In my previous life as a chef, I would often scorn cooks using meat thermometers to test whether a steak was ready. A simple finger test could instantly tell you what you needed to know but rather than train themselves in this art, they relied on science to alleviate the guess-work.

Well, it seems that the guess-work is now being taken out of gardening too. The SunCalc, an instrument to measure sunlight in the garden is probably one of the most intuitive tools that gardeners can use. As we all have multi-micro climates within our gardens, the SunCalc can accurately inform you of what level of sunlight you can expect in each zone.

And this is great because most plants that are sold, whether as seed or potted plants, are described by their optimal sun requirements. Full sun, part sun, part shade and full shade are options that we live with and need to know in order for our plants to have the best shot at success.

C.C from Coastal CA Gardening used her SunCalc to find a new full-sun zone for her tomato plants while the Garden Keeper at A Garden by the Ruins near Narberth was informed last year that one of her planting areas was not full-sun as she expected but instead was only partial sun. This is quite liberating information, especially if you've found that plants have consistently struggled to grow even after all the fertiliser and soil improvements you've added.

The SunCalc can only be used in the summer months to get an optimum reading. However I would suspect that with the height of the sun changing in winter it may pay to re-check your zones on a sunny day to see whether they alter.

I'm not sure where you can buy these as I've never seen them in the shops and Amazon.com don't stock them. If you do know of a retailer who carries these and a current price, it would be helpful to share with others so feel free to comment.

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It's hard to miss that our gardening culture is changing. Where once we would till the soil, get dirty and possibly sweat after a gardening workout, we have exchanged this for a hobby that is fast becoming sterile and comfortable. One indicator of this shift is the grow bags phenomena.

What are Grow Bags (aff.)?

Predominantly, they're made from poly plastic although there has been a shift to more eco-friendly alternatives. We may have already used them to pot up trees and small shrubs as a substitute for a plastic pot but the real trend starter is the grow-in-a-bag, grow bags.

We've all seen the upside-down tomato planter where you suspend the grow bag from your patio and the plants grow from the bottom upwards. And the trend hasn't stopped here. Now you can buy grow bags that accept your flowering plants as well and may even seem a better way to plant.

What are the advantages of grow bags?

• More growing space - the traditional container planters have the ability to only grow from the top of the soil, vertically. Grow bags can grow all around the bag allowing you to display more plants.


• Less mess - grow bags can come prepped with all the organic material you need. Just add plants, water and Voila! You have an instant garden.


• Inexpensive - these products are relatively cheap and compared to buying your own hanging baskets or container planters the set up costs are minimal.


• More planting options - Europeans have been growing plants via grow bags for aeons. They mainly grow them horizontally as a poor-man's pot plant but now the trend has been to use grow bags vertically. This allows more options for where you locate your plants.


• Ease and convenience - any home owner could start growing plants quite successfully with a grow bag. Kits are available that take all the guess work out of planting and may actually be a good starter for novice gardeners.

What are the dis-advantages of grow bags?

• Dumbing down gardeners - if you weigh up all the advantages of grow bags it's hard to see that any negatives but my concern is that we are breeding a McDonald's culture of gardening enthusiasts. One where if it can't be finished in 45 seconds then it's probably not worth doing it.


• Environmentally irresponsible - as many grow bags are constructed from poly plastics they don't break down and many can't, or won't, be recycled. Admittedly there are more eco-friendly options becoming available but they're a more expensive proposition and people will often tend for cheap over environmental concerns.

While grow bags may be a growing phenomena there is some cause for concern. They definitely have a place in our gardening worlds but we should be wary that they may just be another Garden by numbers trend.

So, are they a useful product or do you snub your nose at them too?

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How time's are changing... Centuries ago, the sundial was an important piece of technological advancement and essential for keeping the time. Today they are just another garden ornament.

But, garden sundials have a certain dynamism that normal statues and ornaments don't. For we can gaze upon a statue and enjoy its beauty but that's where the interaction ends. With a brass sundial, not only is it aesthetically pleasing but it seduces you to enjoy its workings as well.

A garden sundial can feature in many types of garden from the formal topiary design to the informal cottage garden. They work just as well in a Mediterranean setting as they will in a xeriscaped urban garden. In fact, it seems that with the right type of garden sundial it won't become a misplaced object of beauty.

So, how should they be positioned?

Firstly, as garden sundials work via the sun's movement across the sky (or to be technically correct, the earth's rotation around the sun) they have one essential requirement - the sun. It's no use hiding a brass sundial under a grove of trees unless, of course, you wanted it purely as an ornament - but even then, it might look a tad silly. The best position for a garden sundial is in full sun.

Garden sundials are available in many shapes and sizes and can either by displayed on a plinth, set into the ground or attached to a garden wall. Depending where it is located will determine how much effort is required to prepare the sundial's position in advance.

Most sundials will come with a north indicator (if you live in the southern hemisphere) or a south indicator (if you live in the north). This indicator needs to be aligned with True North or True South which is different to the north or south displayed on a compass. True North is approximately 11 degrees west of magnetic north and True South is 11 degrees east of magnetic south.

Most garden sundials are made of brass because they can withstand the elements and still retain their appearance. Over time they will even mature with an aged brass patina look.

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When I wrote about urinating on vegetables in Mexican slums I had no idea that this concept had already taken other directions.

Clark Sorensen handcrafts each of these ceramic urinals, most taking up to 8 months to dry properly. Each one is unique and start from US$6,500 - not everyone's cup of tea!

But, what I find interesting is that the majority of these crafted urinals are in the shape of a flower. Continue the tangent and you're reminded that males are the only ones who use urinals: Men and Fowers. The whole concept seems...a little, well...feminine, doesn't it.

Or maybe Sorensen's going with the whole back to nature thing. Where men enjoy the luxury of taking a pee wherever and whenever they like. It's that whole eco-naturist notion taking shape.

Awesome pieces of artwork though.

Link

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One idea that appears to have generated a plethora of new products has been one where a product of some description will continuously water your container plants for a short period of time. Many of these have been gel substances or solutions that not only water your plant but also add nutrients and chemicals.

The one problem with many that are on the market is that they are usually single-use and in an atmosphere where environmental conservation is pivotal are hardly tempting for the green gardener.

What I find endearing about the PlantMinder&trade water bulb is its propensity to being refilled. While a pack of 4 mini bulbs will set you back approximately US$24 (roughly $6 ea) they can be used over and over again. This may sound a little expensive but when you consider that many of the single-use water bulbs cost almost as much (and in some cases more) you will find that they are quite reasonable.

Another advantage of the PlantMinder&trade water bulb is that they can be used all the time not just when you head off on holidays. The bulb can hold enough water to feed your plant for 6 weeks so you'll never have to walk around with a watering can again. PlantMinder&trade has a mini-version as well which holds only enough water for 3 weeks but is also a little more discrete.

What I like about the PlantMinder&trade is it doesn't look completely ugly either and can easily be hidden by your plant.

If you've had some experience with these or other water bulbs share your comments below.

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A must for every gardener is the weathervane. It can advise you instantly as to the change in direction of the wind and of impending rain, warning you that there may only be a short time before you get drenched. I started checking these out after our weather became inclement in less than 30 minutes last Sunday. All weekend we had enjoyed the most beautiful weather; chilly, yet sunny mornings warming up throughout the day to an almost perfect autumn climate.

However, once a nor-wester starts to brew it doesn't take long for the weather to change and eventually rain will fall. Wouldn't it be easier to see the change happen as soon as it occurs? This is why weathervanes are such a necessity for gardeners.

So, what's the importance of copper weathervanes? Most weathervanes are made from some metal whether it is aluminium, stainless steel, galvanised steel or wrought iron and while most of these will do the job adequately it takes copper to really stand out.

Continue reading "Copper weathervanes" »

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There have been moments in my gardening journey where I have attempted to record what happens in my garden but these are usually short, spontaneous bursts of enthusiasm. I usually buy myself an exercise book, fervently fill in the first couple of pages and then store it on a bookshelf somewhere never to be opened again.

A garden journal for me is a novelty but I'm not organised enough to continually keep one. However, I have been thinking of late that maybe I should be recording what I do and keeping it in a gardening journal. I certainly don't think that it would be worth anything by keeping one for posterity's sake but for my own gardening journey, my failures and successes, I can see that it would have immense value as a garden reference.

I wonder how others journal their gardening triumphs and day-to-day plantings, musings and apparent failings. Is the blog now the new online garden journal? Will gardeners use this form of media more to journal their garden evolution? And if they did, how much information would readers want to see?

I've often thought, "wouldn't it be great to sit down and read Edna Walling's garden journal? (Edna Walling is an awesome Australian gardener who is a bit of a local gardening icon). If she hadn't journaled her gardening journey we would have needed to guess and surmise what she did but never actually known. We're fortunate enough to have records of what she planted and how she landscaped her signature gardens.

If you could study a prominent gardener's journal, who would it be?

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Those of you who live in the northern hemisphere spare a thought for us as you're putting your patio umbrella up - ours will be coming down. Those drawn out days of summer, sitting on the patio and drinking cold beer have come to an end and the patio will once again become a sparse area of our garden.

Friends lent us their patio umbrella this year, as we will eventually be putting a roof over our patio - hopefully before next summer. It was a huge market umbrella that completely covered our outdoor table and chairs and sheltered us from the sun and made the patio area liveable during the warmer months.

One advantage of having a patio umbrella over permanently covering your patio is that they give shade in the summer but you can remove them in winter and allow the sun to filter through.

If you are looking to buy a patio umbrella read Shade Australia's 10 Tips for buying one and once you've bought your umbrella there are some care and maintenance requirements you will need to adhere to if you want to keep it looking good year after year.

Continue reading "Patio Umbrella Review" »

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HortResearch, a New Zealand fruit science company, unveiled a brand new apple that gives a new dimension to the "Red Apple". Not only is its skin red but also when you cut it open, so is the flesh all the way to the core. It derives its red flesh from a high concentration of anthocyanin - a healthy antioxidant.

However, while this news is already a month old you may be waiting up to 6 years before you could buy a tree to plant. This may seem a long time but in the world of breeding fruit trees this is ground-breaking fast. Without current technologies we may have had to wait decades before ever seeing the fruit in the corner grocer's store.

The fruit has not been genetically modified but rather genomically bred. The difference is that genetic modification is the artificial manipulation of genes while genomic science records and breeds fruit with like genetic makeup. In its simplest form you could take a yellow-fleshed potato and cross it with a purple skinned potato to create a new purple-skinned, yellow fleshed potato - if only it were that simple.

This isn't HortResearch's first new fruit in the market either. This company was also responsible for the yellow-fleshed kiwi fruit we know colloquially as Kiwi Gold and they have big plans for many other radically new fruit to emerge into the marketplace in the ensuing years.

Keep an eye out for this one though.

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Could this be the new future garden? While hydroponic gardening has been around for some time now there is a new kid on the block that could revolutionise the way we garden well into the 21st century and beyond.

Aeroponics is similar to the hydroponic system but differs in that it doesn't move nutrient-rich water through the roots of the plants but uses a misting spray to deliver the plant's requirements. It can operate on misting sprays, nebulisers (similar concept to a steaming nebuliser you might use if you suffer from asthma), or even foggers.

The idea is that by delivering the nutrients in this way aeration can occur and deliver plants more oxygen.

Continue reading "Are Aeroponics systems the same as hydroponic?" »

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Kerri, over at our blog of the week Colors of the Garden has been talking about bird feeders during the week and showing some of the different types of feeders that they have. Some of them have been bought and some have been homemade.

If you don't enjoy having birds in your garden (and there are some good reasons why you may not - they eat your fruit, they make a lot of mess, they tempt the cat etc) then building a bird feeder may not be greatest idea. However, if you enjoy being able to sit and watch these little creatures come and feed from something you built then possibly this might be the way to go.

If you've ever Googled "Bird Feeder" in the images search you will notice that there are a plethora of differing types. There are some that stand atop a single post; others that hang from a tree or a running line and others still that sit on the ground. Choosing one will depend upon your own circumstances and what you have available.

Continue reading "How to build a homemade bird feeder" »

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Pardon the pun but clay chiminea's are hot. Their appearance in major hardware stores, outdoor landscaping outlets and online are creating a buzz for this little known piece of furniture. What are they? They're a modern day version of a traditional Mexican fireplace. No, they aren't a pizza oven but they were used for cooking in and still can be.

Chiminea's are probably the first ever patio heaters originally made from clay they are now available in aluminium and cast iron designs. So why would you have one in your garden?

Continue reading "Outdoor Clay Chiminea Review" »

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I've always pictured myself lounging around in a hammock, drinking a cold refreshing beer unperturbed by the neighbours mowing their lawns or tinkering in their sheds. The sun would be filtering down through the branches of our large peppermint trees gently warming me as a cool breeze kept the bite of the sun at bay.

I've always dreamt that - never lived it.

Still, there may come a day when there is nothing left to do in the garden and all that requires attention is to rope up the hammock and grab the latest gardening magazine. When those days come I'm sure my greatest battle will be to keep the eyelids open.

Continue reading "The classic rope hammock - perfect for lazy weekends" »

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The concept behind aerating your lawn is fairly simple. It rejuvenates your lawn by removing areas of thatch, making your soil less compact and allowing your lawn to less restrictive for water penetration.

Over the life of your lawn you will notice that its continual growth will cause some of these problems to become apparent. Left alone and ignored your lawn will eventually die or struggle to grow and will show signs of stress. Before these signs become visible and the view of your lawn detracts from your garden you will need to provide some maintenance with te use of a lawn aerator.

But which one should you use? Take a look at some of these examples.

Continue reading "Using your Lawn Aerator" »

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