6 End-Of-Season Gardening Chores You Shouldn't Skip

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. :-)

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!

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).

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!

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.

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.

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! :-)

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!

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.

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!