Yard Machines 19″ corded electric mulching lawn mower
Now, electric mowers are not for everyone; if you have a huge yard or a lawn service you are still going to need to burn some fossil fuels to get the job done. But for the rest of us it is worth switching over to an electric mower like this Yard Machines 19″ corded electric mulching lawn mower. It works as either a mulcher or a rear bagger and is available from Clean Air Gardening for $229.99
I grew up fascinated by Gasoline engines, and learned my way around a wrench by working on the family’s gas powered lawn mower. I felt kind of sad when I pushed my last gas powered lawn mower out to the curb. I soon added the gas powered string trimmer that had stopped working to the pile as well. But I’m a realist; and the facts are that small gasoline powered motors pound for pound are not small polluters. Couple that with all the oil changes, tune ups, and runs to the gas station it was becoming evident that an electric machine was really the way to go. I’ve never looked back.
Friday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
English Carbon-Steel Spades and Forks
In my home town, we don’t have basements. We have a pre-prepared list of excuses we give to those out of towners that ask: · We don’t have to dig below a frost line here; we don’t have frost. · This is Texas; we have lots of space so we just build out horizontally. · We don’t want to be accused of Urban Gas Drilling. But the truth is that just a few inches below the surface around here we have rocks; and we’re not talking a few rocks here and there but honest, proper, tool shattering rock. If you dig down and don’t find rock your house was probably built on a landfill and you have bigger problems. It’s just not worth the hassle of digging up anything near as large as a basement. The above ground pool people do a booming business. But if you are the adventurous sort and plan on doing some serious earth moving you might want to take a look at these. We’re talking spades and forks made out of English carbon steel and American ash handles so that they are tough enough to stand up to the kind of punishment and abuse that environments like my home town dish out. Ash is the hardwood they make baseball bats out of; You are going to have to work to break one of these handles. They carry a 10 year warranty but I bet your grandkids will be fighting over them some day. English Carbon-Steel Spades & Forks are available from Lee Valley. Prices range from $49 to $89
Thursday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
Cool Garden-themed indoor Décor
These recycled metal branches are cast from real twigs and help create unique flower arrangement. Your flowers become true eco-friendly works of art with this sculpture/flower holder. Available from VivaTerra.com for about $80.00 for one, $150.00 for two.
Sunday ~ November 11, 2007 by kswanson56 Posted in Garden Sculpture, Gardening Lifestyle | Add Your Comments
Hose Bowl Planter
The trouble with garden hoses in my experience is that most of them are lawn colored. Now this may be a boon to those who are more organized or indeed have better eyesight than me; you can leave your hose out while watering the lawn and not have it stick out like a sore thumb. For me it simply becomes a hazard because invariably the hose winds up wrapped around the blades of my mower; such is the nature of camouflage. These days I prefer a easier to avoid yellow hose but then my lawn then looks like…Well, it looks like a lawn with yellow hoses. Hose reels are no more attractive either because now not only can people see the hose it’s elevated and there’s this big contraption looking like part of a medieval siege engine hiding in your bushes. But not to worry, this ingenious product takes care of the organization and hides the hose nicely to boot. This nifty poly resin bowl has a hole in the back to feed the hose through, and inside you can coil up 75 feet of “as ugly as you want it” garden hose. The lid doubles as a planter perfectly hiding whatever color water hose you may keep in there. The Hose Bowl Planter is available from Skymall for $59.99
Sunday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools, Serious Gardener | Add Your Comments
Solar Lily Pond Island
We’ve been using solar energy to create electricity for ages. My father has a solar powered AM radio that is probably older than I am…or at least it looks like it. Now there really isn’t anything I want to listen to on AM anymore but the geek in me still finds it fascinating. So I’m working on converting my electric lawn mower to solar power and I come across this solar fountain. I don’t have a pond in my back yard but I’m going to hand my kid a shovel when he gets home from school tomorrow; this thing is just cool. It’s a floating lily pad made out of ABS plastic 9 inches in diameter. It has a built in solar powered pump that moves 25 gallons an hour and an adjustable spray pattern. Now I know that traditional fountains do not pull a huge amount of electricity anyway, but you have to run wires and then hide wires and all those kind of things that just take the fun out of something like this…for me anyway. With this fountain, you just let it float around the pond and as long as there is sunlight you have a fountain; and if it’s dark you can’t see it anyway. The Solar Lily Pond Island is available for $49.99 from SkyMall. 
Wednesday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Ponds and Water Features | Add Your Comments
Bigfoot…He looked so much bigger in those blurry photographs
I’m just really not a garden gnome kinda guy. Any positive feelings I may have had towards those little guys has been thoroughly and completely driven out of me by travel commercials. But this little guy I could see putting in my yard. By little, I mean compared to the real thing…if there is a real thing of course. This bigfoot, yeti, or sasquatch statue stands over two feet tall and is made out of durable resin so he won’t be disappearing any time soon. It’s also hand painted for realism. Well, Realism may not be the right word; or so they say, but who am I to judge. The Big Foot Garden Statue is available from Skymall for $98.95. Much less than a trip to the Pacific Northwest (for most of us). 
Monday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Sculpture | Add Your Comments
Eucalyptus Outdoor Slat Bench
No, the answer is in forest management. The Forest Stewardship Council is a non-profit organization founded in Germany “to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests”. It’s a complicated process but basically it insures that trees that are cut are replanted and some thought is given as to which trees are cut and when. When you find the FSC logo on a piece of furniture, like this Eucalyptus Slat Bench, you can sleep easy knowing that the wood used came from responsibly managed forests. Many people only think of Eucalyptus as the trees those koala bears crawl around in for Australian air line commercials. But the true is that Eucalyptus is a great wood that is strong and resists rot. In other words, it is an excellent material for use in outdoor furniture. Also, Eucalyptus trees are used as a natural means of soil conservation and malaria control due to their ability to draw excess water out of the ground. All of which brings us to this excellent Eucalyptus Slat Bench. It measures 49 inches wide, by 20 inches deep and 35 inches high; and of course it carries the FSC approval. It’s available for $279.99 from Clean Air Gardening.
It is a common misconception that simply reducing the amount of wood we use will actually save forests; I know it seems counter intuitive but often the opposite is true. Much of the wood we use for construction, furniture, and paper are grown just for that purpose. The harsh reality of this world is that people who own land intend to make money with it and if you can’t make money growing timber you turn that land into a pasture, or a parking lot.
Friday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Furniture | Add Your Comments
Electric Snowblower
Then I moved to Utah for a job and for the first time snow, along with the street names, were something that kept you from getting where you needed to go. That is; until you got used it and figured out how to use a snow shovel (and a grid style street layout). I’m older now though and if I still lived in a climate where snow was more than an oddity I would absolutely have to have one of these. It’s a snow blower; and it’s electric. That means no more getting up on a cold morning and wresting a heavy gas snow blower out of the garage only to find out it won’t start or you’re out of gas. The Electric Snowblower weighs only 20 pounds, clears a foot wide, 6 inch deep swath per pass. It’s available from Clean Air Gardening for $139.99
I grew up in Texas; where the fabled activity of shoveling snow was something they only did on TV shows for the week or so before Christmas. We got snow once in a while, sure…. If it was in your way you scraped it aside with your foot.
Thursday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
Glass Wasp Traps
Sure, if you have a wasp problem there are a plethora of effective poisons you can buy in a spray can to take care of the problem but there is a better solution: These glass wasp traps. All you have to do is hang these specially designed glass containers with a bit of fruit juice in the bottom wherever you see the wasps hanging out. The wasps fly in, can’t find a way out, and eventually drown. It’s an earth friendly solution that is non-toxic, reusable and best of all doesn’t harm the more useful bee population. You get three glass bottles when you order the Glass Wasp Trap set from Skymall for $24.99
Every since I was a kid I’ve been creeped out by wasps. While exploring my Grandfather’s farm I found an old fallen down farm house with a hand pump water spigot. Being a curious lad, I had to give it a couple of pumps not realizing that a family of wasps had set up housekeeping in the pump body and were none too happy to be disturbed. I learned an important lesson that day — wasps are not your friend.
Thursday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Natural Pesticides and Fertilizers, Organic Gardening | Add Your Comments
Pine Cone Collection Tool
The Coneivore may have a bit of a silly name, but when it comes to picking up pine cones it’s a serious tool. . You just push it down on top of the cone and when it’s full (about 20 cones or so) you just turn it upside down and dump it wherever you find appropriate. It weighs in at less than three pounds empty and is right at three feet long. Word is it works with apples, walnuts, baseballs, tennis balls, golf balls and all manner of items with a similar size and shape. A true multi-tasker, the pine cone picker upper tool is available at Clean Air Gardening for $39.99Euell Gibbons used to say that parts of a pine tree are edible; but I don’t think he was talking about pine cones. Oh, they have their uses, don’t get me wrong but in any case those uses involve picking the things up and as someone cursed with a bad back I avoid doing anything that would involve stooping over. Worse still, they are bad for your lawn and enough of them creates a fire hazard. Luckily, we have options.
Tuesday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
Leaf Pick up tool
Picking up leaves doesn’t get much easier than this! This handy leaf pick up tool works like a rake and shovel in one combined tool. Here’s more info from Amazon.com, where this tool goes for around $17.00. “Easily picks up all types of yard debris. Constructed of resin and reinforced steel. Lightweight and easy to use. 49″ green steel handles with orange plastic grips. Orange resin rake and shovel scoop design makes cleaning the yard effortless.”
Monday ~ November 11, 2007 by kswanson56 Posted in Garden Tools, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle | Add Your Comments
Garden Gnomes
It was in Gräfenroda, Germany back in the mid-1800’s that August Heissner and Phillip Griebel started the whole Gnome thing. They were making a line of terra cotta animals for people to decorate their garden with and since according to local folklore Gnomes would come during the night and help you with your garden they thought it only natural to add the mythical creatures to their line. The idea caught on and spread across the globe; each country adding its own style and design. Now the original Gnomes were made out of terra cotta, and while I think authenticity is a groovy thing and all (I only buy plastic lawn flamingos with the authentic artists signature under the tail) there is a problem; terra cotta is rather fragile and I think we all have quite enough broken stuff laying about. So modern technology prevails in the Gnome world…and I’m not talking about those cursed travel commercials. These Gnomes are made out of unbreakable weather resistant Resin. You can order the Garden Gnomes in a set of three for $79.00, or just buy the individual Gnomes for $29 from Smith and Hawken. You can also find a great selection of various other garden gnomes here.
Monday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Sculpture | Add Your Comments
Gardening Sieve
To fill this great void we have a simple device that has been around for ages. You see archaeologists using stuff like this, and those guys on that crime show with all the Who Music. Its basically a box about a foot and a half wide with handles to grab hold of and a 1/2 inch screen to sift out the big rocks and debris while still letting the soil flow through for your projects. Leaving you with just the dirt, because that’s sometimes all you want. The Gardening Sieve is available at Clean Air Gardening for $79.99, a sum I would happily pay to have all that time back I spent picking out rocks by hand.Sometimes you just want the dirt. I’m not talking about the colorful tabloids you see in the line at the mega mart, or on websites like smoking gun or the drudge report. I’m talking about real honest to goodness dirt. I remember getting a big ole bag of what was supposed to be just plain sand one time for a project and spending way more time that I wanted (which let’s face it, is any time at all) picking out rocks and twigs and broken glass one piece at a time. For a long long time.
Saturday ~ November 11, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
