Natural living. Healthy eating. Attempted gardening.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s 94 degrees outside today. But if you look at my Pinterest feed you’d think it was fall. All I can see, as far as I look, are pumpkin recipes. Pumpkin spice lattes! Pumpkin pie! Pumpkin donuts! Pumpkin crafts! If you’re one of those people who likes to Pumpkin All The Things, then I have great news for you. It’s easy to grow and harvest perfect pumpkins—whether
We’ve spent a lot of time outside this summer, and the hummingbirds have been watching (and scolding) us the whole time. They fight over our feeder and take sips of water from the fountain outside my office window, making it extra hard to concentrate while I’m working! We have hummingbird feeders in our front and back yards (see my recipe for hummingbird food). However, the best thing for hummingbirds and
Congratulations! You’ve successfully planted your garlic crop and had a bountiful harvest. (Or maybe you just went to Costco and bought a giant 5-pound bag of garlic.) Now you have more garlic than you know what to do with, but you want to use it before it begins to sprout. Good news! It’s easy to preserve fresh garlic by freezing it. Then you can use it in stir-fry, soups, Instant
Make and take essential oil classes are a fun way to introduce your friends, family, and team members to all the things they can do with their essential oils. These classes appeal to those who are currently using essential oils and those who don’t know much about them. At a make and take class, you provide the expertise, recipes, and materials. Your guests will make the essential oil blends/recipes they
Our motto here at BrownThumbMama is “Make it, don’t buy it.” Whether it’s a simple recipe like DIY Natural Febreze or something a bit more involved like Homemade Orange Chicken, there are huge benefits to handmade over store-bought. There are a growing number of people who prefer the homegrown and handmade lifestyle, and I’m excited to tell you about a new resource for all of us: Homegrown and Handmade by
It’s August already…where has the summer gone? If you’re in the middle of canning up your garden’s bounty, you might not be thinking about what you can plant this month. Good news! There are lots of vegetables you can plant in August. Even though it’s hot outside, there are many veggies that can handle the heat and give you a tasty harvest this fall and winter. This planting guide for
Does this sound familiar? It’s 1970-something. You’re outside, riding your awesome new bike with the banana seat. No helmet, no nothin’…just you and the open road. 😉 Your mom calls you in for an afternoon snack, and you have a big glass of neon-colored Kool Aid and a frozen Twinkie. Right? That was the snack combo of choice back in the day. What a sugar overload, though! My teeth hurt
We’ve been growing garlic in our city backyard for many years, since J-man was a little sprout. It’s super-easy to grow! (Learn my garlic planting tips here.) BUT: knowing when to harvest garlic can be tricky unless you know what to look for. Unlike tomatoes, zucchini, or other garden vegetables, garlic bulbs grow completely underground. You can’t tell if the garlic is ready to harvest by looking at the bulbs…but
Summer’s here! Anybody else headed to the pool or the beach this summer? If you have rough, cracked heels, you know that getting chlorinated pool water or sand on your feet is painful. Not a fun way to spend your vacation! We have a problem with cracked heels around here—I’ll spare you the pictures—and I’m so excited to share this natural way to fix cracked heels. There are several things
Ahhh, July…everyone else is basking in the sun, swimming and eating popsicles, and us gardeners are worried about mulch and aphids. You might think that it’s too hot to plant vegetables in July, but that’s not the case! Here are 10 vegetables you can plant in July for an abundant harvest this fall. Zone 9 has a long planting season, but it gets ridiculously hot in summer. For July planting,
