The first cool day has come which means the unofficial start of pumpkin everything season! Lol No really, fall is on it's way and the stores are filled with the cutest Autumn decor. Incidentally just last week I was whipping up a new batch of my MYO air fresheners using essential oils and I got the idea to make some fall themed scents and use some of those cute jars and such to hold them!
Making your own air fresheners is super easy and it's so much better for your health to have these in your home than one of those scented cone air fresheners that are packed with tons of chemicals! Or even the gel ones. I mean, do you really know what all those things on the ingredient list are? It's kinda scary when you think about it.
I have 2 different ways I like to make my own air fresheners. The first is to make a gel with gelatin, water, vodka and food coloring then add essential oils and allow to cool. This makes an awesome scented gel that is no spill and can be customized completely. These are great for filling cute seasonal votives and glass pumpkins. (exact recipe below)
Fall is the time of year when garden departments at the local home store are scaling back their inventory. Both perennials and annuals are on sale and you can find some amazing bargains if you know what to look for. I literally haunt the sale section of Lowes this time of year. At least half of my perennials were bought there at clearance prices over the years! Though it can be frustrating to wait till next year to see your plants at their finest, your finances will thank you!
There is a trick to buying clearance plants though. You don't want to buy something that you cant use or that is sickly or too root bound to recover. After all, many of these plants have spent way too long in tiny pots without fertilizer or proper care. On the flip side, as long as you can provide good care and get them in the ground soon enough to establish some roots before winter, they should wake up in spring like they never were neglected!
That's how I got the black eyed Susans that take over my patio planter every year. They were a pitiful blob of greens with 4 half dead flowers for $3 one September. Now I have them absolutely everywhere in my yard. I'm also a huge fan of buying tulips and daffodils right after Easter. They are often marked down to $1 a pot and are great to fill in areas with bulbs cheaply.
Of course this won't work for most annuals. Perennials though follow a pattern of growth and dormancy and as long as you get them in the ground and established before winters freeze, they'll do just fine....even if they seem a little unhealthy the day you buy them.
You'll want to check out the plants thoroughly before purchase though. Here is how I evaluate a plant to determine if it's a lost cause, or well worth the price!
I never really wanted to grow Hostas. I mean, they look nice and all but I just wasn't the greenery type. I preferred plants that were full of blooms, useful herbs or ones that produced vegetables. Shade gardening was never really my thing either, till we moved. When you live in the middle of the woods though you have a lot of shady areas to plant in and what better plants to take up space than a hosta?
The hostas were already here when we got here though! There were two different varieties of hostas in the one garden bed. One was all green and the other was green and white. I learned pretty quickly that they were easy to care for and filled in large spaces well. That was enough to let them stay when I redid the flower beds and they have remained there for 10 more years.
I also learned that hostas (also known as plantain lilies) are really easy to divide, transplant and move around. They do not require a delicate hand when doing such things although they will recover more quickly if you're gentle!
Forgetting them in a bucket for a week after digging them out of the garden might not be their favorite activity, but they will survive! Not that I know anything about that. lol
Recently I woke up in the morning and I had the worst taste in my mouth. Seriously horrible! Since I couldn't motivate myself to get up I lay there and wondered what in the world caused my mouth to be so gross today? I mean, if I could taste it then my breath must be horribly stinky! So what causes bad breath and is there any way to actually 'cure' it for good? Better yet...what kind of natural remedies for bad breath are out there?
Obviously good oral hygiene goes a long way towards keeping bad breath at bay. Still, as many as 1 in 10 people currently suffer from bad breath. There are only a few things more socially awkward than having to keep a lid on your mouth (literally) all the time, for fear of being repulsive. Bad breath can interfere with your personal and professional relationships if you're constantly talking away from people or not getting close for fear they can smell it.
That kinda stinks...no pun intended.
Having an ample supply of good rich compost is a garden necessity. Compost has many uses, and all of those uses will result in nicer plants. It can be expensive to buy though and making your own free compost can be time consuming and hard work. I'm pretty busy in the summer, so spending hours and hours turning compost piles isn't exactly the best use of my time. Plus I just don't have it in me to manage several different compost piles. Instead I use a one bin, 10 minutes every week, easy method of composting, and it works perfectly!
I didn't want to mess with a bunch of bins or have a huge unsightly compost pile. I did need my own compost though. Compost is necessary for a healthy garden, especially an organic garden. Instead of the traditional high and wide wooden bins I went with concrete block and a bin that was much shorter and longer. It works out well for me. Here's how to build one...
