Gardens
Push & click hose adaptors
These plastic quick connects from Melnor are the go-betweens for the hose and whatever nozzle, sprinklers or other hose-end attachments you may have. They're especially good for quickly moving and attaching hoses from one faucet to another. I installed them on ALL my faucets (5) and hoses (perhaps 7) and external attachments (probably 10). I have used them for about a year and wonder how I ever got along without them. It takes less than a second (maybe 1/2 second) to attach or detach any hose or attachment. They are installed in pairs, a male and corresponding female connector, with the appropriate threaded fitting to attach to the faucet, hose or nozzle attachment, one on each side of the connection. You just firmly push the connector into its counterpart, and it easily pops into place -- firmly means it does need a little pressure, but even a small child could do it. To disconnect, you push the green collar about an eighth of an inch in the one direction it's capable of moving, and it pops off. (Similar devices have been in use in industry for a long time -- on compressed air lines, for example). No more screwing and unscrewing (no more scraped knuckles); no more leaks from incompletely tightened hoses; no more stuck connections because some gorilla (i.e. me) tried to stop a leak by tightening too hard.
One type is designed so that when you disconnect from it, an internal plug pops into place and stops water from coming out. The other type, for between a faucet and hose, does not have the shutoff. When you disconnect the hose from the faucet, water will still flow and the faucet can still be used. There are other brands and styles; some are even made of pricier brass, but I recommend you stick with one manufacturer because connectors are generally not interchangeable between brands. And these inexpensive plastic ones from Melnor are well made: I have (intentionally) very high water pressure (> 100 psi, sufficient to burst hoses) on my garden faucets, and I have had no leaks from these connectors.
-- Robert Ando
Melnor Quick Connects
$4
(Faucet Adaptor)
Available from ACE Hardware
$4
(Faucent End Connector)
Available from ACE Hardware
Or $7 from Amazon
(Gardena Starter Set)
Manufactured by Gardena
Distributed by Melnor, Inc.
Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:
Pumps-a-lot Water Pump
Pressure Pump
Drain King
Precision digging
Home gardeners often need to dig small, deep, precise holes. Because the rabbiting spade is narrow and deep, it facilitates digging moderately-deep, steep-sided narrow holes that are optimal for planting perennials and shrubs without disturbing existing plantings. You want to be able to remove that misjudged rose that's too close to the agapanthus -- or, alternatively, you want to nestle one rose up to the agapanthus without disturbing its roots more than absolutely necessary.
The advantage of a rabbiting/poacher's spade over any hand tool is that you can use it in heavy soil, getting the full power of standing up. Using our previous rabbiting spade (no longer available from Smith & Hawken), my husband was able to dig me a foot-deep asparagus bed in New England clay laced with glacial debris. I wouldn't care to do that with a hand shovel or trowel. Also, a rabbiting spade has only a 10" blade, and thus is easier to maneuver than something like a drain spade, which has a 14" blade. When you're planting small perennials, like peonies or roses, a 14" blade is overkill. This spade is small, light, and easy to carry, while still being powerful enough to do the job.
This particular spade is not cheap, but it's durable and made by a long-standing British business (Mr. Spear co-founded Spear & Love in 1760). Spear & Jackson's spade has an epoxy coating, which means it won't rust and should continue to slip through soil easily, and it has a hammered socket rather than a tang, so the join between the handle and the spade should last over time. I expect this rabbiting spade to last me a lifetime.
-- Betsy Hanes Perry
Spear & Jackson Rabitting Spade
$80
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Spear & Jackson
Robust, flexible multipurpose pails
If you keep rigid, used 5 gallon spackle buckets with broken handles and cracked sides for odd jobs, you should recycle 'em and get these plastic buckets. They are molded in one piece with two integrated handles. The handles are large enough that they won't hurt your palms or break away. There are too many uses to list, but I got mine earlier this year and have mostly used them in the garden where I've moved a lot of dirt and mulch and some large plants. The units are strong enough to fill completely with dirt, at which point they are too heavy for me to carry alone. I was most impressed with the ease with which I moved a large rock, which required two of us to lift. Yet, the tubs, which wipe clean easy, are still flexible enough to form a pouring spout.
-- Jack Roosma
Tubtrug Buckets
$17-20
(14 or 26 liter-size, various colors)
Available from Amazon
Other sizes available from Faulks & Co.
Manufactured by Faulks & Co.
High-powered branch & limb maintenance
This unique chainsaw is especially good for sawing slender limbs that a traditional chainsaw tends to keep pushing away instead of cutting, a particularly frustrating and dangerous thing when perched on a ladder. It's small and light, and thanks to the scissors-like gripper one can easily manage fairly large limbs when up on a ladder. We have elms, a cottonwood, a pear tree, a crab apple, and a box elder, and I use mine generally one to two times a year unless wind damage or heavy snowfall breaks some limbs. Manual loppers are longer than the Alligator, so they have better reach. However, they require greater arm spread, too. The advantage of the Alligator is cutting speed, gripping-power, and its light weight and maneuverability.
-- Dirk Murcray
This lopper-on-steroids is also great for those of us with a touch of chainsaw-phobia, since the cutting chain is covered by the guards and you don't have to worry as much about kick-back and such. I had procrastinated for months about cutting a stand of saplings because I dislike chainsaws, but I breezed through them in a few hours with my trusty Alligator -- it was even kinda fun! If you dread using a chainsaw, but have to cut branches too big for your lopper, get one of these puppies. Cuts anything up to 4 inches in diameter. I've had mine for about 8 months and have since gotten a lot of yard clean-up done that I was putting off (anything too big for a standard lopper). One unforeseen problem: all my friends keep wanting to borrow it...and keep it. Get your own, guys!
-- Barbara Dace
Black & Decker Alligator Lopper Chainsaw
$100
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Black & Decker
Aeroponic countertop agriculture
For anyone who likes fresh flowers, herbs, vegetables, or fruits, but lives in urban areas or homes where maintaining a garden may not be an option, this in-house, aeroponic garden is convenient and manageable (there's no potting or soil involved, just a little bit of water and nutrient tablets).
I received one as a present last year and have had the "gourmet herb" kit planted ever since with great results - very high quality and it produces the yields advertised. It took about 4 weeks for our kit to reach full maturity and we've harvested each plant at least 10 times -- some as many as 20 or 30. Each kit comes with little pods preset with seeds, so starting up is as simple a matter as inserting the pods (in the order the manufacturer prescribes to avoid plant competition), adding water and the provided nutrients (which are organic), and turning on the garden lights (two fluorescent bulbs).
We love having the herbs in the kitchen (Cilantro, Chives, Italian Basil, Red Rubin, Basil, Dill, Mint, Parsley). We also have an herb garden outside, but this is nice for quick grabs, and it's not a bad looking thing to have on the counter. We're about to switch over to the strawberry kit, which they say yields 5 pounds of strawberries in 6 weeks and continues for 6 months thereafter.
We went into it knowing it probably wouldn't be a money saver, so I can't say that it's a net win on costs compared to the grocery simply because I haven't done the math. Because of the energy consumption (I think we noticed our electric bill jump between $10 and $15 per month), it's probably a bit of a luxury item best attuned to those in urban areas and/or those who can't keep their own gardens (because of geography, climate, etc.). If someone's going to use this to grow flowers, I would again mention you'll notice a small increase on your electric bill from running the lights for around 18 hours per day. Thus, I'd recommend growing something you can harvest to get a little bit more for your money.
Either way, for those who lack the green thumb this garden makes for pretty failsafe results.
-- Marshall Votta
AeroGarden
$150
Available from Amazon
(in black)
Gourmet Herb Seed Kit
$20
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by AeroGrow International, Inc.
Self-regulating plant watering & feeding
I've over-watered my share of temperamental plants into oblivion. This pot uses a simple method of providing the right amount of water and nutrients to a plant so you don't forget and let it go dry or over-water the plant. There is a water reservoir below the plant pot that supplies water to the pot through a wick that is in the bottom of the pot and extends into the reservoir. Just add nutrient to the water (about a teaspoon of something like Miracle Grow in a gallon of water) and the plant takes care of the rest. Now I just have to remember to refill the reservoir every month or so, and our African violets grow and bloom with only rare attention from us.
We tried raising African violets with limited success, until one of our friends gave us this Wick Pot. The violets come with a long list of care and feeding instructions regarding watering schedules, humidity, temperature, and the like. This planter is a godsend to those of us with brown thumbs looking to grow non-native plants (we live in Houston). The pot obviously will not change ambient light or humidity levels, but using one means the plant requires almost no care and feeding whatsoever. The Wick Pot also lets you be much less precise about the amount of water you refill because you're filling the reservoir as opposed to putting it directly into the pot.
There are other self-watering planters out there, but Volkmann's provides a cheap option and they also have full kits available (includes feed fertilizer, wick pot and soil) that are very reasonably priced. Of course this method is so simple, if you wanted to you could also fabricate a pot for yourself by using a recycled plastic container, a potted plant and a short piece of wick placed between the pot and reservoir.
-- Durwin Sharp
Volkmann Reservoir Wick Pot
$3 (white or green)
Available from and Manufactured by Volkmann Brothers Greenhouses
Collapsible gardening mobile
This nifty, lightweight (33 lbs.) garden cart will fit into any spare cranny in the garden shed or garage. It folds into a long, slender package about six inches wide at the wheel hubs, and three or four feet long. While I wouldn't go dropping jagged boulders into it, it's proven a tough, sturdy and useful hauling tool for gardening or otherwise over the couple years I've had it. I've mounded it high with bark, manure, compost and brush (the load limit is 330 lbs.), and it's performed like a champ.
Because of its smooth aluminum surface, it hoses clean for transporting non-dirty items. The gate on the front of the cart is basically a reinforced flat sheet of metal with a folded U-shaped channel that interlocks with a similar folded U-shaped channel on the cart. I feel obliged to mention that one time I was hauling a composted sawdust/manure mixture and some of it got caught in the channels of the lift gate. Since then I haven't been able to get the gate all the way down, but it's really a minor issue. The gap is only about an inch and stuff doesn't seem to leak out the front.
Overall, this cart is just a marvelous, very maneuverable device for the storage challenged person. There is a slightly cheaper folding cart by Bully that can haul up to 400lbs. However, with the Tipke Fold-it, you can also buy a trailer or bike hitch, and front gates in a couple of heights. I haven't used either of the hitches, so I don't know how well they work, but if you're a gardening biker looking to kill two birds with one stone, this could fit the bill nicely.
-- Amy Thomson
Tipke Fold-it Utility Cart
$180
Available from Amazon
Tipke Fold-it Bike Hitch
$45
Available from Amazon
Tipke Fold-it Tractor/Trailer Hitch
$33
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Tipke
Omnivorous composting
I was more burdened by wet garbage than I thought, and more relieved than I expected by a fiendishly simple device called the Green Cone.
Regular composters are notoriously picky: no bones, no meat, no oil, no avocado pits or shells, no citrus peels, no dairy products. The Green Cone happily devours all that stuff, which means that pretty much all your kitchen waste can go in it, right now. File and forget.
All you need is some yard and a spot that gets sunshine. The Cone's perforated plastic basket is sunk two feet into the ground. The Cone stands 28 inches above the ground, collecting sun warmth to encourage the bacteria down below who are chowing on the garbage and seeping the resultant nutrients into the soil. Thanks to the ground seal around the basket, there's no smell at all, except when you open the top of the Cone to add more yummy garbage for the microbes.
Garden wastes should not go in the Cone, because they would overwhelm it with volume. Nor should paper or plastic products, which is about all you'll have left in your now light and odorless kitchen trash bin.
-- Stewart Brand
Green Cone
$160
Available from SolarCone
Leveraged lawn weed puller
Those of us who use little or no chemicals in our grass yards have to manually weed if we wish to maintain our landscaping. By trial and error I have settled on using 'Grandpa's Weeder'. This tool has been around for decades, and works as advertised. With a simple two step process you can manually pull weeds, roots and all, from the ground without having to bend down. There are similar items available, but none have worked as well for me as this old timer.
-- Sean Wylde
Grandpa's Weeder
$24
Available from Garden Hardware Company
The best gardening innovations
Do plants have ideas? Yes.
I use this monthly to troll for the best in the art and science of gardening. Each month editors Greg and Pat Williams extract the meatiest, handiest, most practical innovations in vegetable, fruit and flower horticulture. They tirelessly glean material from obscure ag-extension bulletins, garden club newsletters, seed catalogs and dusty journals, reading it all so you don't have to, and translating it into clear English so you can use it. They run no pictures, no ads; only concepts, tools, and techniques. It's sort of like a Cook's Illustrated for your garden -- the advice is based on scientific testing, and the tools born out of genuine need.
The format is intelligent too. These days the newsletter (which has been in print for 20 years) can be emailed as PDF files. Because HortIdeas reports "news that stays new", I recommend the nifty CD of the last 7 years of their back issues. In all its forms this humble yet intelligent newsletter is an amazing service which should appeal to anyone with a love of perfecting what is possible.
-- KK
HortIdeas
$15 per year via email
$25 per year via snail mail
HortIdeas Back Issues CD
Jan 96-Dec 05
$35
Jan 04-Dec 05 update (if you bought the 8-year archive back in 04)
$5
[You can't order online with say, PayPal; bug them till they convert.]
Sample excerpts:
Several years ago, there was considerable interest in adding hydrogen peroxide to irrigation water to enhance oxygen in the root zones of plants. At the time, some investigators reported increased crop yields with hydrogen peroxide, but, as far as we know, no commercial apparatus was developed. Perhaps the results of recent experiments conducted in Australia will rekindle interest in oxygenated irrigation systems. The Australian researchers injected 0.6 pints per 1,000 square feet of 50% hydrogen peroxide solution via subsurface drip irrigation tape into heavy clay plots following flooding of the soil. Zucchini plants grown in the plots produced 29% more fruits weighing 25% more than the fruits produced without hydrogen peroxide treatment. The researchers also tried injecting hydrogen peroxide at a rate of 0.1% by volume with the irrigation water provided to container-grown vegetable soybean plants in "heavy cracking" clay soil that was kept water-saturated. Yields of soybean pods (fresh weight) went up by 82-96% relative to the yields with no hydrogen peroxide.
Clearly, oxygenated irrigation is a highly promising way to boost production of crops growing in waterlogged heavy clay. We believe there could be a substantial market for a mechanismthat automatically injects hydrogen peroxide into drip irrigation systems.
**
Moss loves buttermilk and beer. Where did this "old school" formula of mixing moss fragments with buttermilk and/or beer in the family blender come from, and does it work? Moss craves acidic conditions which buttermilk and stale beer provide. While the "moss think tank" at Moss Acres prefers some less odorous methods of preparing a moss shake/slurry, this oft-prescribed method has about a 60% success rate when the moss fragments are kept consistently wet. Al Benner, president of Moss Acres, says: "Our customers tell us the applications for moss are expanding. Moss has always been ... popular ... in Asian gardens, rock gardens, water gardens, and shade gardens. But every day we are helping clients use moss for creative projects such as interior landscaping, stone walls, and moss roofs."
More...
Removing big weeds
 
THE tool for the job if you're uprooting alien and invasive plants such as French broom and Scotch broom. Those plants, like other invasives, tend to form aggressive monoculture areas that drive out local biodiversity, and they often make dense undergrowth fire hazards. Ripping them out is a kind of joy -- a fine workout, more productive in every way than a couple hours at the gym.
Built like a cast-iron frying pan, the Weed Wrench is a seriously macho tool. Its fierce jaws grip the miscreant plant or small tree by the throat (base of stem), and big leverage yanks it bodily out of the ground. If you get the smallest (mini) and the largest Weed Wrenches, you've got everything covered up to 2 inch diameter (beyond that, use a saw).
-- Stewart Brand
Many of us who own land in coastal northern California have a constant problem eradicating (or even keeping under control) Scotch broom, that ubiquitous plant with the yellow flowers that covers more of the hills every year. After a rain it isn't too hard to pull out if you have a strong back and the right warrior spirit. But sometimes they are just too big or the ground is too dry. That's when you need the Weed Wrench. It's basically a big lever with a set of jaws at ground level to grip the trunk of the plant. You pull slowly until the jaws engage then yank it out of the ground, roots and all. If broom or other woody weeds are a problem for you, get one of these things. There's nothing else that even comes close for effective broom removal. It amazes me that they aren't in every hardware story in northern California, but so it is. Order it from the web site. They come in four sizes. The medium is probably best for most jobs.
-- John Coate
Weed Wrench
$155 (Medium)
Available from Weed Wrench Company
Amplified easy slicing
This hand clipper is a really cool ergonomic innovation. It uses an ingenious gear design to easily slice off sticks that are 3/4 inch in diameter. As you squeeze, the bottom handle rolls slightly and this motion leverages the power in the scissor cut. I find I can now tackle stuff that ordinarily I would have had to run back to get the larger pruners for. Your Felco pruning clippers will last you a lifetime (see review ), but as my grip wanes, I find I this lightweight Fiskars pruner is the clipper I grab first.
-- KK
Fiskars PowerGear Bypass Pruner
$20
Available from Sears
Also
$30 from Amazon
Manufactured by Fiskars
Online agriculture marketplace
Buy from the producer, sell your own. Just about anything 'agricultural'; llamas, cotton, flower seeds, bean seeds, farms, farm trucks (or trucks in general), bulk wine, employment ops, whew. I found this site while looking for a cacao plant to buy. Some fellow is selling his here. There's sort of an online list that's updated when anyone puts something on the list.
-- Melissa Keyes
AgriSeek
Human-powered lawn mower
When I first realized that my housemates were serious about me using a push mower to cut our yard, I was a little skeptical. Eventually I was won over by the environmental benefits and the sense of accomplishment that I received from using a "reel mower". The first mower we purchased is literally called the "Prison reel mower" and I wouldn't recommend it. The Brill Luxus 38 Reel Mower on the other hand is a sweet piece of engineering. It is very light at 17 pounds, weather resistant, and has variable height ranges. It feels good in your hands and seems very well designed. Now that I use it, I wouldn't even consider buying a gas or electric powered mower for an average size yard. But let me warn you, using a manual mower is physically much harder, takes more time, and is very difficult if not impossible with tall grass (which means regular mowing). Whether you choose to look at that as an environmentally friendly and money-saving workout or a punishment is up to you.
-- Patrick Chen
For the past 20 years I've cut my lawn with a hand reel mower. Reel mowers are wonderful -- when they are new. The major drawback is not the mild workout, but keeping the blades sharp over time. You can't sharpen the helical blades of a reel mower without a special jig (at least I can't). Yet getting it sharpened at the shop will set you back $50 each time. That adds up real fast. And if a reel mower isn't razor sharp (unlike a power one) cutting the grass does turn into punishment. That's why the Brill is so interesting. Because its blades do not touch the cutter bar, it claims the average interval for resharpening is 8 years. I don't know anyone who has had one that long (German-made Brill is big in Europe but new in the US), but in theory this could prolong the duration between sharpenings and change the equation for keeping a manual reel mower going. That is good news because I've found that I can cut our small irregular lawn just as fast, and with no more sweat, using a sharp push mower.
-- KK
Brill Luxus 38 Reel Mower
$200
Amazon
FAQ
People Powered Machines
Optimistic dreambooks
Bloody Butcher Corn (Seedsavers Exchange)
Gardening catalogs are the very epitome of dreambooks. Some are quite beautiful, all ripe with the promise of fulfillment in a slightly other universe, but here are the three that make late winter in the heartland a little less bitter:
Seedsavers Exchange puts out a gorgeous catalog and promotes Earth-respecting attitudes with no preaching or guilt-laying. Their online version is, to my mind, among the best designs of its kind. Their descriptions usually include a few words about the histories and sources of their heirloom varieties -- makes it hard not to feel involved with the ancient epic of how "weeds" got turned into the exquisite diversity of crop plants we take for granted these days.
Johnny's Selected Seeds is a commercial version of a labor of love. It's a real working catalog with limited color photos but a large and well-selected inventory of standard, heirloom, and organic veggie, herb, flower, grain, and covercrop seeds. What makes the catalog special is its generosity with information. If you need a tomato that resists some particular kind of rot, you'll probably find it here. You'll probably find it in other catalogs, too, but won't necessarily know it. There's extensive cultural, climate, and harvesting info that makes me resent almost all other catalogs for their lack of same. Johnny's really wants their seeds to grow strong and prosper.
Gardens Alive is a southern Indiana seller of products for organic/"environmentally responsible" gardening and growing. Natural fertilizers, biocontrols (they grow critters like parasitic wasps and nematodes themselves), natural lawn magic, redworms, composting accessories -- a fairly thick little catalog with basic graphics and all kinds of dreams for the garden geek. Dozen-page guides to plant diseases, nutritional lacks, bugs. I get the same kind of thrill pawing through this jammed volume that I used to get with Edmunds or American Science and Surplus or the fireworks spreads, or, well, Whole Earth Catalog -- It just makes my hands itch to get out there and tinker.
-- David Walker
Sample excerpts:
Cupboard Moth Trap. Signature Product. Our easy-to-use traps stop Indian meal moths from ruining food in your pantry. As low as $6.95 each (Gardens Alive)
Black Prince Heirloom Tomatoes. New last year! Mahogany brown with flavor. Unusual mahogany brown shoulders become orange-red at the blossom end. Color will be deeper and more pronounced in sunnier locations. Distinctively rich, fruity, tomato flavor. Relatively smooth, 3-5 oz., 3" globes show less cracking than typically seen in most heirlooms. This is an heirloom from Irkutsk, Siberia. Indeterminate. Organically grown. Mini: 40 seeds. $2.70. (Jonny's Selected Seeds)
Portable tiller
The Mantis tiller is a lightweight tiller (about 25 lbs), which allows for better portability than heavier tillers. It is easily moved from location to location (try that with a big Troy-bilt), and will handle a variety of jobs with various blades on the tiller shafts: tilling, digging shrub or tree holes, aerating lawns, de-thatching lawns, edging sidewalks or planting beds, making the vertical cuts in sod to be (re-)moved, mixing compost, or even a new steel spring wheel designed to clean cracks or debris and weeds in sidewalks or patios. I have three large bins (4 x 4 x 6 feet each) that I use for composting leaves and grass clippings. I simply take down the front boards and use the Mantis to mix the compost inside and in front of the bins. Then I put the boards back and reload the bins with the mixture. Short work with the Mantis. After viewing my Mantis in action, a landscape company supervisor in Peachtree City bought ten (10) of them for his company use, one for each of their work trucks.
A Mantis is better than competing small tillers like the Honda or Sears, because of the unique design of the tiller blades. They can be swapped side to side to till deeply or lightly, are very sharp and have a squiggly (my word) design that thoroughly mixes the soil. The tiller blades are warranted against breakage. The worm-gear design of the shaft that drives the tiller axles may be unique, as well, since it is very hard to stall this tiller, no matter how many vines you wrap around the axles. The variety of blades, plus the ability to use them for light or heavy penetration (e.g., tilling, aerating and edging) makes the Mantis somewhat unique.
It is not a "heavy-duty" tiller that you would usually use to till an acre of ground. If I needed that job done, I'd rent a Troy-bilt or other massive tiller for dedicated tilling of large areas, even though they are not very easy to transport or use. However my brother used his Mantis to till a large lawn (1/3 acre) which need to be re-sodded.
-- Jim Stagg
The Mantis is a little jewel. They are exceptionally easy to work with, being easy to start and incredibly lightweight. I have two caveats though: 1) To use it most effectively, you have to put it in front of you and then walk backwards, dragging the machine with you while simultaneously trying to keep on eye on the machine and where you're about to step. 2) Tough plants have a tendency to get tangled up in the tines. Fortunately, the tines can be removed, cleaned of offending material, and replaced very quickly.
By the way, Mantis offers a lifetime guarantee on the tiller's tines. If a tine ever breaks, they'll replace it. Hmm.. I guess that would be a "lifetine" guarantee! :) Every home with a garden should have one of these. They're that good.
-- John Bodoni
Mantis 7222
2-cycle
$300
Available from
Mantis
Mantis 7260
4-cycle
$400
Available from
Kimco
There is an electric version
$300
Available from
Clean Air Gardening
Also from Amazon
Manufactured by Mantis
Mantis
Most efficient mower
Light, sharp, ergonomic and quiet, this European scythe is not what you'll find in your local hardware store. The handle (snath) is custom-fit, so you stand comfortably upright while 'sweeping' weeds and grass down with ease. Potential uses range from small-acreage hay cutting to weed and brush clearing in variable terrain. I use it as a weed-whacker replacement on my long driveway. You can talk to people and hear birds while 'weed-whacking'. Pretty sweet. The price for a new one puts it up there with gas-powered weed-whackers, but I find the experience much more enjoyable. Honestly, I believe you can clear more area with less sweat using a European scythe than a powered string-trimmer. The key is the light weight of the tool and the sharpness of the blade.
Most people are stunned when they see me take down grass or weed stalks with little more than a gentle nick from the blade. Furthermore, getting it custom fit will make it probably the most pleasant-to-use garden tool you'll ever have. (I'm unusually tall, so maybe this impresses me more than it would a 5'9" man, for example). Here's how a European scythe and string-trimmer weed whacker tally up to each other:
Scythe Pros
Scythe is lighter. Likely to be considerably more ergonomic. Quiet. Free from power source. Stalks intact, no pulverizing of plant-matter.
Scythe Cons
Must keep the blade *sharp* (The $170 kit comes with peening jig and whetstone). Sometimes the direction of approach makes a particular weed hard to cut. You won't be able to pulverize a weed in between rocks or hard things. You must not let the blade hit hard things like rocks or metal.
For those considering a scythe, be sure to get the European style and help end this sad era that has had Americans breaking their backs with horribly un-ergonomic, heavy scythes. For instance, European blades weigh 15 oz, while American style ones weigh twice as much, at 30 oz! Besides the weight difference, the tang on the American style is not angled to help you cut the stalks. The blades are thicker and not as sharp, etc. You'll find a lot more info on why and how to use this tool at Scythe Supply.
-- James Zimmerman
European Scythe
$170 (full kit with sharpening tools)
Available from
Scythe Supply
$90
Available from
The Marugg Company
$112
Available from
Lehmans
Available in the UK from
The Scythe Shop
Roombot for lawns
This robotic lawn mower has saved me time and kept my lawn looking great for two years now. It keeps the lawn healthy because it only cuts a little bit of grass each day and it turns into fertilizer very quickly. Once the mower is set up, it comes out as programmed to and returns home to be charged when the programmed time is up or the batteries run down. It even has a rain sensor to send it home when it starts to rain.
-- Wes A.
From the website:
Smart Spiral - When the mower senses long grass it automatically enters spiral mode and mows grass in immediate area in more efficient spiral mode. When long grass is no longer sensed it returns to random operation to seek out more long grass.
Ambrogio Professional
$1,400
Available from
The Robot Store
No pesticide weed killing
Are you kidding? A 500,000 BTU heat source to kill weeds? The Red Dragon is not really intended for garden weeding. Because we have a no-pesticide agreement, I use the torch to control weeds on our 600 ft long gravel driveway in the North Georgia mountains. In addition, it would be useful if you just wanted to light something on fire: burning off fields, starting piles of damp wood, etc.
There are cheaper smaller ones (only 100,00 BTUs) also made by Flame Engineering, but I sure like the one I have. Do you really need those extra 400,000 BTUs? A friend of mine has a smaller one that takes *forever* to show an effect. With mine, you can just wave it across a weed and it discolors almost instantly (usually enough to kill it). However, that's not much fun. A few more seconds of flame will incinerate the weed completely. Yeah, the extra heat makes a huge difference. When lit, the torch produces a 2 foot long, 5 inch wide column of blue flame that sounds like a (quiet) jet engine. That said, the flame doesn't spread much, so it's fairly easy to control. Every pyro needs one.
-- Greg Baumann
Red Dragon Torch Kit
$60
Available from
Ace Hardware Outlet
Also from Also from Amazon
Manufactured by
Flame Enginerring
Best source for gardening tech
Organic gardeners, both backyard and commercial, know this mail-order outfit as the premier source for organic farming supplies. They've got everything: Natural pest controls, insect traps, cover crop seeds in bulk, sticky tape in all varieties. I mean where else can you buy a gallon of milky spore disease (for Japanese beetles), or white fly parasites in quantities of a thousand, or red worm *eggs*, with a side order of bat guano? Not only do they carry mulching film in standard black, but they also have it in innovative silver, green or red colors as well -- each spectrum producing different effects for different plants.
But this catalog is also useful in other ways. Non-gardeners and green householders will find hard-to-find products such as poison-free cockroach traps which use cockroach pheromones.
Best of all, Peaceful Valley collects the best gear for growers of any type. Here is your source for plastic deer fencing, the world's best walk-behind Italian tillers, superlative hand tools, the best selection of drip irrigation supplies, and -- my favorite -- reusable foam seedling trays. You'll find this source absolutely essential if you grow anything.
This catalog is a throwback to the mail order catalogs of old. 1) They tend to only sell the best stuff, not just the best-selling or most profitable , and 2) they still print it on paper. You can spend several evenings reading it with great profit. You get a short course in state of the art practices for small time farmer and serious gardening.
They have a pretty good website, too (but not as informative as the paper catalog). And they are easy to work with.
-- KK
Speedling Tray 128 Cells (1-1/2" sq x 2-1/2" deep), $6
BCS - Harvester 722 Tiller, $2400
Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply Catalog
Garden knife
I use this tool for hand-to-root combat with weeds, but it does many other things, all very well. It's a weeding and digging tool with a serrated edge on one side for opening bags and cutting roots. The handle is wooden and fits nicely in the hand. The blade comes in two types, carbon steel and stainless. I have the carbon steel variety. It's beefy, easy to clean, slides through all matter of matter. Elegant.
-- Leslie Jackson
Hori Hori Digger
$20
Available from Hida Tools
Also from Amazon
Easy, rapid plant cloning
This is a new plant propagation method/tool that allows you to produce large, rooted plantlets from woody plants (with stems up to 25 mm diameter) within one growing season (~ 2-3 months). Since I got them 2 months ago, I very easily rooted a large, marketable Schefflera in about 45 days and a 12" - 14" tall Ficus in ~60 days. I talked to an associate in Australia who has rooted almond. The concept is exciting because you should be able to produce a usable plant in 1/3 the time (one growing season vs three). I do expect that, with grower experience, almost any woody species that can be grafted can be propagated faster / less expensively using the Rooter Pot.
 
I bought them specifically to (try to) clone American chestnut selections for preservation without grafting. I expect to successfully clone mature conifers which are usually grafted for seed production. Rooter Pots are reusable. A larger-sized pot is now available for stems up to 1 inch in diameter.
-- Carl L. Haag
Rooter Pots
Available from:
Manhattan Bonsai
Small Pots (Stems 1/4" - 1/2" Diameter)
Set of 5 for $8.95.
Large Pots (Stems 1/2" - 1" Diameter)
Manhattan Bonsai
Set of 5 for $17.50
Manufactured by Rooterpot
Super dexterity
My wife used to come in after a day of gardening with her hands roughened and scratched. Sure, she had gardening gloves, but they'd always get pulled off and forgotten the first time she had to do anything delicate. Leather, canvas, cotton -- nothing would stay on her hands.
Last year she picked up a pair of Atlas 370 gloves at the local garden store. They're extremely thin, lightweight, and flexible, so there's no need to take them off. The palm is tough nitrile -- made it through a season with no punctures or tears -- while the back is a cool, breathable knit. You could tie your shoes without taking these off.
These gloves were actually designed for precision assemblers. Gardeners discovered them and adopted them in a heartbeat. They're pretty easy to find at local garden centers (many of which also carry a heavier cold-weather version), but several on-line retailers stock them.
-- Jonathan Rice
Atlas 370 Garden Glove
$3.80
Seamar
Also from Amazon
Manufactured by LFS Glove & Safety
High-powered cutter
I love this tool. I've worked in landscaping, and for one very long winter I cut brush in our city parks. I wish I had these then. If you think a pruning saw can go through a branch like a hot knife through butter, just try these Fiskars! Not as portable as my little folding pruning saws, but oooh the leverage action is sweet and effortless! One landscaping company I worked for used Sandvik loppers, and they were impressive, but I still think the Fiskars are the best so far. They have more leverage than similar sized loppers I've used. And they're easy on the elbows and shoulders, too. When the jaws close, they don't hammer together like those usual cheesy excuses for a tool.
I've tried the 18" (or thereabouts) short version of these Fiskars PowerGear loppers, and for their size, they're very nice too. Friends of mine used that model to clear honeysuckle bushes from their back lot. So far, every Fiskars product I've used has been top notch.
-- Margaret Halpin
Fiskars PowerGear Pro Bypass Lopper
91546935
$45
Amazon
Lightweight, long reach
For the close-to-hand pruning, I have my trusty Felco. For branches further than I can reach with a lopper, I use a big, unwieldy pole pruner with a pull-rope to muscle the clipper. It's overkill for smaller out of reach plants but for decades it was all I knew. Then I discovered the telescoping long arm pruner: easy to extend and collapse, lightweight, and it holds the clipping until you release the trigger, enabling efficient stashing of clippings in a lawn bag. This model, made in Japan, features two pistol grips for two-armed aiming, which most other telescoping pruners don't have. And its telescoping capability unlocks quickly with a lever instead of having to tighten and untighten a collar. This is now one of my favorite tools on a daily basis, considering all the huffing and puffing I used to do to clear ivy or deadhead roses high up on the fence.
-- Howard Rheingold
Nobi Nobi Telescopic Pruning Saw
$89
(2m)
Available from Hida Tool
[go to the 'Gardening' section and look under 'Pole Pruner']
See also the Fiskars Telescoping Pruning Stik
$80
Availabe from Amazon
Growing your own exotic fruits
These days specialty markets even in small towns sell once-exotic fruits. Asian pears, Japanese Persimmons, Kiwi fruits, and so on. This book is an inspiration and guide to planting these and other exotic fruits in your own backyard. Many uncommon fruits are hardier and easier to grow in the US than the traditional backyard fruits. Much uncommon fruit featured here you can't buy anywhere: Nanking Cherries, Medlars, Pawpaws. We have a few in our yard and cheered by this collection of fruits I've never heard of, and encouraged by the mail order sources and horticultural instructions, I'm ready for more.
-- KK
Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
Lee Reich
2004, 292 pages
$17
Amazon
Sample excerpts:
Millions upon millions of people have enjoyed eating persimmons, so why include this fruit in a book about uncommon fruits? Because most of those people are in Asia. The kaki, or Oriental persimmon, was the most widely grown fruit in the Far East until the twentieth century, when apples became popular. Few people outside of Asia are familiar with -- let alone grow -- the kaki. Few people anywhere in the world know or grow the American persimmon.
**
A row of dark brown, inedible seeds lined up within the custardy, rich flesh of a pawpaw fruit.
**
Medlars are rock-hard and puckery when ready for harvest and must be allowed to soften before becoming edible. This softening is called "bletting," a word coined in 1839 from the French world blessi, which denotes a particular type of bruised appearance found in fruits such as the medlar and the persimmon. Chemically speaking, bletting brings about an increase in sugars and a decrease in acids and tannins (tannins cause the unripe fruit to be puckery).
**
Combine the appearance, flavor, and texture of mulberry and fig fruits and you get something that looks, feels, and tastes like these che fruits.
Reaching the high spots
We are lucky to have a few apple & peach trees, but they have to be sprayed to insure tasty fruit. Trouble is some are about 20 feet high. I tried a bunch of sprayers, all poor performers, until I discovered the Hudson Trombone Tree Sprayer. It works like using a trombone and throws a great spray -- they claim to around 25 feet high and that looks about right. A connecting hose maybe 7-8 feet long rests with a sort of small shower-head-like filter in the bottom of a bucket (not provided).
It uses plain old arm power. You feel like Elliot Ness in the "Untouchables" wielding a Tommy gun, but it works great, is only about $40 (get the one with the two gun grips) and even builds up your forearms and shoulder muscles. It's also got an adjustable nozzle to adjust spray. It really throws a good heavy directed or dispersed spray; I'm surprised at how much more quickly it gets the job done. Way outperforms pump-up pressure tank ones.
-- Vince Crisci
Hudson Trombone Sprayer
$40
Available from Amazon
The other wood
You can grow bamboo where you live. This exceptionally clear guide deals with the nitty-gritty of bamboo cultivation and propagation and covers about 200 varieties suited to temperate regions. Lots of color photos help identification. Great book. The bamboo in our garden won't stop. Long live bamboo!
-- KK
The Gardener's Guide to Growing Temperate Bamboos
Michael Bell
2000, 159 pages
$25
Timber Press
800/ 327-5680
Amazon
Excerpts:
Those new to bamboos always find it an anomaly that, despite the fact that they are known to be the fastest-growing of plants, they are among the more expensive to buy, and are not available in huge quantities. There is good reason for this, however. The more desirable garden bamboos are, naturally, those that grow slowly at the root and have rapid vertical growth. The slow rate of root growth means that the best one can hope for is that the plant will approximately double its size every year. Therefore, for every plant in a nursery, one can expect to get only one similar-sized division per year, not allowing for any propagation failures or for the plant to increase in size.
Best way to cut green wood
I am shocked at how long it took me to figure out the virtues of a pruning saw. For three decades I have sweated with a regular hand saw to lop off hefty tree branches, tidy up firewood, trim Christmas tree stumps, and cut down shrubs. (Trimming branches is really not a place for a mini-chain saw even if I had one). Yet month after month my regular saw would bind up in green, wet or frozen wood. On principle I avoid one-job tools, which is what a pruning saw sounded like. However when I finally got a pruning saw it was like a hot knife slicing through buttery wood. I don't think it matters much what brand you get. I now have two: a folding 7" Coleman I take car camping, and a 13" Corona Curved I use for landscaping at home. The wolfishly large teeth bite off visible chips without binding, and in no time the wettest, greenest wood is cut. But you already knew this, right?
-- KK
13" Corona Curved Pruning Saw
$24
Amazon
or Ace Hardware
Manufactured by
Corona Clipper
Cheapest way to grow
With patience and discretion, one could grow the most magnificent flower garden with only $100 worth of seeds. Author and poet James Fenton brings the wisdom (and a highly evolved list of plants); you’ll need the patience.
-- KK
A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seed
James Fenton
2001, 125 pages, $13
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
New York
Amazon
Excerpt:
As for the design of this flower garden, I insist on keeping it vague. A hundred varieties of flower might look cramped on a balcony, spectacular in a situation only one size up from there. For it is amazing what can be crammed into a small space. Conversely, it is amazing the number of plants that could, in theory, be raised from so large a number as a hundred packets of seed.
All-in-one landscape tool
An ordinary tool with extraordinary utility and ruggedness is something called a McLeod. It's a heavy duty combination rake and hoe with a 12" steel blade, introduced to me by friends in the US Forest Service who use McLeods for a variety of firefighting tasks; I use mine for gardening and landscaping (and fire protection, too). It does almost everything I need outside, from chopping weeds to smoothing planting beds, cutting trails, and raking up leaves and brush. A McLeod eliminates the need for dragging around a shovel, and a hoe, and a rake and a pick. There are multiple vendors online. Recently we bought one to be used at a remote cabin for $60 from Baileys, suppliers of a wide range of professional fire fighting tools.
--Mike Liebhold
McLeod Fire Tool
$75
Available from Baileys
Mail order xeric seedlings
A mail order supplier of dazzlingly hardy plants (mostly perennials) adapted to west of the Rockies. They specialize in drought resistance (xeric) varieties, which of course can be established in non-desert areas. Unlike many mail order outfits, they donít deal in seed, but in young seedlings. Although more expensive per plant, I've come to seek out seedlings as the way to plant flowers and shrubs. They seem to take off faster than both seeds or potted plants. Specimens arrive live in minimal (lightweight) but remarkably adequate packaging. I've experienced very low failure rates, and good growth rates.
–KK
High Country Gardens
Plants for the Western Garden
800-925-9387
More...
Superb garden clippers
My garden includes roses, blackberry and ivy vines, five kinds of fruit trees -- all plants that need constant pruning. So I carry my pruner on my belt. I probably use them a few dozen times every day. I have no idea why it took me so long to buy a pair of the best available -- Felco. It's got leverage! A handle shaped to the hand. If you prune a lot, you'll know immediately by the feel that these are the best. You can buy models for small hands, ergonomic models for gardeners with arthritis, left-handed ones. Forty dollars seemed like a lot for clippers but after decades of using inferior pruners I get pleasure every time I snip the Felcos.
-- Howard Rheingold
Felco F-8 Pruner
$30
Frostproof Growers Supply
800-635-3621
863-635-3620
Also from Amazon
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