Welcome to Bountiful Home Life!

In his 1828 dictionary, Noah Webster defines bountiful as: "Free to give; liberal in bestowing gifts and favores; munificent; and generous." We at Bountiful Home Life want to bestow upon you helpful tips and ideas for enjoying your life. We enjoy reading the many home decorating magazines out there, but discovered that they usually did not represent us. We are just average people with small homes, on small lots, with small incomes. We don't think that we are alone! Therefore, we have created this site for those who live in the REAL world.

I live in the high desert in Arizona where it freezes in the winter, but is quite warm in the summer. I am slowly becoming familiar with what plants might grow in this climate. Last year we planted about 25 Red-tipped Photinia and they are doing just fine. This year we built some nice lattice, privacy screens on our patio. We planted Star Jasmine on them. We are hoping that the jasmine will survive the winter here and remain permanently in our landscape.

My Freesias all bloomed and were yellow, pretty and fragrant. The Nasturtiums that I planted in two pots are both stunted, but the Alyssum is doing well. I had some pink Calla Lilies come up and they are still in bloom. The Tuberoses have not bloomed yet. I am still waiting. I also planted a Gardenia in a large pot and it is growing. At first, the plant would develop buds that would just dry up and fall off. I added some tea and coffee grounds to the soil and it actually had two blooms open successfully. I have since purchased some acidic plant food for it. Oh, and I'm experimenting with a watermelon plant. I planted it a month ago and it is growing and has a couple of blossoms.

We are now currently changing the color of our house trim. My husband has been spending quite a bit of time up a very tall ladder. Today we finished the green trim and will be starting on the white accents. I will post a photo when we finish.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. We have had a few rainy days, but not enough for my pleasure. I enjoy thunderstorms. The forecast is showing storms in our near future!