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...
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...
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...
As we've been unpacking House #6, I've been keeping a list of the must-have items we've used to get this house in order. So many little things have been crucial in organizing the general chaos that comes with moving an entire family from one house to a temporary apartment and into another house. We own everything on this list, and have brought most of it from house to house, depending on the layout of our spaces. The list turned out to be larger than I expected, so meet the Ultimate List of Amazon Home Organization Must-Haves! As an Amazon Affiliate, I make a commission on all qualifying purchases made via this blog post and corresponding social posts. 1. Stackable...
This year is quickly coming to a close. As a holistic nutritionist I’m often asked: “What is the secret to lasting weight loss?” That’s a heavy question, no pun intended. Here are 10 things I’ve learned in the 20+ years I’ve been helping older women who want to lose weight: #1: The Law of Attraction Matters Do you ever hear slender women talking about wanting to lose weight or how many calories they have consumed on a given day? Somewhere deep in their brains they have learned to eat enough, but not too much. They don’t think about calories or weight… they think about other things and eat when they are hungry. #2: Consider Your Eating Habits Weight is only...
