This absolutely gorgeous fuchsia flower is in a hanging planter on my back porch. When several buds had begun blooming late last week, I snapped a few photos of them and they came out so good that I’m using one of them as my desktop background right now. Seriously, I can’t get over the vibrant color and how beautiful these flowers are. To boot, this plant attracts hummingbirds that frequently stop by for a snack which has been really awesome to see. Nature is good.

Here are two more photos:

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I am not a big maker of things. I’m not very crafty and I don’t possess much natural artistic ability, so the list of things I have actually made is quite short. I have made quite a few websites (design/graphics/coding), including this one, but posting a screenshot of this website just seemed like it would be a total copout. So here is a picture of flower bulbs I planted a few weeks ago in what just may be the coolest planter ever, which I picked up at Walmart on a whim for about $20. The flowers, a type of lily I can’t recall the name of at the moment, have grown quite a bit in the past weeks and I really can’t wait to see what they look like when they bloom completely.

If you want to join in, check out the May Photo a Day Challenge List.

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Every spring it seems as if everyone I communicate with retreats to their gardens and post plenty of pictures of the amazing things they have grown. Throughout the past few years, I have been remarkably jealous of these people growing their own vegetables and herbs because I had been living in an apartment with absolutely no outside space to call my own, and indoor container gardening was out because I have two cats who have completely destroyed whatever plants we had the audacity to bring inside. This year I stopped being jealous because I was finally able to start my own garden in the yard of our new house. (If you’re an apartment dweller right now reading this with a grimace on your face because you’ve been wanting to start a garden of our own and don’t have the space, I apologize.)

Anyway, while getting some seeds and starter plants for our garden a few weeks ago, I saw cat grass and catnip seeds and immediately got excited about the prospect of growing these treats for my cats and being able to have an inside plant without worrying about it being eaten by the time I woke up the next day because these plants are there specifically to be feasted on by cats. So here is the cat grass that I grew over the past few weeks. I can’t believe how tall it has gotten in such a small time frame. My older cat Devin, who is about six years old, absolutely loves it and munches on it several times a day; Vincent, however, doesn’t care for it much. I have feeling he will be more excited about the catnip, if it ever comes up.

Here’s a bonus picture of Devin and her cat grass.

If you want to join in, check out the May Photo a Day Challenge List.

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With gardening season now in full swing, leisurely strolls down the plant food and fertilizer aisle are frequent for many avid and novice gardeners. This year, I am a novice gardener. I have two large pots sitting in the middle of my not at all cleaned out or ready garden area, hence why I’m starting out with growing in pots, with tiny little green sprouts finally beginning to emerge from the soil. It’s hard to believe that they will soon be tomato plants, but they will be, and I am excited.

The reason why I and why many others start a vegetable garden, besides curbing the weekly grocery bill, as nice as that will be, is because we all want to know what is actually in the foods that we eat. When you buy a tomato at the grocery store you really have no idea what went into growing that vegetable, what chemicals were used, in what conditions it grew in, and how long it has been sitting in that grocery store crate before you picked it out, placed it in a plastic bag, and brought it home. Nobody wants to synthetic chemicals used to grow their fresh vegetables, which is why many gardeners choose to use only organic soil and organic plant food in their gardens.

Enter: Whitney Farms, a full line of 100% natural plant foods and soils with no additives and nothing artificial. What you’ll find in Whitney Farms’ products is simply ingredients from the Earth, designed to give you big, beautiful flowers and veggies. With over 25 years of leading gardening experience, they have improved their products to have:

• Low to no dust
• No manure odor
• Easy to apply
• Contains beneficial microbes
• Specially designed protein-based blends provide your plants with both macro and micronutrients they need to grow and thrive

Learning about Whitney Farms came as a delightful surprise. Before just recently, I had never heard of the brand before, only to find out that they are part of the Scotts line of products, who are also the same brilliant minds behind Miracle-Gro and other leading names in gardening products and tools. I had no idea that Scotts had an all-natural, organic brand of plant food!

To try out Whitney Farms, you can download a coupon for $3 off one of their products by visiting their website.

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When my partner and I first looked at the house that would soon become our home, one of the definite draws of the space was the large backyard. Up until this time, neither of us had ever had a yard of our own, but because we moved in the beginning of February when everything was still covered in inches of snow, the true state of our lawn was a complete surprise we didn’t get to see until just recently.

As warmer temperatures have settled in, our yard has been bursting with green and the grass has been growing faster than we ever expected. However, we have quite a few problem areas.

You’ll see in the picture above that in the space right out from the porch of the lower level of the house there is a complete bare spot where grass just isn’t growing. We have this same problem, along with sparsely-grown, uneven, and yellowed grass in front of our shed, and another bare, dirt-filled space where grass won’t grow in front of the two small vegetable gardens the previous owner of our house had set up.

All of these bare spots and areas of yellow, obviously unhealthy grass throughout the yard are pretty much yelling (in their own way) for more care. That is precisely why I was so happy to see that Scotts® has the answer with their new Scotts® Snap® Spreader System.

This system makes it easy to care for your lawn without the hassle you would naturally expect in order to get a beautiful and healthy lawn. The Snap Pac connects directly to the Snap Spreader so you don’t have to cut, open, or pour from heavy bags, which means no spilling and no waste. The spreader system then auto-sets the proper flow rate and all you have to do is walk around your yard while the spreader does the work of fertilizing the lawn. The Snap® Spreader System also has a unique EdgeGuard feature that keeps the fertilizer where you want it–on your lawn–without spitting the product out onto the sidewalk or into your flowers and vegetable gardens. When you’re done, the Snap Pac seals itself once it is removed from the Snap Spreader, so it’s easy to store and you won’t have to worry about a half-empty bag spilling or being knocked over and making a mess.

Scotts® wants to help you get your lawn healthy and looking beautiful. Like Snap perks on Facebook to receive special perks and promotions. They also have contests going on that you do not want to miss out on.

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Ever since moving into our new house and seeing the two small vegetable gardens the previous owner had set up, and the abundance of plant life that has been sprouting back to life as spring settles in, I have been planning (with a wish and a hope) of having fresh vegetables and beautiful flowers that I’ve grown myself come summer. There’s only one small problem with this–my inexperience with gardening has made me weary of getting out into my yard and beginning work on anything.

Luckily, there are products available that can give novice gardeners a little boost of confidence to venture out into their outdoor spaces and begin growing crops and flowers with lovely results. In all of the research I have done on what products to use in gardens and what brands are most trusted, Miracle-Gro always comes out on top. Miracle-Gro has been a reliable and credible brand with gardeners of all levels of expertise for years.

Miracle-Gro has just added the new Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix to its line of products, and oh my goodness, this stuff sounds fantastic.

Expand ‘n Gro helps to grow up to three times the flowers and vegetables versus native soil. It significantly improves your soil for multiple years and feeds plants for up to six months. Because it is a concentrated mix, Expand ‘n Gro expands three times when water is added and holds up to 50% more water than traditional soil due to the absorbent coir fibers that also ensures all water is used efficiently. Whether you are growing in pots or in the ground, Miracle-Gro Expand ‘n Gro Concentrated Planting Mix is formulated to get your plants big and beautiful.

Giveaway

We are giving away a sample of Miracle-Gro Expand ‘n Gro to one lucky Woman Tribune reader!

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In the past week, plants all over the backyard have started to bloom. We bought this house in the middle of winter and moved in during the second week of February, so the only state we have seen the backyard in is snow-covered and dead. I’m really looking forward to the next few months and seeing all of the plants and flowers out there come to life. I wonder what it’s going to look like!

Are you participating in Wordless Wednesday this week? Link up your posts!

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Last month, my partner and I moved into our first home. Not only is it my partner’s first single family home ever, having spent his whole life up to this point living in small apartments, and my first home since moving out of my family’s house as a teenager, but this is also the only time either of us has ever had a big yard. A wide, amazing open space that is ours, that we can do whatever we desire with. It took me no time at all to dream up a lush garden full of bright, beautiful colors. The only problem with making my imagined garden a reality is that I have absolutely no knowledge about gardening or really how to care for any type of plant at all. So you will understand my excitement when I was made aware of an awesome resource that stresses just how simple it can be to create a space full of life and color by planting flower bulbs.

“Bulbs. Dig, Drop, Done.” is an educational effort that introduces potential, novice, and even avid gardeners to the low-maintenance, returning beauty of bulbs. The process is in the name–all you have to do is dig a hole, drop your bulb, and then cover it up. All done. Their website is full of helpful tips about getting started with bulbs; when and how to plant bulbs and the timeline for when they will flourish into beautiful flowers. They also have an image gallery full of different ideas for using bulbs around your home and outdoor spaces, like planting them inside rain boots, as seen in the picture in this post.

A little bit of whimsy has also been incorporated into the Dig Drop Done website in the form of videos depicting three women in different times in their lives, all unique with their own personalities that we can all find something to relate to. One of the women in the videos, Evelyn, imparts some wisdom on which types of bulbs to plant to keep pesky animals from destroying her yard, which is definitely something I will need to think about once I get this garden of mine underway since I live in a country setting and have my fair share of pesky animal traffic. Another woman, Marcy, explains that she has color-coded everything her kids have; toothbrushes, drinking glasses, the works, and how she even got her three kids tulip bulbs in their favorite colors to plant out in the garden, so when she looks at the tulips placed in vases around the house, she sees her kids in them. It’s a really cute video complete with child interruptions, and what mom can’t relate to that?

Dig, Drop, Done recently launched Curbside Chaos, a really fun contest for people whose yards are in desperate need of attention. The chosen yard will receive a $5,000 yard makeover with interior designer and HGTV host Taniya Nayak, who will give the winner tips on the best way to update your yard, and of course, how to incorporate bulbs into your surroundings. Pretty awesome, right?

Also on the Curbside Chaos website is a great Garden Guru tool, which I was really impressed with. By picking the area you live in from the map and choosing the month you want your flowers to bloom in. The tool chooses a selection of the perfect bulbs to plant and when depending on the amount of sunlight that your specific area receives.

With this tool, you will know what types of bulbs will have the most success in your yard, which is something I would have never even known I had to worry about.

visit www.digdropdone.com to learn more about how you can use bulbs in a variety of spaces in your home, whether it’s outdoors or indoors, to create a warm, friendly, inviting, and simply stunning space. Bulbs can also be used for creative gift-giving and as a great way to get your kids involved in an activity that will stay with them throughout their lives.

You can also help Dig, Drop, Done do good in communities all across the country. Every time you share their website on Twitter, they will donate $1.00 to Rebuilding Together, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization that works to preserve affordable home ownership and revitalize communities.

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How you prepare your garden for winter will have a huge bearing on how easy and successful gardening is the following spring. There’s still time if you haven’t already winterized your garden. Plan to spend a few hours outdoors the next time it’s mild and dry, even in the dead cold of winter you do get a few scattered warm days. Here’s the to-do list that I follow each fall and winter:

• Trim back damaged or diseased plants and tree branches. Do heavy pruning any time between early and late winter, when the tree is dormant and the leaves are gone. The benefit of pruning during this season is that you can see the tree’s form very clearly, making it easier to prune accurately. You’re less likely to spread disease when trees are dormant, as well.
• Fertilize the lawn in late fall, according to Cornell University. You don’t want to fertilize while the grass is still actively growing. Wait instead until growth slows down, but before the ground freezes. The fertilizer will reach the roots, providing food for healthy growth in the spring.
• Clean out rain gutters. This is an absolute must so water drains properly from your roof. Remove debris with a broom or rake, and wash the gutters out with a pressure washer set on low, or a garden hose with a sprayer attachment. Seal any holes or leaks with a silicone caulking, and replace nails and screws.
• Clean outdoor furniture with water and a gentle scrub brush. Remove rust from metal with a steel brush and apply new paint, if necessary. Some wood furniture may benefit from oiling and restaining as needed. Store all outdoor furniture, such as benches, propane fire pit tables that are now a backyard fixture in most yards, in a shed or garage, or cover them with plastic tarps. Exposure to rain and snow will rust or warp outdoor furniture, reducing its lifespan.
• Clean and sharpen your garden tools before storing them. Here’s how: Brush off dirt with a brush or your hand. Mix 3/4 quart motor oil with sand in a 5-gallon bucket, adding sand until you have a mixture that is moist, but not wet. Place your tool blades in the sand to remove remaining dirt and condition the blades. Remove rust with a steel brush. Wipe the blades with motor oil or W-D-40, and sharpen them with a file or whetstone at a 20-degree angle. Store tools in a dry shed.
• I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lost wooden-handled spades or weeding forks in the garden because I can’t see them from the dirt and grass. Last year, though, I got smart. I bought a can of bright red spray paint and painted all the handles after I had cleaned them for the winter. Voila! Cute, attractive garden tools that never get lost.
• Remove garden debris. I sometimes leave perennials in place to insulate the plants’ roots or provide shelter for birds and rabbits, but I always clean my vegetable garden out. Leaving garden plants through the winter results in a slimy mess to clean up in the spring. It also promotes disease and provides shelter for insects to overwinter–two conditions I try to avoid.

While this seems like a lengthy list, you can easily complete most of it in a weekend. Although I’m always sad to tuck my garden in for the winter, I enjoy snuggling indoors with a warm fire or watching the snow fall on my bare trees.

As William Blake once said, “In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.”

Photo by meganpru

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I received a beautiful bouquet of 20 rainbow tulips from ProFlowers, pictured to the left, and they have been so great to have around the house. They are amazing quality and all flowers from ProFlowers are guaranteed to stay fresh for a minimum of seven days.

The lucky winner of a $5o ProFlowers gift code is Melanie!

Congratulations!

If you didn’t win the giveaway but are still looking for phenomenal Mother’s Day gift ideas, be sure to check out ProFlowers and their coupon site, ProFlowers Coupons where you can find a variety of deals, including 20% off your order as well as a free vase and free weekday delivery.

Disclosure: I received a bouquet of 20 rainbow tulips from ProFlowers in order to write a review, as well as the opportunity to host this giveaway.

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Mother’s Day is rapidly approaching and while people will be frantically trying to think up new gift ideas to show their mothers, as well as the mother-like figures in their lives, how special, important and very much needed they are, one gift option that has always been appropriate and thoughtful is a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

It can be pretty difficult to really differentiate between the many professional flower arrangement and gift companies and when you find yourself in the position where you need one, you’re more likely to check out a company that has been recommended by a friend. So let me tell you about a company that I have had the opportunity to experience myself.

ProFlowers is a company who has been delivering fresh-from-the-field flowers and other amazing gifts meant to delight and pamper, since 1998 and they recently sent me the gorgeous bouquet of 20 rainbow tulips pictured above.

My bouquet arrived in a large cardboard box with a note on the inside flap that holds a personalized note from the sender to the recipient. Once I opened the box, my cats’ interests were immediately piqued.

My bouquet arrived just the day after being emailed about my order and with it, was a complimenting green vase. The flowers were fresh, beautiful, and have stayed fresh throughout the past few days. In fact, all flowers from ProFlowers are guaranteed to stay completely fresh for a minimum of seven days.

I haven’t received many bouquets of flowers before so admittedly, I didn’t know exactly how much I should cut from the bottom of each stem, what temperature the water in the vase should be initially, or what that flower food substance was all about. Luckily, ProFlowers sent along a handy sheet of care instructions that answered any questions I could ever have about the care and keeping of my bouquet, along with some tips on caring for tulips specifically.

ProFlowers has outstanding deals for anyone looking for Mother’s Day flower arrangements. Be sure to check out ProFlowers Coupons to save 20% and receive a free vase and free weekday delivery, amongst other deals.

Giveaway

In celebration of Mother’s Day, we are giving away a $50 ProFlowers gift code to one lucky Woman Tribune reader to spend on a gift for your mother, another woman who is special in your life, or even on yourself (hey, you deserve it!)

Required Entry

Visit the ProFlowers website and leave a comment on this post telling us what gift you would choose.

Extra Entries

Leave a separate comment for each additional entry.

• “Like” ProFlowers on Facebook
  By “liking” ProFlowers on Facebook, you will also receive 20% off your order.
• Subscribe to Woman Tribune
• Follow @WomanTribune on Twitter
• “Like” Woman Tribune on Facebook
• Blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post and details about ProFlowers. (This entry is worth five entries, so leave five separate comments with the link to your blog post.)
• Tweet about this giveaway. Feel free to use the following tweet or write your own. (This can be done once a day, leave a link to your tweet in your comment.)
  

  Win a $50 gift code to ProFlowers just in time for Mother’s Day from @WomanTribune http://bit.ly/e0z61E ends 4/29

This giveaway ends Friday, April 29th at 11:59 p.m. ET. This giveaway is open to anyone over the age of 18 at the time of entry. The winner will be randomly chosen and contacted by email; they then have 48 hours (2 days) to respond to that email or another winner will be chosen.

Full Contest Disclaimer

Disclosure: I received a bouquet of 20 rainbow tulips from ProFlowers in order to write this review, as well as the opportunity to host this giveaway.

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Spring is definitely a time where we start to rely on slow cookers and comfort food less and less and start implementing more fresh vegetables into our diets; it seems like as soon as we start seeing nature getting back its green, we start getting it back on our plates as well. But fresh produce can become a little costly, especially if you’re looking for organically-grown goods and don’t have a local fresh farmer’s market in town.

More and more people are starting their own gardens for the convenience of not having to run to the grocery store every few days and the peace of mind in knowing that there were no hard, damaging chemicals used on their produce. But we don’t all have big yards with perfect gardening space; as a woman who is living the apartment life, I know that sometimes, we don’t even have yard at all. So when I stumbled upon this awesome video from Becky Stern for Craftzine on how to set up your own hydroponic herb garden.

Above is an in-process picture of Becky setting up her hydroponic herb garden. A DIY system is the best way to go about starting your own hydroponic herb garden, especially if you’re a complete beginner. In the video, Becky used the Rainforest 318 system made by General Hydroponics.

In all, you will need:

• A light-tight container
• Nutrient solution
• A water pump and tubing (available at most pet stores)
• Small plant-sized containers
• Expanded clay pebbles or other growing medium

Head on over to Craftzine for the complete how-to.

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Companies want you to buy organically–Food, bath and body products, laundry detergents and so on, but when I got down to thinking, one place where you should most definitely be letting your eco-friendliness shine is when you’re using your green thumb.

Don’t let your plants and flowers soak up all the green in your garden. Many gardeners don’t realize simply how ironic it is that you’re growing green but you’re not necessarily going green when it comes to most small gardens and one of the most controversial elements when it comes to your garden are the products you are using to help keep your garden beautiful. One of the biggest things that can keep your garden from looking it’s best are weeds and instead of spending an entire day pulling weeds out by hand when you can be tending to the other aspects of your garden, you must find yourself an excellent weed killer.

Weed killers aren’t environmentally friendly; in fact, weed killers use harsh chemicals to kill weeds, but while you may think that they are getting the job done in that department, they are also harming your other plants–And that goes triple if you have a vegetable garden! Luckily, there is now an organic herbicide that is safe to use for you, your pets and children and the environment.

Nature’s Avenger is an all-natural organic herbicide that is completely natural and designed to meet the needs and demands of gardeners, homeowners and Mother Nature.

It has been approved for use in organic production, is fast-acting with visible results in just two hours or even less and it is also highly biodegradable. It is made with natural citrus oil, which means you aren’t dealing with harsh chemicals with harsh chemical smells. With Nature’s Avenger, your sense of smell, braincells and health of pets and children are fully taken care of.

Nature’s Avenger is available is a 24oz pre-mixed, pre-measured, easy to use spray bottle and also in 32oz and 1 gallon concentrates and can be purchased through their website or on Amazon.

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Now first of all, my partner is very much unlike most guys you will meet–He loves to decorate, he has an eye for what colors and fabrics look best on me and he has a knack for cleaning the house a whole lot better than I could! I am a very lucky woman to have somehow attracted my very own straight gay man.

While thinking about this garden that he would love to have, we talked about not only having fresh flowers we wouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for, but also our very own produce; which of course, with the rising cost of gas to get to the store and the twenty percent increase in food prices that have hit America hard, having our very own vegetables would be a dream!

Being the dedicated blogger that I am, I thought I would share some information I picked up on how to make the thought of your very own vegetable garden a reality.

Like any major endeavor you plan to take on, a vegetable garden takes planning. You can’t just go out to your yard, pick a corner and start planting, you need to take into consideration how much sunlight your crops need, how many different varieties of vegetables you will be growing and where everything is going to go.

Vegetables have very particular needs unlike any other plants. Your vegetables required deep, fertile soil, a level ground and six hours of full sun every day at the very least. You also need to take into consideration that raised beds are better for growing vegetables because they have good draining, which rids your vegetables of disease and suffocation of the root systems. Raised beds also warms the soil a lot quicker than a regular bed and of course, since vegetables need six hours of full sunlight daily, they could use all the warmth they can get!

It is much easier to sketch your plan out on paper before you begin to plant. Decide what vegetables will go where as well as the size of the beds you will need. The best type of paper for this endeavor would be graph paper so you can plan to scale and also make sure you know how big your crops will grow so you can make sure that they are spaced out properly and not overlapping onto each other.

To make the raised beds that I mentioned earlier, mark off the bed layout with string and bamboo stakes. Make sure that your beds are not wider than 36 to 40 inches and using a shovel, carve out a series of lowered paths around the staked-off areas. Then, mound the soil onto the beds and use a rake to level the soil.

If you currently have your own vegetable garden, tell me about it in the comments, I could surely use all the help I can get and if you’re feeling really adventurous, take some pictures and send them to me using the contact form.

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