Home and Garden Tips

Sunday, December 6, 2009

“Hoe, hoe, hoe! And other gifts for the gardener - Barre Montpelier Times Argus”

Hoe, hoe, hoe! And other gifts for the gardener - Barre Montpelier Times Argus

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 12:20 AM PST

Hoe, hoe, hoe! And other gifts for the gardener

By HENRY HOMEYER - Published: December 6, 2009

It's time again to pick the perfect present for Aunt Mabel and Uncle Melvin. If they're gardeners, the job is relatively easy. Go to your local family-run nursery and get a gift certificate good for a plant — or, better yet, three. They'll get what they want next spring and love you for it. Or get them a gardening book from your neighborhood bookstore. Local merchants need your holiday dollars much more than the big-box stores or the Internet giants.
That said, there are plenty of nice gifts from small businesses via the Web, and many can be ordered by phone if you aren't keen on Internet shopping.
One such small business is at www.GreenYankee.com. This is a site with information about gardening and how to tread lightly on the earth. It tells you everything from where to buy organic seeds to the current phase of the moon. It sells eco-friendly products, including a few of its own made in Massachusetts with recycled materials.
I got the company's garden apron made of upholstery material and like it. It will hold my pruners, a portable phone, a small notebook, my diabetes test kit, plant tags and more. Unlike most aprons, this one is guy-friendly: It has quick-release plastic fasteners so I don't have to tie a bow behind my back. Handsome and sturdy, it costs $18.95. Dec. 17 is the order deadline for delivery by Christmas. You can call David Zoffoli to get one at (978) 790-4394.
When I was a kid we had a claw-foot tub. Then we got a shower that gushed gallons of water. Later came water-saving nozzles, taking some of the fun out of scrubbing down after a day in the garden. This summer I got a nice compromise: a water-saving shower head on a flexible hose. It has five kinds of spray and introduces air into the mix to make it feel more powerful while saving water. It's part of the Evolution series, made by Oxygenics. It retails at $69.95 and may be available locally. I tested it and it used only 1.3 gallons a minute at full force. For information go to www.oxygenics.com or call (800) 344-3242.
Speaking of getting clean, my late sister, Ruth Anne, swore by a soap called Savon de Marseille after a day in the garden. A world traveler, she always bought it in France. I was recently delighted to find it for sale from Gardener's Supply, at www.gardeners.com or (800) 427-3363. It comes as a 2-1/2-inch cube of soap made from olive oil and sea products. I see they also have it in lavender. Santa? Are you listening? I want a bar. It's $9.95 for the original, $14.95 for lavender.
Also from Gardener's Supply is what seems to be the ultimate storage rack for onions, apples and winter squashes, called an Orchard Rack (Item No. 38-221). Made of rough-cut pine, it has six open, ventilated drawers. The whole thing is 40 inches tall. It costs $99.95 plus $20 shipping. I have just the spot for one of those, Santa. I've been good, too.
Books are good gifts. I favor practical books, books I can learn from. Lee Reich's new book, "Landscaping with Fruit," is one of those. He includes fruits like juneberry, also known as serviceberry, shadbush or saskatoon (Amelanchier spp.). He tells which species and which named cultivars are best for fruit, and which for their early spring blossoms. Each fruit gets three pages or more including information on hardiness, pollination requirements, season of interest, growth habits and growing tips. I learned so much in 15 minutes that I will have to get a copy; it's $19.95 in paper, $30 hardback.
Coffee table books generally don't do much for me, but Anna Pavord's "Bulb" is a combination of photos and great information. It's an encyclopedia of all the bulb plants. I love it because it has practical advice and wonderfully lyrical prose: She says of the martagon lily, for example, "it smells worse than a foxes den. But the martagon has a wonderfully wild soul and looks glorious at the edge of the garden ..." She tells you plant hardiness and soil requirements and adds suggestions for perennials to plant with some of these bulbs. It will help me to expand my palette of bulb plants. The book costs $39.95 in hardback.
Tools are good gifts. Go to your local garden center and get an inexpensive folding pruning saw. Everyone needs a spare. Or get a pair of bypass loppers with gears. Fiskars is a manufacturer that makes three sizes, and I have them all. They're lightweight but strong. The gears make cutting through bigger hardwood limbs easy. They're available locally or from Gardener's Supply; prices range from $33 to $60.
I've mentioned the CobraHead weeder before because it is the best weeding tool I've ever tested. I always keep two handy. They may be available locally, or can be bough for $24.95 at www.CobraHead.com or (866) 962-6272.
And of course I have three books in print. "Notes from the Garden," "The Vermont Gardener's Companion" and "The New Hampshire Gardener's Companion" are inexpensive, useful gifts. They're available locally or from me at www.Gardening-Guy.com.
Quality time with loved ones can be the greatest gift of all. Whatever you give, include a certificate good for a couple of hours of weeding. And then remember to do it next spring — without being asked!
Henry Homeyer lives in Cornish Flat, N.H.

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Saturday, December 5, 2009

“Perfect gifts for gardeners this holiday season - Bangor Daily News”

Perfect gifts for gardeners this holiday season - Bangor Daily News

Posted: 04 Dec 2009 08:23 PM PST

What would be the perfect Christmas gift for each of the gardeners on your list this year? I mean true gardeners, people with a passion for cultivating and nourishing the soil, those who do their own digging and planting.

While expanding last year's list, I still believe the best possible gift would be a pickup load of steaming composted goat manure, personally delivered in early spring, as soon as the soil can be worked. A promised pile of this aged mix of manure and barn litter, now dubbed "Nannyberries," is sure to bring a smile to any serious gardener's countenance on Christmas day.

Lynne Ahlblad and Barbara Brooks, owners and operators of Seal Cove Farm, have gift certificates for the finest goat manure compost that money can buy. Come spring, you or the recipient of your gift can pick up the "black gold" at their farm, located in Lamoine on Route 184, and meet the goats while you are there. Be sure to call ahead, 667-7127, to let them know that you are coming.

Another welcomed gift, particularly after this past season's woes, would be a personally assembled Slug Kit. It should contain a box of diatomaceous earth to apply around slug-sensitive plants after every rain — I'm not sure this really works, but it keeps the gardener's mind off the problem for a while; an old coffee can to collect hand-picked slugs along with a pound of salt to dissolve them; and a notebook with pencil for keeping a tally of the season's kills — the numbers become impressive and good fodder for over-the-fence discussions.

For the gardener who prunes, consider a personally assembled Pruning Tool Care Kit. It should include a sharpener for the blades of hand pruners and loppers, a small can of oil (Felco 980 spray or 3-in-one motor oil) for lubricating the moving parts of pruning tools, several balls of steel wool for removing rust and pitch, a bottle of isopropyl alcohol for sterilizing tools after each use, and a spray bottle for the alcohol. The sharpener and oil should be available at garden centers or The Felco Store.

Any serious gardener will appreciate a roll of natural jute twine, at least 500 feet or more. It has dozens of uses around the garden, from tying up tomato plants to binding bean poles, and it is biodegradable. Pieces too short to be saved will eventually rot, or find their way into birds' nests.

Equally essential to any garden are bamboo poles and wooded garden stakes, 6 to 8-feet long. There are never enough, as the old ones get shorter every year.

A roll of Velcro self-gripping tape to use as plant ties will make any gardener happy. Strong enough to hold tomato plants to their stakes or to support a vine against a trellis, the green tape can be cut to any length and reused year after year. Find it at Gardener's Supply Company, if not at your favorite retailer.

A native bee nest box is a gift that keeps on giving, ensuring pollination of garden flowers year after year. Directions for making your own nest boxes can be found at http://gage.unl.edu/ag/BeeBoxes.htm#plans. Ready-made boxes are available at several online stores and are starting to show up at local retailers.

Give the serious composter on your list a bale or two of straw (not hay, which contains weed seeds), a few bags of dry shredded leaves, or a truck-load of seaweed, collected above the high tide line, of course, to be delivered in spring.

How about a "Soil Test Gift Certificate"? You can get the sample boxes and forms, including instructions, from your local University of Maine Cooperative Extension Office.

A few years ago I presented Marjorie with a shallow terracotta bowl planted with paperwhite naricissus. I had planted them about a month before Christmas and kept them in a cool, dark basement to form roots. On Christmas day she placed them in a sunny window and by the end of January they were in full bloom, filling the house with their perfume.

Marjorie still remembers those paperwhites. They were the perfect gift.

Send queries to Gardening Questions, P.O. Box 418, Ellsworth 04605, or to rmanley@shead.org. Include name, address and telephone number.

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