Favorite Garden Tools, Part II

Posted on May 21, 2013 by insidethegardengate

Gloves, Rakes and Weeders

It’s been a busy several weeks here at the Veggie Cage test garden location. It was such an extraordinarily late and wet spring. But when the weather decided to cooperate with the calendar, it was such a sudden transition fom 50’s and wet soil to mid-80’s with abundant sunshine that we’ve been scrambling to get our plants in the ground. So here, finally, is Part Two of “Favorite Garden Tools.”

Gloves

Every spring, I stock up on garden gloves. I’d love to go the all-premium route when it comes to gloves, but I’m a little hard on them and I like to use more than one kind. No matter what kind of gloves you prefer, the most important feature is fit. If you have smallish hands as I do, gloves with too much room at the fingertips are close to useless. But if you can get them early while a full range of sizes is available, the cheap ones will usually do just fine.

What I did not scrimp on is my treasured pair of gauntlet gloves. While I use them only a few times each season, they are indispensable when I need them. I am happy to say that it’s been several years since anyone has asked me, “What happened to you? Do you have a cat?” after trimming out the roses or cutting down last year’s fountain grass. Gauntlet gloves may seem like a luxury, but once you own a pair, you will never go back to bleeding forearms. Here’s the pair that I own, which I would highly recommend.

And yes, they come in a true size Small. Nice. Available at http://www.theearthlywayretail.com/deluxe-rose-pros/

Telescoping Rake

Several years ago, when the Veggie Cage test garden was in its infancy, our local newspaper held its first “MostBeautifulGarden” contest. Since then, the garden has had a complete re-do, with larger beds, prettier paths and a much-improved gate. Still, that first garden had the basic bones in place, with raised beds on the inside and flower beds surrounding 3 sides outside, enclosed with rustic fencing. My husband and I both wanted to enter our garden into the contest, but our opinions on how to go about it were completely different. My idea was go out there, find anything that was not quite perfect, work like a dog until it was perfect, then take the entry photos. I intended to do just that, the minute I had a free half-day,. His idea was simpler: get the camera, take the photos, send them in — which is what he did one morning when I wasn’t home.

When I saw the photos he sent in, I was appalled. He had taken them from the second floor window of our farmhouse, shooting right through the screen! He didn’t even roll up the hose first, so there it was in the photo, all sprawled across the grass. What kind of prize was that going to win? Well, honorable mention, as it turned out, with our reward being a telescoping rake. I had never seen one of these, but now I absolutely love it. I personally wouldn’t use it for a huge job like autumn leaf cleanup, but it’s unbelievably handy for getting into small spaces. Here’s mine, and here’s where you can get one for yourself. http://www.qcidirect.com/telescopic-adjustable-garden-rake.html?utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=telescopic-adjustable-garden-rake&gclid=CM6hu8j7p7cCFSVp7AodUQoA3g

Horseshoe or Triangle Weeder

I originally found this at a garage sale. What were they thinking, getting rid of this, the handiest of all weeders?! I’ll bet they never used it, because if they had they would never have given it up. Unless your definition of a “weeder” is someone who weeds your garden for you, I think you would really be happy with this thing. It makes weeding lots less tedious. If you can’t find one at a yard sale, you can find them at Amazon.com for $21.99…worth every penny. http://www.amazon.com/Flexrake-1000L-Hula-Ho-Cultivator-54-Inch/dp/B000UGOBSQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1369166369&sr=1-1&keywords=hoe+weeder

In our next blog…a brand new Veggie Cage/Tomato Ring Giveaway

Next week will begin our second Veggie Cage Giveaway Contest. It’ll be a “Like Us On Facebook” theme, so stay tuned…and thanks for reading Inside the Garden Gate!

Favorite Garden Tools, Part 1

Posted on April 30, 2013 by insidethegardengate

Do you remember your very first garden tool purchase? I do. I still have it, a hand trowel that I bought at our local True Value Hardware store. Purchased on my first day of gardening ever, I didn’t know shrimp from shinola (to clean up one of my mom’s favorite phrases) about what I would need or about quality tools. But I just happened to buy what turned out to be a faithful friend for the last 33 years, a Wallace red-handled hand trowel. It has a molded-in metal head that is just about indestructible and that wonderfully-shaped red handle, which fits my hand perfectly and helps me spot it in the compost pile when it gets tossed in there by mistake. It’s hard to explain to another human being the little thrill of excitement I feel on the first day of gardening each year, when I go out to our gardening garage, look down into my 5-gallon bucket of most-used hand tools and see that faded red handle right on top. “And they’re off!” Time to get planting!

By making some really bad purchases, I’ve learned an important life lesson: “Never buy cheap shoes or garden tools, or you’ll end up with blisters.” For those of you who are seasoned gardeners, perhaps you can relate — to the tools part, anyway. And while I’m ALWAYS up for discussing cute shoes, this is the Veggie Cage garden blog, after all. So we’ll just stick with: “Garden Tools I Can’t Live Without”:

A Really Good Hand Trowel

If you’re at all new to gardening, please give yourself permission to invest in a high-quality trowel. Otherwise, when you try to plunge your inexpensive trowel — the one you bought at the big box store that shall remain nameless — into anything but the softest of soils, it will bend in half at the neck like a tin fork, and you will have learned the same irritating lesson I did. Cheap trowels waste (your) money.

In sharing my idea of truly indispensable garden tools, the first thing I wanted to show you was my own beloved Wallace hand trowel (above) AND let you in on where you can buy one yourself. Unfortunately, after a long internet search, I couldn’t find one! Is it possible that this unmatched tool is no longer manufactured? Makes me doubly determined to hang onto mine! So while I can’t lead you to your very own Wallace, I did find two others that look like they have some of the qualities that can turn a hand trowel into a keepsake. I hope I never have to out-and-out replace this trowel, but I wouldn’t mind owning one of these as well…just in case:

The Leonard No BLIST’R Trowel or the Fiskars DuraFrame Scratch Trowel

The Leonard No BLIST’R Trowel (above right) is really close to my Wallace Wonder. Perfectly-shaped scoop, and yes! A red handle! Worth the price at $13.99 at A.M. Leonard. While you’re at it, the entire A.M. Leonard site is a great tool site, period.

Or…you might consider the Fiskars DuraFrame Scratch Trowel (above left). What I like about this DuraFrame model is the shape of the handle and the metal head — wide but not too wide, pointy but not too pointy. Prices vary online; the better-priced offerings will run you $11 – $13 with shipping. Try HardwareandTools.com You can find a detailed description on the Fiskars website.

A Big Blue Bucket

Well, it doesn’t have to be blue necessarily, just because mine it. I almost can’t remember what I used before I had this thing. Oh, that’s right, I used my assortment of 5-gallon buckets, which are definitely handy but need to be emptied too often. May I suggest that you will be so glad if you treat yourself to a TuffTotes flexible bucket? It’s so light when empty that it never seems heavy even when full. The TuffTotes has genius-designed handles. And what I like best about it? It’s so flexible that I can stack other large containers inside of it without ever having to call my husband to come get these things apart!!! They come in several colors and 3 different sizes, but if you can have only one, I’d go with the 11-gallon. I want another one.

Contests, Contests…

Our first Veggie Cage and Tomato Ring Giveaway is but a fun memory now (Congrats to Gina T. and Rex B., who won our “Follow Us On Twitter” contest!) Our next giveaway will be a Facebook drawing, so stay tuned. It’s comin’ up soon…

On Our Next Blog:

Part Two of “Favorite Garden Tools”, “How to Reflatten your Veggie Cages” and more.

Garden Stakes — Use What You Already Have

Posted on April 18, 2013 by insidethegardengate

Nobody’s Perfect

Yesterday we looked at some of the stakes that, in my opinion, are ideal. But the truth is that flawless is a ridiculous goal if you’re going to enjoy your garden. In our patch of earth, we start out each new spring trying to make everything so picturesque and perfect. Invariably we end up with more plants than supports, and I’m not making another trip to Home Depot. So there I am, scrounging around in the dark corners of the potting garage, pulling out anything that looks like it would hold up a plant. Aesthetics aside, veggies taste just as good supported with found materials, so you have my personal blessing to use whatever you scrounge out of your own shed. Here’s what I found in mine:

Vinyl-Covered Stakes

I probably wouldn’t go out and buy these green vinyl stakes, because they aren’t the sturdiest things in the world. But I do have a few in the garage, so I must have bought them at one point. These are the stakes that you can buy at lawn and garden stores or even at Walmart. They have little nibs on them, which is a plus. They aren’t completely useless, but they’re pretty limited as to what you can use them for, because they usually come in lengths too short for the bad-boy tomato plants we like to grow, and they bend and break easily. Underneath the green vinyl exterior lies a heart of tin, which will not take kindly to being forcefully driven into the ground. If you have any of these, they’ll certainly work with the Veggie Cage or Tomato Ring clamp, but they’ll serve you best with mid-sized plants that aren’t terribly weighty. I think they’d be fine for peppers. Eggplants might pull them over.

PROS:

You probably have some of these already hanging around in your garage
The nibs help whatever you attach to them to stay put (Note: Please don’t use string; use Tomato Rings! )
Less expensive per each than either conduit or decent tomato stakes
Should last several seasons, if you don’t manhandle them

CONS:

Interior tin is pretty flimsy; bends or snaps off if handled too roughly, then rusts
Usually too short to be really useful with most tomato plants
How do I put this…they lack a certain garden panache. (Oh, I am such a stake snob!)

Rebar

Or should I say, “rusted rebar”, because it always is. And why is it always bent?

While I resort to rebar only as a last resort, I will admit it’s not an impossible choice. But in terms of attractiveness, on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say rebar is nice to its mother. Here’s a photo of one of mine, next to its homely cousin, a broken-off piece of wooden stake — but still useful in a pinch.

PROS:

Will last longer than you will
Steel, so they’ll rust, but rusted metal is kinda trendy and can look interesting
Can be found in long enough lengths to be used for tall plants like tomatoes

CONS:

Super heavy to carry and store
Will definitely rust, so if you don’t like that look, not the best choice
Too thin to be topple-proof with heavy plants; shorter pieces for mid-height plants work best

T-Posts

I have no more idea of where those t-posts in our garage came from than I do about the bent rebar. Actually, I should have mentioned t-posts before rebar, because they can be a viable choice if you can get your hands on some 6-footers, like my neighbor uses for her blackberries. My brother-in-law uses 6-foot t-posts for all of his tomato plants in their gigantic garden, and they work just fine. My biggest objection to them is that they aren’t very pretty and are extremely heavy to carry. If my sister-in-law had to haul them out to the garden herself, trust me — they’d be using conduit or wooden stakes.

PROS:

Can be purchased on 6-foot lengths to be used for tomato plants
Made of steel, so they’ll last for years and years
Heavy-duty enough to be pounded in with a post-driver
You may already have some lurking in your garage

CONS:

Super-heavy; not a good choice for most women
Steel will rust
Bulky to store

And One More We Do Like

Fellow gardeners who ordered garden products from us turned me on to these. Am I the last one to know about the wonders of Y-Stakes? With bendable arms, they come in four sizes. The 3-footers seem to be the most popular, but any of them have their uses. We sell Y-stakes on our site, or they’re available from other online retailers as well.

So there you have it, a rundown of the most commonly-used stakes. Any of them will work for the right plant, but some of them will look prettier while they’re doing it. Just be sure to choose a sufficient length for the plant you’re supporting.

LAST CHANCE TO ENTER FOR OUR BIG GIVEAWAY!

This is the last posting we’ll do before we close our contest for the Veggie Cage and Tomato Ring giveaway – $160.00 worth of garden supports, shipped free to your door! Keep some, share some — truly reTweetable! You have today and Friday to add on to your entries by following us and reTweeting. One entry per reTweet.

Next week’s blog: All-Time Favorite Garden Tools

Garden Stakes — Which Kind is Best?

Posted on April 17, 2013 by insidethegardengate

Staking Your Plants – Which Stake is Right for You?

Customers often ask us for our advice on which type of stake to use with their Veggie Cages and Tomato Rings. The easy part is that the clamp that attaches both the Veggie Cage and the Tomato Rings are identical, so the same stakes will work for both. So here are the pros and cons of 3 types of stakes that would be my first choices. Of course, “real life” happens in gardening a whole lot more often than perfection. So tomorrow we’ll look at using what you already have in your garage.

3/4” Conduit

When we first went from wooden tomato stakes to conduit, I expected to hate it. I’ve always felt there should be a bit of romantic elegance to a garden, no matter what style garden you create. So for me, the look of wooden stakes just seemed like the only really attractive way to go. But I’ve found that when the garden is freshly prepared in the spring and all the conduit stakes are installed in the various beds, their slenderness and gray color really are not jarring on the eye at all. They do look best, however, if you keep them fairly straight up and down. Having them tilted every-which-way can make them look like drunken soldiers.

The first year we trialed the conduit, we installed them in just one bed, using ½” conduit. The next year we kicked it up a notch to the 3/4”, and we liked that better.

You can buy conduit at most home improvement stores. We bought ours at Home Depot, and they cut them for us for free. They come in 10’ lengths, so we asked them to divide the conduit into 7’ and 3’ pieces. The 7’ we use for tomatoes, and the 3’ piece is perfect for all of our peppers (we grow LOTS of peppers) and eggplants. Last year, a really creative customer used a short stake and a Tomato Ring for his zucchini. We’re going to try that this year.

PROS:

Galvanized and extremely long-lasting; doesn’t rust; virtually unbreakable; very light weight; easy to get them out of the ground at the end of the season.
Fairly unobtrusive, especially if they are installed straight and once foliage takes over visually
One divided piece does double duty, for tall and mid-size plants
Super-sturdy; you can pound them into the soil good and deep without damaging them

CONS:

A little more industrial-looking than wooden stakes
Initial cost per each is a bit more than standard wooden stakes

Wooden Stakes

Even though they aren’t top choice in terms of practicality, I still love the look of the old-fashioned, traditional wooden tomato stake. There’s something about it that says “my grandmother’s garden”, and I just happen to love the romance in that. But in talking about wooden stakes, we really need to define our terms. The kind of wooden stakes sold at a lot of lawn and garden outlets, usually 1” x 1” oak, are not a good investment. Even now I can hear that familiar “crack” as the stake you almost had in deep enough gives at the little knot on the side. Nearly all of these flimsy stakes have a knot somewhere, which is where it will – I repeat, will – eventually snap in two. (On the plus side of that, I guess you can always use the largest segment for smaller-growing plants that still need staking.) Additionally, because of the skinniness of these stakes, they tend to warp in the sun, or are already warped when you buy them, and it makes the garden look pretty untidy to have them leaning every which way. I honestly don’t recommend these at all.

If you prefer wooden stakes, the way to go is to get thee to the lumber section of your favorite home improvement store or an actual lumber yard, and have good-quality pine boards ripped into 2”x2” stakes. It’s really not that much more expensive than those use-them-once tomato stakes, and if you don’t abuse them, they should last you 2 seasons or longer, especially if you try to pick out the precut planks with as few knots as possible. Just be a little gentle with them when pulling them out of the soil in the fall.

PROS:

Gives a more organic feel in the garden
If used with a Veggie Cage or Tomato Ring, gives the best possible surface for the screw clamp to grip the stake (although the screw will grip the conduit as well)
If made from sturdy enough wood, should last at least 2 seasons and maybe longer
They’ll remind you of your grandma

CONS:

Even the sturdy ones will eventually rot at ground level or break
Necessary to be more “tender” with them when pounding them into the ground and when removing them in the fall.

Driving In Your Stakes

No matter what kind of stake or plant support you use, you’d like it to remain good and strong after a raucous summer storm, so you’ll want to make sure your stakes are far enough into the soil that they’ll handle some wind abuse. You can use a mallet and a bit of wooden board or even just a mallet for pounding in the stakes, but the idea tool is a galvanized steel post driver. You may use it mostly in the spring, but they’re handy enough to be worth owning. You can pick one up at Lowes for $25.97.

Don’t Forget Our Contest!

Our contest to win free Veggie Cages and Tomato Rings closes at midnight on Friday. So be sure to get your name in the hat. One entry per reTweet, so reTweet as many times as you like. Follow us to win!

Next Blog: Garden Stakes — Using What You Already Have

Snow Peas in the Spring Garden

Posted on April 15, 2013 by insidethegardengate

I’m fairly certain that if you were to take a poll among people who generally like vegetables, asking “What’s your favorite veggie?”, almost no one would say, “snow peas”. I’m not basing this on any kind of scientific study but simply on the response I get from customers when I mention them. People who buy Veggie Cages for the first time often ask, “What else can I grow on a Veggie Cage?” Ooh, so glad you asked! Presentation is everything, so I like to set them up for the big finish by starting my list with the more mundane veggies, the ones that you can get even in the most boring of grocery stores. “Well,” I’ll start out, carefully modulating my voice so as not to tip them off to what’s coming, “you can grow cucumbers, beans, midget varieties of cantaloupe lots of different kinds of climbing flowering vines” (some of which are edible, by the way) “peas” (Getting closer…) “and my very favorite,” (Here it comes…wait for it…) “snow peas!”

This is the point at which there is almost always the same bewildering lack of audible delight on the other end. “Hello,” I want to say, “did you hear me? I said snow peas!”

Hmmm…is it possible that some people aren’t completely sure what a snow pea is? Or have they just never experienced the wonderment of biting into one – slightly undercooked or raw, with a little bit of resistance to the teeth, and that sweet, sweet flavor that’s so good you can just stand in your garden and eat them as you pick. Whether you call them sugar snap peas or edible pod peas (which doesn’t sound nearly as exotic as “snow peas”), they are one of the easiest veggies to grow, with seemingly no attraction for garden pests and not prone to disease.

So for those of you who are open to the notion of falling head-over-heels with a vegetable that you may have never before considered your type, or for those of you who love them but have never tried growing your own, here’s a little pictorial for you on how to set up your garden for a rich man’s bounty of pricey sweet goodness (about $3.00/lb. at Walmart!) for a $.97 packet of seeds. I give you: How to Grow Snow Peas On a Veggie Cage. Ta daaa!

After you’ve prepared your bed, you’ll want to install your Veggie Cage on whatever type of stake you want to use. This is a chance to use those shorter stakes that have broken or were just short to begin with, because even the taller varieties of snow peas don’t get as tall or heavy as most tomato plants do. But they should be at least, say, 4’ to 5’ tall. Attach the clamp to the stake, push in the pointed end to keep it firmly anchored, and sow your seeds all around inside and even outside the bottom ring of the Veggie Cage.

And if you’re using a shorter stake for this, your Veggie Cage won’t extend to its full length, and you may then have 2 rings on the ground, rather than just the bottommost ring. That won’t hurt a thing. Now you’re ready to sow your peas.

Notice that I’ve sown the peas a little thickly. That’s O.K., peas don’t mind being a little bit abundant; it allows them to use not only the Veggie Cage to climb but each other. Sow your seeds all inside the bottom ring and outside as well, keeping the seeds within an inch or 2 from the outer perimeter of the bottom ring, so that the emerging pea seedlings will be able to reach the Veggie Cage and grab on.

Notice in this photo the snow peas do not reach up the entire length of the Veggie Cages. At this stage, the plants are not yet full grown and just starting to get the white flower buds that will eventually be lovely, hanging snow peas. They may or may not ever reach the full height to which I’ve pulled up my Veggie Cages. If they don’t, then I’ll know next year, if I grow the same variety, I can leave my Veggie Cages down a little lower.

So they’re off and climbing! All that’s left for you to do at this point is to keep a little watch to be sure no stem gets left behind and doesn’t climb, then get ready with a nice bowl for picking. You’re going to need one.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the different types of garden stakes available. Which one is best for you?

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER TO WIN VEGGIE CAGES and TOMATO RINGS!

Our contest continues until the end of this week. Know someone who likes to garden? Follow us on Twitter @veggiecagellc, then re-Tweet our contest Tweet, and we’ll enter you into a drawing!

Grand Prize: 15 Veggie Cages and 30 Tomato Rings

Second Prize: 8 Veggie Cages and 15 Tomato Rings

The contest ends at midnight Friday, April 19th, so Tweet-Tweet-Tweet!

Why We Garden

Posted on April 10, 2013 by insidethegardengate

I have a memory that draws me back to our first year in this house and in this garden. We put a fence around that garden with a gate, although not the beautiful soaring gate that’s there now. On an April late morning, just sun-warmed enough to shed your jacket and hang it over a fence post, I went out to work the soil for the first time that season. As I stepped through the gate and onto the gravel path, shutting the gate behind me, I felt the most delightful sensation of “Aaahhhh” slip over me. Somehow, shutting that gate put me in an entirely different world. This was a room, my room, and it felt like I was almost invisible to anyone outside of it. As if my neighbors couldn’t see or hear me, so I could be free to talk out loud, bend in unflattering ways to turn the soil, or just stop and stare out into space, enjoying the smell of dirt.

That’s the way a garden should feel, whether it’s an old-fashioned farmhouse garden amid rolling green hills or a grouping of 5-gallon buckets of tomato plants, just yards from a beach. Wherever you dig in your hands (gloved or not) and partner with earth and seedlings to produce a lush bounty, your garden is your garden. And anyone who comes to it, who you’ve invited in to share the joys or scents or tastes of it, has been endowed with a bit of a sacred privilege Because you’re invited them; they’re your guests. They’re inside the gate.

Inside The Garden Gate is an invitation – an invitation for you to come on over, step onto the gravel path, and close the gate behind you. This is one of my favorite places on earth, my garden room, and I’d love for you to join me.

Decisions, Decisions

Since this is our inaugural blog post, I thought it would be a good idea to answer some of our most frequently-asked questions, such as, “Which should I use, Veggie Cages or Tomato Rings?” The answer is: It depends on what you’re growing. In general, the Veggie Cage is best when you need to support a plant that wants to climb and uses tendrils to do so.

Peas, beans, snow peas (my favorite!) and cucumbers are exactly the types of plant that take readily to a Veggie Cage. Not that you can’t use a Veggie Cage for tomatoes. Before the introduction of the Tomato Rings, those of us who worked the Veggie Cage test garden were ecstatic with using the new Veggie Cage for our tomato plants. In fact, they were originally designed for tomato plants. I still like them for those “tomatoes on steroids” varieties, like Brandywine.

But if you’re going to use the Veggie Cage for tomatoes, you have to follow the instructions, which aren’t at all difficult but oh-so-important. Tomato plants will often try to head out one of the rings of the Veggie Cage. It’s quite easy to just nudge that runaway branch back into the appropriate ring. But if you don’t, then when the branch develops big, fat tomatoes, all of that fruit puts its entire weight on one ring and distorts it. The Veggie Cage is designed to hold the weight evenly from the inside out.

The Tomato Ring is really just as simple as its name implies. In my opinion, it’s what I would use for tomatoes, about 3 per plant. And I would definitely recommend them for peppers. You can use one per pepper plant, and if you’re short on space, you can use one 3-ft. piece of stake with two back-to-back Tomato Rings, 1 pepper in each ring. The only pepper I’ve ever grown that used more than one Tomato Ring was last year’s tobasco peppers. They towered over our little sweet banana pepper plants. But generally one will do it. For eggplant, you’ll use 1, maybe 2 for each plant.