Last week, I attended the Independent Garden Center show in Chicago hoping to find 3 – 5 cool new products to review for 2011. I thought I had everything I needed when I left Thursday to stand in line for the elevator. Luckily, I ran into Jim Luurs, owner of Luurs Garden and Flower Shoppe (near the border between Hillside and Elmhurst, Illinois) so I had to ask, “What was the one cool thing that stood out so well you absolutely have to include it in your store?” Without hesitation Jim said, “Well, there is ONE really great thing and you’re gonna love it. Let me show you.” And with that, we walked to his truck where he had samples of what I gotta say is indeed a really nifty tool for creating raised beds without screws, bolts, drills, handymen or uncooperative husbands.
The M Brace: An artful corner tool to build a raised bed with pre-cut boards.
Honestly, this is so nifty and artful and easy to use, you’ll wonder why it took so long to be invented. Just arrange your braces where you want the bed to be, plop in the wood, fill with dirt and plants. That’s it. You can even use recycled wood from old fences or barns for a weathered look. I’d like to see someone try using bamboo or other materials. And since the steel is 16 gauge, the brackets support almost any length of boards.
(Click on any image to enlarge)
I was really amazed as how easy it is to use the M Braces. It really is just a matter of slipping the boards in the corner slots. Technically, I don't think you even need your boards to be exactly the same length. And while the M Brace is available in a powder coated surface that resembles rust, the plain ones will rust naturally in your garden creating a really cool artful patina.
Not only do M Braces function, they are decorative, offering several designs to choose from, and come plain-ready to rust and powder-coated to resemble rust. Check out the gallery on the website for more examples or the how-to video below to see just how easy they are to use.
A woman named Jill Plumb, former high school teacher and avid gardener, invented it. Jim said, “She’s really got her act together. She’s already gotten this patented and produced right here in the USA.”
Now I consider myself handy with a drill but honestly, I’d rather focus on the growing and less on the building so I think The M Brace is a nifty thing. The fact that it’s made in the USA from 100% recycled steel and will gather a groovy rusty surface over time, only adds to the artfulness of Jill’s designs.
Jill’s Nifty Idea.
So of course, I just had to call Jill and learn more about how she came up with this idea and the responses she’s been getting. She got the idea in January 2009 while dealing with her own difficulties in building her raised garden beds. After struggling with the corners, she took a break to make dinner. When refilling her napkin holder while dinner was cooking, she had one of those knock on the side of the head moments where it all just connected. She immediately saw the correlation between a basic napkin holder and a new, amazingly easy way to build a raised bed without tools.
Her background as a high school teacher was instrumental during product development. “You’ve got to know your stuff if you’re teaching teenagers, so research was the easy part for me,” Jill explained as we discussed all the product design and development tasks required to create The M Brace. The biggest challenge, according to Jill, has been the rapid manufacturing ramp up needed to meet the unbelievable demand. She didn’t think it would take off as quickly as it has; she expected to have 2 – 3 years to ramp up. But because of the fast ramp up, she’s also able to start bringing the prices down because she’s scaling up production so quickly to meet demand.
Jill Plumb, former high school teacher, now local & eco-focused garden tool inventor.
Even with the frantic ramp up, she’s passionate about keeping production local and environmentally friendly. “I won’t make these in China,” Jill said during our phone call. In fact, her factory is 15 minutes from home and she’s looking to add a midwestern plant to keep transportation costs as low as possible across the US. Eco ethics is such a passion, she wants to ensure that nothing she does “…will mess up the planet. It’s wonderful to produce something with recycled materials.” In fact, Jill is so passionate about local sourcing and gardening that her back yard is part of a local CSA.
She’s also committed to using recycled materials. In fact, all the steel is 100% recycled; even the cutouts from the laser cut designs get recycled back into products like edgers and plant stakes. And the powder coating option, available through some retailers, is non-toxic and biodegradable. Jill said she feels very lucky to be able to make these choices herself on behalf of other gardeners who are just as passionate about our planet.
“It takes a village to raise a product.”
When asked what her family thinks of her new venture she replied, “They think it’s a crack up! My husband’s been a wonderful cheerleader, even swapping roles at home to make this possible. He’s really amazing.”
Jill’s biggest reward is seeing the light bulb go off for someone who’s just been introduced to the product. “It makes me smile when they see how easy it is to use.”
Of course, the challenge with any new product these days will always include the local vs. overseas dilemma. While the bulk of Americans are hooked on cheap goods from sweatshops overseas, there’s an increasing awareness and concern that is starting to drive a local focus.
Let’s hope Jill can continue to fend off the so-called business experts who want to see her produce these cheaper with questionable materials in China and a less local focus. For now, she’s a leading example of inventors/start up business owners who create a niche from their passions. Way to go Jill!
Resources:
Luurs Garden and Flower Shoppe, Hillside, Illinois is expected to be selling The M Brace in the near future. Just contact them for more info.
There is also a list of retailers on Jill’s website but of course, this is expanding faster than they can update the site. So contact them if you’re not finding a retailer in your area.
I was just listening to @jeanannvk and @kissmyaster‘s latest Good Enough Gardening podcast about plants that are so common, they are frowned upon and it got me thinking: do I have snobbish tendencies toward some overly used plants? Of course I do and would venture to say we all do (poor Stella).
So in the interest of giving some plants their fair shake, here’s a list that my gut says NO! along with examples of varieties or uses that IMHO might make them workable. Most were debated in the podcast but I added a few of my own.
And as usual, click on a photo to enlarge.
Petunias
I think my aversion to petunias stems from trying to pick them as a child and discovering their stems were hairy, sticky, smelly and secreted a milky substance that was gross. Really, I have no reason to hate them unless they’re the overused common varieties that the big box retailers pitch annually. Oh, yeah, and they’re an annual. Yes, I am snobbish about not wanting to waste my time on a short-lived plant in a zone 5 location.
That said, I was accosted with what I thought was an amazing petunia the the Chicago Flower and Garden show earlier this year and it not only made me look twice but forced me to take a photo.
If I were in the market for a pink flower for my house, I would consider the Petunia Debonair Dusty Rose even though some have given it poor marks. What I saw at the CFGS was eye-catching and different. It looked like a Victorian botanical watercolor.
Also, I’d consider the following petunias due to their insanely cool colors and growth habits. I just wouldn’t try to pick them without gloves.
Can-Can™ Mocha Calibrachoa mini petunia — I love the coloring of this mini-petunia, so gothic! Technically a Calibrachoa, some call it a petunia, some don’t. I’m not a horticulturist so don’t ask me. I just think it’s cool.
Black Velvet —reportedly the only TRUE black petunia
Phantom — this one makes me think of Eartha Kitt for some reason
Superbells® Blackberry Punch — @KissMyAster mentions this one in the podcast as “…the ‘effin cutest thing ever,” ‘nuf said.
Really, I think it’s about NOT choosing what everyone else is using or if you do, use it differently. In a unique combination. I do get so tired of going to the local garden store and seeing the same damn colors at all of them. No wonder home owners have a hard time being original.
Coleus
We’ve all seen the cliched painted coleus that have been used since the 60′s and 70′s. Yeah, I’m sick of them too and until this year, I hadn’t really seen anything new or unique at my local garden center.
Orange King is in the upper right of this photo. The tops of the leaves are greenish yellow in shade but turn orange in the sun. The undersides of the leaves are a dark red/burgundy. This plant stopped me dead in my tracks and I even went back to the store twice after I got over the fact that I was lusting after a coleus.
Another weird little coleus, The Line, is a solid gold leaf variety with a dark purple vein down the center. This one was weird enough I had to have it.
And here are some from Proven Winners that I think are really worth a looksee:
When I was a kid, I used to visit my Aunt (the creative one) every summer. We’d go horseback riding, walking in the woods, play with the ducks AND tend to her massive collection of coleus. My god that woman must have had over 50 plants. Her house was full of them and they were all pretty much the paint splatter varieties. So I grew up thinking all coleus were paint splattered when obviously that’s not at all true. There are some downright creepy looking colorings as well as some my ex-roommate Todd/Diana would’ve worn as a hat!
Barberry
We’ve all seen the burgundy/winey color barberries. They’re EVERYWHERE! And most of them are clipped to within an inch of their lives and just look wretched. The better-groomed barberries are allowed to grow more freely, like arms wearing rose/burgundy sleeves reaching outward and swaying to a cheer like fans at a White Sox game. Because barberry seemed awfully common to me and burgundy wasn’t really in my color scheme this year, I’ve not been a fan. BUT THEN…I happened upon this weird little variety at, of all places, Home Despot Depot. The orange/green color combo is so wacked, I bought 3 of these. Plus they have a columnar growth habit which allows me to place contrasting mounds of Japanese Forest grass at their feet for a truly shocking display.
Orange Rocket Barberry is a columnar-shaped, unusual color combo that forced me to rethink barberries.
4 other common plants I’d love to try again:
There are gazillions of overly and poorly used plants that I still think could be cool in the right situation. Here are four I’d like to experiment with next year.
Dusty Miller: Poor Dusty Miller always gets stuck into terribly coordinated, ready-to-go containers from big box stores. So no one ever takes it seriously and it’s not really a bad plant, just misunderstood and misused. I think combining this old staple with something dark, bloody and rich could be awesome. Maybe with Black Velvet petunias, Purple or Thai basil? Or maybe going all white with white petunias for a frosty cool look? With either dark or light flowers, the bone like leaf shapes would create a Dark Shadows kind of container arrangement.
Begonia: These remind me of my grandma so I think of them as old-lady flowers. And the ones that are used in public planters just never seem to grow, in fact, they get a tad spindly. Surely there are varieties that GROW and don’t look winded by August? Must look into this net year.
Viny green stuff: Yeah, next year I’m going to stick with creeping rosemary or thyme instead of vinca vine. I thought I could make the vinca work but it’s giving me panic attacks like spider plants do. Grows like a foot a day and it’s now trailing down the porch stairs in a “feed me, Seymour” kinda way.
Marigolds: There are some pretty cool HUGE cream color marigolds out now although I really am partial to the standard orange/yellow puffballs. I think it’s all in how they’re used. Gotta experiment with this one next year because they’re just so damned cheerful! Here’s an example of a cool marigold use that I saw at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show but of course, may NOT be practical for your own outdoor yard:
God I just LOVE LOVE LOVE this use of marigolds!! Who'd a thunk: marigolds posing as spilled popcorn around theater seating. Maybe if I had vinyl theater seats for the back yard and ceramic popcorn containers, I could make this work?
Close up of a messy spill of marigold popcorn poseurs How cool is that?
If you haven’t already done so, give a listen to Good Enough Gardening’s latest podcast and learn more about avoiding overly used plants or using common plants in unique ways.
Sorry folks, no photo for this one. I took it to a potluck and was running late but trust me, everyone loved it. Even DH ate some and he’s not that fond of succotash.
2 bags of frozen shelled soy beans
2 bags of frozen yellow corn
3-4 red peppers (use 4 if small, use 3 if large)
2-3 cloves crushed garlic
2 handfuls of fresh Thai basil sprigs
3 spring onion from your garden or 4-5 spring onions from the store (see note below)
drizzle olive oil
salt and pepper
Steps:
Grill peppers until skins are black. Cool peppers then peel off skins and discard. Dice peppers about the same size as the beans.
Chop green onions about the same size as the beans.
Strip leaves from basil sprigs and chiffonade into thin strips. Compost the stems. Tiny leaves can just be tossed into the bowl without preparation.
Gently combine peppers, onions, basil, garlic and olive oil in large bowl.
Boil soy beans in salted water for 15 minutes (or 5 minutes short of package instructions).
Add corn to boiling beans, bring to boil again and cook 5 minutes more.
Strain beans and corn then add to mixture in bowl while still hot. Toss and season to taste.
Serve warm or refrigerate for potlucks. Best not to carry warm foods to a potluck and then let them sit out for a while.
Note: Green onions from my garden are about a yard long so I only needed 3 of these. Green onions bought in a store have been severely trimmed to about 14 inches in length so you will need a couple more.
I think that color plays a big role in a good succotach which is why I specified yellow frozen corn. White just would have the same effect.
If you want to make this even better and you have the time, grill corn on the cob, cut off the kernals and use that instead of frozen corn. Just don’t add it to the boiling beans, rather mix it in gently with the peppers, basil and garlic. It’s a lot more work but grilling really does lend a nice flavor depth if you have the time and a sharp knife.
Timber Press recently held a contest on their blog for the worst of hell strips. For the uninitiated, a hell strip is that part of your yard where nothing grows. It can be hit with too much sun, poor soil near pavement, frequent dog attention, drunken humans and a host of other maladies.
After careful consideration, I determined that I have three hell strips with three very different sets of criteria. Below are photos of mine. Click to enlarge any photos you want to see close up, carnage abounds.
Dogwalkers That Suck: Hell Strip by Sidewalk in Front Yard
I finally roped this area off in a vain attempt to make it known to dog walkers that my yard is NOT a dog park. You can see how the arborvitae hedge no longer runs all the way to the sidewalk? Yeah, that's because the dog urine killed the first shrub. Now we have a giant weed tree of unknown type sprouting in its place.
I have the additional problem of mixed shade/sun as shown here. This area gets total shade until about 3:30 (in June) when part of it gets a blast of direct sun through the trees while the shrubs maintain a fully shaded section as you can see. Perfect for weed growing which seems to be the only thing that grows here.
Bowling Alley: Hell Strip Along Neighbor’s New Sidewalk and in My New Clay Soil
About two years ago, my neighbor had a new sidewalk poured between our houses. Now my property extends exactly to the edge of his new sidewalk. The pouring of cement caused the soil in this area to turn into a grey clay. Fortunately, the parallel hosta row was already established and the sidewalk didn't kill it but now I can't really add anything without repairing the soil. Couple that with the sun/shade challenge you see here. In early May, this area is full shade. As the sun rises through June, we get this shady strip.
Garbage Man Can: Hell Strip Between Our and Our Neighbor’s Garage
I didn't realize this area was a problem until a neighbor coordinated an alley clean up two weeks ago. Prior to the clean up, the dirt mound you see here was filled with 7-foot tall weeds and weed trees. I painstakingly pulled as many as I could without DH's help with the reciprocating saw but a lot of weed trees remain between the two garages. This spot is nestled between our and the neighbor's garages and became a collecting place for bagged dog shit and trash from the nearby 7-eleven. And you can't see it from the photo but there's a wood pallet still leaning against the garage and the garbage men evidently refuse to take it. The utility pole provides alley dog-walkers a spot to spa their dogs. I really didn't enjoy cleaning this area out, it stunk something awful and the soil is filled with broken glass and trash bits. Interestingly, there are other alleys in Oak Park that are beautifully landscaped and I just don't know how they do it. Car exhaust, dogs and other critters, trash. It's a challenge.
In April, I was approached by Troy-Bilt to see if I’d be interested in reviewing one of their products. Since I’d had such a good experience with their tiller last year, I said “Absolutely!” I hate being put in a situation to deliver a negative review and I was certain that wouldn’t happen with a Troy-Bilt product (and it didn’t BTW).
I also think that due to home owners’ increasing awareness of organic gardening and environmentally sound lawn care, folks are likely to consider taking a more hands-on approach to their own landscaping. And one of the biggest challenges for the DIY landscaper is dealing with the sometimes HUGE quantity of tree limbs, leaves and brush that a single plot is capable of producing. Even in an urban environment where grassy areas may be small or nonexistent, tree limbs can still pose a challenge to keeping your area tidy.
This is why I chose to review Troy-Bilt’s chipper/shredder model CS4325. I chose the non-vacuum version because I felt a vacuum may pose more challenges in an urban setting where it may accidentally take up non-plant related materials such as broken bottles, used condoms and the ever present rat carcasses ;-P Not to mention having to maneuver it around tight corners or narrow pathways often found in urban hamlets.
But if you have a lawn and are interested in the vacuum model, head over to Kylee’s review of one of the other Troy-Bilt models. Between the two of us, I think you’ll have a wider view of Troy-Bilt’s various chipper/shredder features.
Unpacking from the Crate.
Yes, a girl can do this. It isn’t that hard. Although I had my husband (a.k.a. Hipster Pete) do the work so I could photograph and videotape, this unit is really not that hard to maneuver or use.
Click to get a closer view of the unloading effort. Use heavy duty box cutters and watch out for staples.
Cut away the double walled box while leaving the unit on the shipping pallet. There is NO WAY you’re going to lift this box off the crate or lift the unit out of the box. You’re going to have to cut down one or two side walls and roll the unit out.
Watch those staples, don’t let them scrape your arm or hide on the floor near your car tires.
Once the cardboard is removed from one or two sides, just roll the unit off the pallet, easy peasy.
Remove all components from the hopper (red tow bar, white catcher bag, goggles, tow bar pins, 2 manuals, 1 quart of oil).
Now grab a lemonade and read the manuals to familiarize yourself with the components and safety requirements.
Overview of Chipper/Shredder.
While it is a large, heavy, shiny, butch thing, the wheels are big enough to make it easy to roll, and the starting cable—while a tough pull—is not so tough I couldn’t get it started first try.
Click on diagram to enlarge. The biggest reason for the chipper/shredder not starting is that folks leave either the white bag or the tow bar in the hopper. These gotta come out first, THEN the unit will start.
Hopper: This is the large upper area shown in the diagram. It is for ½-inch or smaller twigs and we found that you could put several through at once.
Chute: The smaller angled chute is to the side. There is a latch where you can pin it up during storage and lower it for actual use. This chute will take up to 3-inch diameter branches.
Engine: There is a separate manual for just the engine. This manual covers all the maintenance and technical stuff associated with the engine. The engine has its own 800 number for technical assistance.
Tow bar: The tow bar ships inside the main hopper along with all the other accessories and it’s painted red like the hopper. I initially saw the bar and tugged on it but it didn’t budge so I thought it was part of the hopper. Of course the unit wouldn’t start with the tow bar inside. You must remove it first.
Bag and attaching it: The bag is HUGE! Yes, you could fit maybe two bodies in it if they’re chipped. To attach, snuggle it over the entire area around the lower exit chute making sure the bag is secured over the knobs. Tighten the bag’s belt as much as possible. Arrange the bag out straight from the chipper/shredder so the chips can fill it without any obstructions or twisted fabric. I can’t stress enough that you need to secure this bag. IF it comes off during operation, you’ll have wood bits blown at least 3 car-lengths away not to mention all in your hair. Trust me on this.
Make sure the bag goes completely around the exit chute components and tighten it as much as humanly possible.
The Chipper/Shredder in Action.
We tested the chipper/shredder on 4 huge bundles of branches/twigs/brush that had been gathering for a year in a hopeless ‘compost pit’ that I dug. Our neighbor to the North also contributed many branches from his red bud and crabapple while our neighbor across the alley brought over several small trees that succumbed to a recent renovation project.
Just a portion of the branches, twigs and brush we'd collected.
We used about 1.25 gallons of regular unleaded and that enabled us to clear out all the stuff that had gathered in the corner of our yard: about 10 x 4 x 4 feet of crammed branches, twigs and woody brush some of which was damp from being on the lower part of the pile. Add in the neighbors’ large branches, then we threw in some huge green weedy things just to see what would happen.
All in all, 3 households put this beast through its paces and in about an hour, we had whittled everything down to 2 very large garden carts of very fine mulch.
In a nutshell, this thing is a beast. Amazing power and never failed.
Test results:
Challenge
Result
Damp brush/twigs
No noticeable difference in handling
Grassy stuff and leaves
Ate it like a champ
Woody branches up to 3-inch diameter
Gobbled every bit
Tips:
The unit is wide; measure before you try maneuvering it around tight corners or through gates.
Wear ear plugs, seriously.
Wear the goggles supplied or others that you have. There will be a lot of airborne particles and the chips do fly.
Don’t reach into the hopper or chute while the unit is running. Follow the safety guidelines in the manual.
Don’t let kids put sticks in the unit. Sticks can whip around, smacking them, and a child looking into the chipper chute is not a good thing.
Run it at full throttle, don’t attempt to save gas by running it with the throttle halfway. This can result in jammed wood and wood chips that aren’t as small as they should be. Full throttle ensures those flails are fully extended (more on that in a minute).
Some branches will need to be broken down to fit into the hopper or chute if they are wide, forked branches. I kept my Felcos handy and DH used the table saw for any branches that forked off beyond the 3-inch maximum diameter. Keep in mind, the hole down at the bottom of the large branch chute is only 3 inches wide. Stuff must fit through there to get shredded.
Here's an example of a branch that won't fit. While the branch itself is 3 inches, the Y-formation at its end is not. This one must be further cut down in order to feed through the chute.
While you can most likely shred green weeds, I don’t recommend it because that’s a great way to spread weeds throughout your yard. I’d just let those things compost or something where the weed seeds or rhizomes will be killed.
Greens and browns do appear to be possible but I'd be careful of shredding weeds that contain seeds or live rhizomes. You wouldn't want to spread weeds throughout your yard.
Flails: Get Medieval on that Rubbish.
While traditional medieval flails often came in contact with humans, modern flails in chipper/shredders only do the same in movies like Fargo. And while they share a name, they are totally different in design.
While an effective tool for Buffy, medieval flails are NOT the same as the modern flails in a chipper/shredder.
Troy-Bilt chipper/shredders use flail “blades” to demolish your yard waste and the flail assembly is incredibly efficient. You should know that they’re also noisy. Especially when you turn off the unit. Flails consist of a lot of little blades that are folded neatly together until the engine is started, then the flails are fully extended while running. When you turn the engine off, the assembly slows down and the blades fold back together and make a lot of racket—this is normal. Honestly, they sound like Buffy is in there wreaking havoc but not to worry. NOTHING is falling apart; the blades are just collapsing into their stationary position. It will sound like metal chunks are flying about and you’ll probably look around the ground for loose bolts and change but this noise is perfectly normal.
Why Do It Yourself?
There is an increasing trend among communities to charge home owners for collecting yard waste. Not only do many folks now have to buy special yard waste bags, they also have to purchase yard waste stickers to put on the bags. Each week I see dozens of full yard waste bags with little official stickers lining our alley as folks attempt to keep their yards clean without composting or mulching. AND, there is evidently a market for stolen stickers as we have had our large trash stickers stolen if we put them out too early.
Why Waste Good Yard Waste?
Honestly, I don’t get folks who don’t compost or mulch. Seriously, it’s 2010 and we should have moved beyond trying to ‘dispose’ of grass clippings, leaves and tree branches. In fact, we had an alley clean up this past weekend, sponsored by our Village Hall. And get this, I offered to take all tree branches and leaves so folks wouldn’t have to bag and sticker everything and leave it curbside for 4 days—only ONE taker. Yes, it’s true; only one person among all the homes backing to our alley took me up on the offer. Others said they’d rather bag. (And don’t even get me started on the chemicals that the Village Hall of Oak Park made available to everyone who wanted to kill weeds in the alley! What was it Hemingway said about Oak Park? Oh yeah, “town of wide lawns and narrow minds.”)
Even so, I can very easily see a situation where MORE environmentally aware and organic neighborhoods band together and share a chipper/shredder to take advantage of their own compostable materials. Chipper/shredders are also great tools for hard-core gardeners and large-scale community gardens too.
The Environmental Factor.
Yes, this is a gas-device and (regular ole unleaded is fine). And yes there are electric chipper/shredders available but they don’t have the power to handle the big stuff and certainly don’t chip to a 1/10 ratio. Even if you tried a 2.5HP electric chipper, it’s not going to have the torque of a gas-powered engine.
I figure we’d use a chipper/shredder less often than a lawn mower or snow blower. And since I have nothing against snow, our old Honda mulching lawn mower poses a higher environmental impact than a chipper/shredder would.
Also consider that depending on where you live, electricity may come from nuclear power plants OR wind turbines. Most municipalities don’t have a choice for green energy. So you have to decide between your own local electricity source and petrol. It’s really personal from both a sourcing/green perspective and a use/efficiency perspective. If you don’t have woody shrubs or trees, save your money and use your lawn mower to mulch leaves and grass. But because I live in a heavily wooded suburb, I’ll be using the gas powered—just making sure I don’t buy gas from those morons at BP—and run it only when needed.
Side note: We still love our Honda mulching mower BTW. Honda was creating mulching mowers way back when everyone else was still deciding if mulching while you mow was good for your lawn.
Gas Has an Expiration Date.
Who knew? I certainly didn’t. Matt from Troy-Bilt educated me on this fact: gas actually does get old and it’s not very good for engines at that point. If you’re running a lawn mower weekly you won’t need to worry until the end of the season. But if you’re only running a chipper/shredder once or twice a year, listen up: buy a gas stabilizer and blend it with your gallon of gas BEFORE you put the gas in the tank. The tank can’t blend the two very well so blend beforehand.
My Overall Recommendation.
I have absolutely no complaints about the Troy-Bilt CS4325 Chipper/Shredder. It did everything that was expected of it. The manuals could be better designed for ease of use but the info you need is all there.
I’ve been thinking over the past week, trying to come up with any criticisms I have of the unit. I honestly don’t have any…wait, oh yeah, it doesn’t bake bread ;-P
My Own Stupid Moment.
I did feel incredibly stupid after leaving the tow bar in the hopper thinking it was part of the hopper because it was stuck and painted red. I even searched through the other materials looking for the tow bar and assumed I got a box that was missing one. It wasn’t until Troy-Bilt’s area manager came out and pulled the tow bar out of the hopper did I realize that thing was actually the tow bar. Yes, I felt incredibly dumb in front of the area manager. I’m sure he was wondering if I even knew the different between the choke and the throttle. But he was insanely nice about the whole thing.
I have in my grubby little paws (and they are grubby with all the Spring gardening this month), 2 coupons for free pints of Coconut Bliss Ice Cream!! Yes, you can be rolling in cold cold bliss made lovingly by Luna & Larry.
All you have to do to be entered to win a coupon is:
Leave your comment by Monday, June 14 at 7:00 pm Central Standard Time.
I will select 2 winners at random using a random number generator. Each winner will receive 1 coupon for a FREE pint of Coconut Bliss. Make sure you read the Legal Dogma below BEFORE you enter, K?
First Recipe
To get the ball rolling, I am contributing the first recipe. This is a good one and timely because it will help cool you down after a long day of gardening in the humid Spring we’ve been having.
Detroit-Style Ginger Rum Float
1 or 2 scoops of Coconut Bliss Pineapple Coconut Ice cream
1 ounce of rum
12 ounces of Vernors Ginger Ale
Maraschino cherries on a fancy drink pick for your garnish
Place ice cream in tall float glass. Add rum then slooooowly add ginger ale. Vernors is potent stuff so go slow. If you don’t use Vernors Brand ginger ale, I cannot be held accountable for the results. Other ginger ales are pussies compared to the stout nature of Vernors. Indeed, Vernors is the only real ginger ale, IMHO!
Legal Dogma
Winners will be notified by email so be sure to include your address during submission or I’ll have to go to the next random number.
I’ll mail your coupon to you via US Post. It’s up to you to find a retail store in your neck of the woods where you can redeem your coupon. As for online retailers, I don’t really know if it’s possible to use the coupons online so if that’s your goal, it’s up to you to research that and figure it out. I am not responsible for sending you a pint of ice cream. Really, the coupon’s it d00ds.
Oh, and you’ll have to pay your own taxes. While the pint is free, retailers will generally still charge you sales tax.
These little pints usually retail for over $5 at small mom and pop grocers or Whole Paycheck Foods.
OMG the cold winds of May have totally taken Chicago by surprise this month. Just after I’d planted all my pepper plants and all my tomatoes, we get a frost advisory with temps expected to dip to 34-36 F! What to do. Well…I decided to go ahead with the cloches I’d been planning all along but I didn’t have enough for all the plants so then plan B was born: pup tents and hoop houses.
AND this is the insane part: I’d been putting this off for a year because I thought it was hard. Yeah, lame. I know. It’s so easy I coulda done it myself except that I needed to man the camera, therefore needing a model.
Easy Hoop Hut for Temporary Use
Here is handsome Pete, presenting the finished Hoop Hut and Pup Tent. The photos that follow show close ups of how we did this. Just click on them to enlarge.
This is a hoop approach not designed to be permanent because it’s not tall enough to stand under, doesn’t have proper ventilation, weighted sides or doorways. But it’s perfect for a 2-week cold snap here in Chicago. It’ll keep things cozy and then I can remove it come end of May.
So this isn’t really a hoop house, it’s more like a hoop hut.
Oh, one more important note: CALL BEFORE YOU DIG FOLKS!!! Pushing rebar into the ground means ensuring you’re not disconnecting your electricity or puncturing your gas line.
Materials I used to create a roughly 8 foot by 10 foot hut:
4 10-foot PVC pipes, 1 inch in diameter, get the flexible kind
8 2-foot rebar
1 very heavy sledge hammer
1 sheet visqueen measuring at least 10 foot by 15 foot.
You’re going to use 1 rebar per end of each PVC=8 ends on 4 PVC. Measure out where you’re going to place the rebar and ensure they’re no more than 3 foot apart down the side of the hut. Of course your hut is 5-6 foot wide. Make sure they align across from each other, on either side of the garden row you’re covering. In my case, I covered two rows.
Pound the 8 rebar vertically into their designated locations to a depth of about a foot. Doesn’t have to be perfect, just deep enough that they won’t fly out of the ground and kill someone if the tension of the PVC gets the better of them.
Then, nestle one end of the first PVC pipe over a rebar. Bend the other end slowly towards the opposite rebar and firmly, gently, guide the end in place. It will feel taught and that’s normal. But you should probably wear goggles just in case.
Do this for all PVC and rebar.
When bending your PVC toward the rebar sticking up from the ground, 2 things are critical: make sure you're using 2 foot rebar pounded 1 foot into the ground AND you don't bend your PVC so much that you break it. If the rebar isn't embedded deep enough, you could end up with PVC flinging rebar in all directions, possibly breaking a window or impaling a neighbor.
Push the PVC gently but firmly over the rebar.
Push the PVC all the way to the ground. Don't let it meander up and down the rebar.
Once all are in place, survey the work and adjust if any are totally out of whack. Remember, it doesn’t need to be perfect. This isn’t a Picasso, it’s a hoop hut.
You can see approximately how high this hoop hut is going to be by the handsome model standing nearby. Also notice the spacing of the PVC and that it covers two rows.
Next, you’re going to gently spread the plastic over the hoops. Do have a second person help, it goes faster and on a windy day, you’ll need more hands.
Spread it roughly to ensure you measured correctly. Mine is a tad short on the sides. I should have an extra foot on each side to anchor the plastic to the ground but I didn't have enough. So I'm calling this ventilation for now.
Securing the plastic to the hoops can be done several ways: weighting down by attaching running boards along the sides or using cheapie hardware clamps from the dollar store. We opted for the latter because it was easy, cheap and uber temporary. Of course, if I want to make this a permanent structure, none of these rules apply.
Using clamps like these is easy and cheap. Of course, I'm not sure yet if it will withstand the gale-force winds that Chicago is known for but I'll keep you posted.
Pup Tents for My Little Tomato Puppies
Another quick-fix temporary solution to unexpected frost. Luckily I’d planted my tomatoes along a 2-foot high chickenwire fence this year so was able to use the fence as support for tenting visqueen over them. Easy to do, just weighted down the ends with scrap lumber and t-posts. Old shoes or dead bodies would work too. And I purposely didn’t make it air tight because I didn’t want them to smother in the sun. It’s odd up here right now, bright sun but 50 degree weather. Even in 50F with a breeze, a bright sun can cook seedlings if ventilation is nonexistent.
Gently drape your plastic over the fence, using the fence as a vertical support. You could also do this using t-posts and crosswire exactly as if you were pitching a tent over your plants.
You can see that we pieced together several scraps of plastic thus creating ventilation to prevent plants from being cooked.
You can use just about anything to weight down the sides so the wind doesn't take off with your tent. We also left the ends open, again for ventilation.
Long Term Planning
The great thing about both of these approaches is that they’re temporary: can be disassembled and put away until fall. But what I’d really like to do is come up with one hoop house that’s a proper house. Tall enough to walk into in December to harvest cold-weather veggies and winter greens.
Everyone’s been throwing around the term cloches lately in the gardenbloggertwitospere. And yes, it is a real word folks and nope, not one I’d heard of as a kid on grandma’s farm. After all, it is French in origin and my family was from Kentucky, the Southern part.
Make like you have a French accent if you want to freak out your uppity neighbors and pronounce it klōsh. While it does sound rather high-brow, cloches are actually very helpful for keeping off unexpected light frosts from tender seedlings when nighttime temps dip too far. This works well for peppers and tomatoes in late April or early May in zone 5 but you’re pushing it to use them earlier in Northern states. Don’t even attempt on basil though, keep your basil inside until later May as it’s a lot like me: hates chills.
Now before you get your whitey tighties in a bunch, I’m here to tell you there is a white trash approach that won’t get you confused with those snooty gardeners who eschew tomato cages from Wal-mart and the like. Yep. I have 2 perfect solutions for folks like you and me.
The Shopping Bag Cloche
Ha! This is brilliant even if I do say so myself! I’m sure I can’t be the first person to think of this but at 11:00 pm in my jammies, I was super happy I did. Saved me a lot of time and protected 3 tomato plants that otherwise woulda bit the dust.
Here’s what you need:
1 white or clear plastic grocery bag (you know, the ones we’re not supposed to use anymore?)
2 twigs from the compost pile or the yard that needs rakin’
Nestle the bag over the plant.
Poke 1 twig per bag handle into the dirt, at an angle works best or even wrap the bag’s handle around the twig a couple of rounds before poking the twig into the ground. This secures the bag so it doesn’t blow away.
Don’t make it air tight by piling dirt around the bottom, you do want SOME ventilation.
Recycled Plastic Jug Cloche
This one’s quite popular among urban gardeners I know in Chicago. You can use any jug from a 2-liter on up. I’ve used 2-liters and even gallon bleach jugs. Just make sure you wash it thoroughly so no ickies get on your lovelies.
Here’s what you need:
1 jug per plant, assign jugs to plants based on matching diameter and height
scissors or a trusty knife
Cut off the bottom of the jug so that only straight sides remain. If you leave any curves around the bottom edge, it’ll be a bitch to push into the dirt around your plant and you may get angry and accidentally decapitate something you’d rather not (NOT that I would know ANYTHING about that).
Gently nestle the jug over your plant so you don’t pinch leaves under the edges and push the jug securely into the dirt. If you live in a windy area, you may have to push the jug deeper into the dirt.
Be sure you DON’T leave the cap on the jug, it needs to ventilate during the day so you don’t end up with seedling soup for dinner.
Here’s a close up of how well one of my peppers is recovering under a jug. Yeah, I got it on a tad late but didn’t damage too many leaves yet.
Well, that’s it for white trash gardening today. Until tomorrow, remember all you purveyors of ugly gardens, I got yer backs.
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