Brill Razorcut 38 reel mower. You push, it mows!
Looks like Brill has updated the design of their German made reel mowers with the introduction of the Razorcut 38 push mower. I, for one, am glad that they changed the name from Luxus 38 to Razorcut 38. I don’t know how many times I heard people call the old one the “Lexus.” The Brill Razorcut has an updated handle design that is stiffer, and nicer looking. They also added a “spoiler” along the back side that does a little bit better job of preventing grass from getting on your shoes when you are pushing the mower. You can add a grasscatcher to it, if you want. But if you do, be sure to compost the grass clippings! Don’t throw them into the landfill. 5 blades. Weighs just 17 pounds. Has a 15 1/2″ wide cut. Goes from .75 inches to just under 2 inches for the maximum cut. The Brill Razorcut 38 reel mower is available from Clean Air Gardening.
Wednesday ~ January 01, 2008 by Ulrich Posted in Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
The Garden Insect DVD
“Son, what’s this one? Should I kill it?” “No Dad. That’s a Patagonian whooping caterpillar…they kill mosquitoes and find truffles. People pay good money for these” “Oh …How ‘bout this one? “That’s the dog, Dad. Not an insect,” “Are you sure? He looks kinda shifty…” “Yeah…See, the collar? That’s our phone number there…it’s a dead giveaway” “That’s our old number…that’s why I thought….” “Trust me” I think he’s just getting revenge on me. If you don’t have a entomologist for a son, or just don’t trust the little monster this DVD could help. It’s 50 minutes long and was made by filmmaker who also is a organic gardener. It teaches you which bugs are which and which ones are helpful and which ones will eat your socks. The Garden Insect DVD is available from Clean Air Gardening for $24.99
My kid knows everything about bugs. It’s my fault really; when he was just a toddler I used to tell him that whales were insects and giraffes lived in the ocean and all sorts of nonsense. I never expected him to believe this stuff but when he started school and found out I’d been messing with his head he set out to find his own answers rather than asking me. Well, it’s paid off because now when I come across some insect in the back yard I just drag him away from the video games and get him to identify it
Sunday ~ January 01, 2008 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools, Natural Pesticides and Fertilizers, Organic Gardening, Outdoors | 1 Comment
Steam Punk Rain Gauge
But it’s moved beyond the realm of fiction literature. People are remaking modern equipment such as home computers and TVs with lots of ornate brass and wood work to give the overall effect of steam powered Victorian era contraptions put together by some mad scientist. Along those same lines we have Jeffersonian Steampunk Rain Gauge. This 31” tall contraption made out of glass and brass not only gives you that quaint Stempunk look in your garden but it’s actually a functioning rain gauge; and it even has a lifetime guarantee. The rain gauge is available from Clean Air Gardening for $159.99 
Steam Punk, it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days. The term came from a parody of cyber punk and originated in the fiction works of authors such as K. W. Jeter and Tim Powers. Those authors themselves derived a great deal from HG Wells.
Tuesday ~ December 12, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Sculpture, Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
The Aluminum Can Crusher
The upshot of this is that I find myself swimming in aluminum cans pretty much constantly. Oh we have special trash cans for the recycled cans; but by the end of the week the cans just roll off the over full receptacle and onto the ground. But there is a better way. This nifty little gadget seems to be just the thing. You put the can in, pull the handle and squishes it flat. It then dumps it into its own container. You’re on your own when it comes to getting it out to the recycling bin. The Aluminum Can Crusher is available from Clean Air Gardening for $79.99
They say the body is 60 percent water. Having grown up shuffled between home where the water was a none-too tasty municipal concoction and my grandparents who lived in a city in Arkansas quite literally named after its horrible tasting mineral water I got out of the habit of drinking the stuff. I’m pretty sure I’m in fact 60 percent carbonated water.
Sunday ~ December 12, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
Ultra-Bright Double Spotlight
Like garden lighting; a host of companies are making practical, usable pathway lighting at reasonable costs. Until recently, however, most of the solar powered spots were a bit lacking. I have a friend who installed a pair of bargain basement garden spots on the side of a building to light up a sign. He carefully measured out and mounted the spots, aimed the solar panels at the sun, and that night walked and looked up at the sign. I won’t repeat what he said but let’s just say you could sort of tell they were on but that was about it. These 16 LED equipped spots show promise, however. They light from dusk till dawn, and are bright enough to actually be considered spots. In addition, unlike the cheap ones you find out there, you can put the solar panel up to 15 feet away so you can even put the spots inside and have the panel outside. In any case if you need to light up statuary in your garden, or need to light up the inside of your shed. This might just be the eco-friendly solution you have been looking for. The Ultra-Bright Double Spotlight is available from gardeners.com for $89.95
I’ve said it before, I have a soft spot for solar. The idea of us having so much grief over energy when the surface of our planet is being constantly bombarded by solar energy just seems so absurd on so many levels. Now, I understand that for a whole heck of a lot of applications solar is just not a practical solution. Panels that put out any kind of REAL power are expensive to make and therefore expensive to buy. But that doesn’t mean that we should do everything we can to capitalize on this relatively free energy whenever it is practical.
Saturday ~ December 12, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools | 1 Comment
Chicken Coop Cubbies
It took a lot of guts for a city kid like me to evict the feathery tenant of each compartment; at my age the birds were about eye level and would peck right at your face. But the pay off was worth it…especially when you got that mystical double yoke egg and could be sure that Grandma would cook that one for you. Last time I was up there, just before we sold off the old family farm, the old chicken coop was no more. They tell me it just plain fell down in a storm some years ago. I would have hauled it back home no matter what the neighbors said because in addition to the sentimentality I feel for such things in my ever so evident middle age it was just about the right size for a decent garden shed and all those compartments…well I guess I’m not the only one who thinks they could be put to less odorous uses. Obviously whoever came up with this idea had a similar childhood to me. Available in two sizes each unit gives you rows of individual cubbies to put whatever you might need to stow. Each compartment features an upturned lip to keep the The Small Chicken Coop Cubby measures 27 1/2″ W, 11″ D, 26″ H and the larger one is 34 1/2″ W, 15″ D, 30″ H. From Smith & Hawken
When I was a child I when most kids went to summer camp me and my sister would go to see my grandparents on their little farm up in Arkansas. I did go to a summer camp one time and we were the lucky ones, I can assure you. Nights I would sit up and listen to hum of the antique oscillating fan in my room while I read Louis L’Amour novels and the only work I had to do in the morning was go out to the little chicken coop and get to get eggs for breakfast. I would open the door to the coop and once my eyes would adjust to the darkness I could make out which of the little compartments held chickens; and by extension the eggs. eggs items from sliding out onto the ground. They are made out of naturally weather resistant cedar rather than cheaper wood which would have to be either painted (painting over natural wood grain always makes me sad) or otherwise finished to protect it from the ravages of time. If only my grandmothers coop were made so well.
Thursday ~ December 12, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Furniture, Garden Tools | 1 Comment
Frog Sundial
Right off the bat I can tell you that this sundial is pretty useless for telling time after dark. In fact, if you really need to be somewhere at a specific time you are probably better off using a cheap wrist watch than you are trying to figure out the time of day from a sundial. But that doesn’t make this time piece any less of a great addition to your garden. It’s made of cast aluminum with a baked on finish for years of daylight only time keeping and can either be mounted on it’s optional pedestal or placed directly on the ground. Tell your kids it’s the way you had to tell time when you were a kid…even use the match joke. But be warned; my kid won’t even believe me about black and white TV. The Frog Sundial is available for $69.00 from Smith & Hawken.
Pappy Boyington, the WWII Fighter Ace, wrote about making a sundial in the Japanese POW camp he was held in after being shot down in the pacific. The prisoners made the sundial out of boredom and when one of the not so bright guards asked how you would tell time with it after dark, they replied “use a match”. The guard took a while to think about it before realizing he had been had.
Tuesday ~ December 12, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Sculpture, Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
Mission Poly-Wood Sofa, Loveseat, Chair, Ottoman, and Coffee Table.
Craftsman furniture builders built this furniture out of the then-abundant quarter sawn white oak that they fumed with ammonia to naturally darken the wood from the reaction the fumes had with the natural tannins in the wood. They chose quarter sawn wood because of its inherent strength, and they chose white oak because it is strong, durable and resistant to weather. By design the furniture de-emphsized the grain of the wood and drew the eye instead to the strength and practicality. Well, that was then and this is To Gustav Stickley furniture was a movement; a philosophy of function over form and a celebration of design and engineering. He produced a periodical called The Craftsman that came filled with plans for everything from furniture to entire houses. As an insult, his detractors referred to this furniture as mission furniture…implying that his designs were crude and unsophisticated; Stickley preferred the term craftsman, but Mission stuck and it is no longer considered an insult by any means.
now. Stop by any woodworking shop and you’ll find that quarter sawn white oak, if they even have it, is one of the more expensive hardwoods. There are only so many trees left of sufficient size. But instead of depleting our dwindling white oak supply these pieces are made from poly-wood. It’s a material that is made from re-cycled plastics and although it can be worked like wood, and used like wood it is resistant to…well…just about everything. You can put this in your house, on your patio, wherever and it will stay pretty much like new forever. The Mission Poly-Wood Sofa, Mission Poly-Wood Love Seat, Mission Poly-Wood Chair, Mission Poly-Wood Coffee Table and the Mission Poly-Wood Ottoman all pay tribute to this great philosophy of practical design and they are available from Clean Air Gardening.
Sunday ~ December 12, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Furniture, Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
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
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
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
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
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
Oxygenating Watering Can
The Oxygenating Watering Can holds a full gallon of water, uses very little electricity, and is available from Clean Air Gardening for $89.99The proof is in the results. University tests confirm that increasing the content of oxygen in the water you feed your plants results in larger flowers, more veggies, and overall healthier plants. When I first read about this thing I did a search on oxygenation of water and electrolysis and the science behind it and…Well, I’m going to leave that to the scientists. But the process to use this is simple enough. You fill it up with water, plug it in for about five minutes and water your plants with it. The design may be rocket science but using it surely is not.
Tuesday ~ October 10, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Container Gardening, Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
Rolling Pecan and Nut Picker Upper…It may not bring you the remote…
You can absolutely trust me when I tell you that there are better tools available for this job and they don’t cost near as much as a teenager. The savings on Xbox games alone…. After the failure of my original plan I started looking at tools to more efficiently pick up the pecans and I gotta say this is the coolest I’ve found so far. It is basically a wire spring ball on the end of a four foot long handle and it will pick up nuts whether you can see them or not (You know, in case you don’t have that fantasy golf course lawn), just by rolling it over them. It holds about two quarts of nuts before you empty it out and works for all kinds of things you might have that are roughly pecan size. It is available from Clean Air Gardening for $64.99I have several pecan trees in my yard and 14 years ago I came up with what I thought was a brilliant plan. I convinced the wife that we should have a son. I was young and naïve; I could picture vividly a dutiful son who would bring me the remote when I left it on the TV, do all the more demanding yard work, and this child would delight in picking up all those pecans laying all over the well manicured golf course like lawn I would surely have …well…You can probably guess what reality is like. The kid usually loses the remote, breaks the lawn mower, and when we send the now 14 year old to gather the years harvest he sulks in with half a dozen pecans and goes back to killing zombies on his Xbox. The next day as I go out to my car I hear the sickening crunch as I find all the ones he missed in the ankle tall grass; Kids today.
Sunday ~ October 10, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
Electric Leaf Shredder
Well, here is one solution that I thought was flat out brilliant. It’s an electric leaf shredder. Basically, we have a funnel that dumps leaves down into the body where a string trimmer chops the leaves into tiny pieces and then deposits the resulting particles directly into a bag. Eleven full bags get condensed down to a single bag; And the resulting particles compost faster so you don’t wind up with a back yard full of leaf bags. The electric leaf shredder is lightweight, stores easily and is available from Clean Air Gardening for $179.99.I felt bad for him, I really did. He was new to the neighborhood and obviously cared about his lawn a great deal. The first weekend he spent trimming and edging the long neglected lawn of the house he had just bought, and when I left for work the next morning there on the curb were four bulging bags of leaves sitting, waiting, for a trash truck that would never come. See, our city like many municipalities had decided to stop picking up lawn clippings and bags of leaves. It makes sense, from a practical stand point, because rather than fill up the landfill that plant matter is better returned to the land from which came. But in the short term, what is to be done with all those leaves?
Wednesday ~ October 10, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
The Copper Pig Watering Can
It’s the year of the pig in the Chinese Zodiac; the fire pig, to be exact. They say that people born in the year of the pig are caring, tolerant, sensitive, optimistic, obliging, honest, altruistic, and hospitable. I’m not sure I buy all that but I know that this pig watering can is a heck of a lot cooler than the one I have. From a functional standpoint I guess there really isn’t that much difference. It’s made out of tin and holds a half gallon of water. But can you just leave your watering can out on the shelf in the living room without it looking like…well…a watering can? Obviously, that isn’t the case here. In fact, it would look perfectly fine sitting on the shelf just for decoration but that would be kind of a waste. The Copper Pig Watering Can is available from Smith and Hawken for $49.
Saturday ~ October 10, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Garden Tools | Add Your Comments
Fall Leaf Collecting Tools
Fall is here! Soon, your yard will be filled with leaves that will need to be picked up. While you’re shopping for leaf collecting tools, why not buy something for a friend or neighbor as a gift? They’ll thank you for it. Read this handy article about leaf collecting tools, it makes the decision making easy and has some great gift suggestions!
Wednesday ~ October 10, 2007 by kswanson56 Posted in Garden Tools, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle | Add Your Comments
