Tend to Your Garden in Winter

Although many of the perennials grown in the garden slumber through the winter months, the gardener is far from inactive.

In fact, winter in the garden can be as busy as any other season of the year.

Here are some essential gardening tasks that are recommend green fingers take care of when it gets frosty outside:

1./ Check in on your plants: Examine the greenhouse (or cold frame) regularly for any sign of pests or disease it could be harboring. Remove any dead flower heads, yellowing leaves, and other plant debris before mold starts to form, to cut the risk of infection.

Heavy snowfall can settle on conifers and evergreens with larger surface areas, causing the branches to buckle or break under all that heft. Knock the snow off to help reduce damage, because a torn branch leaves an open wound for infections in spring.

2./ Protect them from the cold: Insulate your greenhouse and cold frame with bubble wrap or similar insulation, because reducing drafts saves on heat loss and plant casualties.
Outdoor evergreens, container plants, tall plants, and plants introduced since the previous winter will need protection if the weather takes a nasty turn. (They can be severely damaged by wind, which can loosen roots.) Consider planting a windbreak or shelter to reduce the airflow.

Another problem caused by the wind is foliage drying out, which happens when freezing gusts draw moisture from leaves faster than it can be replaced. Erect a screen of woven plastic mesh or horticultural fleece on the windward side of vulnerable plants to reduce the wind's effects and protect the leaves. During heavy frosts, some plants may even benefit from being bundled up in protective fleece, which absorbs some of cold.

3./ Prepare the soil: Because winter frost can break down sticky clay soil better than any cultivation tool, it can be an ally when it comes to preparing heavy soils. This is the time to incorporate compost or other organic conditioners that will improve soil structure and boost plant growth.

4./ Deal with construction and landscaping jobs: Because sections of the garden will be bare, it's easier to see the garden layout and make changes for the coming spring. If the soil isn't too wet to be structurally damaged by foot traffic and wheelbarrows, you can take the opportunity to install or improve drainage systems.

5./ Handle repairs and maintenance, and that includes repairing handles: Consider the lack of vegetation a bonus, because this is an ideal time to drain and clean pools and ponds, as well as repair pond sides, walls, and liners. Or use this time to re-level, change the shape, increase the shape and size of borders, and reseed areas where growth is sparse. However, no work should be carried out if the grass is frozen, because footprints made on frozen grass can cause it to turn brown.

Repair, sharpen, clean, service, and otherwise maintain tools that are used in your garden, whether the lawnmower, the strimmer, bill hooks, secateurs, etc. A well-maintained tool or piece of machinery will give you good service for many, many years and will make life and work easier.

Michael Smith (Veshengro), January 2008

Gorilla Tubs – Product Review

Is there really anyone out there who does not know the Gorilla Tubs by Faulks & Co. at Barwell, Leicestershire? If so, then let me tell you a little about those tubs and their uses.

Tubtrugs are the slightly more “domestic” relations of the Gorilla Tubs. The latter are intended for the more industrial use and are equally at home with the professional gardener as a “basket” in which to deposit weeds from weeding flowerbeds or Rose cuttings or what-have-you, as they are on a building site for mixing cement or plaster or for removing rubble from confined spaces. Anything you can do with a bucket you can do with a Tubtrug and a Gorilla Tub.

In our time now where we all need to think “green” and recycled Faulks & Co have been leading the way for years with the timeless range of recycled tyre rubber products, and the rage of those is just way too large to list here. You can see them at http://www.tyrerubber.com.

With all the ranges of tubs from Faulks & Co. anyone will be able to find one that is just right for his or her job.

The ordinary gardener at home or the allotment will be served well enough with just the standard flexible Tubtrugs, and it has many more uses around the home too, while the professional gardener, whether landscape or parks, would be better served, no doubt, with either the various sizes of the Gorilla Tubs ot by the “baskets” of the “Tyre Rubber” range of recycled products.

For further information see the websites at:

Tubtrugs

Gorilla Tubs

Recycled Tyre Rubber Products

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), January 2008

Pest Stop Mouse Traps – Product Review

There can hardly be much new as regards to mouse traps, many a reader, I am certain, is probably thinking now. But, well, there can be.

Pest Stop presented new mouse traps at the DIY & Garden/Totally Tools Show at Earls Court during 13-15 January 2008

I must say I actually must have missed seeing the stand when I was at the show but the kindly provided press goody bag in the Press Office gave me enough samples to test.

The first one we shall be looking at is the Sure-Set Plastic Mouse Trap.



This brand-new mousetrap is simple to set and use; once baited, simply click the lever down to set. The mouse has to tread on a platform to reach the bait-well, which triggers the trap, meaning that the mouse cannot take the bait without triggering the trap. It is simple to set and empty. There is no need to touch dead mice and the plastic construction makes for easy cleaning. They are sold as a twin-pack, as it is advised to set more than one trap in an infested area to increase catch-rate and they are quick and humane.

The second one in the pack was the Pre-baited Snap Trap Mousetrap.



This plastic mousetrap is pre-baited with a mixture most mice find irresistible, and is extremely safe and easy to set. It is pre-baited with a mixture of peanut oil and molasses, extremely attractive to mice. The Snap Trap sets with a simple click, and can even be set using just one hand even. There is no need to touch dead mice; simply release by pressing down on the tab - the trap will then be ready for re-use

This trap is absolutely, in my view, ingenious, as it is, basically, out of the box, so to speak, ready to roll and catch mice, as it is pre-baited.

The only question that might come to mind is their environmental impact as they are plastic and a lot more sophisticated than the humble simple little “Little Nipper” traps which have a wooden base and a wire mechanism.

NB: Mice carry a variety of diseases, and should never be handled without protection.

In addition to this if you are dealing with dead rats then it is an absolute must to wear disposable gloves (and they MUST be disposed after) and ideally also a face mask.

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), January 2008

Cable Buddi – Product Review

Cable Buddi is a unique safety cable clip on device from the Stadium Group plc.

We all know the trouble with the trailing cables of electric lawn mowers, hedge cutters, and other such tools. How easy it is to cut through through the power lead we also, I am sure, have found out to our peril. Now Cable Buddi can eliminate all those problems to a great degree; operator error excluded.

Cable Buddi is ideal for all kinds of electrical tools, whether lawn mowers, hedge cutters, strimmers, rotavators, garden vacs, chain saws, woodworking tools, drills, and much more.

Cable Buddi helps reduce the risk of cutting through electrical cables and reduces the risk of tripping over same. Both rather a health and safety issue.

Cable Buddi allows the equipment to be used with two fully operational hands, thereby reducing the risk of repetitive strain injury (RSI) and increasing efficiency.

Cable Buddi allows full concentration on the job in hand without the need to worry about the cable, as the cable is safely towed by the side of the user.

At a retail price of GBP 1.99 is it well worth getting a couple of them for sure.

Cable Buddi should be available from most Hardware Stores or Tool Shops and large DIY outlets, I should think, like Homebase and B&Q. If not ask the store to get Cable Buddi for you.

Cable Buddi is brought to you by:

Stadium Group plc
Jubilee Avenue
Highams Park
Chingford
London E4 9UD
Tel: 020-8531-6767
www.stadium-ventilation.co.uk

Safe Can - Product Review

Store your valuables where thieves won't find them.

SafeCan is a ground-breaking product which makes it easy for people to hide their valuables in ‘dummies’ of everyday objects, like cans of beans or books. Branded products from household names, like Heinz or Collins Dictionaries, mean the dummy containers can be concealed with other household objects for maximum safety. The brands are fully licensed from their parent companies, so they look exactly the same! In other words, a very subtle low cost safe.

SafeCan is a exciting product that could help people protect their property, whether in their homes, their garage, in a caravan or a boat.

Recognised by Police Forces, Neighbourhood Watch Groups and Insurance Companies Worldwide as an excellent deterrent to theft. The SafeCan is the ideal place to hide money and jewellery.

Upon attending DIY & Garden and Totally Tools every visitor, including us media guys, were handed a goody bag at the door sponsored by Henkel which had a Can Safe in the form of a spray can of a Henkel product in it.

This is, I most say, the first time that I had a chance to get a closer look at one of those little low cost safe solutions and I can only say, “ingenious”.

More information on SafeCan, now part of the Sterling range of security solutions, can be found at www.sterlinglocks.com.