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My 7 Worst Gardening Mistakes and What I Learned From Them

By Joanna Miller This time of year is when my garden has been active for months, and my worst gardening mistakes become evident. Every year I tell myself, “I’m going to do THIS next year, and things will turn out better!” And they usually do, though I reliably manage to make some utterly different mistake the next time around. I thought it might be helpful for beginning gardeners (and possibly entertaining for experienced gardeners) to compile some of the biggest mistakes I’ve made over the years. Mistake #1: Not Doing the Research My first gardens were in the Chicago suburbs. I never made any big mistakes there because it’s really easy to grow things. My first big gardening mistakes came...

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Six Writing Lessons from an Actual Backyard Gardener

I have an aloe vera plant in my office. Her name is Alice. Alice came to me in a cute little terra cotta pot, and has followed me from sunny windowsill to sunny windowsill through a move across state lines. You could say we’re pretty close. A few months ago, I noticed Alice wasn’t doing well. She was wilting, and the tips of her leaves were turning yellow and withering. She wasn’t growing at all. After some experiments in watering and sunlight levels, I gently picked Alice up out of her pot to look at her roots. It turns out Alice was rootbound, and the thin white threads of her roots were filling up the potting soil and beginning to...

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I’m not much of a skirt person

It seems the older I get, the less flattering they look. I don’t like the way they cut me across the midsection and emphasize that my waist isn’t as whittled as it once was. For me, dresses are just easier. In addition to finding them more flattering, figuring out which top to wear with a skirt can add an additional step that can be avoided when wearing dresses. But it is nice to change things up and to find skirts that actually work. I have also observed that when skirts are popular dresses take a backseat and vice versa. We have definitely been in a dress cycle for some time now and nothing all that new was happening with skirts....

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New Spring 2021 YA Books For Your Towering TBR

The weather is finally bringing with it some hope that spring (or, in the southern hemisphere, fall) is on the horizon, if it’s not here completely. With the new season comes a whole crop of exciting new spring 2021 YA books for your ever-growing TBR. As always, this list of new spring 2021 YA books will not be comprehensive, especially as book publication dates are still periodically shifting. With printing challenges due to paper sourcing and COVID-19, this might be the reality for a bit. Likewise, I’m curating this roundup early in 2021, prior to taking parental leave, so new books dropping in is a real possibility. Use this list less as definitive this season and more as pretty accurate with some potential changes....

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Holy cow, how is this little guy already TWO?! I had so much fun planning his birthday party this year and since he has such a love for all things cowboy, yee-haw and horses, coming up with a theme was a no brainer! I absolutely love doing this type...

Holy cow, how is this little guy already TWO?! I had so much fun planning his birthday party this year and since he has such a love for all things cowboy, yee-haw and horses, coming up with a theme was a no brainer! I absolutely love doing this type of stuff, I have my entire life, but I also know it can be overwhelming, so I tried to be specific with details below if you wanted to recreate any portion on his party/theme. I will say, planning, having a toddler, getting ready for a move and being pregnant just about did a number on me, ha! I think I am good with the events for a little while. Where We...

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