How Does Your Garden Grow This Spring?

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts Miracle-Gro for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Well Spring is finally here, and it looks like we MIGHT be getting past the rain- that usually happens post NOLA Jazz Fest time, FYI. SO it is time to get to working on the yard!

We are currently pulling up the OLD brick sidewalk that has been buried under layers of grass, but thanks to the Magnolia tree roots coming up, the bricks are now able to be pulled up. We really want to reuse the bricks in our yard, as they are from the 1930's era sidewalk! AND between the previous owner pulling some up, and what we will pull up, we may have the entire sidewalk! How cool is that?

So we check out some ideas on our favorite source- Pinterest and came up with some great ideas that not only use the bricks wisely, but very decoratively! Check out these two pix:

Don't they look great? We want to make a raised bed for lettuce, tomatoes, green onions and herbs (aka a salad garden) on the side of the house, so it would be great to edge with the bricks, so the lawnmower won't catch the wood!

Something else we want to do is to make a pallet based area, on which to put the wooden picnic table on, under our homemade loggia. I found a great pix on Pinterest that has some wonderful edging to it:

SO the gardening supplies we need to make these wonderful edgings and garden areas, to enhance our yard:

- bricks- check

- pallets to take apart- check

- tools- shovel, hoe, edger, and small tools to put small plants in with

- new garden hose- our long one got ran over by the lawnmower, so we need a new one

- shrubs and plants- many stores are having huge sales right now, so you can get more for your money

- mulch- as we have a young child, we are always looking for a better mulch that isn't made of products that could cause her harm, and we've found a great one this year:

Scotts Florida Select Natural Eucalyptus Mulch

It is made from 100% Florida-grown Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus Mulch is a sustainable gardening product, as it is re-grows up to 4-times faster than Cypress, when planted and harvested for mulch. Plus it is made from 100% plantation-grown Eucalyptus trees, grown in Florida for Florida yards, and it is guaranteed free from any construction, demolition, pallet, or other waste materials. Something we all love to here, when you have small children around! And yes, we don;t live in Florida, but it's just a few hours away!

The additional benefits of Florida Select Mulch is that it prevents weeds naturally, while helping to conserve soil moisture and moderate soil temperature (as long as you install a 3 inch layer of it), which is very important in our hot Summer!

And it is easy to use- Just spread muclch 3 inches deep, around trees, shrubs, flowers or vegetables after seeds have germinated and plants have developed. Keep mulch several inches from tree trunks and house foundations or other wood structures. And a 2 cu. ft. bag will cover 8 sq. ft. of bedding area (at the 3 inch level).

Don't live in Florida?

Scotts has you covered too! Check out their Scotts Nature Scapes mulch which has all the same attributes of the Scotts Florida Select Eucalytus Mulch and comes in 3 colors" Classic Black, Sierra Red, and Deep Forest Brown

The Classic Black is what we will use around the picnic table, I'm thinking: