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The Worm Factory 360 and The Earth Moved (With Video!)
When I first bought my own home years ago, there was one fact that made me particularly happy: as a responsible grownup and a homeowner, I was now allowed to get any pets that I darn well wanted, so long as I could take good care of them. No landlords or reluctant parents to tell…
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The Tuff-Guard Hose is Lightweight and Doesn’t Kink
One of my most dreaded tasks is when clients have a hose that hasn’t been rolled up properly, so it’s bent and folded and won’t go back into place. Being the responsible horticultural professional I am, if I touch something, I have to leave it perfect. However, rolling up a heavy, kinked hose is a…
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The Chicken Encyclopedia by Gail Damerow
I grew up a big-city gal, so when I moved to Humboldt County to go to college, I was amazed to find a field of cows just outside the backyard of my apartment complex. Passing by each day, I’d watch them grazing with an odd sense of unreality. Cows! Right there in town! With their…
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EZ-Walls Plant Protector Extends the Season and Keeps Chickens Off New Plants
When I tell people I live in coastal California, they get this delightful image in their heads of sunshine, warmth, and many opportunities to suntan. Unfortunately for my vitamin D quota, I live at the other end of the state. It’s foggy, rainy, and doesn’t get all that warm, even in the middle of summer.…
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Free-Range Chicken Gardens by Jessi Bloom
Jessi Bloom‘s new book Free-Range Chicken Gardens seems sure to be a new bestseller, because while the backyard-chicken trend has taken off, nobody has really stepped up to offer guidance on some of the issues common to owners of free-ranging hens, until now. In just four years of keeping my own tiny flock, I’ve had…
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Book Review: The Beginner’s Guide to Gardening
Katie Elzer-Peters is one of those dynamos of the gardening world who is so busy Getting Things Done that you may not have actually heard of her yet. But she’s been working behind the scenes on so many projects – nursery newsletters, writing articles for sites too numerous to mention, and mentoring authors with Cool…
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Lined Goatskin Gloves Keep Hands Warm For Winter Gardening
Us pro gardeners are pretty tough. Even so, every year I’m surprised at just how cold winter is. When you go out at 9 am to get a spot of pruning in, and find your breath catching in the cold, you start to appreciate all the little design elements in tools that keep you warm…
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Dirr’s Encyclopedia a New Industry Standard
***Timber Press is holding a giveaway for the new Dirr book! Details below.*** The internet has removed the need for so many types of book. Between the online nursery descriptions and search engine image searches, you can find basic information on many types of plant, and that’s often good enough. However, things become tricky when…
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The Visitor’s Guide to American Gardens
If your winter “gardening” is usually comprised of bulb and perennial catalogs, highlighters, and very little in the way of actual outdoor gardening, then I have a new tool to make your winter plotting that much more exciting. Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp has written The Visitor’s Guide to American Gardens, which is a beautifully-organized and…
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Kindle Awesome: Free Gardening Books for Amazon Prime Members
I was delighted to read about Amazon’s new Kindle lending library for Prime members, where we can choose from 5,300 books to borrow and read on our Kindle. While the list of people who have both a Kindle and an Amazon Prime account may be small, if you’re on that list (like me!) I think you’ll…
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Workin’ Like a Pro: Gardening Tools I Adore Right Now
You all know I’m a bit of a tool evangelist. After having countless employees bust up inferior tools during our 40-hour workweeks in the garden, I do get a bit swoony about the tools that last. But of course, merely surviving the garden isn’t good enough for pros. We do so much pruning, digging and…