Category Archives: Gardening

Book Review: The Rooted Life

I received a review copy of this book; all opinions expressed are mine.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about homesteading and growing your own healthy organic food, this is a great book to learn from! The Rooted Life: Cultivating Health & Wholeness Through Growing Your Own Food (hardcover, Worthy Publishing) is authored by permaculture expert Justin Rhodes, the popular You Tube Homesteader of The Justin Rhodes Show.

Justin Rhodes started his homesteading lifestyle out of a desire to provide healthy, wholesome food for his family. Purchasing organic food was really becoming a strain on their budget, so he bought some seed packets on one visit to the grocery store. “That’s really how it started,” he writes. “We bought those lettuce seeds, plus a few other packets. We got some advice from a neighbor who had a garden, and we planted. Then we harvested. And our lives have never been the same.” Neither Justin or his wife Rebekah knew anything about growing their own food. “We started from scratch, made mistakes, and learned by doing. And the results have been way beyond our wildest dreams!”

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A New E-zine: Bard & Muse

Happy Monday evening to all of you! I wanted to tell you about a new E-zine a friend of mine is publishing, and this is her first issue! It’s called Bard & Muse. An intro message from the editor explains that the heart of this e-zine is to “sow seeds of inspiration that yield a bountiful harvest…when you come and see here, we want you to leave fuller for it.” So you’ll find inspiration for your soul as well as your garden, kitchen, and home!

You’ll have to check this issue out when you get a chance! I hope you enjoy looking through it—let me know what you think! You’ll find the first issue here.

My Gardening Journal

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I received a copy of My Gardening Journal to review; all opinions expressed are mine.

I enjoy gardening, so I was looking forward to reviewing this gardening journal from Fox Chapel Publishing (softcover). Right now, I’m doing more container gardening since I don’t have a yard, but My Gardening Journal works for whatever type of gardening you do! It’s a handy little journal that makes it easy to keep track of how your garden is coming along and log any information you want to remember about the plants, flowers, and/or produce you are growing. Continue reading

Autumn Bouquets

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I am such a jar and bottle-saver! I save glass jars and bottles of all shapes, sizes, and colors. I was starting to get quite a collection and running out of space to put them, so I thought I’d make some autumn bouquets to give to my flower-loving friends.

I love the variety of sizes and colors of these bottles! Each one of them had some sort of food item in them–after the contents were used up, I removed the labels on each bottle so I could reuse them as vases and tied autumn-colored ribbons around them before filling with flowers.

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These three glass bottles were all once containers for vanilla, almond, and orange extract.

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These two jars originally had jam in them.

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Another unique-looking bottle and jar: the small clear bottle in the foreground was from Cracker Barrel (it was a miniature maple syrup bottle–the kind they give you when you order pancakes). The larger brown glass jar in the background is actually a vitamin jar. Who would’ve thought it would make such a great vase?

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This vintage-looking soda bottle was from Cracker Barrel, too–they sell a variety of vintage sodas in their country store, and some of them have such great designs, you hate to toss them out!

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This bottle is one of my favorites–it has a long neck and a rounded base, so no worries about this tipping over! This originally had some white wine vinegar in it.

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And this large bottle had some apple juice in it–I love the detail of the leaves at the top of the bottle–much too pretty to get rid of!

Most of my labels came off pretty easily just by soaking the bottle in hot soapy water–I left the bottles in the water overnight. But sometimes I come across really stubborn labels, and on those, I sometimes use nail polish remover. I’ve also heard that Goo Gone works too, although I haven’t tried that yet. If you use products like these, make sure you’re in a well-ventilated area.

Are you a glass jar and bottle-saver too? Using them as vases is one way to upcycle them. Do you have other ways of reusing pretty jars and bottles?

Linked to Inspire Me Monday at Create With Joy and Show and Share at Coastal Charm.

A Spring Branch Bouquet

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Dogwood trees are starting to bloom where I live and their blooms are so pretty! The Redbud trees are also blooming and their rich color looks so striking against the other trees that are just starting to produce small leaves.

I decided to pick a few blooming branches and make a bouquet–something I had wanted to do last spring, but by the time I thought about doing it, the blooms were past their prime. So here’s how my “Branch Bouquet” turned out–I just combined 2 Dogwood branches with 3 Redbud branches and I think the different blooms look so pretty together! You could use other kinds of blooming branches, too–Forsythias, Pear Blossoms…whatever type of blooming branches that are growing around you. It brings a nice touch of the spring outdoors into your home or office.

You could also use this idea to make a pretty Easter centerpiece for your table!

Do you have any pretty blooming shrubs or trees in your yard?

I’m linking this to Fiesta Friday, Inspire Me Monday, Wow Us Wednesday, Favorite Things Thursday.