Happy Earth Day readers! It’s a grey, semi-rainy day here in middle Tennessee, but that won’t stop us from doing a few things in our own piece of good earth. I’m weeding my front flower beds in between rain drops while enjoying my Primroses and thinking about how best my family can reduce our footprint for our Earth Day cause this year. 

I am counting down the days until spring officially arrives later this month. I know I’m not alone in this count- down to March 20^th.  My friends and I are watching for and taking note of all the markers that spring is on its way.  Here in the south, there is a riot of beautiful Daffodils in yards everywhere, the Tulip trees are blooming and the Bradford Pear trees are budding.  Since we gardeners are in a bit of a holding pattern for now, I thought I’d share 3 free (and fun!) gardening apps I’m going to try out this spring to help us pass the time until we can really get out there and garden!

1. My first app choice will help all of us who have ever walked through a park or lovely garden setting and thought what is that flower? Aptly named- What’s that flower, this app will help you identify flowers by color, habitat, and even number of petals. Cool right? 

What’s that flower app will narrow down your options to a couple dozen, and then you just scroll through that list until you find the right flower.  Once your flower is found, you can read about it and see if it will work in your garden space/home. Android users can download app here.  This app isn’t available on IOS yet, so I suggest trying Garden Answers app. It looks like it has similar features. Download here.

2. My second app just may add a serious amount of phone time to my schedule because it covers so many topics I find interesting. The DIY Gardening Tips app helps you find great gardening and DIY tips that you can easily use.  Plus it has tons of useful information for vegetable gardens, something I want to explore more this year. There’s tips on flowers and herbs and even garden design!  This app is available for Android here and IOS here. 

3. My third choice is Bee Smart App.  In a time when our bee populations are dwindling at an alarming rate, I know all gardeners share my concern and passion to help aide the bee by planting flowers and shrubs they like. What attracted me (pun intended) to this app was their mission statement: The BeeSmart™ Pollinator Gardener is your comprehensive guide to selecting plants for pollinators specific to your area. Never get caught wondering what plants to buy again! I like the sound of that and it looks so easy to use. Just plug in your zip code and hit enter! If you want to get bees, hummingbirds and butterflies in your garden this spring, download Bee Smart here for Android and here for IOS. 

I hope you'll give at least one of 3 free gardening apps a try this spring. If you do, please come back here and let me know your thoughts in comments and be sure to share a gardening app you like in comments too!

 Which app do you think you are mostly likely to try and why? 

I have received information and materials from Johnson & Johnson Consumer, Inc., McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division. The opinions stated are my own. This is a sponsored post.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #WinOverWinter #CollectiveBias

We got our first snow of the season this weekend in the greater Nashville Tennessee area. Some of our neighboring states would scoff at the small amount of winter precipitation we received (2 inches or less), but in our hilly communities, that’s enough to shut us down. 

Thankfully, my girls hadn’t returned to school from winter break so we were able to get out and enjoy the prettiness Mother Nature provided.  The girls loved walking and playing around in the winter wonderland, snapping photos as they went and a host of them were of me getting active in the garden to win over winter doldrums. 

Getting healthier is a top priority for me and my family this year. We’ve all made a plan to move more by embracing some of our favorite outdoor activities and for me that means more gardening! I don’t want to wait until spring to get out in the fresh air and thankfully, living on acreage means there is always something to do in the garden, no matter the season.  Over the course of the weekend, I bundled up, went outside and found ways to move.

Get Active:

1. I picked up all the sticks and downed branches from a recent storm. As you can see from the photo above, I've got a nice pile started!

2. I checked on all the bird feeders I have throughout my garden and found, not surprisingly they were all empty again! 

3. I walked down to the pond and back up through the trees across our large yard several times each day. 

I walked and moved a lot and it felt so good being active and outside! But once I got inside each afternoon, boy did I ever feel the chill and little aches and pains of over doing it in the snow and ice! Fortunately, I had just restocked one of my must have winter toolkit products, Ultra Strength BENGAY® Cream on my recent shopping trip at Target. 

Have you ever tried it?  I'm really happy with the way this product works and I found the light, minty scent refreshing. What’s great about the ultra-strength cream is that it has three pain relieving ingredients, more than any other BENGAY® product. 

Here are some key facts you should know:  

Ultra Strength BENGAY® Cream temporarily relieves the minor aches and pains of muscles and joints associated with: simple backache, arthritis, strains, bruises and sprains. For adults and children 12 years and older. Use only as directed.  Please visit Target.com to learn more about this product and be sure to follow Target on Facebook for special offers and promotions.

After my busy weekend of gardening and communing with nature, it was nice to come inside and warm up with a nice mug of peppermint tea. Having Tylenol 8 hr. and Ultra Strength BENGAY® Cream on hand to combat my achy muscles helped me power on through my day and will remain in my winter toolkit. 

Getting active in the garden is helping me win over winter doldrums and allows me to enjoy curling up with a good book and relaxing all the more. No matter how you and your family get active this winter, be sure to remember to stretch before you start and be fully present in the moment!

Please share in comments: What is your favorite winter outdoor activity? How do you and your family #WinOverWinter doldrums?

As you can see, while succulents may be easy to grow, you need to do your homework first. That’s why UncommonGoods, one of Brooklyn’s favorite online retailers of home and garden decor, has researched and compiled a list of 10 best succulents to brighten up your home this fall and winter.

I was happy to see my favorite succulent, Jade second on the list. I think I will add a Mistletoe plant to a hanging basket in my bedroom and I love the look of the string of buttons plant. 

I adore growing and spotting succulents wherever I go. I saw this beauty at my grocery store and had to share a pic on Instagram. 

I spotted this beautiful succulent plant at the grocery store but it wasn't tagged. Does anybody know what this variety is? #nature #succulents #gardening #latergram

A photo posted by Linda Kinsman (@ismilefirst) on Jul 19, 2016 at 2:28pm PDT

You will find a huge succulent fan following on IG, so hop on over and follow me and UnCommonGoods there.

Oh, August, you sultry, full on summer month you. I have a love/hate relationship with August because of all the heat and humidity in the south. I walk past my flower beds and cringe at the weeds popping up and the slightly uncared for vibe I seem to be cultivating this summer. I vow to get out there before it gets “too” hot tomorrow, but that’s the problem with August- it is just plain hot and it makes me lazy! I wish my flowerbeds looked like this, but sadly they don't even come close anymore.

Gardening is more than a passing hobby to me, it feeds my soul and I miss the daily rewards when I don’t garden. I know I need to get back on track, just like a runner or dancer would after a hiatus from training. I’ve come up with 4 tips to ease back in to gardening after a break so I can be ready for fall and all its gardening glory and I wanted to share them with you today.

Tip One: Be kind and stop comparing my garden to others!

The first tip is what I would tell anyone trying something new, or reaching for a goal. Be kind to yourself. I’m going to cease all negative talk about the state of my garden and move forward.  In keeping with the kindness vein, I will also stop garden comparisons! It does me no good to see what others have done right now, which leads me to tip two.

Tip Two: Make a plan of action.

You know I love a good plan around here, so for me to overlook putting gardening time on my busy schedule was a recipe for disaster. If I’m honest here – I knew back at the beginning of June that I wasn’t allocating enough to gardening endeavors and I erroneously assumed life would slow down and I’d hit it hard the next weekend, but that next weekend never came. Now, I’m trying to make bite size jobs out of the mess that remains. That’s tip three.

Tip Three: Take small steps towards your goal.

I’ve decided the best course of action for me here is to break up my gardening tasks into 15 minute increments, like this. Since I work at home, my schedule is a little more flexible. 

Tip four: Visualize what your garden looks like in the next season and add plantings where needed.

I’ve always thought of our home as a “fall” home. Maybe it’s because we first looked at our home and bought it in the fall. I fell in love with the trees and pond and beautiful sweeping green lawns. Maybe it’s because secretly, I’m a fall gardener at heart, preferring the rich colors of Mums and Asters and the blessedly cooler temperatures. Whatever the reason, my lack of gardening this summer is going to make planning for fall critical.

Thankfully, I made note of what was doing well in my garden last fall, so I know I need to focus on bulbs this fall. Some bulbs need to be divided, like my bearded Iris, while I’ll need to replace other bulbs like Crocus because an industrious critter dug the up. 

Now that I’ve mapped out ways to get my garden back on track, I will be adding a daily gardening task reminder to my planner and on my phone, just like I would for exercising or picking up the girls from an after school event, because gardening is such a rewarding way to spend your time. Communing with nature is great for the body, mind and spirit. 

Please share in comments: Do you have a favorite gardening season? What makes it your favorite season?

Happy New Year dear readers!  I know that some of you are taking time off work to fully enjoy this special time of year so I’ll keep this post short and sweet.  In an effort to make sure I give you more of what you like in 2016, I am doing my first ever year in review post to share with you what posts and topics you liked best in 2015. To really get a feel for what’s working here (besides giveaways!) I removed those from my list. What makes me really happy is that my top 10 blog posts that resonated with you, my readers, is non-sponsored content! 

Working from home allows me to work with my daughters, ages 16 and almost 13. I’m so happy that both of their contributions made the top 10 according to my blog stats. 

In Fashion/beauty this post on Mom fashion by Melissa (12) was a hit!

Book Reviews are a favorite here on the blog, especially my daughter Tera's reviews like this one. 

You enjoyed my creativity and work flow tips found here almost as much as you like my Organizing/life hacks like this post. 

Entertaining/ DIY and recipes were well received as well.  Top posts like hosting an epic tween party and sipping Mediterranean Orchard Iced tea on the front porch were viewed thousands of times. 

What really surprised me was how well all my Wordless Wednesday posts ranked! If they were about flowers, gardening, being outside, our land or my cats, you loved them!

You also really liked my weekly chore prompt series and my Color of the Month series. 

It’s a rainy morning here in middle Tennessee, but I for one don’t mind the rain. April showers do bring May flowers and there’s just something so fresh and serene about an April morning after a little rain.

I’m sitting at my desk, looking out my the window and I can see our trees filled with birds and squirrels, the edge of our pond with our resident musk rat and all the green, green grass and I am thankful for this piece of land we call our home.  

Here's a sunny day picture from my front walk.

In honor of Earth day we decided to plant peach trees this year. It was a good family day, with all of us pitching in to pick the right trees. 

Marking off the area we wanted to plant them and assisting my husband in whatever way we could while he dug the holes. 

We also attended Nashville’s Earth Day Festival this past Saturday. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect weather day and the festival was very well attended. We walked around all the vendors gathering information on recycling, protecting our parks and streams and talked with local gardeners at the Farmers’ market.  There was good music and food and lots of happy families and dogs. If you are looking for a wholesome, family fun day that is budget friendly, attend an Earth Day Event this weekend. 

On the 26^th, we are going to take the girls to our local library where they are having an Earth Day Celebration as well. We may even bring home a new Dogwood tree to plant since they are free.

Celebrating Earth Day is as simple as getting outside and being a part of nature. Go for a walk, plant a tree or flowers, visit a local park or farmer’s market, start recycling, pick up trash, and get involved in your community by volunteering to beautify a green space, school or help out at your church. Check your local newspaper or your cities website to find out about Earth Day events in your area. Or go to the Earth Day Network for valuable resources.

Please share with me in comments: Do you celebrate Earth Day? What will you be doing to celebrate this year?