Month: July 2021

Starting a flower garden in that empty space in your yard is a great way to increase the curb appeal of your home and an opportunity to apply some of your personality to your outdoor area.

First, find an area you could use for your flower garden and try to identify if the space gets direct sun, partial sun, or shade. The amount of sunlight that your garden gets determines what kinds of flowers you can grow. For example, chrysanthemums and sunflowers need about 6-8 hours of sun per day, so they would not last very long in a shady nook, while fuchsias or begonias would thrive.

The next step is to decide whether you want to plant seedlings or buy your flowers from a nursery. This really depends on how much time you have to spend and it won’t affect how nice your garden is. Once you have selected flowers that will grow well in your garden space, take some time to make a diagram for where they will all be placed.

One of the last steps before planting is to mix manure or compost in your soil a week before planting. Now it’s time for the best part, planting your flowers! You will need a shovel, rake, and trowel for this step. The goal here is to loosen the soil and create snug holes for your flowers. Depending on how many flowers you have, this process should only take a day or two.

Finally, enjoy your flower garden and see if any butterflies come to enjoy your creation too!

We all strive to keep our homes clean, but dirt and grime always seems to build up in certain places. It may be impossible to keep every area completely polished, but it helps to know which places accumulate the most germs and are commonly overlooked in our cleaning routines.

1. Stove Knobs. One of the dirtiest places in the kitchen are stove knobs. These little knobs can gather a lot of old food from our pots and pans or from our fingers. It doesn’t help that many of these knobs are black and can hide stains easily.
2. Bed Sheets. We spend a lot of time in our beds, which makes our bed sheets a great place for germs to nest. It’s recommended that bed sheets and pillowcases are cleaned at least once a week.
3. Faucet Handles. The next time you wash your hands, check your faucet handles for soap scum and water spots because these handles are a breeding ground for dirty grime. Clean these once a week to keep them shiny.
4. Kitchen Sink. So many bits of food fall into our kitchen sinks and sometimes they can go unnoticed for days. The next time you do the dishes, make sure to give your kitchen sink a good cleaning!
5. Sponges. Although it may seem counterintuitive, the thing we clean everything with can be hiding a lot of germs. Sponges should be replaced every 14 days and you can minimize the germs in your current sponge by microwaving it.