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I don’t know about you, but when I think about Earth Day, I think about gardening! I think about how important it is to take care of this wonderful earth we live on. My family and I like to plant new fruits and vegetables in our garden to eat and add new plants, flowers and even trees to our home’s landscape this time of year.

Here’s 12 Spring Gardening Must Haves you don’t want to be without this season!

Gardening Gloves

I hate it when I am all ready to start working outdoors and I can’t seem to find a pair of gloves. With this 6 Pack of Gardening Gloves  you’ll always have a pair handy. They offer a protective coating on them, a good grip and will help you work comfortably. They are also very, very cute!

Watering Cans

I love these Colorful Watering Cans! They hold over 2 gallons of water, they are built to last being made of powder coated, galvanized steel and their bright cheery colors are so fun!

Miracle-Gro Gro-ables

Our family just loves Miracle-Gro Gro-ables ! They are so easy to use and they come in several different varieties. We started planting with these indoors this past weekend and they are already starting to sprout! These are perfect for the beginner gardener or the experienced gardener and can be planted in a large garden or in pots indoors or outdoors.

Unique Decorative Planters

Oh, I just love this Amish Wagon Planter! I think you should have at least 1 unique decorative planter in your home’s landscape. Not only is it a great way to display your favorite flowers, but the piece itself adds so much character to your outdoor space. I just ordered mine today!

5 Tier Strawberry Planter

Who doesn’t love fresh strawberries?! If you don’t want to or have the room to plant a whole garden, this 5 Tier Planter is perfect for a small family strawberry patch! It holds 20 plants, is designed for easy watering from the top and can also be used for herbs indoors or out!

Stand Up Weeder

Fiskars Stand Up Weeder is probably my favorite handy dandy garden tool! It easily gets rid of stubborn and deep dandelion and crab grass roots with just a little pressure from your foot. I sometimes find myself walking around our property looking for something to pull out! It’s weeding at it’s finest!

Garden Netting

Don’t let your hard work and care be chewed up overnight by a hungry animal! I’ve had it happen to me and it’s devastating to see plants you’ve worked so hard on eaten down to nothing. Protect your plants and crops with Garden Netting. 

Liquid Fence

This stuff works wonders and it’s all natural too! Keep those deer and rabbits away from your tasty garden! Liquid Fence is available in a ready to go sprayer or in a concentrated form (which will save you $ in the long run) that you can dilute and pour into your own sprayer. We use this alone to protect our apple and peach trees here in the country. We also used it when our garden fence wasn’t up yet to keep the deer away and it worked wonders.

Kids Garden Totes w/ Tools

These darling Kids Garden Totes w/ Tools will have your little ones so excited about helping you in the garden! They can really get their hands dirty while they enjoy nature with you this season. Just grab your tote and go!

Gladiolus Perennial Flower Bulbs

Gladiolus are tall, beautiful flowers which add wonderful color to your garden and are perfect cut and used for arrangements throughout the summer months. Since they are a perennial, you’ll be able to enjoy them year after year effortlessly after planting just once!

Bulb Planter

Whether you are planting bulbs in the Spring, Summer or Fall, this Bulb Planter is going to cut your work time in half! Simply use your foot to do the work and plant more with less effort.

Garden Markers

These inexpensive copper Garden Markers easily help you keep track of what seeds you’ve planted where and they look so nice too. The large writing surface area allows you to easily label them with marker.

Happy Gardening!

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Spring is here and I’m looking forward to a beautiful and productive garden again this year. Gardening really is a great hobby, and if you really put forth the effort, it can provide you with delicious, fresh food all year round. All 4 of my children spend a lot of time with me in our garden. It’s a great opportunity to bond, learn about nature and get creative with your kiddos every single day. It’s so fun too! We have several raised beds and plant all sorts of delicious vegetables from Spring until Fall. Although the skies are sunny and the temperatures are in the 60’s today, unfortunately there are snowflakes in our local forecast this weekend. No worries though- we’re starting our family gardening this year rain (snow) or shine indoors with Miracle-Gro Gro-ables! Miracle-Gro Gro-ables are an easy, less messy way to start gardening. They are great for beginners and even experienced gardeners. You simply plant, water, and watch the seed pod grow! They come in several different varieties, so you can even let your children pick their favorite! I love that they are guaranteed to grow! There’s something magical, even when you’re an adult about watching a seed grow into a beautiful plant and then being able to eat and enjoy what it produces. As a matter of fact, during some garden prep this past weekend, I noticed there were some carrots in one of the beds that I forgot to pull in the late Fall. All of my children (ages 5-12) were so excited to pull them out and eat them right away with dinner that night. They were so proud of themselves!
Growing your own fruits and vegetables is so rewarding. Everyone always wants to taste those fresh fruits & veggies after they’ve worked so hard caring for them all season! Nothing tastes better than fresh farm to table! Consider starting your own Gro-ables Project today! Tip: To make your family gardening a little more special this season, consider purchasing your children their own gardening gloves. Not only are they adorable, but they really do make gardening a little easier, especially when it’s time to pull weeds! My youngest daughter loves to put on her special gardening gloves and get working! She was really excited to help me plant this week because she only goes to school for 1/2 a day. It’s nice to have a little special one on one time with her too. To get started with the Miracle-Gro Gro-ables, I purchased a few pretty ceramic pots (the one’s that have a built in tray for convenience) that I could keep on my large kitchen window sill. We lightly filled the pots with good potting mix and placed the seed pods into the mix until the tops were level with it. There are also easy to follow direction under each label. We chose to plant 3 different varieties of tomatoes, 1 in each small planter and 3 pepper Gro-ables in the smaller separate planters as well. These need to be started indoors anyways and then they can be transplanted to the garden in 6 weeks. In our large planter, we planted herbs next to each other. This fragrant herb garden is going to be just beautiful to have in our kitchen this summer! After watering daily for 1-2 weeks your seeds will finally sprout! Several months after we’ve planted these, flowers will soon begin to appear which means fruit will be close at hand! Yum! How exciting! Make gardening a priority for your family this year! You’ll be so happy you did! Do you garden every year? What tips do you have for fun family gardening? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Start your own #GroablesProject today! Which Miracle-Gro Gro-ables does your family want to try?

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A few months ago I shared my garden preparations for the season with you all. It was the very beginning of the growing season but I wanted to share it because I’m always interested in other’s gardening progress too. I enjoy reading and browsing through posts and pictures of other’s gardens for ideas and inspiration. I love my garden and it’s really inspirational and relaxing to me. My husband on the other hand…he hates it!

I love planting my vegetables from seed, tending to them, watching them grow and then enjoying them in our favorite meals. I think there is nothing better than homegrown food. I also feel that with 4 children, a garden is full of teaching moments along with lessons of responsibility and accomplishments. My husband loves breaking things down, figuring out costs and always being very, very practical.

Because we decided (as my husband would say, I decided) to take down the old fence we had to put a more up a more efficient and eye appealing one up, he has not been a very happy camper. My husband owns a landscaping business and digging more post holes and stapling up metal fence after a long day of work isn’t exactly his idea of fun. I get that, but to be honest, that’s not my area of expertise. It’s his, I cannot do it and I truly appreciate all of the work he has put into my garden for me.

He laughs as people drive by and give him a friendly wave while he’s out there sweating, digging and building. “I bet they all think this is my big project!” he says. “If they only knew…”  Boy, do love him for it though!

I love opening the garden gate, walking in and getting to work at a leisurely pace.  It’s a place that I can work and clear my mind at the same time. Weeding, pruning, tilling, raking, harvesting out here in the quiet, in the country, and outdoors all are my idea of fun…he just doesn’t get that and it’s okay.

There’s a book called The $64 Tomato. Have you read it? Well, my husband finds it very interesting. It breaks down the costs of having a garden, your work and how much that yummy fruit or vegetable in really costing you in the long run. As I gush about my ripe and juicy San Marzano Tomatoes and how delicious they are in homemade sauce, he rolls his eyes. “Don’t you just love the fresh taste of these? You can’t buy them all year here and I can can them for use all year!” I tell him. “I’d just go buy my food at the store Shannon,” he says. Another eye roll from him and I just shrug it off. “Whatever makes you happy honey.”

My garden is a little extravagant in it’s size and I never claimed it would make us a ton of money or anything. It is more of a hobby I guess. Maybe it’s a guy thing, I don’t know. I feel like the memories made with our children in the garden are priceless. The chores of picking beans and weeding teach them good work ethic, but it’s rewarding too when that homegrown food goes into a family meal. To me it’s also important to know where your food came from and no that no pesticides were used on them.

I bought strawberry roots at the store this Spring and when the cashier scanned them and looked at them her eyes got wide as she read the packages. “You can grow strawberries at your house?” she said in amazement. “Yes, you can,” I said, flabbergasted. “That’s awesome.” she continued. Now, we live in a farming community. I could not believe that this young adult didn’t know you could grow strawberries here. They grow wild everywhere! I want my children to not only know what you can grow here, I want them to see what all of these plants look like. I want them to feel them, touch them, grow them and enjoy them.

My herb and perennial bed is doing great and I am loving the way the daisies look among all of the fragrant herbs. I found this cute little chair planter (first picture) at an estate sale and thought it would be perfect in there with a few flowers for more color. What do you think?

With my garden fence up and ready to go, I finally got my tomatoes and peppers in! I can’t wait to watch them grow! My cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, beans, pumpkin, and watermelon all seem to be doing okay after all of the rain and flooding we had too.  After an exceptionally rainy month, I’m happy with the progress. Even though I think my garden is a little bit behind, I think August is going to be a great month for harvesting. I’ve even caught my husband wandering through the garden a time or two…I think a part of him likes it too. One of our barn cats is sure enjoying the garden view each evening!

Do you have a garden? How’s it growing?

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The post Why I Love My Garden & Why My Husband Hates It appeared first on Cozy Country Living.

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Most of the things I share here on Cozy Country Living are the finished product or the end result.  Recipes, and room makeovers always look so nice when when they are all finished and styled nicely. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I have been busy in my garden lately.  I have a lot of work to do, but I thought it would be fun to share my starting point this year with you all.  I’m giving you a peek into my garden today, without all of the work done, but in progress and a look at some potential outdoor projects I have in mind for the season as well.  Welcome!

When we first moved here almost 3 years ago, we knew things indoors and outdoors weren’t going to stay as they were. We had plans. Big ones! Calling this move and addition to our home a “Project” seems to be an understatement at this point, but it’s our home.  Our dream home, inside and out and it’s getting there. Slowly but surely. Our back acreage was all woods that first summer living here, but I convinced my husband to build me a garden.  I figured it would be something that wouldn’t change (unlike the landscape, the yard and house) and during the day, especially in the summer, our 4 children could also play and help me work in it.

My husband built me raised beds out of old boards we had and we surrounded my garden with mismatched fencing- again, whatever we had around from previous projects, to keep those darn deer out!

Last fall we had a friend come over and bulldoze a good portion of our back woods so we would have a very large backyard for our children to run around and for their playset and trampoline. We also had to take down this rustic old shed that was by the entrance of my garden too.  The roof was shot, and so was the floor.  It wasn’t safe, and after my husband fell through the floor of it and made a trip to the emergency room for several layers of stitches, we thought it was best to just start over fresh.  It was pretty though, wasn’t it?

As far as our new yard went, the snow came before my husband could rake out stones and plant grass with his tractor though.  As soon as it was dry enough this Spring, he spent evenings and weekends raking by hand the remaining stones and sticks from the new yard and seeding it.  He’s had to work in sections, but every week the grass comes in deeper into the yard.  It’s going to look so nice when it’s all green!

We took out our old fencing, extended my garden to include a few more raised beds and some tilled areas around the perimeter for corn, sunflowers, a variety of pumpkins and of course watermelon! This weekend we are planning to get new, taller posts put in, along with tall rolled metal fencing that will keep any animals out of my garden. I’m excited about this fence because it will give my garden an open feel.  I hate to feel enclosed when we are out here in the country, you know? This way I can be working in my garden while also looking out and watching my kiddos playing in the back yard too.

What I have been working on lately is preparing the beds.  All of my herbs are planted, so that bed is complete. Yay!  I planted my oregano, basil, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (<— like the song Scarborough Fair! ) among perennials like Shasta Daisies and Salvia Sylvestris to attract bees and butterflies, and to add a nice pop of color to mostly green vegetation.

I have one bed lined with fragrant lavender that I decided to plant strawberries in this year. The strawberries are wild and I transplanted them from our woods. You’ll have to excuse my dry looking beds here- I’ve held off watering because we are in store for a few days of thunderstorms. I can’t wait to see how green and lush everything will be here in another month!

This year will be a “growing a strong plant” year and I will pinch off the little white flowers and any runners on the strawberry plants to help the plant develop and grow stronger.  Sacrifice in the first year will yield great fruit the second year !

I noticed young broccoli plants in the bed that I grew broccoli in last year even though I had already tilled the soil.  I dug the plants out and moved them into their own bed and they seem to be doing okay. Only time will tell!

Most of my other garden vegetables, I sow directly in the soil from seed like zucchini, yellow summer squash, spinach, lettuce and beans.

I have a variety of peppers and tomatoes, including my favorite- San Marzano tomatoes, and eggplant growing well on my kitchen window sill which I started from seed.  I am going to wait until the garden fence is up to plant those in any beds because I doubt the deer can resist those wonderfully tender and delicate leaves!

*Psss… if you have a deer problem in your garden and fencing is not an option, give Liquid Fence a try! I use it around my fruit trees and never have a problem.  It’s a little stinky when you spray it, but it’s all natural and it will save your harvest!

Next to my garden is an older, kind of beat up garage.  The side of it has this lovely, chippy, white painted old door that I just love! I hope to get in there and clean it out and really make this a nice potting area and garden shed with storage for my tools.

Even though there is so much work to do, I know it’s worth it.  Growing our own food is so rewarding and it really gives me a sense of accomplishment when we use those fruits and vegetables in our kitchen throughout the year. How’s your garden going this year?

I’ll be sharing my garden as it grows every month throughout the Summer so stay tuned! Thanks so much for stopping by! Happy Gardening!

You can find more great gardening ideas and tips on my Pinterest Gardening Board!

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*Linking up at Living Well Spending Less, Cherishing A Sweet Life

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With garage and estate sale season upon us, it is a good idea to make a list of things that you might be interested in purchasing for upcoming crafts or projects at home.  Having a list prepared can save you time and money when you go to a sale and you know exactly what you are looking for.  I love vintage things, and estate sales are a great place to look for these wonderful treasures, but I like to have a plan for these items or else they will be just sitting around my house.  I picked up these pretty cups at an estate sale last year and didn’t really have a plan for them:(  They had been sitting on a shelf  in my garage and I noticed them again last week when I was planting flowers.  It was like a light bulb went off in my head!  These would make the prettiest little planters for a gift or even a favor for a baby or a bridal shower.  They were inexpensive and you can decorate them easily and plant what ever you like in them to fit your theme.  These cups were all the same, but I think small flowers would be beautiful in different vintage tea cups!  So onto my list for estate sales this year are vintage tea cups.  I think flowers planted in small vintage tea cups would add character to my kitchen window sill.  These pretty cups were given to the amazing mother’s who attended my Mother’s Day Brunch.  It added color to the table setting and was a nice simple gift for them to take home.  What are you looking for at estate sales this year?

*Linking up at  Home Stories A to Z, Nap Time Creations, Savvy Southern Style, Joyful Homemaking, I Gotta Create, Serenity Now, Skip To My Lou, Elizabeth & Co.

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