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Landscape Designer’s Tools of the Trade: Best Measuring Tools
We’re coming up on that time of the year when most of us are doing more armchair gardening and garden planning than actual outside, in-the-dirt gardening, and one of the biggest challenges people encounter when they start measuring or plotting out their garden to create an overall plan is that their tools are woefully inadequate…
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Review of Fiskars Quantum Hedge Shear: How Does it Compare to the PowerGear Model?
Over many years of managing a fine landscape maintenance company – one which focuses on the pruning, training, and finer work in the garden beds rather than the mow ‘n’ blow-type service so ubiquitous in the field – I’ve developed some strong loyalties to the workhorse tools which make the day’s pruning faster, more comfortable,…
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Best and Worst of 2012: Trends, Colors, Books, Tools, and the Most Popular Articles
2012 was a great year for gardening in many ways – the sustainability movement made for some beautiful, fresh ideas (like the insect habitat art introduced by Flora Grubb) and the continuation of the less-lawn movement gave designers an excuse to go bold with the front yard, skipping the usual lawn-with-foundation-plantings in favor of water…
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Garrett Wade Professional Gardener’s Digging Tool
I’ve written a lot in the past about soil knives, because, well, they’re awesome. If you’re still gardening with a trowel or a dandelion fork, for goodness’ sake stop reading this post right now and go buy a soil knife. (Oh, wait – don’t stop reading yet, this is actually kind of relevant.) Soil knives…
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The Clarington Forge Rubber Rake: The Coolest Tool You Never Knew You Needed
Sometimes you come across a tool that solves so many problems you wonder how you went so long without hearing about it. The Clarington Forge rubber rake is one of those tools. “A rubber rake?” I hear you asking incredulously. “Really? WTF?” I’ll forgive you for asking, because if you remember our review of the…
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The Clarington Forge Rubber Rake: How To Change The Tines
This doesn’t need a lot of explanation, so I’ll get right to it: Here’s how to change the tines on your Clarington Forge Wizard or Merlin rubber rake.
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The Roo Weeding and Harvesting Apron
While I’m usually kind of a minimalist when it comes to new tools, I have to admit that my previous strategy for harvesting eggs, berries, squash, and apples wasn’t really working. For eggs, I would stick as many as I could into my pockets and my hands and try very hard not to smash or…
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Doofus-Proof Watering: Adjustable Sprinkler and Timer from Dramm
The initial plan for my home garden was to set up an automated drip irrigation system, but as my garden evolved, I realized how difficult it would be to make that type of setup work for me. Drip systems work best on gardens that have lots of individual shrubs and plants, and I have the…
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Bogs Gardening Shoes: Waterproof and Stink-Free
I don’t do many clothing reviews here on North Coast Gardening because most clothes made specifically for gardening are either not my style (I only like floral when it’s thorny and goth), or the manufacturers are so busy thinking about the stereotype of a Lady Gardener that they completely miss out on creating a product…
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Fiskars UpRoot Weeder: Armed and Dangerous (to Dandelions)
Tools have all kinds of personalities. There are the delightfully snooty British ones which make me feel like I ought to bring my good china out into the garden and wear a floral hat while digging. And the sturdy Japanese ones which transport me to ancient times and make me feel like a noble samurai-type…
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Garrett Wade’s Professional Pruning Saws and Loppers
Are pruning saws mostly the same from brand to brand? I certainly thought so. They cut things (some better than others), and some fold or have a pole attached, but otherwise, pretty similar in how well they function, right? Nope! After trying at least 10 brands of saw over the 16 years I’ve run a…