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How Does My Garden Grow?

April 23, 2015 By Marta Darby Leave a Comment

The weather here in Southern California has been phenomenal lately. Seriously. It has been the most perfect Spring so far. Very mild. Low 70's with a delicious breeze and then cooling in the evenings. (Go ahead. Take a moment. I'll wait until you're over your jealousy.)

As the days grow longer and the weather gets so super inviting, and in spite of our busy schedules, we always set aside a few hours on the weekends just to be outside in our own space. You know how much I love my garden. Well, this kind of a Spring practically screams, "Come out and play right now!" 

Also, I'm thinking I'm going to have a Big Birthday Celebration next month (Eric and I both have "milestone" birthdays this year) and because our house is freakishly small charmingly small and cottage-like, the party will have to be outside. Just like we did last year with Jonathan's graduation party.

We started cruising around both our front and back yards, making notes about what needed to be done and as we looked at our potted plants and beds we truthfully started to feel a little embarrassed. Don't even get me started on the condition of our lawn.

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Time to bring out The Secret Weapon.

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Our "go to" brand has always been Scotts MiracleGro®. We made a run to Walmart and returned with bags of Scotts MiracleGro® Potting Soil and also the Miracle-Gro® Garden Soil to refresh our potted plants and our beds.

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We already use and love all of the Miracle-Gro® products for our lawn and garden, so I am delighted to participate in their Express Yourself Program.

As you know, over the warmer months we spend a lot of time outdoors. I also think that because we entertain so much and that that is such a family affair, prepping our home and garden in anticipation is always a group project. In other words, getting ready for the fun is well, in a word…fun.

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"Honey, it's time to get out the wheelbarrow!" Yay!

The secret to our gardening success (besides the perfectly perfect So Cal weather) is Scotts Miracle-Gro®. Also, my home and my garden are definitely an expression of me and (full disclosure here) I really love driving up the street and seeing my white picket fence and all my flowers in bloom. 

I fantasize a little about when we throw our party and people drive up and see all the beautiful green growth and the flowers in beautiful bloom. (I know. Shut up.)

My-big-fat-cuban-family-garden

We recently spent a sunny afternoon – a perfectly perfect Southern California afternoon, not too hot, not too cool, but that's not important right now – weeding and pruning and refreshing all of our pots and garden beds.

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The pots got a big dose of potting soil. We repotted some and just added soil to some others. The plants are super happy. Soil is a big thing for them, you know. 

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Look! My newly re-potted hydrangeas are just going to sing! They already look totally happy. Am I right?

My-big-fat-cuban-family-garden-hydrangeas

I want to make a distinction between the two Scotts products we use:

1) The Scotts Miracle-Gro® Potting Mix is for indoor and outdoor plants in containers. So we went around the entire garden re-potting and refreshing our pots. They were visibly happy. 

My-big-fat-cuban-family-garden7

2) The Scotts Miracle-Gro® Garden Soil is what we use in our beds.  

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The beds have eroded some from last year and I know they get so much happier when we give them this delicious soil because it also feeds for up to 6 months. 

Plus, my roses are already starting their first bloom and I'm a little crazed thinking about how awesome they're going to be after they get some fresh soil. 

Here's a gratuitous photo of my beautiful Disneyland Roses enjoying their first bloom. You can see how the bed has eroded and doesn't look happy.

My-big-fat-cuban-family-garden-disneyland-roses

I can hardly wait to see what they will do next month after the soil re-fresh and some feeding. Stay tuned. 

So, we spent a really fun afternoon doing all the prep work and planning the upcoming Big Birthday Celebration. And I'm getting super excited. 

My-big-fat-cuban-family-garden2

Once we get our garden and backyard freshened up and it's all happy again, all I will have to worry about is the food for our party. I think all the prepping and planning may just be my very favorite part of entertaining. 

Do you do this same thing? Are you planning on fixing up your lawn and garden for the warmer months? Tell me all about it.

If you're on Instagram or Twitter, please share your garden photos and use the hashtag, #Mijardinalidad 

Remember to always read and follow label directions for the referenced products.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Scotts . The opinions and text are all mine.

 

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Filed Under: Disney, Entertainment, Garden Tagged With: Disney, Disneyland, entertainment, Express Yourself Blogger, Garden, potting soil, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Southern California, Walmart, white picket fence

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Marta Verdes Darby is a Cuban-American food blogger in South Orange County.

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