Weeding the Web

Garden product review: Nottcutts' tomato feed teaches me a lesson

It always pays to think a little before rushing to do something - in this case, buy tomato feed.

Earlier this summer, Nottcutts offered me a choice of products from their new own-brand range of fertilizers and chemicals and, in a move that makes it look as if I have something of a red-fruit fetish, I chose their Tomato Pour and Feed and their Tomato Feed Concentrate. Both contain seaweed extract and magnesium and I'm pleased to say my tomatoes developed as expected without a sign of deficiencies.

In other ways, though, my expectations were confounded. The concentrate that I thought I'd use a few times and then leave on the shelf has remained to hand. Instead, the Pour and Feed languished unloved. Why? Because I hadn't considered the whole picture.

Certainly, it sounds much easier just to dole out a ready-diluted feed when necessary (100mls, once a week, after the second truss has set), and it would have been, had I grown my tomatoes in a border. But I don't. I grow them in pots.

Were I to water these with a hose, the Pour and Feed would also have been useful. But I don't; I water with a watering can. And, in these circumstances, it is much, much easier to add a capful of concentrate to the can, than water and then feed.

Actually, the container made the concentrate easier to use, too. It has a cap which, though it could do with some calibration for smaller doses, doubles as a measure for the required 15mls to 4.5 litres, whereas the Pour and Feed requires you to find a 100mls measure [Not the kitchen measuring spoons! Husband]. The latter would be much improved by a cap like that on the concentrate, as things like useful jugs tend to go AWOL. It was also clear, the first time I sloshed Pour and Feed clumsily into a jar, that it's much easier to pour from a small container than a very much larger one, especially when almost full.

I'll bet you're laughing at me. Either that, or wondering just how dim I can be.  It all sounds so simple and obvious, when you think about it. But I realised how easy it is to accept blurbs without thinking. Pour and Feed - "simple to use".

Obviously true for some people, but not for me. This little exercise has taught me to concentrate on the way I work. Then I can make sure everything is simple to use - my way.

Garden product review: Keira Watering Can

A newly designed watering-can seems a bit unnecessary. Most do the job pretty well, though some are better balanced and easier to tip than others. 

The new Keira, launched in the UK at Chelsea Flower Show this year, comes from the drawing-board of Croatian industrial designer Igor Juric. He seems to bend a little more towards vehicles, as he's responsible for Croatia's first electric car, a rather nifty-looking bicycle design, and a three-seater concept car, but is particularly keen on adding an enviro-friendly dimension to his work.

When he saw how much space was taken up by watering-cans in store and in transit, he turned his mind to creating a stackable design that reduces the space needed for transport and so saves on fuel.

The Keira watering-can carries other eco-credentials (as well as two, five or ten litres of water, according to the size of can you choose) as it's made of 100% recycled polypropylene, which itself is fully recyclable.

I was given the 2-litre size* and rather like it. The position of the handle makes it comfortable and easy to tip up and the long spout delivers water quite precisely to the spot you want, though if you're too enthusiastic and tip too quickly you risk a gush over your toes as it overflows the sides. If you need a fine spray for seedlings, obviously this isn’t for you.

I've also noticed that, after four months outside, the colour is beginning to fade on the handle and the top edge. It's not the sort of thing that bothers me, but some might find it irritating.  I haven't tried the larger cans, so can't say how easy it is to pour with the heavier weight of water.

What I particularly like, though, is that if you leave it outside you’ll catch far more rain in it than in conventional watering-cans because of its wide open top. This point has struck other designers, as can be seen in the Raincan, available from The Organic Gardening Catalogue. The Raincan is cheaper for its size, but when I played around with one in the Wisley shop I found its lid distinctly fiddly. 

The Keira can will be available from Bulldog Tools, who launched it at GLEE this year. They seem a bit tardy in getting their Keira website up and running; however, it is already on Amazon.

*By Keira, for review.

Garden product review: the Realbarrow - a better wheelbarrow?

Hubris and humility. Isn't gardening the perfect combination? We proudly think we'll grow the most unsuitable plants in the most inhospitable places, and our failures make us humble.

In the design world, it's been thought reasonable to improve the wheelbarrow, the basic conformation of which has remained steady, yea, even since Medieval times.

A fascinating article on the development of The Medieval Wheelbarrow by Dr Andrea L Matthies dates the wheeled barrow's arrival in England to the early 13th century (or, at least, the desire to draw one).  Needless to say, though, the Chinese probably got there first.

So, can you improve a design that’s been around hundreds, if not thousands, of years?  Realbarrow from Keter set out to do just that and, in 2011, won a Red Dot Design Award in the prestigious international competition that recognises excellent design quality in new products.  But does it work in the garden?

Compared with a standard wheelbarrow, the Realbarrow’s main difference is its tipping ability. Designed to combine the conventional design with a sack trolley, it can be stood on its end, allowing sacks and compost bags to be dragged into it without lifting. Holes placed along the edges let you tie loads in with bungee cords, if necessary. You can also use it as a giant dustpan, brushing debris over its metal-reinforced lip, which sits flush with the ground.

I was really sceptical when the barrow arrived. I mean, if the wheelbarrow's design weren't so good, it wouldn't have been pretty much static for so long.

However, the Realbarrow can be loaded without lifting, which is a real bonus when you've got a bad back. I've dragged compost bags into it five times in succession and never felt a twinge. It is also very stable and incredibly light (6kg, 13.2lbs), making it easily lifted and manoeuvred when empty.

Its deep shape lets it double as a water carrier with a 100 litre (22 gallon) capacity, and it will carry 100kg (220lbs) although, understandably, as it's made of polypropylene, there was slight flexing of its sides when tipping it back into the wheeling position under such a very heavy load. If you need to subject it to really heavy loads on a regular basis, I'd be looking at something more heavy duty, like Henchman's barrows, but those are far, far more expensive.

The widely placed, ergonomically designed handles made it unexpectedly comfortable to drive and, with the wheels, are in line with the edges, which makes it easier to avoid snagging on corners.

Bad points? Well, all the advantages are made possible by its two small wheels, and these are also its weakness. Pushing it over very rough terrain, gravel or, heavily loaded, over soft soil, can take considerable effort. In negotiating steps, I found it necessary to go up backwards, to prevent the base catching. In these circumstances you are never going to replace the manoeuvrability of a single, pneumatic tyre.

Nevertheless, sceptical as I was when it arrived, it won me over. The Realbarrow shows a real advantage in its lightness and the combination of wheelbarrow and “bulldozer” shovel. I think that the long-performing medieval design is safe to stay, but this is certainly worth considering as a second, versatile piece of kit.

 

The Realbarrow was supplied for impartial review by Keter. NB I received this barrow last year. Since that time, Keter has withdrawn it for sale in the UK, although it's still available elsewhere - Canada, Australia etc. Read the Canadian reviews if you're likely to subject the barrow to really heavy work. There's another positive report from Miranda Bell at JardinMiranda.  Satisfaction seems to depend on the sort of loads you want to put in it.

For UK purchasers, Keter suggests contacting Amazon Germany. 
UPDATE: April 2014. Kris Gardener has kindly left a comment to say that it's now available in Costco, £29.99 +VAT.

Which is best - shoes or boots for gardening?

There are those who Make Do, and those who Make Right.

Putting up with a a hot tap, for six months, that needs rebuilding each time you turn it on is definitely Making Do [blush].  Researching thoroughly to find the perfect remedy to a problem is not (read: fundamental difference between Husband and self).

So, as I stepped back from the flowerbed onto uneven paving and fell off my garden clogs for the umpteenth time, I thought perhaps I should borrow some husbandly application before I twisted something.

What is the ideal gardening footware? A shoe challenge at May Dreams Gardens got people thinking (ouch to Ellie's favourites on my brambly bits) and, chances are, like them, you're building an ever-growing pile of old shoes by the backdoor. I spotted the flaw early on. Old shoes leak.

For some time, I used lace-up leather walking boots that someone had given me. Too much work.  I fear I wasn't up to the constant cleaning, polishing and dubbin-application that they desperately needed after being toe-down in mud.

Laces become unpleasantly soggy when jammed into wet clay (I garden mostly on my knees). And having to labour to get shoes off just encouraged me, in opposition to my admonishing self, to tread mud into the house when the doorbell rang.

No, gardening shoes need to be low-maintenance, easy to put on, easy to shuck off.

Clogs (I do love them) tick these boxes and are great for slipping on to cross the garden, but their soles feel unequal to the narrow edge of a spade, so I don't use them for digging, and (vide my undignified sprawl on the grass) support-wise they leave a bit to be desired.

What about wellies? All boxes ticked, not to mention trousers protected. But - how shall I put this? - some girls are more developed than others. I'm talking calves here! Give me an average welly and it jams halfway to my knee. (Although, more sophisticated models have an  adjustable girth.)

And memories of sweaty heels left naked by socks inching past my toes aren't enticing (though, of course, now you can get socks that tuck over welly tops).

Then I got another childhood flash.

My mother's Wellington boots weren't, to my hide-bound childish gaze, quite proper. They were white when they should have been black. And calf-length when they should have been knee-high (my calves, you realise, are Not My Fault). But now they make perfect sense. Easier to kick off, easier to access socks, easier to tuck in trousers.

So are calf-length wellies the answer? I'd have to try them. For now, I'd love to know what shoes/boots you favour, so please leave a comment and let us know what works for you in the garden.

Meanwhile, that quiet sobbing is me, as I realise I'm turning into my mother.

That scream of terror is my husband...

This post is sponsored by Burnhills. 

Pop-up pot protection to sort out squirrels

Do squirrels eat begonia tubers? 

A glance into a pot revealed a tuber somewhat less rounded than it had been. Toothmarks are visible.

For anyone who hasn't grown begonias, the reason why this onslaught was so visible was that the tubers are nestled into the top of, rather than buried under, the soil. Thompson and Morgan, who handed them out at the Garden Press Event this year, have a helpful video showing how to plant begonias. Squirrels aren't mentioned.

As pests go, this isn't exactly a catastrophe. I rejoice that I haven't had the badger problem that destroyed most of the The Patient Gardener's tulips, but still, something had to be done.

I was about to arrange a square of netting, tied on jam-pot style, when Husband pointed out that the solution was sitting on a shelf. Not so long ago, Gardenskill sent me one of their pop-up fruit and veg cages. I have to admit that I really like it, but I hadn't found a use for it. It 's around 20 inches high and 18 x 18 inches square (51 x 46 x 46 cms) and as I tend to grow rows of veg in the raised beds there were always some that didn't fit under and so I used fleece or netting instead. Here it answers perfectly.

An inappropriate shape for my needs was really the only reason I hadn't used it before.  Using tent technology, the frame is made of carbon-fibre rods - very strong and light. So light, that the cages have loops attached where you insert tent pegs to hold them down.  And they're very easy to put up. So easy that it made me squeal with laughter when I first took it out of its bag. Raring to go, it leapt out of my hands and stood to attention.

Various sizes and shapes are available, and if I were to get another, I'd choose the Giant Fruit Cage which would fit well on the raised bed. At £39.99 + £5.49 p&p, though, it's not cheap compared with, say, netting. On the other hand it's incredibly easy to put up and therefore you're far more likely to put it up immediately you need to, rather than aiming to sort out netting as soon as you've got a moment. 

It's almost as easy to put away. Twisting it back into the tiny size that fits in the bag takes a knack which I manage to master after a couple of goes. Gardenskill have put a video on their website to show how to do it. One reviewer on the site has added, "The key is not to get angry. If it doesn't work, just leave it and come back later for another try." 

Product Review: solar-powered garden lights

Have you ever wondered how well solar-powered garden lights work, as you've missed a step in the dark and tripped over a wayward flower pot?  Well, over the last few months I've had a chance to find out. 

Four varieties of light arrived at the beginning of October, in time for me to report the results in an article for the Christmas edition of Smallholder magazine. The raised bed looked increasingly bizarre as more and more lights appeared among the beetroot but I put them all together to ensure that the conditions for each set were as similar as possible, and this is the garden's sunniest spot with the longest exposure to daylight.

They've been there ever since, so now's a good time to sum up how they've stood up to the wet weather and are coping with this particularly dreary winter.

Solar Light Features

The four types are:

1. Gardman Stainless Steel Solar-Powered Marker Light (stands 26 cms (10¼ ins) high)
2. Benross Gardenkraft 18100 Stainless Steel Garden Lights, set of 4 (18.5 cms (7¼ ins))
3. Smart Solar Dual Function Solar Light Posts, set of 8 (29 cms (11½ ins))
4. Gardman's Solar Sparkling Bubble Lights, set of 3 (29 cms (11½ ins))*

* These are sometimes labelled Gardman, but the name on the box is actually Cole and Bright.

They're set to automatic, which means that they turn themselves on as twilight deepens. At the beginning of October, they came on around 7 pm. This week they've been turning themselves on around 4.45, which is about half an hour after official sunset time.

All can be turned off except the Smart Solar, which instead gives you the option of a steady white light or a rather pretty, gentle colour-changing cycle from green to blue to red.  Of those that can be turned off, only the Bubble Lights have an easily accessible switch that doesn't require the lights to be partially dismantled.  The advantage of being able to switch them off is that they can build up a reserve of power over several days.

The Bubble Lights are also the only ones wired in a string to a separate solar panel. All the other lights stand alone, each containing an inbuilt solar panel.

A spud by any other name would be...

Gardening raises its head in unexpected places. I've been buried in Castle Gay recently. By John Buchan, it's a boy's own type of adventure, set in the Scottish Highlands. Husband likes Buchan very much and, as I'd already disappointed him by not getting enjoying Huntingtower, the previous volume in the three books featuring Dickson McCunn, I had another go.

I was arrested within a couple of pages by the description of aforesaid Dickson, a retired grocer with a thread of romance in his soul:

It was his habit to wear a tailed coat and trousers of tweed, a garb which from his boyish recollection he thought proper for a country laird, but which to the ordinary observer suggested a bookmaker. Gradually, a little self-consciously, he had acquired what he considered to be the habits of the class. He walked in the garden with a spud; his capacious pockets contained a pruning knife and twine...

Now, why, I mused, would you, as an aspiring country gentleman, expect to promenade your paths clutchng a King Edward?  Husband passed me the dictionary. Sure enough, a spud is not a potato (which as slang surely wouldn't have appeared in narrative in 1930) but a "small narrow digging tool with a spadelike blade".

And, I hazard, looking at the enormous amount of long-rooted corn parsley that I've foisted on myself, jolly useful. I went looking.

No reel need - storing the garden hose

Garden hoses - with the extraordinarily dry weather this spring it looks as if they will be much used until confined to quarters by the ban that everybody (at least down here in the South-East) is expecting.

The question is, what are those quarters? Where, or rather how, do you keep your hose? Pile it up in a loose arrangement and it soon becomes damaged, the walls folding against each other, twisting and gradually springing a leak. I used to leave the hose trailed carefully around the garden paths, straight and untwisted, but another member of the family found that unfathomable and kept piling it up.

Hose reels are not, in my opinion, much cop as they can be fiddly; you have to bend down to them and they can be awkward and heavy. The best way to store a hose is looped on the wall, high enough so that you don't have to bend to loop it round, making it easy to lift off and unhitch to the required length, taking only moments to put back.

You could get something fancy like this cast-iron hose tidy from Harrod Horticultural, but hey, it's a hose, so a no-nonsense, neat-and-tidy storage hook from Wickes is serving me very well. And at just over a fiver, it's a lot cheaper too!

 

A Pressing Event for the Garden

When I said I’d be back in the New Year, I didn’t envisage returning as late as February but, after an extended break the season (and I with it) has bounced back into action with the Garden Press Event last week.

Essentially it’s a fair to which journalists and broadcasters are invited, where companies set out their wares (literally) in order to introduce themselves and their products to the media, with the hope of some decent media coverage in the coming year.

Personally I love it, but wonder if anyone actually manages to get round to every stall. I certainly didn’t, though, like last year, I arrived in time for the opening at 10.30, and finally staggered out just before it closed at 4.30, while weary stallholders were closing down and visitors had noticeably thinned out.

Big machinery was in greater evidence this year. Ryobi, there last year and who kindly gave me a mug, hadn’t returned, but Honda was showing for the first time, joined by Bosch, Husqvarna and Flymo.

Vertical gardening is still in its ascendancy, with all sorts of solutions for raising plants from the ground, either by attaching them to your wall, as with Treebox, planting pockets new to Crocus, and Blooming Cones from Best4Garden, or in freestanding equipment such as Vertigro.

The environment is obviously still a major selling point, and just about every item made of plastic has at least some element of recycled plastic within it, while transportation has been reduced in a number of cases. Nether Wallop Trading have brought back their production from Lithuania, while others, such as Flower Tower, have considered manufacturing in China but decided against it on the grounds of shipping costs, as well as concerns over ever-rising prices, reliability and quality.

Strikingly, everyone whom I asked was manufacturing in Britain, and considered it a point of pride. Combine this with numerous recent articles about Chinese inflation - including this one from the Financial Times in which Merryn Somerset Webb observes, “These days, if you don’t take the price you are given on the spot, it goes up in 24 hours,” - and you have to wonder if Chinese dominance over manufacturing will continue.

Those of us in the know now arrive at the Event with something on wheels. I certainly felt foolish, wheeling an obviously empty suitcase over Vauxhall Bridge that morning, but, come evening, heavily loaded with brochures, pamphlets and the occasional sample (not as plentiful as last year) I was extremely relieved to have something to take the strain.

The highlight of the day for me, however, was spotting a free chair at lunch (you have to move fast) and finding myself next to writer and presenter Nigel Colborn, who now writes for the Daily Mail every Saturday, is every bit as charming as his blog, SilverTreeDaze, and who has been smitten by Twitter.

More squirrel-proofing ideas for your bird-feeder

The restaurant next door hasn’t exactly closed; let’s just say that the menu has been suspended, and I don’t mean literally. The nuts in the feeder have not been replenished since the frenzy on the first day of opening.

Still, there are measures that will discourage squirrels from bankrupting a bird feeder and you’ll find a good selection on the Dobbies blog which, unlike many blogs attached to commercial sites, is good fun and very readable. And I'm not just saying that because they guested here last week!

In Tips for Squirrel Proofing your Bird Feeder, Rob Plastow lists spicy seeds and spinners among methods to muddle the little munchkins. And there’s an excellent video showing the benefits of a greasy pole.

Still, if you’ve got a bird feeder that’s being plundered, rather than buying another, squirrel-proof version, a baffle might be the answer. Presents for Men has a sturdy looking one for £24.99. Hanging it above your current feeder might just “baffle” them into giving up. (If anyone's tried making one with a dustbin lid, let us know.)

Finally, squirrels seem to have more than their fair share of video online. Below is the advert for Carling Black Label from 1989, which still makes me laugh, while you can get more giggles at WebTVHub and Tom Jepson’s Funny Squirrels Page, which includes another laugh-out-loud ad, this time for Budweiser.