Today, those of us in PA enjoyed an early taste of summer! So, in honor of the beautiful weather, we're going to talk gardening! Ok, don't tune out on me yet… there are some cool things about gardening even if you're not"into it"…

Longwood Gardens My mother in law has an amazing green thumb, so anything I've learned is from her. I don't have extensive knowledge, but I've found plants that work for me and that I can manage… all that translates to "plants that are very hard to kill and can deal with being ignored!" Before I share some of my favorites and some recommendations, we need a little primer on plants. Annuals are plants that don't come back year after year… you have to buy them annually. Perennials come back year after year (AKA plants that Eric thinks are nice and practical!) Yes, that seems a little basic, but come on, most people confuse the two all the time!
Now for my favorites… Grasses- these perennials are wonderful as space fillers. They're inexpensive, indestructible, and grow like crazy. My favorite type is Maidenhair Grass (Miscanthus). They come in a variety of sizes and are nice and green all spring and summer.

In the fall they get these pretty wispy thingies (again, not very exact with my names!)

They also come in a variety of colors. I've bought this deep red before and it looks great in the fall.

Vinca- These annuals are my #1 favorite flower and my go-to flower for most beds and here's why… These flowers don't need a thing from me! They love full-sun, and thrive during a drought and heat wave. That's essential for me because, I spend full-sun, heatwave days by the pool, not watering my flowers!

They totally spread and fill out an area so nicely. Vinca = instant garden!

They're awesome for hanging baskets and again need little to no water. I rarely, if ever, water ones in the ground, but might water my baskets weekly or every ten days.

Now most people use Impatiens (which btw I thought were impatience until about 2 minutes ago!) but, the reason I prefer vinca is that impatiens need TLC. They need a lot of water throughout a drought and can stand the heat, but only with care. The two look so similar, that the easy peasy flower gets my vote for sure! These are impatiens- can you tell much of a difference?

Sunflowers- who doesn't love a sunflower? We go a little crazy with our sunflowers and try out tons of different varieties. My kiddos' favorite is the Mammoth Sunflower because it's enormous! Look at this random, adorable couple and their sunflower. They really do get this big!

Sunflowers don't have a super long bloom time, but if you stager your planting- plant a handful in the same area each week- you'll have a longer bloom season. This was the border of our backyard at the old house prior to full bloom.

Did you know they come in oodles of colors and so many of them have awesome fall tones? They bloom towards the end of the summer and get me all excited for my favorite season! This little fella was from our 2009 gardening.

Final note on sunflowers- they're super easy to plant and a great one to have the kids help you with! Can't mess it up!
New Favorite: Wildflowers- Thanks to Laura from Piggy Toes Photography in Norton, MA I'm hooked on wildflowers. I'm more of a clean lines, symetrical decorator and gardener, but was totally inspired by some of her pictures to enter the world of wildflowers. Who wouldn't want this amazing backdrop for photos right in their own yard! It was this picture of her son Atticus that made me contact her and find out more about these awesome flowers. Seriously Adorable!

These are super cute and will be making an appearance in our new yard. The company Laura suggested was American Meadows and I've already ordered three bags to plant in the next few weeks.

Although I'm partial to the cutie in the diaper, they're also great for more formal shots like this one from an engagement session. If you're in the MA area, make sure you check out Laura's website for great photography at excellent prices.

I can't wait to share pics of my kiddos in our wildflowers this summer!
Cosmos- While cosmos kind of fall under the"wildflowers" category, I've been using them for years. They're a bit more"wild" looking and unrully than I'd prefer, but they're awesome for cutting and really are pretty.

They come in so many colors and they also come in a variety of heights (learned the hard way when I had mammoth plants that all needed to be staked and still looked a bit sad.)

They're just so pretty and make beautiful arrangements that last for a while.

If you think you recognize them from somewhere… it could be from the AC Expressway in New Jersey. They're planted for miles between the highway and they're so pretty all summer on our drives to the beach!

So, I don't have any really amazing gardening tips for you, other than to find something that works for you and that you actually enjoy. If I planted things that needed daily attention it wouldn't be fun for me and they'd all end up dead!
So in honor of spring weather, and of the fact my husband sent me to Lowes tonight to buy this (my first ever John Deer purchase- I was a fish out of water) enjoy the warm weather and start thinking about what you might create outside this year.

We briefly interrupt this CWTS week because it's now officially spring and I'm not sure if you know this, but it has been SNOWING the last 2 days here in PA. We thought maybe the snow was due to the fact that we haven't been posting about anything spring?? So, just to make sure spring isn't offended, and stops the snow business, we proudly present you with a spring post! (CWTS Tutorials will be back in full swing tomorrow, but you can check out the Round 2 projects and winners here and here.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You all know that HGTV has a special place in our hearts. We got our very first magazine feature in their November 2012 Thanksgiving issue (remember the fun leftovers station idea?) So, of course we were game when HGTVGardens asked us to give their new website a whirl!

We started off by becoming HGTVGardens community members (which was easy peasy), you can check our our profile here.

I added a few of my own outdoor posts to my photo album.

If you're a blogger, this is a great way to get some new local blog readers, because HGTVGardens suggests content based on your zip code. So people right in your hometown will see your posts. It's also really cool because those people live in the same gardening"zone," so I won't be shown a bunch of posts of plants that could never grow in PA!

Then, I took some time to explore the site! You know I don't have an especially green thumb, but I do love to make our yard look awesome in the summer and fall! I have my go-to annuals, but I really want to find more perennials that I like. With 4 acres of land, annuals get really pricey! I couldn't believe how simple HGTVGardens made searching for the right plants! Check this out… they already had my zone, so I just clicked Perennial, then Partial Sun and Boom!

I found this adorable flower!! I don't know about the name, seriously,"Sneezeweed??" but it looks awesome, will come back each year, and Bonus… it attracts butterflies! I really love the Plant Finder tool and see many more new and awesome flowers making their home with us this year!

Another thing I loved about the HGTVGardens site was that the articles were super relevant. It wasn't like Uncle Bob's Random flower that only grows in Texas or anything like that! I was super excited to stumble upon this article about Meadows. Two summers ago, I started trying to get a meadow going and each year I'm getting closer and closer!

Honestly, to start my meadow, I just went to American Meadows and picked the flowers I thought were pretty… this article would have been really helpful about two years ago! Ha! Now, I know which bags of seed I'll be ordering this year, and I'm pretty sure they'll do a lot better than the"Monica Random Picking Method."
I knew I was a big HGTV fan, but the HGTVGardens site really impressed me. I added it to my Bookmarks bar… people, that's a big deal in my world! Take some time to check it out and I'd love to know what new plants and ideas you find (they have a whole section for crafts and fun outdoor ideas too!)
And just because I love it a lot, here's my Go-To flower. It's perfect for the lazy gardener… loves sun, doesn't need water, comes in tons of colors, and makes me look like a much better gardener than I really am!

Happy Spring, now if the East Coast could get the spring memo and stop snowing, I could start getting my gardening groove on!

**This post brought to you by gardening crew at HGTV, but all opinions belong 100% to yours truly!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts Miracle-Gro for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
I know, pansies? Everyone always thinks of mums as the go-to Fall flower. I love them too, but I was looking for some fall decor inspiration and came across the idea from Miracle-Gro's Find beauty in the Fall website to use pansies as an aternative way to add fall color to my front porch. I love that pansies are a little unexpected and not your typical Fall gardening staple. You know I'm not much of a gardener, so I'm sticking with container gardens. Just take a look at these beauties I found while searching on Pinterest:

Google Images

I love these colors against the blue door, just like I happen to have right now.

Southern Living This one is my absolute favorite. I love these tiered planters with burnt orange pansies, decorative grasses and ivy. I think I now have an excuse to give Monica's easy DIY planters a try.: )

Finally, this one is adorable, and if you stop by this Fall, you might just see one of these babies sitting pretty on my porch:

Wave Rave I don't know much about actual in-ground gardening, but I do know that container gardens require really good and thorough care. For my summer planters, I used Miracle-Gro potting mix that takes care of all the hard work of feeding my plants for several months. Since pansies can withstand frost, that means my planters will look good until Thanksgiving!

I'm so anxious to get my front porch ready for Fall! You can find lots more ideas and inspiration on the Miracle-Gro Facebook page. Have you ever used pansies in your Fall decorating? Have I given you enough reason to try?; )

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Holy Cannoli Batman… could Spring have taken any longer to come this year? Finally, we're getting some warmth up in here!

I really love spring (once it gets here)… it means flowers, outdoor projects, and flip-flops (do you remember those days in college, when you'd have a warm-ish spring day, so you'd put on flip-flops, a tank, shorts, and act like it was 100 degrees out? Yup, that was me!)
This Spring, I have a ton of projects I want to work on in our yard. Last summer we finished up our huge patio project, but we didn't have much time or budget left to tackle the landscaping and some other fun projects to make the space complete!

Landscaping around the patio and building a shed are our first two orders of business! I've successfully taken over 3/4s of our huge garage with all my DIY projects and materials, so the hubs has decided it's time for a shed for our mower, yard tools, etc.

Since these are two pretty hefty sized projects, I need all the help and advice I can get. I visited the Garden Club on The Home Depot's website to get some expert advice, inspiration, and I got an awesome coupon just for signing up as part of the community. SCORE!

Check out who else is part of the Garden Club Community…

I mean if Martha is doing it… I'm so there!

I was browsing the site looking for landscaping ideas, but got completely distracted by all the awesome project inspiration ideas! Have you heard of Envirotile? If I had an old, cement slab patio, I would do this in an instant… I found an awesome step-by-step guide that seemed so simple!

One of the other things I loved once I became a member of the Garden Club community, was their Monthly to-do lists! Once I click on where I live on the map, it provides me with a list of what I should be doing when, based on my zone!

Especially with how cool this spring has been, it's easy to forget about some of the outdoor things I need to be taking care of now! I printed out my list for March and it's right on the fridge for the hubs and me to tackle! (Actually, he's outside working in the yard, as I'm writing this!)

We love the Home Depot (and not just because they're one of our CWTS sponsors!!), and I'm so glad I checked out their site and became a member of the Garden Club

To join yourself & get your coupon (c'mon, all the cool kids are doing it)- click HERE

Happy Spring and Happy Gardening!!

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It's home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need for spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, The Home Depot has you covered and can help you #DigIn to spring.

Spring is the perfect time for all your outdoor home renovations. Shop The Home Depot for terrific values on new patio furniture, landscape supplies such as fertilizer and potting soil and outdoor grills. Keep your lawn and garden looking great, too, with the huge selection of lawn mowers, edgers and trimmers, and garden tools.

Visit The Home Depot Garden Club for product ideas from kick-starting your Spring with seed starter kits to building a window birdfeeder.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

Sofiero Palace and Gardens in Helsingborg has been named 'Europe's Best Park 2010', becoming the first Swedish park to receive the prestigious award. And by looking at these beautiful pictures it's not hard to understand the choice.

In 1865, Swedish Crown Prince and Princess Oscar and Sophia built the summer castle Sophie-Ro. In 1905 the newlywed Gustaf Adolf and Margareta was given the castle as a wedding gift and Margareta created with great pleasure the garden. Her parents, who owned the castle Bagshot, in England were both interested in gardening and her father who several times visited Japan brought back plants and inspiration, which affected Margareta's gardening interest.

When Gustaf Adolf died in 1973, he left Sofiero to Helsingborg city and today the garden is a blossoming oasis, with exhibitions, activities and arrangements. In the garden there are approximately 10 000 Rhododendron bushes of 300 different sorts and equal many hybrids. Sofiero has northern Europe's largest collection of Rhododendron.

This is a sponsored post written by us on behalf of The Home Depot- We're so thrilled to have the chance to partner with one of our CWTS sponsors! I'll keep it real right from the start… as much as I try, I don't have a super green thumb. I did last week when I was painting my piano green, but that's not quite the same I suppose. When our friends at The Home Depot asked if we'd like to try our hand at creating a vertical garden, I jumped at the opportunity! Last month, I talked about how I joined the The Home Depot Garden Club and saw so many cool projects and ideas. If you missed the post, you can check it out here- they also have a $5.00 coupon-Score! So, after combing through the site, and looking on The Garden Club board on Pinterest I decided to make a vertical garden. I think they look super cool and I've never tried using my carpentry skills with my lack of gardening skills. Here's what I'm hoping to make… Of course with my own fun twist!

(Hover over the image below… it's like magic!)

Vertical gardens are all the rage this season! I've seen so many cool ones made out of everything from shoe organizers to soda bottles. Here are some of the awesome ones I've seen on Pinterest… Apartment Therapy

Pallet Vertical Garden

Boundless

I'm headed to The Home Depot this week to get all of my materials, but I have to decide a few things beforehand.
1- What flowers do you think I should add to my vertical garden?
2- What color scheme should I go for?
3- How should I add my own fun spin to the style?

I'd love to hear your input! Next week I'll share my building plans and materials- you can build one right along with me. It'll be like a DIY long distance relationship!

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice too! Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts.

This is a sponsored post brought to you by The Home Depot! We love them for sponsoring CWTS and challenging us with this awesome project! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few weeks ago, I introduced you to my vertical garden project — you can check out part 1 and 2 here and here.
Today I finally get to show you HOW I made my vertical garden, and guess what? It was pretty simple!!

Since Home Depot has done a great job with providing both a video and written instructions for this project, I'm not going to give you every step, but I will share some tips I learned along the way!

You definitely don't need a nail gun for this project, but it would have made it so much faster!! Ours was on set for Knock It Off, so I did it the old fashioned way!

I went with a variety of colors for this project- I usually avoid marigolds, but I liked the orange and yellow contrasted with the blue/purple of the petunias!

When I was working on the holes for my irrigation tubes (which is just simple PVC that lets water get down deep in the planter) I found that if I drilled my hole in one direction and then once the tip of the bit was through, flipped it over and came in from the other side, it helped me not have any of my wood splinter or crack.

This is one step I added on my own… I spray painted my lattice- Shocker right?!? I know eventually it will be covered by plants, but in the meantime, I wanted it to look fun and colorful!

Once my box and frame were built, I gave them a coat of indoor/outdoor paint as well!

I love this color from Rust-Oleum (Blue Lagoon)- it's the same one we used on Jess' huge family artwork frame.

Once that was dry it was time to start planting!

I had an Oh Snap moment, when a realized that I forgot to buy the thin black meshing so all the dirt wouldn't fall out of my planter… thank goodness for the Home Depot Garden Community forums- I found out I could use some old material and it would work just fine! Phew!

Even before I added my flowers, I knew I was in love! The fun colors totally sold me!!

Here's just a taste of the awesomeness that the flowers brought to this project!

Tomorrow's my final day of this journey and I'll show you the finished product and where I hung it!

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too. Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts. Click here to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to http://gardenclub.homedepot.com/ to see some of the many benefits of membership. This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

I wish I could tell you this post was about my gardens but to be honest I'm just not that industrious. Between family, home and job I don't have that kind of time let alone these gardens are much too formal for my humble dwelling. These are highlights from Stan and Cheri Frye's stunning Edwardian garden, a local garden that I was fortunate enough to visit last weekend.

One of the lower ponds at the bottom of the gardens facing up with the main house barely visible on the right and the guesthouse in the center.
The Frye's gardens occupy four properties, on 12 acres with 40 garden areas, all on a rocky hillside with an elevation change of 110'. The gardens are linked together by lawn, mulch, pebbles, and granite stone paths. New Hampshire is called the granite state so we have no shortage of this material, ask anyone who has tried to garden here. You'll see from the pictures that there's a repetitive use of boxwood, evergreen, yew, holly, hosta and hydrangea to add a sense of unity.

The garden rooms surrounding the main house are kept formal as seen in this garden with a reflecting pool, statuary, urns and clipped boxwood.
As you wandered down from the first terraced area you come upon a 300-foot allee, a French word meaning a walkway lined with trees or tall shrubs, of pollarded sycamore trees. Pollarding of trees means to cut the branches back to the trunk in the spring to promote dense heads of foliage and to control the trees height. New growth on these trees can be as much as six feet per year. The tree branches are trained to grow to the north and south leaving the pathway open.

The 300-foot Allee with sycamore trees surrounded by pachysandra, a shade loving ground cover growing to eight inches.

At one end of the Allee you come upon a large urn called 'Pope's Urn', named after Alexander Pope, who was considered one of the greatest English poets of the 1700's and is visible from the back deck of the main house. At the other far end is a cottage and Stan's office. Can you imagine the tough commute he has walking down that allee each morning to his office? Torture!

In the geometric garden, boxwood is clipped into spheres to mimic the round architectural balls. While a lead boy balancing on a sphere gets sprayed in a small pool. Just look at that fabulous collection of antique garden ornaments and use of granite stone.

Here's a great idea, an arbor made out of nothing more than rebar tied together. Planted on each corner are Japanese maples that have their branches tied to the rebar to create a canopy. A laid stone flooring and voile, you have a stunning area out of the sun for a picnic.
I hope you've enjoyed a little of the garden tour and you go away with a few ideas of your own. Me, while the temperatures wavier in the three-digit area and dangerously close to my whining point, I think I'll go sit on the air conditioner and contemplate how the husband has over pollarded our tree and the deer have made a tasty snack out of my hosta!

Ok, so I've already admitted that I'm a landscaping idiot. I'm not ashamed. Part of growing as a person is admitting it, and then calling in someone who DOES know what they're doing. I'm all about DIYing when I can, but sometimes you just have to ask an expert. A while ago I asked on facebook if anyone knew a good landscape designer, and we got a note from Candice saying she has her own business doing that exact thing (appropriately named Candice Price Garden Designs)

She said that she would love to draw up a plan, just for fun, to show us her skills, if we were interested. Yes, of course! Since Monica's house is relatively new without much landscaping, she decided to draw up a design for her front yard.

This is pre-front porch makeover!
Candice is an artist by nature, with a passion for gardening and her designs are absolutely beautiful! I seriously think you could frame her designs for some really cool art.: ) One of our favorite things about her was that she came to Monica's house, walked around outside and then asked if she could take a look around inside to gather some insight on Monica's design style so that she could incorporate that into her plans. Love that! Within a day or two, we received an email with her plan- we were so excited!Here's what she came up with:

Gorgeous, right? Even without knowing what the heck the plants are!: ) She even included a front elevation view so Monica could envision exactly what she meant.

Candice does a ton of work getting these plans ready: she measures and measures and measures some more, conceptualizes a design plan, creates it on paper, figures out which plants would work best in the given area. Her plans include a plant key, with descriptions of each plant so you know what the heck to look for. If you're not up for DIYing the entire thing yourself, Candice can do the install herself! Impressive.: )

Isn't that so fun? To see Candice's full description of her plan including all the juicy details, click here. Man, it's so nice to have someone do the design for you! Candice has done a ot of work in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. Just take a look at some of these other beautiful designs of hers:

Lovely, right? Now I definitely know who to call to help me with my jungle! If you need some help with your landscape design, call Candice Price Garden Design! And make sure to follow her on facebook to see her current projects. Seriously- you'll be thrilled you did!
How do YOU go about planning your landscaping?
Have you ever considered incorporating your indoor style in your outside design? PS. We were not compensated for this post! We just like to share local talent with you when we get the chance.: )

This post brought to you by Whitney Farms. All opinions, creative ideas, and the cute kid are 100% mine.

My oldest child is a lot like her grandmom. She loves all animals, being outdoors, and growing things. At any given time you'll find at least two Red Solo Cups filled with dirt and some kind of seed on my kitchen counter. This spring Kenzie started sectioning off a little area of one of our beds as her"garden." We decided that a kids garden was a great idea and let her run with it. Of course it got my DIY wheels turning, and I actually struggled with letting go and letting her"make it her own," but, in the end, I think she did a fabulous job and her garden is just how she wanted it. Here's a peek into Kenzie's Garden…

Greenhouse Starter Kit Her kit was an Easter present and all the plants are doing so well. We plan to transplant them in about two weeks. We've still been having some cold nights here in Bucks County. Painted Rocks What's a garden without some pretty rocks? Kenzie LOVES our dog Pennlyn, so this rock is for her! We used acrylic paints, but coated it with a spray sealant to keep the rain away. She tested it with the hose before this picture.

Garden Sign I wanted to make an awesome barnwood sign with a custom transfer etc… but my girl had other plans. Sometimes it's hard to let go and let her do her own thing, but she was quite pleased with her little yellow sign. I think it's pretty cute too. These little wood plaques are at Michaels for $0.99!

Paint Stick Fence This project was a little tricky because Lowes wasn't really into the idea of giving me 50 paint sticks. They did give me 30ish, so we decided to spread them out a bit more and make it work! I also bought two yard sticks. To make the fence, we just used a staple gun to connect them to the yard sticks.

Kenzie painted it black and then sprayed it with white spray paint to give it an"old fashioned" look, as she put it. I think for under $1.00 it's perfect for a kids garden! (I also think it would look adorable to have an ombre fence, by lightening each picket. Not that I butted in and suggested that to Kenz, of course not!: )

Paint Stick Labels Another really simple, but fun project with paint sticks. She and her BFF painted them during a sleepover this weekend, then used a sharpie to write the names. I sealed them with Valspar's clear spray sealant. I think they're so cute!

Plants Kenzie chose all of her own plants (I might have been tempted to make suggestions, but I kept them to myself). She has sunflowers, strawberries, a tomato plant, vinca (my personal favorite), lavender, and I'm pretty sure she planted a maple tree! We already have strawberries! (We had these plants from last year, so they got a head start)

We planted some vinca because it's the best flower ever! Really, it loves the heat, doesn't need to be watered hardly ever, and gets lots of flowers. This is perfect for kiddos because it doesn't require much, and will bloom all season long.

I'll be completely honest, I'm not the most organic person you'll ever meet (ask my good friend Steph!) But, I didn't want Kenz handling a bunch of chemicals and toxic stuff. I was thrilled to find out about Whitney Farms® organic plant food. Kenz asked what was so special about it, and I explained that it's basically plant food made from all healthy stuff from the earth. She was cool with that answer and I'm a happy mom because I know she'll be safe working in organic soil and still have some huge, healthy flowers soon!.

So, does your kiddo have a green thumb? Maybe it's time for you to start a kids' garden too! I hope Kenzie's projects have inspired you! She was pretty excited that she was getting"her own blog post" Ha! Oh, and the good folks at Whitney farms are giving you a $3.00 off coupon if you want to try it out for yourself! We can see who's flowers get bigger! If you have a second, let Kenzie know what you think of her garden in a comment! Thanks!

This is a sponsored post brought to you by The Home Depot! We love them for sponsoring CWTS and challenging us with this awesome project! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few weeks ago, I introduced you to the vertical garden project I'm working on (if you missed it, check it out here). I'm super excited about the challenge of pulling off such a cool look with a pretty simple DIY! Today it's all about the shopping!! Woot woot!

I wear a lot of hats… mom, teacher, blogger, wife, and now TV host (still sounds crazy!!), but that means that sometimes project shopping trips look like this… 4 kiddos ready to shop till we drop at Home Depot!

Yes, we get a lot of strange looks from people- I wish I took an after pic of the full cart with all the kids on it! Crazy town I tell ya! Thankfully, my kids are pretty awesome and were excited to be" on a special project for The Home Depot!"

Here's a funny story… while we were shopping, we were approached about five times by helpful Home Depot employees offering to help us. One thing I love about Home Depot is that they'll make cuts for you! This plywood never would have fit in my car and cutting it down to the exact size I need, will save me a step at home! Sweet!

Okay, so back to the story… after the nice fella helped us cut the wood the kids decided that The Home Depot must know we're here on a special project for them, because they're being so helpful and nice! Ha! I promised them they had no idea who we are and they're always just nice. The kids totally didn't buy it, and they walked with a little extra spring in their step thinking they were kinda famous at HD! (Even Kira's very dirty Teddy was proud to be Home Depot famous!)

If you're planning on building your own vertical garden along with me, here are the exact directions and material list I'm following. The Home Depot's huge library of how-to-videos and project planning tools are super helpful for actually getting you to do the projects you've been thinking of! It's updated often, so there's never a lack of awesome ideas!

Now let's talk flowers… I'll be 100% honest- I picked my flowers almost completely based on looks! I wanted a mainly orange-yellow combo, but then the purple-ish blue petunias added such a fun pop in the mix! But, I didn't want all my work to result in a bunch of dead-as-a-doornail flowers in a few weeks! So, of course I visited The Home Depot Garden Club website and checked to make sure they were all okay for my zone. So I knew I was good there, but here on the East Coast there's always a"you can't plant until after Mother's Day" rumor… Rather than risk it, I checked out the Home Depot Garden Forums and posted a question… Boom! Got my answer- the green light to #Digin and start planting!

Aren't the colors awesome? I still have some work to do on my garden, so stay tuned next week and I'll walk you through my build. So far it's been pretty simple- can't wait until it's finished and hung!

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too. Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts. Click here to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to http://gardenclub.homedepot.com/ to see some of the many benefits of membership. This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you hear our BIG NEWS?

Click here for our announcement post with all the fun details!!
We can't wait for July 7th!!

I'm so happy to introduce you to Robin Harisis. She was roomates with my older sister at Messiah College, so I sort of know her by association. She is the founder of Room Service Personal Organizing, LLC and a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and Faithful Organizers. Robin believes that everyone can learn to be organized and she finds satisfaction in teaching organizational skills to others. In the summer of 2010, Robin became a Certified Family Manager Coach. Family Manager Coaches help families learn to work together to achieve organizing goals and live more fulfilling lives by modeling proven business practices. Robin lives in Ontario, New York with her husband, her son and daughter, and two crazy dogs. She enjoys the outdoors, reading, gardening, and of course, organizing. You better believe that I had ulterior motives when I asked her to be a guest blogger- I need these organizing tips more than anyone!
Top Three Organizing Tips

Define a Starting Point
The question that is most often asked of me is “Where do I start an organizing project?” Sometimes the project is so overwhelming or habitual it is hard to define a true starting point. I equate it to asking a child to pick up his toys in a room scattered with his belongings. Most of the time, the child will stand there, staring at the mess, arms at his side, still as can be. The child cannot do what he is asked because it is too overwhelming. He cannot identify a starting point.

We can be just like the child when we are staring at an organizing project. Here are some ways to help define a starting point:

• Deal with the project that would make the most meaningful change in the shortest amount of time

• Set up a bill payment system as the first step to a paper management system
• Organize the foyer or entryway as a start to organizing your home
• Cup your hands around your eyes and pan the room. This limits your view of the project, allowing you to see it in smaller portions and giving the project some definition. Choose a section and begin your project.
• Determine a main or final goal for your organizing project. Break the project into steps working backward from your goal. This will not only help you find a starting point, but will give you a plan to follow until your project is complete.

Sort and Label According to You

• Sort like with like

• If a pile of seemly random objects were dumped on a table in front of a group of people, each person might sort them differently. One person may sort by color, another by shape, and yet another by use. Each way is correct, showing the difference in how people view “like with like.” Sort your items according to what like with like means to you
• Label according to you

• Labeling can be straight-forward. For example, a box of Christmas decorations are labeled “Christmas.” However, there are times creative labels can be helpful in classifying items. “Financial Documents” may not mean anything to you, rendering the papers hard to find. But when the same papers are labeled in a file called “Papers that make me money,” they are located in a snap. Label items according to what makes sense to you and forgo the traditional titles, if need be.



This is a sponsored post brought to you by The Home Depot! We love them for sponsoring CWTS and challenging us with this awesome project! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few weeks ago, I introduced you to my vertical garden project — you can check out part 1 and 2 and 3 here, here, and here!

Today it's time to show you this bad boy!!

Home Depot made it super simple with their written instructions and you can get all my tips and what I learned along the way in this post.

I love how unique this planter is! I've planted in containers for years now, but this is definitely the coolest one yet!

We have a lot of land, so space isn't an issue, but I could totally see this being perfect for a small yard or even in an urban home or apartment!

My final plan is to hang it on a tree near the front of our property that hurricane Sandy took down this past fall- right now, it's just a 10 foot tree stump, but I want to let the roots get stronger (about 3 weeks) before I mount it vertically.

My favorite part of the project is the irrigation system- it was such an easy thing to add, but now it's going to make sure that my don't die on me!

I loved taking on this challenge from The Home Depot and I hope it inspires you to think creatively this spring as your planting and making your yard look awesome!

I was all about planting, so last weekend Eric and I planted our very first garden too!! Can't wait to see if it all grows!! Fingers Crossed!!

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too. Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts. Click here to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to http://gardenclub.homedepot.com/ to see some of the many benefits of membership. This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

So you already know we love pallets! You've seen our pallet wall, our other pallet wall pallet shelves, and actually right now we're using pallets in an episode of Knock It Off!

Funny story, after we first posted Callen's bedroom and the pallet wall, we got an email from someone asking for tips and directions on how they could build an entire home from pallets- haha! We have to draw the line somewhere people!
Anyhow, this past spring I was wrapping up my projects for the Trend Trio from P&G and I decided I'd try my hand at a super simple Pallet Planter. I know this isn't super original nor complicated, but our P&G audience is way different than hard core DIY blog readers like you! (wink) So, if you want a quick and easy project for summer- this is just for you!

And since this was originally done for P&G, it's actually a video! You'll get to see how I made my pallet garden and you'll have to deal with hearing me talk about some P&G products that I actually love. Ha!

See, it was super easy and looks pretty cute too! Since the early spring, (you can tell it was like March beacuse I was white as a ghost in that video) I've moved the planter out back on the patio, swapped out the plants and now it's colorful and fun! Here's a peek at some of the other living stuff going on, on my patio!

Monday, I'm super excited to share one more gardening project with you- We're growing potatoes and it's so fun!! Make sure you check back because it's a project the kids will LOVE too!!