Easy DIY Garden Markers

Keeping track of what is what in your garden can become challenging as the season progresses and your plants grow! Here's an easy DIY to keep all your plants straight

When my stepdad built me my raised vegetable garden last October, I had no idea what I was doing when I formed some rows and threw some seeds directly into the ground to see what would pop up. I wrote this post after with some of the lessons I learned and subsequent tips I have for newbie gardeners. Fast forward a few more months and I quickly realized that when plants grow to their full size, your garden can turn into a jungle quickly! Especially if you didn't know what you were doing to start and didn't space your plants according to the seed package directions. I did this easy DIY garden marker to help keep me organized. *Affiliate links used*

I should note, this isn't just a good idea for beginners. I've had a few play dates over at our house and even an exterminator come (did you happen to catch my InstaStory about the dead roach in my master bedroom? Yeah, he and all his friends got dealt with!) and ask or assume what everything in the garden was. Have you ever been to an arboretum or professional garden? They're always marked with what the plant is so visitors aren't left guessing, googling or assuming. Not only is this a great, easy DIY to keep your own mind straight, it's great for anyone looking at your flower or veggie garden too.

I got wooden sticky sticks (they're actually called that) at my local craft store that have adhesive on the top. Get them off Amazon for less than $6 here. Then I picked up some chalkboard painted mini signs (similar here for less than $10) and a silver Sharpie marker (two for less than $3 here) so that the writing would show. While chalk is a good idea because you can change it as you change out your garden, one water from the hose or one rainfall will wash it right away, so use permanent ink. You'll want fresh markets anyway because of the deterioration of the thin wooden "sticks" - some sort of metal garden marker is the only way to get a permanent one. Or a painted rock, which in my opinion, isn't all that useful because it gets covered in either dirt or the plant itself. The affordability of the wood and the ability to easily change out signs is what I like best about this particular DIY garden marker.

The DIY is ridiculously easy and straightforward. Use the Sharpie to write the name of the plant on the chalkboard sign, let it dry fully, then stick it to the adhesive part of the wooden stick. Place it firmly in dry soil near the plant you want marked. I like to put them all on the same side of the garden so that it's neat and organized and you don't need to hunt for the sign - all signs are in the same location for each plant.

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That's it! This easy DIY garden marker is so so simple. It's affordable and changeable as your garden morphs over the season(s). You can get fancy with your penmanship to spruce it up or you can keep it simple so that it's easily legible. If you find that the adhesive doesn't work well in your climate (if you're in a rainy or humid climate, it likely won't stick long!) just use a tad of hot glue to ensure the sign stays on the stick. And voila! You'll be able to keep your garden straight and guests won't constantly ask you questions on what you're currently growing. 

How To Deal With Negative Blog And Social Media Comments

After blogging for over 4 years, I've developed thick skin and excellent strategies to dealing with the negative blog and social media comments keyboard warriors leave

I hadn't even been blogging for 6 months when I got my first extremely negative, judgmental comment. It was on my blog, and a commenter was critiquing my own personal feelings on my own son's medical diagnosis. That right there is enough to tell you that commenter is not a well-adjusted human, but I remember being SO shocked and SO hurt by what they said. I deleted the comment and texted my sister about it. "Congratulations!" She said. "When you get negative comments, it means you're getting big. People who don't support you are even reading your stuff, and that's great!" I thought about what she said for a second, and it's true. The good news is that when you get negative comments, it means more people are reading your blog than just your friends, family and supporters. It means you've gained social media followers who might not like you all the time, and are still willing to take time out of their day to let you know (and in the process, drive up your engagement numbers). But it can be really hard to stomach! Here are the best methods I've developed over the years for dealing with negative blog and social media comments.

1) Do not delete the comment

That miserable commenter I mentioned in the intro? Yeah, s/he trolled my site. When s/he saw I deleted the comment, s/he came back with an even nastier comment, attacking my feelings about my own child AND my ability to run a website! Don't delete the comment. It will only escalate the situation, and odds are high the negative commenter is looking for an (online) fight. The best way to "fight back" is to leave their comment up so that all can see what a nasty person they are, and to NOT respond. Respond to everyone else but the negative commenter. It will drive them NUTS! This way you're not engaging them or giving them what they want (a fight or a debate) and there's really no way for the situation to escalate. Just let it be.

There's two caveats I have to this rule: 

First, if someone used language you can't have on your public social channels - racial slurs, four letter words, whatever your tolerance is for appropriate, if a commenter violated it, I'd delete the comment and ban the person from having access to your page (this is super easy to do on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) and depending on who hosts your blog and how they commented, somewhat easy to do on your blog. In my experience, these jerks always comment as "anonymous" which makes it nearly impossible to block. You can, however, not allow comments from anonymous/unknown commenters if you start to get a lot of nasty comments on a particular post. 

Second, I reply to negative comments when I can tell the commenter has merely misunderstood me. Be extremely nice and humble about it, and the miscommunication gets cleared up almost immediately, and nearly every time, the commenter apologizes for their harsh words when they simply didn't understand you or your intentions.

2) Know that the negative comment is NOT ABOUT YOU

Let's take a brief moment and examine what I do when I read something I don't like on the internet. I consider myself a fairly well adjusted, mentally healthy woman. I read plenty of stupid crap on the internet, plenty of offensive content and plenty of articles/blog posts that are outright WRONG. I roll my eyes. I snort laugh. I might even send a link or a screenshot to my friends and have a good laugh at someone's expense. But in the end, I SCROLL ON. I scroll on being leaving a negative comment accomplishes nothing, and I'm smart enough to know that. Their words don't effect or change my life in any way, so I just get to scrolling and move along.

When you get a negative comment, it's not about you or your words. Well adjusted people keep it moving. Instead, it's about the COMMENTER. Your words triggered something in them that made them lash out at you. It's about their inner demons, their unresolved issues, their insecurities. This is why you shouldn't reply to the negative commenter - you're going to get nowhere. You can't argue with someone about their past that you know nothing about. You can't argue their hurt feelings, or their trauma. This is why you leave those comments up and don't reply, and also don't take it personally. It's about them, not you.

Prime example:

This person called me out as a "whiner" when clearly THEY just wanted a space to whine. Under the guise of anonymous, of course.

3) Know when to pull the plug
Sometimes, it's best to just take the whole post down. This is extremely true for social media, less true for blog posts - although if you're getting really uncomfortable with people's responses, feel free to do it. I've only removed one blog post ever, because there were about 10 people trolling it with not just negative comments, HATEFUL comments. As in, not just name calling, but wishing death on me. Yeeeeeah. They completely took over the comment section of my post! They even started one off conversations with each other about me and the content of my blog. First I started with turning off the comments for that post, then learned via Google Analytics that they were sharing it to various social channels and ridiculing it/me. That's when I decided, you know what, it's just not worth it! I took it down and literally haven't heard from any of those jerks since.

A somewhat similar thing happened recently with a post on my Facebook page. Granted, it was a tad too snarky of a post. Everyone who is a personal friend of mine and commented understood my sense of humor. Others who only know me as an acquaintance or simply follow my page/blog and don't know me personally didn't get it AT ALL and thought I was trying to mom shame. I explained myself in the comments to a few commenters, who then all got it, but an acquaintance tagged my PERSONAL Facebook page in her comment (I'm really protective of my personal account and keep the two very separate - not sharing one's content to another, and locking down my privacy settings on my personal account). Some of the haters started to send me personal messages about how I'm a bad, hateful mom. That crossed a major boundary for me. Comment on my public page, message my public page, call me names publicly... Ok, fine. But nobody gets to creep on my personal account and call me names, judge my parenting there, etc. So that post came down, too, because I was not ok with what was happening over on my personal page due to that tag. On the upside, a whole bunch of people got banned from my public page, which is a bizarrely satisfying thing to do! Don't be afraid to ban/block people, on any of your channels.

Bloggin' aint easy! Of course it looks like a fun, glamorous job with tons of perks. We get free stuff! We get paid to write and take photos! We get commissions from people who buy via our links, and advertising money, and get paid to play on social media! Yes, all of that is true. But you've also got to have thick skin. The bigger you get, the more people you'll reach who are NOT your fan, who don't like what you have to say, and who will let you know all that via the safety of their screen and keyboard. It's hard to stomach negative comments, but if you use these tips to deal with them, you'll successfully navigate the negativity and come out the other side a stronger person - and better blogger. 

Essential Oil Diffuser Blends For Summer

I've been experimenting with various, nontraditional essential oil diffuser blends. These are my favorite for the warm months of summer!

Summer weather has hit the whole country, despite it not officially being summer yet. Our glorious 6 week summer session at school has even started back up (whoohoo!) For me, summer calls for fresh, cooling and relaxing smells to get us through the Texas heat. I've been playing around with new "blends" lately, and have really gotten into peppermint. That's a standard, mulit-use, mulit-purpose oil but I haven't really used it until this year. I'm also experimenting with rosemary, which I got for free as part of my Essential Rewards. It makes a great addition to one of my most popular DIY posts (details below!) and is also a fabulous diffusing oil. These 5 oils create my favorite essential oil diffuser blends for summer. *Affiliate links used*

First, the essential oils! Revive oils are my new go-to. Yup, I used to be with Young Living, but the expense of those oils were insane. I asked some of my oily gurus who they got their oils from and learned about Revive. They're therapeutic grade, indigestible essential oils that are NOT a multi-level-marketing structure. You can go on their website and buy them like you'd buy something on Amazon - no need to sign up for some membership! They have packages with diffusers and single essential oils, plus roller bottles and other lifestyle items. Use code Paige10 for 10% off your order and experience the same quality of Young Living or doTERRA without the obnoxious price (and minus the sales people always trying to get you to buy things...)

Rosemary and lemon
The best way to describe this blend is fresh and cleansing. If you've got some stale air to clean out in our home, this blend is for you! I use equal amounts of lemon and rosemary. It's fresh, clean, bright and slightly herbal. A "non-oily" friend was recently in my home when I had this diffusing in my living room and she said, "wow, what's in that!? It smells amazing!" It's quickly become one of my favorite blends.

This blend helped me discover my love for rosemary, like I mentioned in the intro, and have since added it to this DIY outdoor spray that works WONDERS for anything you don't want crawling on your or biting you. I've added 5 drops of rosemary and also 5 drops of geranium to this DIY spray and have not been "bugged" once by outdoor pests!

Peppermint, eucalyptus, and rosemary
This was on such regular rotation, I went through a whole 15ml bottle of peppermint in less than two months when it had previously taken me more than 2 years to go through the 5ml bottle you get with a YL starter kit. Thank goodness peppermint is an affordable oil and I can use the heck out of it without cringing about the price! It's the perfect oil for summer (and also in that DIY outdoor spray) and it smells amazing when diffused in your home. Eucalyptus has the same effect as peppermint, it's just a more earthy scent. The rosemary adds a fresh, clean element to this cooling blend. I use about 4-5 drops of peppermint, 2 drops of eucalyptus, and 2-3 drops of rosemary.

Bergamot and orange

Need a mood booster? This one is for you! It's so bright and citrusy, it's perfect for a rainy day. It's also one of my favorite blends to fill my diffusers with when we're having guests over. I always get asked, "Wow, your house smells good, what's in that thing with all the mist?" To which I explain it's essential oils and that it's currently diffusing two of the best smelling citrus oils. It always goes over well! It's also a great one if you're cooking out and grill smoke might enter the house. The citrus helps clean out that stale smoke smell before it even grabs hold of your home. I like to use equal amounts of both oils, or if guests are coming over I use 4-5 drops of orange and 2-3 drops of bergamot.

Lavender and pachouli

This is absolutely one of my favorite blends to bust out in the afternoon when my kids are squirmy and sick of being stuck in the house (they just started back in a summer camp session yesterday, but when they're out for good in July and we're dying of hot summer cabin fever, can someone please remind me of this post and this blend?!) I know what you're thinking... Pachouli? Um, gross hippie much? Just a few drops goes a long way, but it really does smell wonderful and calming when blended with the lavender. I use 4-5 drops of lavender and 1-2 drops of pachouli.

Lemon, lime and peppermint
I made a DIY room spray two springs ago that is still one of my favorite smells (and a great way to use oils if you don't have a diffuser yet - but when you can get them for less than $16 I'm not sure why you don't have one! This is the exact one I have on my desk) The lemon and lime is a great blend for spring to get funky, closed in winter smells out of your home and the addition of peppermint transitions the blend perfectly for summer by adding a cooling element. I use 4-5 drops of peppermint, 2 drops of lemon and 2 drops of lime. 

Check out these great spring diffuser blends!

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Diffusing essential oils is a great alternative to candles. Candles, even some of the highest end candles, burn toxic perfumes and chemicals in the candle used to preserve the scent. Not to mention you have an open flame burning, which is a problem if you have kids. Diffusers smell BETTER than candles, minus the toxins, and you can control what scents you have in each room throughout the day! These are my favorite essential oil diffuser blends for summer - just a few ideas to get you started if you're new to oils, and some new ideas to try if you're an old pro.