Garden Gadgets

 

 Weeding the easy way wit Wundaweeder. Now all we have to do is wait for some sunshine.

Can you remember those heady days of old when gardening was the ‘in thing’? Every other programme on the telly had someone showing you how to grow the biggest petunias or how to make decking the size of an ocean liner. How things have changed over the last four years with the recession. In their place TV moguls now bombard us with food programmes with members of the public putting themselves under immense pressure to make sure that their soufflé’s don’t deflate before the judges can lick the spoon and give them a nod of approval. I could do that, but I will stick to gardening for now.

I suppose cooking is seen as a more cost effective pastime than gardening. Ideally the two could be combined so the calories are being burnt off in the pursuit of growing at least some of the vegetables used in the latest stir fry.

Garden supply companies haven’t given up though. In fact a lot of them are becoming more and more inventive to find things that we never knew we needed and couldn’t live without in the garden. Cost is a big factor now as no-one can get hold of money, so most new innovations have to be at a bargain price. Let’s have a look at some of the new innovations on the market for the wanting gardener that will hopefully last all season and not end up in the bin after being used once..

The Latest Garden Gadgets

Wild Grass Solar Garden Lights. You can jam the plastic grass into the ground and make it appear as if you have random tufts glowing in the dark. If you have any extra gullible friends you could always convince them that the grass is a special variety that glows every single night.

Suntracking Beach Chair. This folding beach chair is unique in a sense that it can swivel 360º, enabling you to always face the sun without having to go through the hassle of getting up and moving the chair to realign its direction. Lazy gardening at its best.

Heated Weed Eliminator Tool. This unique device will kill weeds at the root using heat, making it environmentally safe as you go about zapping weeds without the need for chemicals that could harm surrounding soil, groundwater, plants or wildlife.

Wunda Weeder. An Australian inventor has created a device that creeps along the garden and lets you be far more comfortable. It’s called the ‘Wunda Weeder’. The structure is solar powered and propels itself slowly through the garden. This allows for you to weed, plant and transplant rows of vegetables, flowers and herbs. Even the radio is solar powered. Thanks to that big solar panel that also means you’ll be laying in the shade as you scoot through the garden. Along the side of the trolley are spots to put seeding trays or buckets. These devices will be best suited to large scale operations as it’s not the sort of thing you could store in the shed. Check out the prototype on the wonderweeder.com website

GOAT. If you can’t afford a ride on mower, then how about a lawnmower scooter? The Lawn Mower Scooter has an electric motor that can drive the blades and scooter. That means that you can ride on it while the blades are doing the work. It can reach up to 6 kilometres per hour, and it can collect the cut grass in a container. There is even a transparent window so you can see inside and tell when it is time to be emptied. Don’t come crying to me if you fall off though.

Poop prints. Having two dogs like us makes it hard to detect which one has made a mess on the kitchen floor in the morning. Of course they both look guilty; it’s a trick dogs have learned throughout the years. Now we have a way of finding out who the culprit is, we now have PooPrints, a company that tracks down the offending pooper using genuine DNA technology. I like it!

First of all you need a sample to obtain the DNA, this is sent off and stored. When you need to find out which dog did the business, send off the offending poop and it will be tested against the sample until a match has been found. This takes 5 days so by the time it comes to reprimanding your dog they won’t have a clue what’s happening to them. This could be (and probably will be) taken up by local councils to track down offenders in parks and on pavements.

Robotic lawnmowers. There not new and there are lots on the market. Has anyone actually got one? If so let me know how is performs. Paying 2000 euro for one of these machines would be a big investment for anyone.

Self Sufficient or Self Reliant?

Photo: Shopping Australian style. Local trading with sunshine!


Great Expectations
I dabbled in the world of ‘Self Sufficiency ‘for a long time, if you can do such a thing. It’s probably a bit like being ‘almost’ a vegetarian or ‘nearly’ stopping smoking. Attempting to become totally self sufficient in anything sets the bar of expectation so high that a majority of us would give up with a huge feeling of failure. I’m not sure if it’s the recession or just a shift in consciousness but the emphasis is changing from “Self Sufficiency to “Self Reliance”, which I am all in favour of because it potentially makes our lives that little bit easier.

So what’s the difference?
‘Self Reliance’ accepts the fact that we are interdependent on other people, but it still shows that we choose to trade as locally as possible for other products that we simply can’t produce ourselves.
‘Self Sufficiency’ tries to encompass everything in a daily life from producing your own food to making your own solar panels; it would mean you are able to maintain yourselves without any outside aid.
Both ‘reliance’ and ‘sufficiency’ can be achieved but total self sufficiency will leave you with little or no time to do anything else but provide for yourself and more importantly you wouldn’t be contributing to the local economy.

High water content
Vegetables have high water content and can be as high as 98% in cucumbers, but they are low in calories. If you grew 100% of your own vegetables it will provide you with 15-20%of your daily calorie amount, it’s bit like starving to death by eating celery as you use more energy eating it than you do from ingesting the nutrients. Most calories come from grains, meat and dairy products, so if we don’t have our own livestock or wheat field then we only really supply 25% of our own food needs. Self sufficiency gets more complicated when you look at other commodities like fuel, do you make your own? Will you save your seeds this year? Do you sew or make your own clothes and if so where does the wool come from? All questions that total self sufficiency would ask of you.

Trading Zones
I like the idea of trading with the local community for products and services. This is important at any time but seems to be even more vital in a recession. The old saying “if you want a job done well, do it yourself” seems a bit outdated now and simply shows poor management skills. We can make life easier by working together and putting our trading into Zones, suggested by author Toby Hemenway.
Zone Zero. This is your home and land and the relationship you have with it.
Zone1. Is the connection to other individuals and families.
Zone 2. Is dealing with local commerce and other activities in the immediate area.
Zone 3. Dealing with regional businesses and organisations in the country.
Zone 4. Larger and more distant enterprises.

By limiting the amount of times we need to use zone 4, by buying petrol or metal for example, and concentrating more on the zones 1-2, shopping, trading and socialising locally we build up a stronger community. There really isn’t much sense in staying in zone 1 all of the time, it would get very lonely.
Australian wisdom
The Australian “Father of Permaculture Bill Mollison makes a good observation in his Introduction to Permaculture book ““We can also begin to take some part in food production. This doesn’t mean that we all need to grow our own potatoes, but it may mean that we will buy them directly from a person who is already growing potatoes responsibly. In fact, one would probably do better to organize a farmer-purchasing group in the neighbourhood than to grow potatoes.”

So this year I can grow some tasty salad vegetables in containers and maybe join the Tidy Towns initiative to help clean up the streets and beaches to be a part of the community. It certainly takes the pressure off from the massive task of being “Self Sufficient”!

Making Space

Making Space
Not long after moving into our new/old house, we chopped back a lot of overgrown shrubs at the top of the garden. Although quite neglected and leggy, the rhododendrons and ... looked fine but we wanted to get a better feel of what sort of area we had and how much space we would eventually have for vegetables.
My intention after hacking down the shrubs was to hire a skip and have the lot taken away to be recycled at the council depot. We have close neighbours now and I don’t think a bonfire would go down too well as one of them usually has washing hanging up outside on the line.
All of the shrubs larger trunks have been cut with a chainsaw and put into an out of the way corner of the garden to season and dry out for next year when I can chop them up for burning in the fire.

Chimney Fires
Apparently there has been a big rise in chimney fires over the last 2 years and burning damp wood is one of the reasons mentioned as it forms an inflammable layer of oil in the chimney, another reason is the increase of wood burning stoves being used for more than just burning wood, anything and everything is being burned to save money. Another financial reason seems to be that people are not getting their chimneys cleaned as often because money is tight in the recession. I was told to add the potato peelings to the fire to clean the chimney. I’m not sure if it works but it does eradicate the small plants that sometimes grow in the compost heap from the potato peelings.

Saving Money
The remaining shrubbery has been piled high in the middle of the clearing and we decided that €120 for the skip hire was too much to pay. If we had a larger garden I could just leave the pile to rot down, but we need to get it moved. Our solution to the issue is to get lopping.
I have been working my way through the pile with the loppers, patiently chopping up the twigs into pencil sized lengths and filling up coal bags. It actually doesn’t take long to fill a bag and the resulting twigs added to the front room fire has actually been saving us money as we are using half the amount of coal as usual. So it’s a win, win situation. We have saved €120 on the removal of the waste and I would say we will save €100 on coal and the smaller waste that is too fiddly for the fire will go back into the garden as a mulch after I have passed it though the shredding machine. It’s also great exercise for me and the dogs as they enjoy chasing after the sticks and pulling them out of the bags after I put them in. Apart from the temporary mess there are no down sides to this form of recycling in the garden. I love it.

New Growth
As I am out lopping I’ve been spotting some new growth in the garden. It looks like we have a clump of crocosmia coming up and if the dogs stay off of the rockery area we should have some interesting geraniums popping up. I am not really ready to add more plants to the garden yet until we know what we have already, but if doesn’t stop me from looking at what’s new for 2012.

New Flowers for 2012
As usual there are a lot of new flower varieties out this year with something to please even the gardener who usually just grows vegetables, like me.

Argyranthemum 'Upsy Daisy Blush' Half-hardy Annual. These daisy flowers grow 1.5m (5’) tall in just a couple of months from a spring planting. These half-hardy climbing argyranthemums produce masses of 7cm (3”) wide blooms, that slowly fade from pink through to white,
Hibiscus 'Hardy Giants Collection' Rose Mallow, Mallow. Hardy Shrub. Superb Rose Mallows bearing huge flowers of up to 30cm (12") across! Bred in Nebraska by the Fleming brothers, the 'Van Gogh's', the shrub has short lived flowers that appear throughout the season.
Oleander Collection. Nerium. Hardy Shrub. Hardy summer patio exotic . The sweetly fragrant, funnel shaped blooms flower through the summer and well into autumn, followed by fascinating bean-like seed pods. They make a good hedge too.
Dahlia 'XXXL White'. Half-hardy Annual. A ‘dinner plate’ dahlia that doesn't need staking! Twelve years of breeding have produced this extra strong, extra sturdy Dahlia, with extra large blooms up to 30cm (12") across.
Buddleja 'Flower Power'Buddleja x weyeriana 'Bicolor', Buddleia, Butterfly Bush. Hardy Shrub. Blooms transform from deepest violet to rich butterscotch yellow for an enchanting kaleidoscope of colour. This colourful, low maintenance butterfly bush has a neat compact habit – just perfect for small gardens. Height and spread: 200cm (79").

These are just a few of the plants on offer and no doubt the local garden centres will be stocking even more as the season moved forward. It’s always a bit of a trial and error finding new varieties that will do well and thrive in our climate, but that’s the fun of gardening!

Book Review - “Vegetables for the Polytunnel and Greenhouse”

 

 Totally captivating. Klaus Laitenberger’s new book has loads of tips for the vegetable grower.

Costing the Earth

It looks like us gardeners are coming under a bit of criticism this week. New research from the University of Reading, the University of Sheffield, and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) suggests that, far from doing our bit to save the planet, we might be doing more damage.

According to the research, mowing, watering the lawn to the use of peat and pesticides all have a harmful effect on the environment say the new paper called “The Domestic Garden: Its Contribution to Urban Green Infrastructure”

I know I have mentioned before about garden centres and DIY stores seem to have more products on the shelves that kill things compared to products that help plants grow, so it’s no surprise to hear that gardeners are being advised to change their ways. Some gardeners are already changing and some of us with small lawns are abandoning petrol lawnmowers and opting for push types to save up to 36kg of CO2 every year. Another suggestion is to stop using lawn sprinklers that can use up to 1,000 litres of water an hour, that doesn’t really affect us in Inishowen though.

The paper also claims that planting a tree can take a decade to become "carbon neutral" and patios have a carbon price. A paved area of 25sqm has a one tonne carbon footprint. There has been a rising problem with flooding in some areas and covering areas in concrete is one of the factors blamed for this. I’ll take my chances and plan for the future though and plant even more trees.

The study also blames the gardening industry for being "directly responsible for the introduction of invasive species" by importing plants that escape from gardens "with huge consequences for native biodiversity and the economics associated with eradication measures".

The widespread use of peat by gardeners is also identified as a problem. Peat dug to be used as compost in the UK and Ireland releases half a million tons of CO2 a year – the emissions of 100,000 cars.
Senior advisors from the RHS are here to help though and will soon be advising us on how to create less environmental damage. Here are two tips for a starter from me. Grow organically using natural self sustaining methods without the use of chemicals and don’t concrete anything. Problem solved.

Polythene Tunnel

Klaus Laitenberger from Milkwood Farm in Leitrim has a new book out “Vegetables for the Polytunnel and Greenhouse”, and one of the points he mentions is that even with using the plastic covering on a polythene tunnel when we grow our own vegetables, we will still produce far less pollution and carbon emissions than if we go out to buy shop bought veg that some would have travelled half way across the world to get to us. He’s got a point

Book Review

Klaus Latenbrgers book “Vegetables for the Polytunnel and Greenhouse”
Klaus Laitenberger’s new book, “Vegetables for the Polytunnel and Greenhouse” compliments his earlier book “Vegetables for the Irish Garden” This fresh release is specifically aimed at growing vegetables under cover. As expected the range of crops we can grow under a bit of protection is far greater than out of doors and exposed to the extremes of our climate.
The book contains lots of useful information about choosing a site for either a polythene tunnel or a greenhouse and takes into account your individual budget. Klaus gives us step by step directions on propagation of the young vegetable plants, improving the soil pest and disease control and what confuses me even after 30 years, crop rotation.
There’s a month by month guide on caring for the plants in the tunnel and if things are planned well there’s no reason at all for the tunnel not to be providing some types of vegetables all year round.
There are some plants that just wouldn’t perform well out of doors in the tried and tested list Klaus has put together. The alphabetical list starts with Aubergine and ends with the Yacon. The Yacon is one of Klaus’s favourite vegetables, not only for taste but the fact that it stores starch as insulin, not as sugar. This makes it ideal for diabetics to eat. Interestingly enough the Yacon leaves were use by the Incas as toilet paper. Now there’s another money saving tip.
The book has some great photographs of earlier successes taken by Anna-Maya and Mary from Greenhill Farm in Malin and also includes some extremely attractive pencil drawings from the Thomas Etty Heritage Seed Company and Dympna O’Driscoll.
This captivating reference book, written by a gardener who loves to grow food is available from the Milkwoodfarm.com website as well as John and Mary Reilly’s farm in Malin.
Every polythene tunnel needs a raised bed, so if you need any tips and advice about how to include them into the garden I would like to remind you that my e-book “Raised Vegetable Beds for the Organic Garden” is now available at raisedvegbeds.com or through Amazon and will fit very neatly onto your virtual bookshelf!