Take the Side Street: April 2013

This post is brought to you by Pennington Smart Seed

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Great lawns are something to admire, and they can really increase a home's curb appeal by making it look well cared for. I love to play around with the interior of my home, but it's important not to forget about the outside. Enter Pennington Seed, the #1 selling seed in the industry. We had a great lawn when we lived in Utah, but our sweet little Idaho house has a shadier lawn and it's always looked a little sad.

The good news is a nice lawn can be closer than you think, and it doesn't require a complicated maintenance plan worthy of a golf course!

First, choose a great seed. Pennington offers several different varieties and mixes so you can pick the right seed for your lawn; we picked up a mix called "Sun & Shade" for our tree-filled yard. I was also impressed to read how much work has gone into developing Pennington's Smart Seed: there are no fillers, and the seed has been formulated to germinate faster, grow deeper and denser root systems, and use up to 30% less water each year.

So why would using a drought tolerant seed be important? In a nutshell it comes down to time, money, and the environment!

First, less water needed means less time spent watering, and since Americans spend an average of 73 hours a year on their lawn (most of it with a sprinkler!) this translates to a nice time saver for you.
Second, depending on where you live, homeowners use 30-70% of their total water outside; and in most places water isn't cheap!
Third, we are getting hotter: 2012 was the hottest year on record and 2/3 of the country went through some sort of drought. Saving water has never been more important!

Next, prep your lawn & sow the seed. We decided to overseed our healthy grass to help eliminate thin or bare patches resulting from heavy traffic in certain areas, plus a couple kids and a large dog.

We do fertilize (which helps) but we've noticed that it doesn't fix the patchiness completely so we decided overseeding was a good idea to help thicken our lawn.

Pennington recommends conducting a soil test to make sure your lawn is healthy and is getting all the nutrients it needs. If needed, go ahead and fertilize or add soil amendments at this point.
Mow your existing lawn, remove clippings & rake the area lightly to help the new seed make good contact with the soil so it will grow.
Sprinkle the seed (we used a spreader we already had) and gently rake to cover it lightly with soil.
Keep your lawn moist to encourage the seed to germinate and start growing. After it's established you can start watering only as needed and enjoy your thicker lawn!

I'm really excited to have a thicker, healthier lawn!

Giveaway Time! not only is a nice lawn just a couple steps away, Pennington has been gracious enough to offer one of you a $50 American Express gift card so you can get a jump start! The giveaway is now closed.

Mandatory Entry: Comment on this post with your favorite lawn and garden tip!
Bonus Entry: Follow Take the Side Street on Facebook and tell me you did so in a separate comment on this post.
Bonus Entry: Follow Pennington Seed on Facebook and tell me you did so in a separate comment on this post.

Giveaway Terms: Giveaway is limited to US residents 18 years old and above. Winner will be chosen using random.org and will be contacted via email and given 48 hours to reply to confirm win. By entering you give me permission to release your contact info to the giveaway sponsor for prize shipment purposes; Take the Side Street is not responsible for prize fulfillment. Please allow up to 8 weeks for delivery. Giveaway is not affiliated with Facebook or Twitter. Void where prohibited by law. All entries will be verified.

Disclosure: This post and giveaway are sponsored by Pennington Seed, and I received compensation for my involvement. I was not told what to purchase and all opinions and experiences are mine.

I've been pretending I didn't have a blog or a kitchen that needed paint over the last couple weeks.

Bad news: my kitchen didn't paint itself while I ignored it.
Good news: It's painted now!
More bad news: I spent my entire weekend painting.
Good news: I'm done painting in there!
Even more bad news: I'm lying, I'm not actually done painting.
Good news: I've got at least a week or two of denial to go through before I paint again.

Last week the shelves finally went up...

And this weekend I decided I couldn't put it off any longer, so I gathered my supplies, including my big girl underoos. I filled nail holes, caulked, and primed. I repainted all the trim bright white and painted the walls with the new color.

I even dragged the butcher block outside and Mike and I took turns sanding it smooth and pinky promised not to use it as a cutting board anymore.

So after all the sanding and painting, plus some mineral oil (on the wood, not the walls), this is what we've got:

Doesn't it look great?? I love the paint color and I can't wait to fill the shelves up and put subway tile on the walls.

In other kitchen news, I ordered the laminate for my counters last week, too! They're by Formica and made to look like Calacatta Marble. It wouldn't make financial sense to install expensive countertops in our neighborhood, so if I'm going to go with laminate I might as well have fun with it, right?

And in non-kitchen news, I'm less than a month from finishing school and reclaiming my life. That's worth a celebration, right? The count down is on!