Books and Tools

Lined Goatskin Gloves Keep Hands Warm For Winter Gardening

December 3, 2011 42 comments
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Us pro gardeners are pretty tough. Even so, every year I’m surprised at just how cold winter is. When you go out at 9 am to get a spot of pruning in, and find your breath catching in the cold, you start to appreciate all the little design elements in tools that keep you warm [...]

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Dirr’s Encyclopedia a New Industry Standard

November 29, 2011 5 comments
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***Timber Press is holding a giveaway for the new Dirr book! Details below.*** The internet has removed the need for so many types of book. Between the online nursery descriptions and search engine image searches, you can find basic information on many types of plant, and that’s often good enough. However, things become tricky when [...]

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The Visitor’s Guide to American Gardens

November 21, 2011 43 comments
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If your winter “gardening” is usually comprised of bulb and perennial catalogs, highlighters, and very little in the way of actual outdoor gardening, then I have a new tool to make your winter plotting that much more exciting. Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp has written The Visitor’s Guide to American Gardens, which is a beautifully-organized and [...]

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Kindle Awesome: Free Gardening Books for Amazon Prime Members

November 8, 2011 0 comments
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I was delighted to read about Amazon’s new Kindle lending library for Prime members, where we can choose from 5,300 books to borrow and read on our Kindle. While the list of people who have both a Kindle and an Amazon Prime account may be small, if you’re on that list (like me!) I think you’ll [...]

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Workin’ Like a Pro: Gardening Tools I Adore Right Now

October 5, 2011 11 comments
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You all know I’m a bit of a tool evangelist. After having countless employees bust up inferior tools during our 40-hour workweeks in the garden, I do get a bit swoony about the tools that last. But of course, merely surviving the garden isn’t good enough for pros. We do so much pruning, digging and [...]

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50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants

August 24, 2011 20 comments
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EDIT: Patrick is the winner of the giveaway! You all remember my excitement recently to have discovered this lovely new book from Timber Press. Ruth Rogers Clausen shows off 50 top picks for deer-resistant gardens, and gives about two pages of in-depth information about how to design with each plant, what other plants look best [...]

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The Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower Giveaway!

August 18, 2011 301 comments
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***We’re giving away a Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower to one lucky reader – comment below to win!*** EDIT: HUGE CONGRATS TO OUR WINNER, NICKY of DIRT AND MARTINIS!! Lately, I’ve been realizing just how much I hate mowing my lawn with my old gas mower. It’s stinky, it’s noisy, and the vibrations from the mower [...]

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Deer Resistant Gardening Made Easy: a Book Review

July 12, 2011 4 comments
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Ruth Rogers Clausen, author of 50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants, has some straightforward advice for dealing with deer, and selecting beautiful plants that will go well together in deer country. I share some of her advice for dealing with deer over at the Christian Science Monitor, and give an in-depth review of her new book there [...]

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Great Deal on Bahco Pruners

June 14, 2011 8 comments
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You all know how much I love my Bahco pruners. I usually recommend you buy from Amazon, which has the Bahcos without replaceable parts for only $17 before shipping ($22 with shipping). But an alert reader who is handy with the Google skills discovered a fantastic deal over at the Harry Epstein company. The Bahcos [...]

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Planting in Tight Spaces with Smart Pots

June 9, 2011 55 comments
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Recently I had a client who wanted some plants tucked behind her waterfall. The waterfall had been built right up against her fence, so there was no real planting area – you can’t just pile up soil against a fence, of course. Enter the Smart Pots. Because the spaces were so cramped and oddly-shaped, there [...]

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