Irritate or irrigate

Tags

allotment watering, hose pipes, Hozelock Pico Reel, Hozelock Wonderweeder

Hozelock Pico Reel

I have a love/hate relationship with hose pipes. I know I’m lucky to be able to have access to a tap on my allotment and to be able to use a hose for watering. The prospect of having to do all the watering with just a can fills me with dread. It can take 3 hours to give the whole plot a thorough soaking. Often, to try to speed up the process I’ll have the hose watering a patch whilst I grab cans filled from a neighbouring plot’s tap. Last week I counted 30 watering can journeys. So, yes, hose pipes are fabulous, a boon to the gardener, a fantastic labour-saving tool…. that is until they develop a mind of their own. You’re standing there watering your fruit/veg/flowers, drifting off into a world of your own, thinking about the long list of things you need to do – the shopping list, the sink that needs unblocking or whatever else that fills your mind at times like this. Then you’re jolted from your dreams by the hose pipe coughing and spluttering. There’s a kink somewhere. So you head off to unkink the kink, the water flows freely once again but just as you return to the nozzle to start watering again it becomes a trickle once again – another kink. Aaaarrrggghhh! I’m sure there are passers-by who wonder what is going on as this increasing irritable allotment holder wanders up and down her plot muttering and possibly swearing at a hose pipe.

The hose at the allotment has developed a leak too. I could gaffer tape it but that would require me remembering to take some with me on my next visit and as I often find myself at the allotment without even secateurs or twine that seems to be asking too much. Instead a fine shower of water sprays my leg as I walk past the raspberries and it has been like this for 2 years now – I know, I know ….

Then there’s my garden hose on a reel. It kinks too and gets trapped on the reel and requires regular unravelling. I’ll admit in previous years I have not watered my garden and pots simply because I couldn’t face having to devote time to wrestling with this hose pipe.

A few months ago I was asked to review some products by the company Hozelock. I’ll admit that I didn’t pay a huge amount of attention to the email as at the time I was just about managing to juggle all the plant growing with work and the seemingly endless barrage of emails requesting one thing or another. Then a parcel arrived.

I have spent the last few months using the mini hose pipe ‘Pico Reel’, so thought it was about time to give it a bit of a review. The problem with my old garden hose, which has now been relegated to behind the garden shed, was its size and weight. It was quite bulky, heavy and cumbersome. Because of this it spent a winter outside as there was no more room in my shed to store it and frost damaged the nozzle which meant it would spray out along the length of the nozzle as soon as I turned on the tap.

Hozelock’s new mini hose the ‘Pico Reel’ is much smaller and lighter. It fits neatly against the wall next to the tap and I can carry the whole reel with me as I water which means the hose doesn’t get caught around pots like the old one used to. The downside of a smaller, lighter hose is that it doesn’t reach quite as far as the other and it’s just too short to reach the bottom of my garden – the main hose stretches to 8 metres with an additional 2 metres provided by the section of the hose with the nozzle attached. The bulk of my watering though is the pots scattered around the patio and those in the greenhouse, all of which it reaches easily. It has a handy and easy to use lock which means you can leave the nozzle in a pot slowly watering and go off and do something else, and best of all it hasn’t kinked. It’s funny how the ease of use of a product can really make such a difference to a task. Rather than sitting on the sofa choosing to ignore the plants needing water because I can’t face fighting with a hosepipe, this summer my plants have all received the care they deserve. If you have a small garden, courtyard or balcony this could be the hose pipe for you.

Hozelock Wonderweeder

The weedkiller applicator, the Wonderweeder, on the other hand was never going to go down well with an organic gardener and this is really where I should have paid more attention to the email.  It works by pouring weedkiller into the long tube via the handle, then, whilst holding the bottom of the pole over a weed you push down the top of the handle where it delivers a shot of the weedkiller. The bottom nozzle is protected by an outer cover of plastic so that the spray is confined to a small area. Personally I would rather dig out a weed than kill it with a chemical but I tried the product using just water to see how easy it was to use. There’s a small cap inside the handle which allows for measuring of the liquid although it wasn’t very clear to me how I was meant to distinguish between the different amounts. It also required quite a few pushes initially before anything actually happened. If you do use weedkillers the advantages of this product are that with its long handle there’s no need to bend down and it targets the weed and doesn’t spray a wider area. I’ve seen too many trigger happy weedkiller users in the past with little regard for what they are actually spraying so this is a useful feature. My concern though is it does dribble between sprays so you would need to watch what you’re doing when moving between different weeds, otherwise you might inadvertently splash other plants or your feet.

Bringing You The Dribber

Tags

Christmas present, Derek Jarman, Dribber, Hen and Hammock, stocking filler for gardeners, sustainability

Hen and Hammock dribber

One of the side effects of having a blog is the emails I sometimes receive. There are ones I don’t even bother opening, generally with words such as Viagra in them. There was a request to use a photo from my post on Derek Jarman’s garden for a Hungarian art magazine which was featuring an article on artists and their gardens. And then, occasionally, I’m asked to review products. Generally I turn down these offers. I’ve no desire for the blog to become an advertising ground for other companies. There’s also the problem with the ethics of a company. My blog is a very personal thing and I don’t like the idea of being linked to products that may damage the environment or with companies I know little about. I don’t like to stray too far from the themes of gardening, the environment and the countryside but you’d be surprised at the companies that contact me. There was talk on twitter a few weeks ago amongst garden bloggers about who had received emails from a PR company asking them to blog about the wonders of Velcro. Is Velcro that useful to gardeners? I recently was sent an offer of writing about AGA cleaning products. Firstly, I’m not sure of the relevance of AGA cleaning products to the people who read my blog and secondly, I’m not sure how I can review AGA cleaning products without an AGA.

This is all a rather long-winded way of saying that occasionally I will get asked to review something that intrigues me, is actually relevant and I really like the sound of the company behind the product. And this is how I happen to have come across the Dribber. Designed by the team at Hen and Hammock the idea was to combine several tasks in one tool. Measuring 20cm long the dribber is designed to fit standard and half-sized seed trays and allows you to drill lines for seed sowing, dib holes for individual seeds and then tamp down the surface of the compost.

I have to admit I’m not much of a gadget girl as my kitchen cupboards will attest. I’m not an asparagus steamer or pasta maker type of person and this follows into the garden. Generally, this is because of a lack of space to store all these tools and once you’ve managed to function without them for so long why bother accumulating more stuff but I do like the idea of a product that multi-tasks.

The dribber is beautifully made in Shropshire. The wood is oak, grown sustainably but, unfortunately, imported from America. But as Andrew, from Hen and Hammock, points out there is very little sustainable oak grown here in the UK. Perhaps if we managed our woodland more effectively we would be able to exploit them more successfully as a sustainable resource.

Wooden tools always feel so nice to handle. There’s a warmth to the wood that you don’t get with metal or plastic and there’s a feeling that this is a product that will last. Like the old tools you can see in the potting shed at Heligan, quality tools like this feel like they’ll be around for a long time.

When it comes to seed sowing I tend to be a bit haphazard. My RHS tutor would shudder at that sentence. Trying to grow all of my plants for the allotment using one windowsill means that I have to maximise the space I have and this includes in the trays and pots when I sow. I tend to split seed trays up into 3 or 4 sections and start off 3 or 4 different varieties rather than devoting one tray to one type of plant. I also sow quite closely together and then prick out and plant on quickly. The spacing of the dribber is quite generous compared to what I would normally do, but there is also the ability to use it as a drill. There aren’t any seeds that I need to sow at the moment but I did do a dummy run in the shed a few days ago and it does what it says and is nice to use. With my new greenhouse and the ability to have a potting bench now, rather than using the floor outside my shed, I plan to be much more organised and methodical about my seed sowing and this tool will certainly be well used come the spring.

It’s the quality of the dribber, its sustainable credentials and it’s mulit-tasking that really are its selling points, in my opinion, and it is something that would make a great stocking filler for a gardening friend or family member. The price of £8.50, I think, is reasonable for such a well made piece and shows that British-made, sustainable products don’t have to be expensive.

I also like the ethos behind Hen and Hammock. A small independent company, their belief is that it is possible to have nice products for our homes and gardens that are long-lasting, made sustainably and in a way that doesn’t damage the planet. They also donate 10% of profits to non-profit organisations every year. They have a great range of products not just for the garden. Perhaps one of my favourite features about their website is the ‘meet the producers’ page. So many of the goods we buy nowadays are mass-produced by anonymous people somewhere. OK, most of us don’t have time to research where everything we buy comes from and their environmental credentials, but a company like Hen and hammock does that for you. For instance, there is Ken, a carpenter, who collects waste wood from local builders and makes traditional wooden seed trays or Damien, the last garden riddle maker in the UK who crafts beautiful garden tools from beech wood.

For more information and to see a great range of products which might inspire you, with Christmas coming, take a look at Hen and Hammock’s website.

Product Review – Burgon and Ball Tools

Tags

Amateur Gardening Best Buy, Burgon and Ball, flower snips, Japanese razor hoe, Sophie Conran garden tools, trowel

Burgon and Ball tools

I was lucky enough to receive a selection of tools from the company Burgon and Ball this week. Burgon and Ball, of Sheffield, have been manufacturing high quality tools since 1730. Their tools are made from high carbon steel which is then heat treated to give it extra strength. They are the largest manufacturer of sheep shears in the world.

The tools they sent me were a trowel from the Sophie Conran range, a Japanese razor hoe and a pair of flower snips.

Although the weather hasn’t been great and it is a quiet time in the garden I used a dry spell this morning to get out and road test the tools. I had noticed the mild weather has encouraged weed growth at the allotment around my biennial flowers so I set off with the Japanese razor hoe to see what it could do. If I’m honest I can’t say I’d heard of one before but I was impressed. It is very sharp and cut through the weeds with ease. Not much longer that a trowel I found it really useful for hoeing in between the Sweet Williams and Stocks and would see this as being an excellent tool for people with raised beds where planting is denser. I can see me using this a lot next year, particularly when my beds are densely packed with flowers and vegetables and a long-handled hoe can be a bit cumbersome. I liked the wooden handle, tools with wooden handles always feel good to use and it felt very robust. This is the sort of tool that really will last a lifetime.

Flower and Fruit Snips

I had also spotted some stocks that were flowering (that’s the sort of strange autumn we’re having) so I gave the flower snips a try. These snips were Amateur Gardening’s Best Buy scoring 19 out of 20 (July 2010). I thought they were a great addition to my tool box, ideal for the cutflower garden or for cutting herbs. They are lightweight and smaller than a pair of secateurs but I tried them on a range of stem sizes back in the garden and they coped with a surprising thickness. Although I wouldn’t use them for this on a regular basis it is always useful when tools can cope with a little bit more. Again they felt well made, durable and long lasting. My only gripe was that the handles were racing green in colour. I love the colour and it does look stylish but I know I’ll put them down and lose them in amongst a pile of foliage. A nice baby blue would be good alternative – stylish but would stand out amongst all the garden greenery.

Sophie Conran trowel

And finally the trowel. The designer Sophie Conran wanted to produce a range of gardening tools designed with women in mind, tools that were made for smaller hands. This trowel made by Burgon and Ball is good and sturdy. The handle is a little smaller and is significantly lighter than my own trowel and does fit nicely in the hand but it is the scoop design that I like the most. I had a few bulbs left over that I needed to plant so I gave it a go. Most trowels are quite shallow, meaning that you can’t actually scoop out a lot of soil when you make a hole, the scoop design of this trowel meant it made a better hole. A really simple design feature but it really did make a difference.

Overall I would recommend all 3 products. I was impressed with the quality of the tools, they felt like they were built to last which in today’s throw-away, built-in obsolence culture is refreshing. Another bonus is they are made in the UK, sustaining jobs and the economy. But ultimately the tools worked well and I look forward to a long growing season next year when I can fully put them to the test.

The hoe costs £11,95, the snips £9.95 and the trowel 14.95.

For more information on their large range of gardening products and where to buy go to http://www.burgonandball.com/.

Wiggly Wigglers Flowers – update

Tags

compost heap, posy, Wiggly Wigglers

Just wanted to write a quick update to the post I wrote about the posy of flowers I received from Wiggly Wigglers. Today was their final day, they have just gone on the compost heap. That was exactly 2 weeks from receiving them, which I think is pretty impressive. I don’t normally get that long from florist flowers.

Plants by post

Tags

Blackberry 'Reuben', Delfland Nurseries, mail order plants, Soil Association

I’ve been a bit reluctant in the past to buy plants mail order. I like to have a good look at what I’m buying before I hand over my cash. However, recently I’ve become quite frustrated with the plants on offer at my local garden centres and I haven’t got the time to travel around the country searching out the varieties I want. So I have found myself giving mail order plants a try. I have to say I haven’t had any problems so far.

It’s actually quite nice when the postman turns up with a package saying ‘Live Plants – open immediately’. I half expect something to leap out at me when I delve into the packaging.

Blackberry 'Reuben'

So my Blackberry ‘Reuben’ arrived on Wednesday and then today I received a delivery of vegetable plug plants from Delfland Nurseries. Delfland are the leading organic commercial grower of vegetable plug plants and they also sell seeds, have a good selection of sundries and sell a selection of flower plug plants such as sweet peas. They have Soil Association approval and work hard to minimise their impact on the environment. They use peat free compost, their cardboard boxes and loose fill packing materials can be composted and a biomass boiler provides heat for their glasshouses.

Plug Plants

Between March and October they have plug plants to send out. Maybe you don’t have the space to sow seeds and grow them on before planting out or you’ve missed the opportunity to sow seeds of particular crops. Well this is where Delfland comes in. You can purchase separate varieties or choose their selection packs. They have a club root resistant selection, tried and tested tomatoes and Jill’s chilli selection amongst others. You could have a delivery every month throughout the growing season and not have to worry about starting seeds off.

I received some Japanese bunching onions, Winter Purslane, Winter Density Lettuce and some Perpetual Spinach. I haven’t grown any of them before so I looking forward to it.

Now all I need to do is get planting.  Anyway I’ll keep you updated on my little plug plants, how they do and more importantly how they taste.

Thank you to Delfland Organic Plants.

British Flowers from Wiggly Wigglers

Tags

Alstromerias, British farmers, Sedum, sweet williams, Wiggly Wigglers

Flowers on arrival

I recently received a beautiful posy of flowers from Wiggly Wigglers. It was their luxury posy and it came with its own vase, a very pretty ‘Quattro Stagioni’ storage jar. The jar can be reused for storage or preserving once the flowers have died, which I think is a really nice touch.

The flowers arrived in a cardboard box. Inside the posy was held upright in a cardboard stand in a living vase which contains water and fits snugly around the stems.

I loved the colours of the posy with the dusky pink of the Sedum, the whites of the Alstromeria, the acid green of the Molucella and the silvery green foliage. It also included some Sweet Williams for a lovely fragrance.

I really appreciated the natural feel of the flowers. I often find bouquets from high street florists are a little too stylised. I think if you use beautiful fresh flowers you shouldn’t need to do too much to them. The simplicity of the glass jar as a vase also allowed the flowers to be the focal point.

I like the ethos behind the Wiggly Florist.  As I said in a previous post it’s sad that the production and transport of many flowers for the florist trade is damaging the environment. At Wiggly Wigglers all the flowers they use have been grown in the UK with some grown on the fields surrounding their HQ in Herefordshire. They also only use seasonal flowers and foliage so although it is not possible to specify a choice you know you are getting the freshest possible flowers.

Bouquets are available and it is also possible to buy a mix of flowers and foliage which you can arrange yourself.

After 8 days - still looking good

It is now 8 days since I received my posy and it is still looking fresh. The posy range varies in price from £25 for the smallest to £45 for the luxury posy. Initially I thought the flowers were a little pricey but I think the inclusion of the reusable jar and the excellent vase-life of the posy combined with the fact that the flowers are British grown and are supporting British farmers make Wiggly Flowers value for money.  To have a look at the Wiggly Florist click the link below.

Thank you to Heather and the team at Wiggly Wigglers.