How To Get Rid Of Sugar Ants (And Keep Them Out)

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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!

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. :-)