by Stan Logan | Mar 19, 2020 | Garden tools
Auger
Even if you will never plant a bulb for the rest of your life, you may find a planting auger a useful tool. It is basically a drill bit that will drill large holes into the ground. It comes in a wide variety of lengths and widths, so you can pick the size that best fits your needs. For instance LaVille says that she likes to place daffodil bulbs in a hole that is 6-8” deep, with a little extra depth to mix in bone meal. Recently we were able to plant 56 bulbs in about 40 minutes.
A more general use for a planting auger is simply to loosen soil. If you are trying to plant in an area of your garden that has really hard soil, you can use an auger to drill several holes over a small area just so you can manage digging. Where you may have turned to using a pick axe, it will be much easier to use the power of a drill to fight through the spoil.
Another use for the auger is to aide you in removing a plant from large pots. A great number of large pots are constructed to be narrower at the top. If a plant becomes literally pot-bound, you can use an auger to drill holes around the edge of the pot until the plant and soil can be removed. That is a better option than simply breaking the pot to save a valued plant.
It really is amazing to discover how fast these augers work. But since they use a lot of energy, you may need a corded drill if you have a great number of holes to drill.
You can order a planting auger by googling that term. Amazon has a wide variety of augers at a wide range of prices.
Happy drilling!
Stan, The Tool Man
by Stan Logan | Mar 19, 2020 | Garden tools
Helping Hand
If you have no roses, berry plants, bougainvilleas, or flowering quince, you may want to skip this article. The tool of the month is a device that allows you to prune without touching the plant with your hands. It will sever a branch and grasp it at the same time. There are several models that will reach out different lengths, I found one that has a length of 2 feet. To quote the ad: “Ultimate rose harvester, fruit and vegetable picking, pruning, dead heading, reaching into flower beds without compacting the soil. Eliminates the ladder.” Well the syntax sucks and my ladders are not going to be eliminated, but if you like to show off to your neighbors, this may be the tool for you. You can find a large selection of cut and hold pruners on Amazon for as little as $28 for a Corona.
by Stan Logan | Mar 19, 2020 | Garden tools, Irrigation
Garden Timer
I know you have run a sprinkler or hose in the garden and expected to remember to turn it off in a certain time. If you remembered 90% of the time, that would be remarkable. It’s the 10% when you forget and waste all that precious water when you have fought so hard to save every drop. The tool that will remove this frustration is the garden timer. So, you’ve never heard of a garden timer? A garden timer is a device otherwise known as a kitchen timer, but when you are in the garden, it’s a garden timer. I used to carry one of those timers that you twist to set a certain number of minutes. It took a large sweatshirt pocket to house this device. Then I saw the very small digital timer sold in the kitchen gadget section of Target. For about $7, you too can own your own tiny timing device. Perhaps you would be more comfortable calling his tool a “personal timer” because there are some many instances in your daily routines that require reminders.
Now I know most of you have a smart phone, and it is easy to tell it to set an alarm, but I think it is easier to use this tool to make you a more responsible person in your garden and in your personal life.
Trying to reduce your regretful moments,
Stan, The Tool Man
by Stan Logan | Mar 19, 2020 | Garden pests, Garden tools, Irrigation
bucket
Body count tonight: 57. I remembered just before going to bed that the snails would be out in force since it rained a little today. I grabbed a flashlight and my snail masher from behind the front door. It consists of an old cut off flagstaff with a 2 x 2 block attached at the end. The grandkids use it when they visit and earn 5 cents per snail killed.
I don’t understand why snails come out from their leafy protection and crawl around exposed on pavement and pavers. I actual feel guilty murdering helpless snail after snail. You really can’t call the exercise “snail hunting” because that would indicate that some sort of sport would be involved. Perhaps, if you were a snail hunter, you shouldn’t be able to kill a snail unless it is in flight. LaVille said that she’s seen snails take flight. She and her siblings would visit an aunt in Salinas and collect snails and then return home to Calexico where they would place them on hot pavement to see how high they could fly. Perhaps snail hunting should be restricted from ½ hour after sunset to ½ hour before sunrise. Snail hunting season would be limited to the winter months. You wouldn’t want to kill snails during their breeding season. Of course no artificial light source could be used. To make the sport more fair to the snail, size of the snail masher could limited to a ¼ inch diameter rod. Naturally no snail with a shell diameter less than 1 inch could be harmed. Chemical products of any sort would be outlawed.
I’m considering starting a club called “Snails Unlimited”. Would you like to join me in protecting the lives of these helpless mollusks. Let’s ensure that the sport of snail hunting is available to be enjoyed by future generations.
Stan, The Snail Killer
P.S. LaVille suggested an addendum was needed here:
When we had rounded up a significant collection of these hermaphroditic herbivores, LaVille would take them into her classroom and distribute them in small paper bags as pets to her students for responsibility training (for the kids). Then periodically she would hold races on the overhead projector by placing these snails in the center to see which sprinter could reach the periphery first.
I have to caution you however: Do not store your collection of snails in a paper bag. They will eat their way out and you will find estivating snails all over the house for weeks. Trust me
by Stan Logan | Mar 19, 2020 | Garden pests
Body count tonight: 57. I remembered just before going to bed that the snails would be out in force since it rained a little today. I grabbed a flashlight and my snail masher from behind the front door. It consists of an old cut off flagstaff with a 2 x 2 block attached at the end. The grandkids use it when they visit and earn 5 cents per snail killed.
I don’t understand why snails come out from their leafy protection and crawl around exposed on pavement and pavers. I actual feel guilty murdering helpless snail after snail. You really can’t call the exercise “snail hunting” because that would indicate that some sort of sport would be involved. Perhaps, if you were a snail hunter, you shouldn’t be able to kill a snail unless it is in flight. LaVille said that she’s seen snails take flight. She and her siblings would visit an aunt in Salinas and collect snails and then return home to Calexico where they would place them on hot pavement to see how high they could fly. Perhaps snail hunting should be restricted from ½ hour after sunset to ½ hour before sunrise. Snail hunting season would be limited to the winter months. You wouldn’t want to kill snails during their breeding season. Of course no artificial light source could be used. To make the sport more fair to the snail, size of the snail masher could limited to a ¼ inch diameter rod. Naturally no snail with a shell diameter less than 1 inch could be harmed. Chemical products of any sort would be outlawed.
I’m considering starting a club called “Snails Unlimited.” Would you like to join me in protecting the lives of these helpless mollusks. Let’s ensure that the sport of snail hunting is available to be enjoyed by future generations.
Stan, The Snail Killer
P.S. LaVille suggested an addendum was needed here:
When we had rounded up a significant collection of these hermaphroditic herbivores, LaVille would take them into her classroom and distribute them in small paper bags as pets to her students for responsibility training (for the kids). Then periodically she would hold races on the overhead projector by placing these snails in the center to see which sprinter could reach the periphery first.
I have to caution you however: Do not store your collection of snails in a paper bag. They will eat their way out and you will find estivating snails all over the house for weeks. Trust me
