There are so many things to love about summer with the endless supply of flowers in our yard being near the top of my list! I enjoy gardening but don’t have the time for it to take up hours of my day and my husband feels the same way about yard work – together we have a bunch of busy girl (and guy) lawn and garden tips and tricks to share! From the easiest variety of hydrangeas to grow to a quick and easy way to clean your patio, a weed free alternative to mulching, and a simple way to weed without bending down, hopefully you’ll pick up a tip or too that will have you spending less time maintaining the outside of your home and more time enjoying it. (post includes some affiliate links – full disclosure statement {here}):
Find the Easiest Flower Varieties and Plant ‘Em!
We are blessed with tons of hydrangeas in our yard including these plentiful Annabelle hydrangeas in our front yard (I think our crop this year is the the biggest we’ve had!):
and colorful mophead hydrangeas in the backyard:
I often get emails and comments from people who say that their hydrangeas grow leaves but never flower and they wonder how I get the hydrangeas in our front yard to always flower and be so plentiful. It’s definitely not because I’m the most amazing gardener – one of the biggest reasons is simply that my Annabelle hydrangeas are one of the easiest, nonfinicky varieties of hydrangeas to grow. You can cut them down to within inches of the ground in the fall and year after year they will still grow huge and bloom.
The mopheads in our backyard are a different story – they’re really particular so you can’t prune them heavily too late in the season and even with the best of care, some years they don’t bloom because of the weather. So I encourage you to research any flowering shrubs you plan to plant in your yard before you buy anything and go with a less finicky variety that doesn’t need as much care and coddling (for hydrangeas, that would be Annabelles)!
If you want a few more of my tips for growing hydrangeas (including how to keep the deer from eating them, when to prune them, etc.), you can find all of those details {here}. Some of the products I use and recommend for caring for hydrangeas are linked below.
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Get Off Your Hands and Knees & Get a Pressure Washer!
OK, this is technically not a lawn and garden tip but it’s close enough and one I’ve been wanting to share ever since taking the pressure washer plunge this past fall. Early in the fall I took some photos of our front porch and honestly it wasn’t until I started editing my pics that I realized I’d somehow overlooked the fact that our front porch and walkway was a dirty, stained mess:
I started to go to town on it with a scrub brush and cleaner and soon realized that at that rate, it would take me endless hours to clean my entire patio and walkway. I then looked into renting a pressure washer but they start at around $60 to rent so after a little more research, I ended up buying {this pressure washer} instead. It was about the cost of renting one twice and it ended up working like a dream! This is my porch in late fall of last year shortly after I pressure washed the heck out of it:
Scroll & Click/Tap Image to Shop my Front Porch:
So much better! And I swear that pressure washing is actually kinda fun and totally addictive – it’s crazy easy to do and makes a night and day difference.
Replace Weed Ridden Mulch with Pachysandra
If you’re not able to keep up with the endless weeds in your mulch beds, consider planting ground cover like pachysandra instead. It’s super low maintenance, grows well in low light areas, spreads pretty quickly, and grows thick enough that it chokes out the weeds. We have large areas of pachysandra lining the stone walkway from our driveway to our back patio and honestly we’ve never once had to pull a weed from it!
Weed Standing Up!
When you do have to weed, take the easy way out and weed standing up! This clever tool (found {here}) has four stainless steel claws arranged in a circle that you push down into the ground around the weed and then you step on the foot rest, lean the weeder back, and pull up the weed, root and all! And you don’t have to bend down to take the weed out of the tool either – you just push the eject mechanism on the handle and the weed pops out of the tool. Sooo much better than kneeling and bending down for hours at a time! And it works surprisingly well for all weeds except the really small/wispy ones which I pull by hand.
And by the way – I LOVE these boots that I wear for all of my gardening work! I got them for my birthday about four years ago and used them solely as rain boots at first but they’re so easy to clean up when they get muddy that I now use them as gardening boots too. You can’t tell very well from this pic that shows just the inside of the boot but they’re actually pretty stylish and I love that the calf of the boot isn’t huge like you find with Hunter boots and almost every other boot brand (something you fellow chicken legged girls will understand!). They’re pricey (I lusted after them for a full year before buying them as a splurge birthday gift with the money my parents and in laws gave me to spend) but I wear them so much that they’ve been totally worth it – kind of like splurging on a favorite pair of jeans that you’ll wear until they’re threadbare. You can find them in lots of color options {here}.
Get the Right Gear!
This tip isn’t a lazy girl one but it was too important not to include 🙂 I’ve had two basal cell carcinomas (a type of skin cancer) and had Mohs surgery to remove them. It was pretty unexpected for this pale & pasty girl considering that I have no family history of skin cancer, use daily UV lotion in my foundation makeup, and am always seeking the shade of an umbrella at the pool and beach. Ever since it happened, I’ve been extra vigilant about my sun exposure so when I’m going to be out in the sun for very long, you’ll find me with a wide brimmed hat on my head – I’ve had the one in this pic for quite a while so don’t have a current source but what I love about it is that it comes in multiple sizes so it fits well and stays on my head no matter what I’m doing. Finding an inexpensive, good looking brimmed hat that comes in sizes isn’t easy to find but {this hat} seems like a great option based on reviews.
I also sunscreen up before spending time outdoors, including using my favorite facial sunscreen called “Unseen” (it’s available {here} with free shipping). I love that it doesn’t leave your face white like most sunscreens do and it goes on really smoothly whether you use it under or over makeup. Other must-haves include a good pair of gardening gloves (I like {these gloves} that have a protective coating to keep your hands from getting cut) and a water bottle (I love Swell water bottles for yard work because they keep drinks cold for such a long time) – you can find them in all sorts of other color and pattern options {here}.
That wraps up my favorite lawn and garden tips! Check out my post on inexpensive raised garden bed ideas if you’d love more gardening inspiration! Have a great day everyone!
Lisa says
Kris your sunscreen tip is probably the most important one any of us can share today. My extended family has had a substantial amount of skin cancer too and it’s scary. Love your floppy hat, that would be cute at the beach too! Your hydrangeas are lights out gorgeous! I need that Annabelle variety!
Kris Jarrett says
Do you guys have a good hydrangea year this year? My Annabelles grow well every year but my colored mopheads have hardly any blooms this year because of a late frost 🙁
Karen B. says
Kris,
I love the Annabelles in your front yard. We recently had a horrible heatwave and I was worried my hydrangeas had bitten the dust, but they’ve recovered. I will have to try the gloves and the sunscreen. I have read from several people that the brand you’ve shared is one of the best. I have sunscreen in my moisturizer and foundation, but I worry it isn’t enough! Happy summer!
xo,
Karen
Kris Jarrett says
I think you’ll really love the sunscreen Karen! I’m pretty religious about keeping my face sunscreened up anymore!
Kelly Elko says
Here’s to tons of hydrangeas – they scream summer! Yours are stunning. Hope must really enjoy getting lost in them. Thanks for inviting me to share my 5 favorites – happy summer (and love from Sushi too).
Kris Jarrett says
So glad you could join us Kelly!
Karen says
Your hydrangeas are beautiful! When do your Annabelle hydrangeas receive sun?
Kris Jarrett says
Thank you! They mostly get late afternoon sun!
Veronica says
Love your friendly blog, smart tips and photo’s! You’re in a shady, humid part of the country, whereas we who live in the West contend with bone dry air (with real heat, not your awful humidity-laden heat) so it’s an easier heat to bear, but it is very hard on plants. As well as skin I might add. Shade-loving perennial ground covers do okay here if grown under lots and lots of shade and moist air from sprinklers. LOVE your hydrangea’s, and they do super well here, blooming their heads off summer after summer as long as you didn’t prune them at the wrong time. Thanks for a great chat. (From Emmett, Idaho, a high-desert country.)
Kris Jarrett says
I’m sure you have to garden in a whole different way where you are! Thanks for stopping by!
Shelly says
Thanks for the good tips on gardening. I started wearing a hat this year, why it took me so long I will never know. Bought 1 for my husband as well. At first I picked up a straw hat from my grocery store but then I got serious about purchasing a good hat, researched like I always do and found a company out of Oregon called “Sunday Afternoons”, I believe all of their hats have a UPF50+ certified sun rating. Now the sweat and sunscreen doesn’t drip in my eyes. I am not into how good the hat looks especially when I am working outside, ha! It has great protection. Wish I had known this sooner, I always wear sunscreen but should have been wearing a hat as well plus the sun strips your hair color, and your highlights!
Kris Jarrett says
I didn’t know that they made hats with a sun rating – that’s so good to know! Thank you!
Peter Burns says
You place looks great! Timeless beauties like smoothleaf hydrangea, the ground cover etc, are my favorites. Vinca is a super nice darker green groundcover with the nice purple spring flower as well. So many neat types of hydrangeaxpaniculata out there too. As a landscaoe installer for yrs and yrs, the introduction of hydrangeas arborescens “ incrediball” is a variety I began using exclusively due to the sturdier stems. You would never know the difference until a rainfall. The incrediball always held up nicely. Keep up your great work!!
Peter