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Video Review of Fiskars Powergear Hedging Shear
If you’ve hung around North Coast Gardening for any length of time, you know that I’m a sucker for tools that do multiple jobs well. This hedging shear is my go-to tool for cutting back perennials in fall and winter, pruning ornamental grasses and sword ferns in winter, and deadheading heathers and other plants that…
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Video Review of the Fiskars Pruning Stik, My Favorite Pole Pruner
Lightweight’s the name of the game for this pole pruner. I’ve been using these Fiskars Pruning Stiks for many years in my landscaping business and have not yet broken or had to retire one. Many pole pruners fail because they try to do too much – they have a saw, a lopper, they extend, and…
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Amy Stewart’s Wicked Plants Talk at Arcata’s Northtown Books
I had a blast recently seeing Amy Stewart speak in person at our local bookstore about her book, Wicked Plants. I’d seen her previously at our local garden show, but this was even cooler because the bookstore owner provided some wicked drinks for us all – gin and tonics using a fancy tonic water with…
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Wicked Plants Book Review (Video with Amy Stewart) Plus a Look Inside the Author’s Wicked Plants Garden
I’m a huge fan of Amy Stewart, and I’ve read everything she’s written, including her bimonthly column in our local newspaper and her writing at Garden Rant, so I was thrilled when I heard about her latest book, Wicked Plants. I’m a professional gardener and a total plant geek, so reading all about the wicked…
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The Last Bookstore in America by Amy Stewart: Video Book Review
OK, so this isn’t strictly gardening, but all ya’ll should know by now what a rabid fan of Amy Stewart I am. I love her writing on Garden Rant, I love Wicked Plants and the rest of her non-fiction books, and I love her chicken paintings. So when I heard she had released her new…
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Amy Stewart’s Wicked Plants Book has Arrived! (with Video and a Contest!)
Read to the end of the article to find out how you can win an autographed copy of Wicked Plants! Y’all know by now what a huge fan I am of Amy Stewart and her writing. As a plant geek, I love how accurate she is about the plants’ details (so many writers get basic…
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Lookin’ Sharp – How to Keep Your Garden Tools Clean and Sharpened (Video)
Wrapping up our series on the hand tools we use most in gardening, I want to show you my favorite sharpening tool, the Speedy Sharp, and how to use it to sharpen your pruning shears and your soil knife or hori-hori: Now, if you prefer to use a file to sharpen your shears, Fine Gardening…
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What to Brandish at Your Weeds: Hori-Horis, Soil Knives, and Trowels (With a Video Review of my Top Two!)
(Note – given how many people have emailed me in response to this post, I wrote an updated version which can be found here!) Weeding is one of those perennial garden tasks – we all do it, all year long, and while there are sprays and tools we can use from a standing position, most…
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Protective Gear That Won’t Slow You Down: Review of Gardening Knee Pads and Gloves
Many people avoid wearing gloves and knee pads to garden because they see these kinds of protective gear as getting between them and the experience of gardening. Either kneeling pads pinch the backs of your legs uncomfortably, or you can’t feel what you’re doing while wearing gloves. That’s totally valid, but there are things you…
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Hand Pruner Showdown: Felco VS Corona VS Bahco
Pruners are a sensitive topic among us gardeners. We all have our favorites and god help the person who champions a competing brand. But that’s what this pruner showdown is about, so please don’t throw tomatoes at me. (I’m only discussing bypass pruners here. Anvil pruners often crush the stems when they make a cut, so they…
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Where to Toss the Weeds? Buckets and Bags to Hold Garden Waste
This week, we’re honoring our love of gardening by taking a hard look at our rusty, underperforming hand tools, and seeing if there might be a better way to approach our routine gardening tasks. Gardeners really vary on how we like to deal with the trimmings and weeds we create when doing the rounds in…