Organic Gardening Magazine--a new face on an old standby

A featured article this month on raspberries in Organic Gardening Magazine

I haven't looked at Organic Gardening Magazine for years until a friend recently turned me onto one. Wow! What a transformation! It was one of the few magazines I ordered when I first got my place in the country and I poured over each edition taking to heart all the hints and ideas I could use.

This magazine and it's online edition is filled with great gardening techniques and ideas. Although eatable flowers may not be of interest to you, how to keep a peach tree free of disease is a great aid to a garderner. They have articles on landscaping, compost and soil, organic living and organic solutions. One very interesting article I found was a soil test you can do on you garden soil with includes 10 easy steps. This is something you can do in your own garden to determine how healthy your soil is. The online composting section has about twenty articles to peruse with plenty of tips and problem solving.

I was amazed with the Organic living section. Here you will find delicious recipes to use with your garden produce. What a great addition to any gardening magazine. The landscaping section has a good ariticle on how to keep grass from creeping into your ornamental beds.

Both the online and the magazine itself are a great buy for any organic gardener. It will keep you inspired and filled with new ideas and energy.

At Organic Gardening Magazine

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The Search for the Perfect Timer continues

It's time to get the hoses, the sprinklers and the timers out. It hasn't been terribly hot or dry, but nonetheless, summer is coming here in Northern California and with summer comes irrigation. I usually get set up with two timers in the garden plus some soaker hose on the strawberries as they are always thirsty(and hungry, but more about that later). Then I have one timer and a hose and sprinkler with each that I move around the yard to keep it nice and green.

What this means is that I have used many many timers to save myself the trouble of remembering to turn the water on, and more importantly to turn it off. I'm going to do a series on various times that I have tried, some successfully and some not. I got an Orbit Sunmate single port digital timer for review last fall, but waited until we might be using timers to review it. Digital means you can program it and single port means that it is to be used with only one hose and sprinkler.

It's supposed to be simple to program and indeed it is! You put in two AA batteries and turn a dial to clock set to put the current time in. No other buttons to push. That was a little startling. You just turn the dial to start time and set the time to begin watering. It's really simple once you realize that's all you have to do. The next dial setting how long you want the watering to be and you click in the minutes desired. Turn the dial again to say how often you want the watering. There you can choose every six hours up to seven day intervals. Then you turn the dial to Auto. I have to say this is one of the simplist timers I have ever programed. Even better, somehow I misplaced the instruction and was able to access them online and print them for myself without hours of searching and/or phone calls.

This timer has a rain delay so that you can stop the watering for a few days or less, and has a simple manual override so you can get an extra watering in when needed. I have hooked this on to the faucet and so far it has worked perfectly. All in all a smooth and very easy set up. Oh, but hey, if you're digitally challanged like me, you need to know to take the 6:00am plastic sticker off the time window before trying to set the time. I kept thinking it wasn't working, because the 6:00am didn't change as I tried to set the time. Duh! Otherwise for one port timers, this simple machine gets a 9 out of 10 for set up!

At Orbit Sunmate 91213 One-Dial One-Outlet Hose Tap Timer

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Southern Exposure Seed Catalog has heirloom and open poliinated seed

The seed catalogs have started coming and there is nothing more cheerful during the third week of snow and cold in January than to sit inside and thumb through the lovely pictures of flowers and vegetables and dream about the garden to come. Southern Exposure is located in Virginia and specializes in organic and mid-Atlantic seed, but serves the whole country and encourages seed saving and heirloom varieties.

What I like about this catalog is that it explains their perference for open polinated and heirloom seed and their rejection of GMO crops even though if people save the seed they buy from Southern Exposure, they have no reason to buy seed the next year. The price of the seed is comparable to other major seed stores and the planting information is extensive and very helpful. For example, with the open pollinated corn seed, they include tips on using mineral oil on the silk to discourage corn ear worms.
They also include a section on gifts for gardeners.

In all, a really informative and helpful gardening catalog well worth having no matter what part of the country you garden in.

At Southern Exposure

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TELESCOPING POWER-LEVER BYPASS LOPPER IS A TIMELY GIFT

I decided to try this lopper on a neighbor's pear tree that the bear wrecked, breaking limbs while it ate all the fruit. Just one look at the tool lets you know it is good quality. The feel of it is heftly and strong. The tight-Lock flips up to extend tool, and flips down lock handles at desired length and there was no wobbliness or give when cutting with the lopper extended. The cuts were clean and easy so that it went right through 1 1/2" limbs and worked even on slightly larger ones. There was n struggle to make the cut. When extended the handles are a wide reach apart but that didn't affect the way it cut. A really sweet tool which I will use for many years. I want to thank Fiskars for the opportunity to review this item.

At TELESCOPING POWER-LEVER® BYPASS LOPPER

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The Experiment in Aphid Control Continues

Aphids have an unfair advantage. I've just read the life cycle of aphids and discovered that if the food source dwindles, they can grow wings and fly off to find new sources. Furthermore, they can reproduce by parthnogenesis and give live birth to a smaller version of themselves. I think I have to take them more seriously!

So I sprayed one aphid infested plant with Green Light Home and Garden Insect Spray and indeed there are less aphids on the plant. Definitely a partial success. But now I'm thinking I have to do all the kale and the broccoli to keep the aphids from migrating to new plants. Freezing weather does not seem to be a problem for them.

Check it out - it will make you weep.

At Green Light Organic Bioganic Home & Garden Insect Contol Spray - 24 oz Spray #80224

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Fiskars Stainless Steel Florist Bypass Pruner makes tedious trimming easy

Fiskars has developed this florist pruner which cuts 1/2 limbs and has twine cutter and a stem stripper. It's three jobs in one easy to handle tool. The pruner works for both right and left handers, and although I cut and trimmed deadheads from the roses and cut the stalks of the hollyhock, my fingers and thumb never got tired or strained. You also get the choice of non stick coated blades or stainless steel. These pruners are able to do very fine cuts to take out small twigs and branches without mistakenly cutting the decorative leaves or flowers. Sweet! Thanks to Fiskars for sending us in some to review.

At Fiskars 9821 1/2-Inch Cutting Capacity Stainless Steel Florist Bypass Pruner

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Review: Loop Handle Bypass Pruner with Carabiner Clip From Fiskars

Fiskars was kind enough to send me a set of pruning tools to review. It is always a pleasure to handle a well made tool and Fiskars tools are top of the line. I first tried the Carabiner Clip Bypass Pruner and found that it is light weight and cuts green wood like smoothly and cleanly. They have added the Carabiner clip so that the pruner can hang on your belt while you weed or mulch and then suddenly see the limb that needs clipping. I tried this tool on roses, fir tree, fig tree, apple and pear and discovered that both 1/2" and 3/4" limbs came off with ease. It also has a niftly lock nut that keeps the shears from opening and knicking you while you work.

Cutting with them is a breeze, and the handles are excellent.

At Fiskars and Fiskars Carabiner Clip Bypass Pruner

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