver blooms from the summer months, on up to the fall!

If you have ever wondered what the best flowers for hanging baskets are, I’ve got you covered!

One of the most important things you need to consider is if the space you want to decorate has full sun, or if it is in the shade most of the day. If you plant sun-loving flowers in the shade, they won’t thrive. The same is true if you plant shade lovers in the sun.

You can have each hanging basket dedicated to one type of flower, or you can mix different flowers in each basket giving different colors and textures. Just be sure to put Shade Lovers together and Sun Lovers together! Also make sure you get the trailing variety of flower for your hanging baskets.

Plants That Repel Mosquitoes

May 1, 2016 by Kirsten

Hello and Welcome!

Do mosquitoes drive you crazy? Do you love spending time outside until you become a feast for these pesky creatures? Keep reading for our list of plants that repel mosquitoes…a simple solution that doesn’t involve chemical-laden sprays!

Mosquitoes are a real problem, not just because they’re annoying and no one likes the itchy bumps they leave behind, but because they carry disease. Zika is the newest threat here in the U.S. and it’s particularly alarming for women who are pregnant or who want to become pregnant, as it causes birth defects.

The first step to reducing mosquitoes is to make sure you don’t have standing water around your home, as they need water to reproduce. This includes rain gutters, outside toys, wagons, dog bowls, etc. Even a bottle cap of water can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The next thing to do is add some mosquito-repelling plants to your landscape and containers. It’s important to note that the mere presence of these plants doesn’t necessarily repel mosquitoes. {There are a lot of claims that they do, but there is no scientific backing to support this idea!}

So now what? To harness the power of these plants, you must actually break the leaves on the plants and rub the oil on your skin in order to truly repel the mosquitoes.

If essential oils are your thing, try THIS recipe for a kid-friendly spray. You can also try making your own essential oils! But whether or not you make your own oils, add these plants to your yard to keep your family safe from the summer mosquitos!

Plants that Repel Mosquitoes

1—Lavender ⇧

Lavender is a beautiful plant with a lovely fragrance. It’s known to bring on calmness and relaxation, and can even help you get to sleep. Lavender oil has also been known to stop the itchiness of bug bites and sunburns. Spraying lavender on your body masks your natural scent and will help keep you free of mosquito bites! You can make your own lavender oil by removing the flowers and allowing them to dry, then boiling them in fractionated coconut oil.

2—Lemon Balm ⇧

Many people enjoy lemon tea from lemon balm leaves and say they have found relief for indigestion, better sleep, and reduced anxiety. You can easily crush the leaves in your hands and rub them over your skin as a natural mosquito repellent.

3—Peppermint ⇧

Not only is peppermint used in tea and in baking, but it is a fantastic repellent for mosquitoes. It’s easy to gently crush some leaves in your hands and rub over your skin or exposed areas where mosquitoes can bite you. Not only can peppermint repel mosquitoes, it can help relieve the itch, as it has a cooling/tingling feeling when applied to the skin.

4—Rosemary ⇧

Rosemary is a great herb to have in your garden as the scent helps repel mice and deer. You can make delicious savory dishes and have the added benefit that using just a few leaves a day gives you all the vitamin A you need. Rosemary can be boiled in fractionated coconut oil and then be sprayed on your body as a natural mosquito repellent.

5—Sage ⇧

Sage isn’t just for cooking anymore! This herb is a little different from the others on our list…you can actually burn some dried sage bundles to help keep the mosquitoes away. We recommend using it in combination with some of the other essential oils mentioned above for total mosquito repelling success!

When you apply natural mosquito repellents on your skin for the first time, make sure you place a small amount on the back of your hand and rub it in. Wait one to two hours to see if the repellent causes irritation. If you have no irritation, you can spray or rub the repellant over the exposed areas to keep the mosquitoes away.

Have you found another natural way to keep the mosquitoes at bay? Tell us in a comment below!

See the Happy!

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

10 Deer-Resistant Plants

April 27, 2016 by Heather Leister

Welcome, I’m so glad you stopped by!

Do you have frequent visitors to your yard? Visitors that may not be very welcome…because they’re eating your landscape?! Oh, deer! If you get these visitors like we do, we are here to help! We’re sharing 10 beautiful plants you can add to your flower beds and containers, that deer will leave for you instead of taking for a snack.

Several years ago we moved to a new area with a well-known urban deer population. The city’s deer herd was notorious for visiting yards and sampling the local landscaping. In the beginning, being in the midst of the deer was a treat. We had never lived in an area with this much access to wildlife.

The novelty quickly wore off as our plants began to vanish.

Plants that had thrived for years in our old yard were no match for the deer’s appetites. It became clear that we had to adapt our landscaping or our yard would continue to serve as a 24-hour deer buffet.

Through research, trial and error, we found deer-resistant plants that grow in our area. There are still a few deer delicacies planted in the yard (I just can’t give up my hostas!) but for the most part we’ve been successful in keeping them away.

When looking for a deer-resistant plant, a good rule of thumb is to choose something fragrant, prickly, or poisonous to the deer. The deer won’t always obey this rule, especially if they’re hungry and food is scarce, but this is a good place to start. Here are 10 deer-resistant plants that thrive in a variety of environments.

10 Deer-Resistant Plants

FRAGRANT PLANTS

1. Lavender

Are deer eating everything you plant? Try these 10 plants that are deer-resistant, your landscape will thank you!

Lavender is always an excellent choice for a deer resistant plant. This hardy, fragrant perennial requires little water and maintenance.

2. Salvia

Are deer eating everything you plant? Try these 10 plants that are deer-resistant, your landscape will thank you!

Salvia is another perennial that produces a strong fragrance which deer find extremely unpleasant. The plant comes in a wide variety of colors and is a strong perennial that will be easy to care for year after year.

3. Yarrow

Are deer eating everything you plant? Try these 10 plants that are deer-resistant, your landscape will thank you!

Yarrow plants are not overly picky about soil requirements, making them an excellent choice for many people. Bright, colorful flowers bloom throughout the summer, but the deer won’t be tempted to snack thanks to the strong aroma produced by the yarrow leaves.

4. Butterfly Bush

Are deer eating everything you plant? Try these 10 plants that are deer-resistant, your landscape will thank you!

Another fragrant, drought-resistant perennial, Butterfly Bush is an excellent choice if you are looking for a flowery, deer resistant shrub. It grows quickly, produces a large amount of blooms, and does well in almost any type of soil.

Click NEXT to see which beautiful prickly plants will keep deer away!

Salvia image courtesy of Rawich at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Lavender and Yarrow images courtesy of wikimedia commons
Butterfly Bush image courtesy of staticflickr

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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

Compost and Amending Soil

February 23, 2016 by Becky

Compost and amending soil can seem tricky and intimidating if you’re not sure where to start. It’s actually a simple process that will give you great results in your garden and better nutrition in your harvest. We’re breaking it down for you and explaining why we recommend {or don’t recommend!} different products and processes. Let’s get started!

Amending Soil–What is it, Why and How Often?

Amending soil means adding organic matter to your garden in order to give back the nutrition your fruits & veggies took from it last year to grow your healthy, beautiful plants. Without soil amendments, your garden could be deficient in different nutrients necessary to grow healthy plants and yield a strong harvest. You should amend your soil every year by placing a 2-3″ layer of compost over your garden beds.

Why Compost?

Also called Gardener’s Gold or Black Gold, compost is both partially decomposed organic matter {mostly plants and the manure of plant-eating animals} and the microbes that do the decomposing. Because it is made up primarily of plant matter, compost contains the right proportion of the elements needed for plant growth. Compost does many things for your soil, including:

Provides Nutrition It’s the source of all basic nutrition for plants.
Improves Soil Structure It separates soil particles and creates aeration, and nurtures the organisms that build and maintain it.
Increases the Ability of Soil to Retain Water Compost can hold up to 6 times its weight in water.
Contributes to the Health of Plants May help prevent some diseases and promotes plant growth.
Moderates Soil pH Most compost is already the ideal pH for optimal plant growth, and will help moderate the pH level in the soil.
Feeds Soil Organisms Compost is the food source for many, many organisms whose activities greatly improve soil structure, increase aeration and water retention, and make it easier for plant roots to grow. Compost feeds not only worms, but also soil bacteria and fungi, protozoa, nematodes, and more. (The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, 142)

Bumper Crop

Not everyone can compost because of space, time, location, or other reasons. You can still amend your soil even if you don’t save your kitchen scraps and lawn clippings! Our favorite soil amendment is Bumper Crop, a compost with an organic fertilizer, mycorrhizae (a beneficial bacteria that supports stronger root systems), worm castings (lots of plant-ready nutrients), and kelp meal (filled with micro-nutrients). This is what we use in our own gardens, and recommend to our customers.

Click NEXT to find out why you might NOT want to till your garden!

Images courtesy of winnod and posterize at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Cookie Butter Apple Dip

April 20, 2015 by Becky

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and do we have a treat for you today! In fact, we have a double treat. We’re going to show you a simple 4 ingredient Cookie Butter Apple Dip in mini chocolate bowls, PLUS we have a great giveaway for a Gardening Grab Bag! Win it for yourself, or give it to a favorite mother in your life. Keep reading, you won’t want to miss a thing!

The chocolate bowls go together in minutes, and then you can put them in the fridge to set. Everything can be prepped ahead of time so you can just pull it out of the fridge when you’re ready to serve!
Simply melt your chocolate (the instructions below will keep it in temper. If you overheat the chocolate, the cocoa butter molecules won’t realign properly, resulting in a soft set chocolate even at room temperature). Put a small dollop of chocolate on a lined cookie sheet, dip the balloon in the chocolate, and place it on the dollop of chocolate. Then just let the chocolate harden, deflate the balloon, and you’re ready to fill it with cookie butter fluff!

Cookie Butter Apple Dip

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chocolate
6 Tbsp cookie butter
2 Tbsp vanilla greek yogurt
apple slices

Directions:

Blow up 7 water balloons to desired size (I did mine small). Wash and dry balloons.
Melt chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler. (Microwave in 15 second intervals, stirring in between, in a plastic bowl until smooth).
Put a small dollop of melted chocolate on a lined cookie sheet (a little bigger than a nickle).
Dip a balloon part way in chocolate until it’s the size you’d like. If necessary, use a spoon to push the chocolate onto the balloon. Place on the dollop of melted chocolate. Repeat with all balloons.
Let chocolate set. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes if necessary.
When chocolate is set, make a small snip with scissors near the knot of the balloon. You want it deflate, not pop. Peel deflated balloon out of the chocolate bowl.
Thoroughly combine the cookie butter and yogurt. Place in a sandwich bag, snip a corner, and pipe into chocolate bowls. Serve with apple slices.

**********THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**********

And now for the Mother’s Day Giveaway! We’ve teamed up with Bite of Delight to bring you this awesome gardening grab bag valued at over $55! {It contains a pruner, trowel, trigger nozzle, garden shears, gardening gloves, kneeling pad, tote, and a black 3-pocket apron that will be custom embroidered with the winner’s name of choice!} And we’ll ship it all to you in time for Mother’s Day!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Giveaway ends 4/27/15, so don’t wait to enter! Open to US residents only.
We are also running this giveaway on our Instagram account, so head there for even more chances to win!

And if that wasn’t enough, there are NINE more chances to win equally awesome prizes from these other fabulous blogs for yourself or a favorite Mother in your life.

1- My Daylights 2- Eat It & Say Yum 3- Tastefully Frugal 4- The Things I Love Most 5- Bite of Delight and Western Gardens 6- Home Crafts by Ali 7- Gypsy Road School 8- Mom’s Bag of Tricks 9- Honest Harm 10- Happy 2BA Homemaker