Jill Nystul

This post is sponsored by BarkBox. As always, all opinions are entirely my own, and all canine models were compensated with treats and belly rubs. :-)

Like many of us, I’m on a quest to be more environmentally friendly. It’s something that can be tricky with a busy family of four, but the best hacks I’ve found are the ones that seamlessly replace one item with something naturally less wasteful. It’s one reason I’m an official convert to wool dryer balls, after all. 

Snake plants (scientific name: Dracaena trifasciata; formerly Sansevieria trifasciata) aren’t just an attractive plant that can help freshen and clean your indoor air, but they’re one of the easiest plants to care for! That makes the so-called “mother-in-law’s tongue” a great starter plant for houseplant newbies, and a beautiful, low-maintenance choice for just about anyone.

If you have gutters on your house, then your flowerbeds, backyard garden, lawn, and potted plants would benefit from a rain barrel!

While I can’t seem to stop experimenting when it comes to the perennials in my flower beds, I’m much more consistent when it comes to my flower pots! I always reserve my pots for planting annuals, because they only last one season anyway, and it’s nice not to worry about them over the winter.

Removing weeds is a crucial part of maintaining a healthy yard or garden, but that doesn’t necessarily make it enjoyable work. But the easy weeding hacks I’ve got for you in today’s post will help make the process less onerous!

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ve probably noticed there are a handful of ingredients that show up again and again in recipes for homemade health and beauty products, like witch hazel, coconut oil, and hydrogen peroxide. Now that summer is here, I thought I’d highlight another of my go-to ingredients that will surely come in handy over the next few months: aloe vera.

As an avid gardener for many years, I’ll be the first to admit that gardening is often dirty, time-consuming, and just plain hard work! But I’ve grown increasingly fond of the less-than-glamorous aspects of gardening over time, and now I actually look forward to getting my hands dirty in the garden (even if it does leave me a sweaty, grimy mess.) ;-)

My garage door has definitely seen better days. Every time I pull my car into the garage, I look at my poor banged-up garage door and sigh a little bit. But I haven’t actually done anything about it until recently, because I was convinced that my only option was to replace the garage door entirely, and I wasn’t quite ready to commit to such a financial investment. A week or so ago, I had just about had it with my garage door, and was almost ready to start calling around for quotes, when I saw this post featuring a garage door makeover on Pinterest Addict.

I don’t know if it’s like this where you live, but where I am, raising chickens is becoming very popular! My next door neighbors have chickens, my nephew Nate (the beekeeper) has chickens and recently my youngest sister Dori adopted a brood! (The pictures in this post were taken at her house yesterday.) And none of these people live on a farm! Just modest-sized suburban lots.

I can’t believe that Independence Day is just around the corner! It seems like summer is already flying by. But I do love all of the opportunities to have backyard barbecues with friends and family, so I’m not really complaining! ;-) The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays for that very reason, so I always like to celebrate by sprucing up the backyard a bit. A few pieces of summer-y or patriotic decor (along with a playlist of upbeat songs, of course) always go a long way towards making the holiday feel extra special!

I share a lot of ideas for saving time & saving money on my blog….two things I feel very strongly about! Combine those subjects with an idea for conserving our precious natural resources and you’ve definitely got my attention. That’s why my nephew Scott and his friends at Skydrop didn’t have to twist my arm when they asked me to try out their “smart sprinkler” system. The fact that it conserves water AND is a seriously simple way to keep your lawn beautiful had me clambering to get my hands on one!

I live in Utah…the Beehive State. So I guess it’s not surprising that I am now officially a beekeeper. Of course there’s a little more to the story than that. My nephew Nate recently became enamored with the whole beekeeping phenomena and his enthusiasm is always contagious! :-) After he regaled me with stories about his beehives I became intrigued and did some research on my own. I had no idea how interesting, important, and fun this “hobby” can be.

I once read that ants are estimated to outnumber humans by over one million to one, and it isn’t hard to believe! Almost everyone deals with ants in their house or apartment at one point or another, and they’re never short on numbers.

For the past handful of summers, I’ve been extremely proud of my yard and garden, because it’s been looking better than ever! I finally feel like I’ve hit my stride as a gardener, but it didn’t happen overnight. Far from it, in fact—my garden successes in recent years are the direct result of over three decades of trial-and-error gardening.

My son Erik is always looking for ways to attract more birds to our shared yard (he and my daughter-in-law Kaitlyn live in our basement apartment), which is great because I get to reap the benefits! There’s nothing I love more than sitting out in the backyard and listening to them sing in the morning (the birds, not my kids).

Do you have a green thumb when it comes to houseplant care, or are you just trying hard and hoping for the best? I feel pretty confident in my outdoor gardening skills, but houseplants have always been more difficult for me to take care of.

The right plant fertilizer can help give your plants a much-needed boost, but store-bought fertilizers are often either expensive or full of mystery ingredients. Luckily, there’s a better way to feed your plants: with an easy homemade plant fertilizer!

I have had SO many people asking me through email and Facebook lately about how to keep pesky pests at bay this summer….I decided it was time for a full on attack! First of all…..the best way to control pests is to not invite them inside in the first place.

My daughter Britta has definitely emerged as the gardening guru in our family. Today she’s sharing with us her homemade organic fungicide that is just as effective and much cheaper than the commercial alternatives and won’t hurt the environment, our pets, or our families. Way to go Britta!

When your bountiful harvest starts to taper off and your garden begins to wither away, the “fun” part of gardening is pretty much at an end. But that doesn’t mean you should hang up your gardening gloves for the year—not yet anyway!

We spent a lot of time in the backyard this summer! With our new fire pit and all the bird feeders we added, the patio was a main attraction. Unfortunately, those cute little birds left their droppings all over the place, and the patio umbrella was looking pretty dingy! There was also lots of dirt, dust, and pollen on the umbrella that I didn’t even notice until I started moving it around.

I recently learned a simple trick to help keep plants free from weeds and soil-borne diseases, and believe it or not, it involves making lasagna! (Disclaimer: please do not try to eat this lasagna, because I don’t think it would taste very good!)

If you’ve ever grown a garden that produced delicious fruits or vegetables, or beautiful and fragrant flowers, then you have benefited from the work of pollinators.

My mother has always grown a vegetable garden. Even when we lived in Southern California and our backyard was all cement patio and pool deck, she would always have a community garden plot that I remember having to go water and weed every weekend. I didn’t appreciate the benefits of growing your own vegetable garden back then, but the gardening bug must run in the family because I LOVE it now! And my daughter Britta is following in the footsteps of her Mom, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother as she embarks on her second year of vegetable gardening.

This post is sponsored by the maker of OxiClean™. As always, all ideas and opinions are entirely my own. The OxiClean™ brand provided free product for this post.

Since those of us who live in the U.S. will be celebrating “Independence Day” this weekend, I thought it might be a good time to offer a refresher on how to PROPERLY and respectfully display our stars and stripes.

One of our favorite ways to spend time together as a family during the summer is sitting around a campfire. There’s a little fire pit area in our backyard that we utilize regularly during the warmer months! But we recently upgraded to a new fire pit that has made those campfires even more enjoyable. I actually like it so much that I couldn’t resist the urge to tell you all about it in today’s post! :-)

I’m always surprised when I speak with people about their vegetable gardens, and I find out they haven’t ever tried to grow potatoes! “I just haven’t gotten around to it,” they’ll say, or “Aren’t they difficult to grow?” And they answer is NO! In fact, they’re one of the easiest plants to grow, in my opinion. So there’s no reason not to plant yourself some potatoes this spring – not even if you don’t have space for a garden!

Now that we are all getting outdoors more (hooray summertime!), most of us (some more than others!) are having to deal with pesky mosquitoes that love to try and ruin our outdoor fun.  :-)  I have to admit, here in this semi-arid desert state, we don’t have to deal with mosquitoes nearly as much as those of you in the midwest or back east. But any mosquito is an unwelcome mosquito!

Gardening can be incredibly rewarding work, but it can also be really hard on your hands! Between cuts and scrapes, and dryness due to repeated hand-washings, gardeners’ hands are often in need of a bit of extra TLC. This DIY “Gardener’s Salve” is the answer! It is infused with herbs that help to quickly heal cuts and scrapes, and it will leave your hands feeling silky smooth. Plus, it smells lovely, like a fragrant herb garden. :-)

Despite the recent heat wave here in Utah, summer is definitely on its way out. (Where has the time gone?!) I did quite a bit of planting, pruning, and general gardening earlier this summer, so for the past several weeks we’ve been able to sit back and enjoy the fruits of all that labor.

This post is sponsored by TIKI Brand. As always, all opinions and ideas are entirely my own.

It’s been quite a week at my house! My mother-in-law has been in town visiting, my husband developed a gigantic-sized “man cold,” and then he saw fit to pass it on to me! ugh. So working on this garage organization post has been challenging to say the least, but I did manage to take photos of some of the organization ideas we currently use at our house and also managed to implement a few new ones that I’d been meaning to try! While I didn’t manage a complete garage makeover, all-in-all I’m pretty proud of what I was able to accomplish despite some obstacles. :-)

Even though there are plenty of things that I love about the summertime, there are a few things about it that I wish I didn’t have to endure. Because although summer brings longer days, patio weather, and family vacations, it is also responsible for sunburns, oppressive temperatures, and of course, wasps.

Every summer, for as long as I can remember, my mother has planted a vegetable garden. Even when we lived in Southern California and there wasn’t a lot of room to plant, my mother always had a garden plot in our local community garden. Every Saturday she would drag us kids to weed and water the garden, something we definitely did not appreciate back then. I wish I could turn back time and experience that all over again, because this time I would definitely enjoy it more! :-)