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Anytime Garden Gifts
Boy do I like putting together articles like this. It's my chance to go out and buy a few garden related products. Products I could probably do without, but products I wouldn't mind trying if I had them. Surprisingly, after you use them once or twice, you find they're nice to have available when you need them. Although I did a lot of one stop shopping keep in mind prices can vary quite a bit for the same product. So if you're cost conscious, you might want to shop around on the internet and compare pricing and shipping costs.

Hand Held Magnifier
I've always owned a handheld magnifier that I kept in a desk drawer or sitting somewhere I could get to it when I looked at 35mm transparencies. Now I use it, more often and not, to guide me in removing splinters from my hands or to help me to read the fine print on a pill bottle. Unfortunately it's somewhat bulky and since it's made of plastic would scratch easily if I tried to carry it around in my pocket.

So who needs to carry a magnifier around in their pocket anyway? Gardeners do. You never know when one might come in handy to study an insect or diseased leaf during one of your strolls through the garden.

This small metal and glass 10x loupe comes with its own leather case. The loupe's handle slides over the glass when not in use. It's perfect for carrying in a front pocket.
Have you really ever looked to see if the damage on your plant's leaves are caused by disease or insect. Here the magnifier shows spider mites.

I'm pretty good at spotting spider mite or red spider damage on plants but I don't remember actually seeing the insect. That is until I put the little 10X loupe to a test on a leaf from one of the Brugmansia's in the greenhouse. Sure enough, there were little spider like creatures wandering all over the leaf. There were what looked like eggs as well. Now that I know what they look like ̶ up close and personal ̶ I wish I could get them under control.

I'm sure I'll get in the habit of carrying the loupe in my pocket when I'm gardening to get a better look at nature whether it's an insect, small seeds, or to get a better look at a plant's flower.

The metal and glass 10X magnifier with case was $12.99 not including postage. Available from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply. The small leather case that came with the loupe had a plastic snap on it and it broke the first time I opened it. If I ever decide to use the case I'll have to add a metal snap to provide a bit more durability.

Bucket Handle Grip
I don't know about other Tucson gardeners, but I can easily find a half dozen uses for a recycled plastic five gallon bucket in my garden. I've used them for mixing water soluble fertilizer, storing wild bird seed, carrying fertilizer as I spread it around the citrus trees, to hold composting material from the kitchen and as a container for the compost I sifted. And the list could go on.

Often, the first thing to fail on the bucket is the plastic handle. It usually cracks and slowly deteriorates until there's nothing left but the small piece of metal wire used for the handle. A heavy, filled bucket can be pretty uncomfortable to carry when there's no handle other than the metal. That's why I jumped at the chance to try bucket hand grips from The Gripworks. I bought five of them so I could repair a couple of bucket handles and have a few spares on hand when I needed them.

Three 4-inch by 1¼- inch plastic replacement bucket handles.
Clever design means you can use the grip over the original bucket handle or just over the metal handle if the original grip is missing.
Large diameter grip gives you something substantial to grab.

The clever, two piece grip fits over the broken handle or a smaller groove can be used to hold the handle wire if the original grip is missing. Either way, it works. The two pieces snap together and you're ready to go. They are a large diameter grips so they might not fit a small hand very well. But then I always found the grips on most five gallon buckets to be too small. Once the grips are clamped together they can be difficult to get apart for reuse. Cost was $1.49 each or $7.45 for five, not including shipping. I discovered them at Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply.

The Pest Pistol
This isn't exactly a six shooter. Its small design and dead eye aim make it perfect for the aim and shoot dusting of single plants. I own a large crank the handle duster that I used on my vegetables when I wanted to spread a little pyrethrin, Bt or rotenone to help control an insect problem. But sometimes I wanted to be a little more precise in my application and the duster was too big and messy. Shaking the dust from a can with holes in the lid didn't do the job if I wanted to get under the leaves. I also found I wanted to apply dust while I groomed individual plants from the greenhouse and I needed something quick and easy to use.

The hand held Pest Pistol with two plugs for storing the container and its contents.
Aim, and fire. A quick squeeze sends the dust on its way for precise application on smaller areas.
When not is use, the applicator's tube and nozzle can be removed and a plug inserted to hold in the dusting material.

The Pest Pistol, with its simple design and easy storage, seemed the perfect solution for my controlled application when dusting. It was easy to fill, simple to use, and easy to store between usage. I write the name of the contents on a piece of masking tape and stick it on the Pest Pistol so I'll remember what I'd used in the past. On top of that, the simple to use tool wasn't very expensive at $8.99, not including postage. I found the hand held duster at Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply.

The Presto Compost Bin
Many an avid gardener has given thought to making their own compost but figure it's to expensive to buy a compost bin or too complicated to make one. Others might feel tossing the ingredients into a pile on the ground is way too unsightly and would probably attract all kinds of unwanted pests. Get over it gardeners! It's time to start composting garden and kitchen waste to give a bit of relief to our landfills. And the end results is an excellent way to improve your garden's soil.

The Presto Products Company offers an inexpensive compost bin to help get you started. The plastic rolled up material comes with four screws and wing nuts. All you have to do is figure out the size you want, insert the screws, attach and tighten the wing nuts and place the two and half foot high container where you want it. After that, it's a matter of adding the compost ingredients, adding some moisture, turning every now and then and waiting for nature to do its job.

Presto rolled up 10-foot long and 2 - foot six - inch tall compost bin ready for assembly.
Line up the holes in the material to make the size bin you want then insert the screws and secure in place with the winged nuts.
This bin holds chipped and shredded mesquite leaves and branches that will be used as mulch around trees during the summer.

Okay, I admit the thing won't win any beauty contests and it's a bit flimsy until it gets half filled. I had a few javelina knock one over when it wasn't very full to get at some of the kitchen scraps inside. They did make quite a mess and I had to drive a couple of fence posts to hold the container in place until it held enough material to stand on its own and to keep the night time marauders away.

I also accidentally grew a nice batch of thin skinned red potatoes in one of the compost filled bins. Apparently a discarded potato or two decided to root and sent out shoots. I let the vines grow and when I finally went to use the compost I found a dozen or so nice sized potatoes.

For a mere $20, not including shipping costs, from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply you can finally have a container that can get you started on your way to easy garden waste recycling. Other Web sites advertised the product for $24.95 and 34.95.

Aluminum Landscape Rake
One definition for workhorse found in the Merriam Webster Dictionary is "something that is markedly useful, durable, or dependable". If only everything we purchase was like that we wouldn't have to replace things quite so often. Well, one workhorse that I discovered at a Home Depot was a 36-inch wide aluminum landscape rake - light weight but extremely strong. And if you have the muscle it's a darn useful tool that can help make a difficult task that much simpler.

This 36-inch wide landscape rake makes short work out of spreading and leveling the pea gravel in a driveway.
Strong, wide aluminum tines are great for preparing planting beds and removing unwanted rocks.

I have a sloped pea gravel driveway. Driving in an out moves the gravel around, and when it rains really hard, some of the gravel gets washed away leaving small ruts. Usually I can use a flexible leaf rake to spread the gravel and smooth out the rough spots. Once in awhile it takes a bit more oomph to get the job done. That's where the landscape rake comes in handy. It can move a lot of material and cover a large area in just a few strokes.

It also works well for leveling planting beds. I found it useful in the vegetable garden for leveling a prepared bed that had been tilled with compost. One or two passes with the wide rake for leveling and shaping and it was ready for planting. The rake's biggest drawback is the amount of space it takes in the storage shed.

I found mine at a Home Depot, but Lowe's and some of the hardware stores should carry variations of the landscape rakes. Home Depot was selling them for about $39.

Solo Magic Wand
Over the years I've had my fair share of plastic hand sprayers. From simple half gallon to bulky plastic two gallon pump and spray that I've used for spraying everything from soap solution, iron chelate to the rare application of malathion. No matter how much care I gave the sprayers they eventually failed in one way or another.

The Solo® one hand telescoping wand sprayer.

My biggest problem with pests is in the greenhouse because I put too many plants in there to survive the winter. I know it's the overcrowding with plants brushing up against one another, the fallen leaves left on the floor, high humidity, poor air circulation and my general lack of regular pest control. All I do, once I cram the plants in there for the winter, is make sure they have enough heat to keep from freezing and enough water to keep them alive. If I were graded for my greenhouse management skills I'd definitely fail.

I don't need a large sprayer for the greenhouse. I need one with a long handle to help get under the bench and spray upward under the leaves of plants sitting in pots on the greenhouse floor. I also need one with a short handle to spray the hanging plants that are right next to the greenhouse path crowding the entrance way. A two in one sprayer with long and short nozzle was what I needed and that's why I was somewhat intrigued when I came across the telescoping wand on the Solo® two liters sprayer.

Adjustable length from 12 to 24 -inches.
The clever drift/drip guard to make for a more controlled spraying application.

The hand held unit also had a clever sprayer at the end of the wand that was a sprayer surrounded by a cup which made for easy adjustment and also helped control where the spray went. On top of that the manufacturer had a website where I could order parts on line if I needed them. Maybe I finally found a sprayer I can keep for awhile.

I purchased the Solo Model #420 for $19.99, not including postage, from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply. The manufacturer, Solo® was selling the product for $14.95 not including postage at the time this article was written. (2008)