If you're starting plants from seeds, they have systems – the cells, trays, and covers – but they also have, for example, self-watering transplant pots and seed-starting pots made out of cow manure that just biodegrade right into the soil so you enrich the soil at the same time you don't clutter up landfills with plastic. If you're really feeling like investing in seed-starting equipment, you can get light gardens, both stand-alone 1, 2, or 3-shelf systems with moveable lights, or tabletop versions. Having a system makes it so much easier to start plants, and more likely that you'll succeed, especially since you don't have to wrestle lights into place, you can just adjust their height as the plants grow.
They also have great plant support systems, lightweight, inexpensive steel staking devices in a variety of heights, diameters, and looks for different plants. There's one for peonies, for example, that you put in place as the plants start to grow. You have to encourage the emerging sprouts to grow through the grids, but once that's happened, the supports will keep your peonies upright even when it's rained. The catalog has the flowers appropriate for each kind of support so you can choose appropriately. I know I’m going to get some of these for my own garden this year, because I'm tired of scolding the plants for flopping over, and it just isn't very effective. That said, yesterday I was at the Chicago Botanic Garden for lunch with a couple of friends, and some mysterious force pulled me into the gift shop (clearly not my fault) where I saw a picture in a book that I just loved: a planting of mixed Knautia macedonica and Panicum virgatum. The tall grass held the Knautia upright, and the season-long blooming of the Knautia provided color and focus for the grass until it got to blooming itself. (I’m going to put a picture of Knautia at the top of the blog in case you're not familiar with it. It does grow to a considerable height – maybe 3-4 feet – and it flops - in my case it flops over onto the grass and then I get impatient with it and I start calling it names and you know what? it doesn't care! Anyway, I figure that makes it even knautia than me.) This year I'm going to try planting some with my Panicum – aka Switchgrass – and see how that works. Oh how I wish I had an acre or two...
But I digress.
The other really fabulous plant supports they carry are for vegetables: ladders for peppers and eggplants, frames for beans, fences for peas, and great tomato cages that stack and fold. They also have pots for growing tomatoes on a deck or balcony: hanging contraptions, cages for their self-watering pots, even a tomato trolley that acts like a raised bed on wheels so you can wheel it out, sit to attend to it, and then wheel it back.
They also have cool small stuff that you might otherwise forget: self-gripping plant ties on 75 foot rolls: just snip and Velcro your plants in place. Great gardening gloves too.
There are self-watering pots that are quite attractive in a variety of sizes, including self-watering rolling planters and pots that mount on deck railings. There are self-watering raised bed systems for patios, and good looking planters with trellises attached to give you support for taller annuals or vines as well as some screening from neighbors.
There's an abundance of organic fertilizers, rich potting soils, and compost starters and aids. One I'm going to try is a recharger for old potting soil. Instead of dumping last year's potting soil into the compost, you can add this to it and it'll be ready for this year's flowers. They also have composting systems, including vermiculture, and rainbarrels, along with fancy things that I’m saving up for like electric leaf shredders. There are products for repairing dog-damaged lawns, all natural weed control, and various potions for organic disease control, pest frustrators, even a woodchuck repellent (this is something I haven't needed in Chicago, although I have had possums nesting in my garage and raccoons foraging in the garden. I am not making that up.)
Of course, there are lots of sites on line for garden products, so I'm hoping you'll share some of your favorites. I do want to let you know about another of my faves, The company is Fungi Perfecti and they sell all sorts of equipment for mushroom fanciers, but what I like are the inoculants for soil. If you've read these blogs for a while, you don't want to hear me rant again about soil biology, but let me just say here that we Americans have been force feeding our soils junk food (chemical fertilizers) for many years, when what makes nutrients available to the plants are the organisms that live in the soil. Unfortunately, over fertilizing with chemicals kills those microorganisms, so it's counterproductive. The fungi that fungi perfecti sells are mycorrhyzae among others; these are the puppies that funnel nutrients to the plants' roots. So pop for an ounce and do a little experiment of your own to see if it makes a difference in your garden. After all, a gardener is also a scientist (and a therapist and a rock star and....)
Enough for today! If you're interested in my new book, Out of the Shadow: Ecopsychology, Story, and Encounters with the Land, it's published by University of Virginia Press and available from them or from other on-line booksellers (and some very enlightened bookstores). Do visit my website at view link and stay warm!
