My Big Fat Cuban Family is a Cuban-American lifestyle and food blog by Marta Verdes Darby.
As always, I'm grateful for all of you who take the time to enter my giveaways. Plus it makes me feel like I can show my gratitude by offering you something of value.
I appreciate that you don't all live in a climate conducive to growing veggies and herbs, so I acknowledge those of you who entered the giveaway and are feeling excited to get your garden growing.
So, again, thank you.
Read MoreCalifornia is fickle.
It can be 100 degrees one day and back down to 65 the next. It's been a relatively mild Spring and we are now barreling towards summer and that means Outdoor Entertaining Season. Can I get an "Amen?"
Eric and I have been planning a Big Birthday Bash. It should have taken place this weekend. However, because California is acting out like a spoiled child right now and the weather is not cooperating with our plans, we've had to bump our celebration out another month.
I'm okay with that. It just gives us more time to attend to last minute garden details.
Remember last month when we started loving and feeding and refreshing our lawn and garden? Scotts wants to know how I express myself in my garden. Hello....Flowers!
I'm a Flower Lover. Anything that will give me lush green leaves and gorgeous blooms has my heart. Also, the whole planting, pruning, watering stuff is part of our family's DNA. It's just an activity that we love to do together. Well, mostly Eric and Jonathan do the heavy lifting and I just shout out commands, but that's not important right now.
As you can see, the time and care we took last month and Scotts Miracle-Gro® has totally paid off. Be prepared to be amazed by my flowers...
My favorite Disneyland Roses are really putting on a show for the entire neighborhood. Seriously. Neighbors stop as they're walking by to ooh and aah and make comments and smell my roses. (Win!)
My hydrangeas, too. I always get a little scared that this might be the year they decide not to bloom because they want to stay dormant. Using the Scotts Miracle-Gro® has changed all that. I know I'm practically guaranteed some beautiful blooms. You can pick all these products up at Walmart, of course.
I really want you to get in on the fun of sprucing up your garden, so with a generous donation from my sponsor, Scotts, I'm excited to share today's giveaway.
Scotts has given me one of these for myself (Yay!) and I'm happy to announce that I'll be sharing the love with two lucky MBFCF readers.
I'm giving away, not one, but two Veggie & Herb Garden Starter Packages from Scotts Miracle-Gro® for you to do some fun summer gardening yourself.
Included in this Veggie & Herb Garden Starter Package
1) To enter this drawing for the Veggie & Herb Garden Starter Package from Scotts Miracle-Gro®
Please leave a comment on this post and answer one or both of the following questions:
Please leave your comment on this post and I'll choose two winners on Friday, May 29th, 2015 at 11am PST.
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.
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.
Time to bring out The Secret Weapon.
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.
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.
"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.)
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.
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.
Look! My newly re-potted hydrangeas are just going to sing! They already look totally happy. Am I right?
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.
2) The Scotts Miracle-Gro® Garden Soil is what we use in our beds.
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.
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.
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.
My Big Fat Cuban Family is all about my Cuban American life. Enjoy my ramblings on my blog about my Cuban family, Cuban heritage, Cuban culture, Cuban life. And some decent Cuban recipes with pictures, too.
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