Jill Nystul

Depending on where you live, you may have already begun digging in your garden this year! We are ALMOST there…but not quite. I can’t wait! I’m itching to get my fingers back in the dirt! Of course with the fun of digging in the dirt comes the related chores, but today we’re sharing a super easy project that will make at least one of those chores easier!

Yesterday was the first honest-to-goodness SPRING-LIKE day we’ve had thus far this year! I seriously wanted to find a meadow filled with wildflowers and run through it singing “Walking On Sunshine!” OK, not really….but you get the idea. :-) It. Was. A. Picture. Perfect. Day. The kind of day when our minds (and hearts) turn towards getting out in the garden again! So today’s post couldn’t have been more perfectly timed! Britta is going to share another garden idea (the girl is OBSESSED I tell ya!) that’s not only extremely PRACTICAL, but BEAUTIFUL too!

I love that my son Erik and daughter-in-law Kaitlyn live in the basement apartment of our house! Especially because I get to benefit from his obsessions/hobbies! Today Erik is sharing his latest with us. :-)  Erik writes……..   This year, I have taken great interest in feeding the wild birds in my neighborhood. I love animals, and was eager to put out some bird seed to see what kind of nature I could attract to my doorstep. It started with a standard, inexpensive, seed blend from the grocery store and slowly but surely the birds made their way to our backyard feeder. But it didn’t take an expert to see that some ingredients in the mix were MUCH more preferred than others.

My love affair with perennials started way back when I was a girl growing up in Southern California. My mom always kept a garden and I loved seeing her perennials blossom every year.

I love the scents of the season! Spices, herbs, citrus, evergreens, cranberries… they mix and mingle to create the cosy and comforting aroma of the holidays. I’ve done a post or two in the past on how to recreate that scent in your home, but today’s idea is a bit different.   Read More: My Favorite Simmering Potpourri Recipes

After my son Erik and I spent a small fortune on plants last year, I’m committed to gardening to save money this year. I tend to get really excited about my garden when it finally starts feeling like spring, but my enthusiasm tends to get expensive (especially when my equally impulsive eldest son is there egging me on!)

My son Erik installed some bird feeders for us a few years ago, and every summer we’ve really enjoyed seeing all the feathered visitors that the feeders attract to the yard! We’ve been able to see several species of finches, hummingbirds, and doves that live in the northern Utah area.

One of the true joys of summer has to be finally getting to eat the fruits (or vegetables) of our labors from our gardens! Just today I came home from our mini-vacation and found a couple of my tomatoes ALMOST ready to pick! I was so excited I could hardly stand it! I can already taste that delicious B.L.T. sandwich I’m going to make with one of them right now! :-) (CLICK HERE to read my post on planting “topsy turvy tomatoes.”)

It’s important to take care of the environment and do our part when it comes to creatively saving energy, water, and our limited resources. I’ve made a list of 14 small things that you can do to to make a difference every day – not just on Earth Day!

I’m sure at this point in the season, you’re already deep in time-honored spring/summer tradition: fighting to keep your lawn free of pesky weeds. We all have our own ways of eradicating them, from herbicides to manual weeding tools, but there’s no such thing as too many options, in my opinion! :-)

I’ve noticed that some of my very favorite ideas that I’ve posted on this blog over the years have two qualities in common. One, it’s something practical that I would actually use, and two, it would make a great gift! And the idea that I’ll be sharing with you today has both qualities in spades. :-)

Last Mother’s Day my husband Dave did something extraordinary! He built me a potting bench! :-) While this may not sound like an extraordinary gesture to some of you, to me it was truly a red-letter day because it was the first thing he’s ever built for me. You see, building stuff is not his thing, but in a true gesture of sacrifice, he built me a potting bench because he knew how much I wanted one. Now THAT’S true love in my book. :-)

Farmer’s markets are a great place to purchase fresh, healthy, and delicious food directly from the source! With farms across the country bustling with activity this time of the year, it’s the perfect time to go check out YOUR local farmers’ market. And to make it even more enjoyable…Britta has a fun challenge for us!

I have just four letters for you today…..T. G. I. F.  It has just been one of those weeks…actually it’s been a COUPLE of those weeks, but who’s counting!? :-)  Anyway, it’s almost the weekend and I’m so grateful to have my new friend Jamielyn from I Heart Nap Time here today to wrap up the week with a fun and easy kids craft that I know you are going to love!

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

When you’re done harvesting the bounty your garden has to offer this year and everything begins to wither away, it’s hard to feel motivated to get back in the garden to get everything cleaned up before the snow comes. But the end-of-season cleanup and maintenance is an important phase in your garden because what you do now can either make or break your gardening experience when spring comes back around!

By now, most people are probably already aware that they should be wearing sunscreen to help protect their skin from sun exposure. But not just any old sunscreen will do, according to a recent sunscreen report by the Environmental Working Group! The report states that nearly 75% of the sunscreen products they evaluated either didn’t provide enough sun protection, or they contained ingredients that could be harmful to your health. Yikes!

If you live up here in the northern hemisphere, chances are you aren’t going on too many adventurous walks with your dog these days. But our southern hemisphere neighbors are probably out soaking up the sun! And for those of us up north, spring will eventually arrive (though not soon enough!) So go ahead and bookmark this post if it’ll be helpful for you later on. :-)

When we lived in California we could grow tomatoes without even trying! Our tomato plants would get so big that the hubster would have to tie them up to 6 foot steel rebar stakes. One summer we canned over 50 quarts of tomatoes!

This summer, it’s more important than ever to protect yourself and your family from summertime pests like mosquitos. While a mosquito bite may seem like no big deal, mosquitos are notoriously effective at spreading disease, and could easily transfer that disease to you through that little bug bite. This year, there is a lot of concern about the Zika virus. Back in February, the World Health Organization declared the Zika outbreak a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” Zika virus disease has fairly mild symptoms for most people, like fever, joint pain, and irritated eyes. However, Zika can cause severe birth defects if contracted by pregnant women, which makes this virus a significant cause for concern. (For additional information about Zika virus disease, visit the CDC’s Zika virus website.)

No one enjoys spotting bugs in their kitchen, especially when those bugs are as annoying as fruit flies! For something so tiny, they sure can be a pain in the neck!

The stroke of inspiration that led me to see if I could clean a rug at a car wash hit me as I was driving. I’d been considering how to go about cleaning the dirty rug in front of my kitchen sink, especially since it was too big to put in the washer.

Gardening has been one of my favorite warm-weather activities for many years. Pulling weeds and digging in the dirt might not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but I love it! It can be hard work, but getting to enjoy a yard full of beautiful plants and flowers makes the effort more than worth it. However, there was (until very recently) one particular aspect of my gardening routine that I really didn’t like—struggling with the garden hose. Today I want to share how one simple purchase solved my garden hose crisis and changed my whole gardening routine for the better!

While spring planting gets most of the attention, fall planting can be a gardener’s secret weapon! There are plenty of things you can plant now either to extend your garden’s productivity or to get a jump-start on growth next spring.

From early spring to late in the fall, I spend as much time as I possibly can in our backyard. Whether I’m working on my laptop or listening to an audiobook, my time in the backyard is always time well spent. :-)

Whether you use your backyard for entertaining, gardening, playing with the kids, relaxing, or a little bit of all of those, it’s a much more enjoyable space when it’s organized. Toys laying all over the place make it hard to mow the lawn, gardening tools without a place to live tend to get ruined in the rain or lost forever. Save your money and your sanity with these genius ideas for making your backyard into a place you can truly sit back and enjoy!

Around two-thirds of American households have pets and spend over $50 billion every year on their well-being. How can you NOT want to love and care for a face like that? :-) OK, I might be a little prejudiced because that is my grandpuppy Milo, but scientific studies have actually proven that the human-pet bond is comparable to that of the maternal-child bond. We. Love. Our. Pets. So it stands to reason we would want to care for them the best way possible. Today we are sharing some great ways to do so. Kaitlyn writes………

I never needed to know how to clean a BBQ grill until 2015, which is when I bought myself a nice little Weber gas grill. (Neither my husband’s massive pellet smoker nor his large charcoal grill had proven particularly useful when I wanted to grill up something quick for dinner, which happens frequently during the summers!)

Yesterday I posted about the fun entryway makeover we did on Britta’s apartment….well, on the INSIDE of it anyway. Today Britta is getting her DIY on and telling us how she made this adorable wooden doormat for the OUTSIDE of her entryway at a fraction of the cost of its’ retail counterpart.

We eat a lot of fresh fruit in our house during the summer, but unfortunately, we’re not the only ones who seem to enjoy it! Fruit flies are equally as passionate about ripe summer produce, and they seem to appear out of thin air whenever there’s fruit in the kitchen.

In this post, you’ll find a variety of creative camping ideas that make camping easier and less stressful, and therefore more fun! You don’t have to spend a fortune on fancy equipment or gear to make camping fun, and these tips will show you how.

When I stop and consider all the ways I’ve used OxiClean in my home since it debuted in 1997, the more I wonder how I ever lived without it! Today, the OxiClean brand encompasses a whole range of household cleaning products, from dishwasher boosters to carpet cleaners.

Thanks to the combined efforts of almost everyone in our household, our backyard garden has been thriving this year! We’re up to our eyes in squash, tomatoes, and lots of other garden goodies. :-)

One of the best parts of summertime, in my humble opinion, is spending evenings outdoors with friends or family. When the sun starts to sink below the horizon and there’s a little bit of a breeze, it can be heaven on Earth! Unfortunately, there’s also another creature who loves a good summer evening – mosquitoes. Nothing can ruin a great gathering faster than a swarm of mosquitoes hanging around!

Better Homes and Gardens magazine has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. It was a fixture on my mother’s coffee table, and has held the same place of honor in my own home since I was a bride. :-) So it’s no wonder the magazine (and its’ online counterpart – BHG.com) has had a huge influence on my home and garden over the years.

Back when I first started experimenting with making my own cleaning products, it didn’t take long for me to realize that Windex (or any type of glass and window cleaner) was one of the easiest types of cleaners to replicate at home. While the streak free shine of store-bought glass cleaners may seem like the result of advanced chemical wizardry, creating a great streak free homemade window cleaner is a lot simpler than you might think!