Various Tips and an Update

Hello blog readers! Well, in case you don't read the comments on my blogs, this weekend we have learned the if you sprinkle Tang or lemon kool-aid powder on the rust stains on a toilet it will remove them. Also, I have a friend who removed red finger nail polish from beige carpet with Greased Lightning. However, I have an insider at the place the makes Greased Lightning and apparently some lame-o who doesn't know how to wear protective gloves when using harsh household chemicals burned their hand and sued them and so now they are watering it down. Bummer.

Additionally, New Kids on the Block are back in business and they are going to be at the Gwinnett Arena on October 29. My friends Lindsey and Miranda from college are going and I am seriously considering it! I didn't get to go to concerts and things like that when I was younger and so I never saw the NKOTB in concert their first time around. And, I was a BIG fan! I am pretty pumped about them coming back!

Okay, I have been meaning to post some container gardening tips and keep forgetting.

--If you want to do some but don't know how to get started, you should look on the Better Homes and Gardens and Southern Living websites. You can do a search for container gardening and they have all kinds of ideas. You can't always find the exact plants they have, but you can at least follow the same color scheme. Just make sure you read the little tags that come stuck down in the plants because you need to choose plants that have the same or similar light and watering requirements. If you haven't noticed, this year I went with a "pinks and purples" theme throughout our gardens and containers.

--Next, even though the plants you are using are "outside" plants, you should still use good potting soil, not dirt from your regular garden or even the kind of soil you would put out in your garden. All the experts say this. My understanding is that container garden plants are put through a lot of stress because they are trying to flourish in this tiny little space and they aren't actually down in the ground, which retains water better, so they are constantly getting dry then wet, then dry, etc... I always use Miracle Grow because is have 3 months' worth of fertilizer in it.

--Now, I love terra cotta pots, but they are terrible to keep watered because they are porous, so they allow the soil to dry out much quicker than any other kind of container would. So, a few years ago, I read a really good tip in a magazine (or somewhere, probably Southern Living though). Before you put any dirt in your pot, get a plastic bag (like a Wal-mart or Kroger bag) and punch a hole in the bottom where the hole in your pot is (and maybe a couple more just in case). Then, you can put your dirt and plants down in here. This has really been a life saver for me! Plus, when you are ready to plant a new container garden the next year, you can just dump it out in your garden, remove the bag, and you have a nice clean pot for the next piece of art!

Okay, I have one more tip. Have you ever used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser? If you haven't, you need to get some of these! If you notice from our house pictures, we had our TV up on top of our white mantel. Well, TVs attract dust like nobody's business, so there was a ton of blackness on top of our mantel and on the front under where the TV had been. So, I went to work on it and you wouldn't believe how clean it came. Here are some pictures for proof:

Before

During

After

The picture at the top is a picture of our biggest De Oro Lily. They are starting to bloom and look pretty! Yay!

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading and leaving comments!