We are about to start our garden; we're just waiting impatiently for the final frost-free date in our area. There are so many reasons to garden: The taste of fresh vegetables, the pleasure of watching new things grow, the smell of tomato plants and the color of chive blossoms. That's enough to make us look forward to getting our hands in the dirt.
But we've also been seeing some really great products for gardening that make us even more impatient. Here are a few inspiring things.
• 1 Food Map Containers - Containers on wheels! These are so great for apartment-dwellers and those of us in cold climates. You can wheel your herb garden in and out to avoid the cold. Also, these are currently on sale.
• 2 Garden Dibble - Do you know what a garden dibble is? It's a little tool for making evenly-sized holes for planting seeds and bulbs. You can just use a stick, of course, but this hand-turned and elegant little tool (that happens to look like a carrot!) would make a great gift for a gardener. It also has lines to help you poke holes at even depths.
• 3 Sunset's instructions on building a raised bed - We're taking over part of the little lawn to be a vegetable garden this year, and so raised beds are the way to go. We are also planning on attempting some cold-frame gardening later this year, so I really like these instructions that include inexpensive PVC pipe framing.
• 4 Avant-Gardener - Haha. Nice play on words, and nice design. Perfect for planting tomatoes in the sunshine.
• 5 Bionic Women's Garden Elite Gloves - Wow! These aren't high-tech sports equipment, appearances to the contrary. They're garden gloves! I usually just use an old pair of canvas gloves, but I have a ton of extra-spiky and difficult yard clearing to do this year, and I wonder if a $40 pair of gloves would make it easier. Any thoughts?
What's getting you excited about gardening this year?
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I just built three of those Sunset raised beds last weekend. They were easy to build and look GREAT. I'm very happy with them. Now if it would just stop snowing in Denver so i can plant!
view Maggiempbp's profile
I'm building a raised bed according to the Sunset design this weekend! And hedging my bets a bit with Boston weather by setting out radishes, lettuce, and onions in containers.
view Margaret K.'s profile
I'm a novice gardener planning to begin a vegetable garden. Do you have any book recommendations?
view lili2728's profile
lili, find out if there are any garden clubs in your area. Then ask them for a reccommendation appropriate for your region. The biggest problem for me, getting started, was that all the bookstores in south Texas carried garden books published (and written) in the Midwest.
Or, tell us where you're from, and see if anyone here has reccommendations!
view whytephoenix's profile
Book Recommendations: The new Square foot gardening by Mel Barthalemew. It is great, he has small space gardening down to a precise science. Try just a 4x4 to begin with. I've been doing it this way ever since 3rd grade.
Luke
The New Urban Sharecropper
http://newurbansharecropper.blogspot.com
view Luke's profile
You can also follow my adventures in backyard gardening on my new blog: the new urban sharecropper
http://newurbansharecroppers.blogspot.com/
view Luke's profile