9 Benefits Of Aloe Vera (And 5 Easy Ways To Use It)

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

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!

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.

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 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!

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.