Landscaping Tips for your yard and garden!

Pennington Smart Sprayer System

Landscaping tips

1.        Use mulch.  Mulch helps control weeds and keeps the roots of plants/bushes and trees moist longer.  Especially during the hot summer months.  Depending on where you live a good layer of mulch may be necessary to keep the roots from drying out.

2.       Weed constantly.  Weeds are a pain, they sprout up out of no where and never seem to go away.  Weeds pull important nutrients and moisture from your plants that you want to grow.  This is beneficial for everything from vegetable gardens to flowerbeds.  Weeding daily/weekly can keep them at bay, but you will always have some sort of weed to contend with.

3.       Water in the evening or early morning.  I have found that watering in the evening and early morning are the best times to water my plants and flowers.  The soil holds the moisture longer than it does during the day when it is most hot.   I typically will set my timer sprinkler to run for about 45min in the am and again at night.  It definitely makes a huge difference in my plants

4.       Fertilize!   Fertilizing is key for any well grown garden or flower bed.  I mostly have vegetable gardens and I fertilize with a variety of products.  You need to find what works best for you.  But it’s important for vegetables and flowers to have the proper nutrients.

5.       Intermingle.  Intermingling your flowers within your vegetable garden will be extremely beneficial for  your veggie plants.  Marigolds especially help attract Bees for pollination and having flowers planted help deter other insects/pests.

6.       Companion planting – Plant plants and flowers that complement each other such as ground covering plants, early blooming plants and late blooming.  Try to plant your flower bed for all season and for it to turn through the season with you.

7.       Sun/Shade plants -  Let’s face it there are some plants that just love the shade and some that only love sun.  So you definitely don’t want to put the sun loving plants in the shade, as they won’t grow very well and well by putting the shade loving plants in the hot sun, yeah that’s a disaster waiting to happen.  Been there done that!   Make sure to plant your plants where they will thrive the most!

Until next time happy Gardening!



Review of Lysol Touch of Foam soap

I signed up a few months ago as a Bzz agent and I will tell you they have not disappointed!  My first trial Garnier Review I did not care for the product much, but they appreciate honest feedback.  So when I was invited for the campaign for Lysol Touch of Foam I was super excited to give another new product a try.  First, as a mother of 3 boys I know how important it is to keep your hands washed with a good soap.  Face it kids are messy, boys are messy and 3 boys plus their friends, oh boy!  However, it became even more evident the last month because of the stomach flu bug going around.  It just seemed to be hitting everyone everywhere I went.  So I made sure to have this new soap available for everyone to use.  I love Lysol for the fact they have the products that cleanse, kill bacteria and delivers on what they promise.   One downside of continually washing hands is that your hands get dry and rough.  You constantly are running and putting lotion on.  With this Lysol Touch of Foam soap they promise clean and soft all in one and they definitely deliver in my opinion! 

Creamy Vanilla Orchid

Checkout that FOAM!

Years back I was one of those nuts who was spending top dollar for ‘foaming’ soap dispensers, yeah those lasted oh so long (not!).  They became more of a nuisance then anything, for the constant refilling, making sure you had the right amount, etc.  I finally gave up and bought the cheapest soap around.  Then my boys came along and they started growing up and the germs multiplied as they grew.  Then I started gardening again and well that just added a whole new level of germs and dirt to the washing of hands in my household.  With handling fresh veggies from the garden and canning/preserving food it’s extremely important to avoid germs as much as possible.  Garden season is starting here in Illinois and I can’t wait for it and I feel even better now knowing about this soap! 

So we’ve now been using this soap for a few weeks and oh my goodness.  I am never going back to regular soap!  I LOVE this soap!    My kids love the foaminess of it and they wash their hands longer and I love the smell, the texture, the foam and the cleanliness of it!  I love that it leaves a lingering scent on your hands and you can smell the clean!  From now on this will be the soap in my house!

Touch of Foam comes in 3 scents: Creamy Vanilla Orchid, Rose & Cherry in Bloom and Wild Berry Bliss.  You can visit Lysol’s website or Facebook page to learn more and obtain coupons. 

For us as of right now this is  THE soap and my family has all enjoyed it.  I think my 4 yr old likes the foam as he has a tendency to over pump the soap dispenser.  But his hands are very clean! J

*I was provided a free sample of Lysol Touch of foam from Bzz agent for my honest review.  All opinions and thoughts are 100% my own*

Garnier Triple Nutrition update..

OK so this is my update on the GARNIER FRUCTIS TRIPLE NUTRITION MIRACLE DRY OIL that I have been using that I received from Bzzz agent.  I started out thinking okay this may be great, it will hopefully help with dry skin and my frizzy dry hair.  Yeah not so much.    I’ve been struggling at home with it using it on my hair and my skin, not really seeing any results.  The only place it seems to be any benefit has been my hands.  My hair is still extremely dry and probably more frizzy then before!  Still not crazy about this thing as I have to pour it each time I use it, which makes it quite messy.  It is very greasy and I feel that afterwards.  I tried this on my lower legs due to excema, but the only difference I noticed was they were oilier then normal lotion, etc.  So I wasn’t impressed.  I had such high hopes for this product too!   Recently I went to Santa Clara, CA, so I poured some of this in a small bottle to take with me.  I’ve been struggling at home with it using it on my hair and my skin.  So I thought ok let’s try it in the heat, well it was 66 out there, much more then 35 in Illinois!  However, I still had the same problem and if anything my hair was even frizzier using this then without.   Therefore, I don't think I'll be using it much more, it's too bad as it was a great idea and all.

Sorry Garnier, I had high hopes for you with this product, but I plan to stick to my normal regiment and move away from this.  It seem to really depend on the person and how they respond to the oil. 

Disclosure:  I received a free trial bottle from bzzagent to provide my own reviews/opinions.  The opinions expressed are solely my own.  No financial compensation was given.

Product Review - Fructis Triple Nutrition

So I recently signed up wtih Bzz Agent and I was invited to a campaign.  The campaign was to try the new product Garnier Triple Nutrition.  I got my sample bottle about a week ago and I was super excited to try this new product.  I have really dry brittle hair and very dry skin during the winter time especially.  Well I opened the package and went to give it a try and the spray didn't work.  It is a spry bottle, the spray should work right?  Well this bottle was missing the tube attachment that attaches to the sprayer, you know the tube that should get the oil to the sprayer and then out.  So what do I do well, I improvise!  I may not be able to spray as I'd like but I did use the oil by pouring it in my hand. 

First I used it on my hair, which is very dry and brittle.  It seemed to help some, but left a greasy feel to it.  I' not sure if it's because my hair is so dry or if it's just the oil it helped some but not extraordinary.  I did notice though as I was pouring the oil on my hands for my hair that my hands were alot softer after this.  My hands get very very dry during the winter months, sometimes they crack and bleed they get so dry.  Well this oil (even with the greasy feel) left my hands so soft, I was shocked!  I then started to use it on my face and continue on my hands.  It has made a huge differenc on my skin.  I plan to start using it on my lower legs next as I have bad excema there during the winter.  If it helps with that I'm hooked!

The bottle is attrative and clear, it comes with a pump that should theoretically work, if the bottle is assembled right.  Mine wasn't but I can't complain the overall product still works. I've looked forit in the stores and it seems a little pricey at $5.99 typically for a 6oz bottle.  I guess it will be the ultimate question on how well it continues to work if I will consider buying it for continued use. 

Overall I give the product a B, mainly because of the greasiness of the product that it leaves behind.  It's a very thin oil, so it's not thick or heavy. 

Disclosure:  I received a free bottle for trial, I was not paid to write any review and all reviews are soley my opinion.

Weekly Shopping

This week’s shopping I went to Walmart.  I did some price matching with local Piggly Wiggly for a couple of items and that was it.  I found some Walmart gift cards at home (I think they may have been from my kids birthday’s last year and we forgot about them oops!) but I used those, as I didn’t have the $75 in cash due to my student loan payment this week.  I really hadn't planned to do any shopping, but I needed cat food, bananas, eggs, lunchmeat, laundry soap and cheese.  The Nivea and Skintimate due to awesome coupons.  But I’ll just give the kids cash back when I get paid next week.  They sure don’t need any more toys anyway!    I’m really trying hard to stick within my $75 budget a week because we have a Disney World trip planned for July.  I have the money for my hotel/park tickets.  Just need to save for spending cash and flights!  That will be a whole other post J

So here’s what I got (2 lunchables were missing as my 2 boys grabbed those):

  I had a lot of coupons to use and price matching to do. 

 I used the following coupons:

3 ($2/1) Nivea men’s body wash ($2.97priced)

1 (B1G1) Skintimate shave gel (they gave me a hard time with this for some reason) ($2.24 priced)

1 (.30/1) mustard

1 ($1.00) Miracle whip

1 ($1/2) Kraft cheese (price matched to $1.99 at Pig)

1 (.75/1) Reynolds Foil

1 ($1/1) Purina cat food

4 (.50/1) Yakisoba noodles (made them .18)

I did the following price matching:

2 Kraft Cheese - $1.99 price match to Piggly Wiggly

Purex packs price matched $1.99 ($2.58 at walmart) to Piggly Wiggly

Bananas price matched .29/lb to superfresh local market

I also used Ibotta and Endorse app on my Android phone.  I received .75 for my Reynolds wrap and $2.50 (10% each) for laundry soap and cat food.  My Ibotta total is now $2.25 thanks to my Fanta and Sprite at CVS last week.  And Endorse is $2.50.  Once cashed out (I need to be at $5) I will add this to my Disney fund!  If you aren't signed up for these you should.. it's another way to earn money in addition to your current coupons and savingstar!

Overall I spent $68.74, I have $6.26 to put into my Disney fund.  Not too bad, I used the $50 gift cards plus some oddball amounts and ended up only paying $11.80 out of pocket!

Saving for….

 

Winter Wonderland

Well I don't know about you but boy, Mother Nature has sure been very wacky this last year.  Last March it was in the 80s, then back to the 40's, then in July we were in the 100's and major drought.  We were pretty comfortable through December, January had some negative temps and was bitter cold but only about an inch of snow fell total through the entire time.  Now we are in Feb (2 yr anniversary of Snowapocalypse see photos Here. 

Well yesterday we had a good 10 inches FINALLY fall.  Here's some pics of my drive home, a 40 min drive took me 2 hours...  ugh.  and my pups playing in the snow.  This was Miss Georgia's first full snowfall (she's 9 months),  She LOVED it..  Daytona (my chocolate lab) on the other hand, yeah we went back in the house. :)

Can't wait for warmup and spring time!

Waited 20 min on the "Amstutz expressway" aka highway to nowhere to enter this!

Carter's Clearance Shopping!

HOT sale at Carter’s! 

There’s two different deals going on right now at Carter’s/OshKosh.  There’ s the awesome Clearance sale, which I could have gone nutso over.  Then there’s the 40% off sale as well!

Checkout what I got:

The sleepers’ are all 5T which will be put up for next winter, my 4 yr old LOVES these things.  And at $4.99/$5.99 each they are definitely worth it!  I ordered 5, stock up time!  I also ordered him 2 pairs of sweatpants at $5.99 each as well.  Not too bad.  Retail price was $154, I spent $45.93 with tax/shipping.  Free ship would have been nice but.. I’ll take it as then I don’t have to worry about next year!

And what makes this deal even better.. I earn 1 swagbuck for each dollar spent!  It may not be much but it will definitely help!  I earned SOOOOOOOOO many points from using them for my christmas shopping.  I LOVE the shop and earn tab!