Garden Products I’m Loving Right Now- June 2020

I’ve been juggling a lot these days but I wanted to stop and share a few garden products that have really blown my mind recently.

First up is Jobe’s Organic Fertilizer Sticks. I have never used fertilizer in any form- I usually just add some organic compost to my beds in early spring when I prep them- but this year we set up two new beds right when Covid19 was declared a pandemic and despite purchasing organic raised bed soil and organic compost, I recently discovered that the soil was actually severely deficient. That made perfect sense since all the seedlings I planted in May, especially my cucumber plants, looked brittle and anemic in June. I ordered Jobe’s Organic Fertilizer Sticks and added a few here and there to my raised beds. You just push them down into the soil and they release nutrients slowly. By the next day, the cucumber plants were dark green and the leaves were a little larger. My plants had been starving and I had no idea! I purchased some Jobe’s Organic Fruit Tree Spikes as well to put near my apple tree that was going through something as well and it is now recovering. Overall, I definitely recommend this product and I will probably purchase it every year from now on!

The second product that had me literally saying, “whattt?” are these Fiskars loppers. Last month, I tidied up the front garden and finally addressed the neglected English Yew. This shrub has been out of control for some time but last year we had some problems with poison ivy growing right under (and through) the shrub, which definitely caused a nuisance and had me worried that someone would brush up against it. So this year I got to those poison ivy vines before they became a problem by clearing the bottom 12″ of the yew. I cut a branch that was about half an inch thick and it literally felt like I was cutting a piece of paper with a scissor. I barely had to use any arm strength. I was just saying, “wow” over and over again as people passed by probably wondering if I was referring to them. Seriously, I have carpal tunnel in both hands and I’m telling you if you need to cut wood that is up to an inch thick, use these Fiskars loppers and save your forearms!

Last but not least is the biggest purchase I have made this year that has been 100% worth it: my Greenworks 16″ Cordless Electric Mower. A few years ago, I became really concerned with the amount of noise all around me from lawn equipment. I dumped my weed whacker and bought a manual reel mower. This way I could tend to my sidewalk patches (I don’t have much lawn) without disturbing local wildlife or my neighbors, and I could get good exercise in the process. Well, I really loved my reel mower but then last year I was besieged by narrowleaf plantain. If you follow me on social media, you know that the one plant I absolutely hate is narrowleaf plantain. It’s ugly and aggressive, and worst of all it puts out these tall spindly things that are impervious to the reel mower. This meant I was doing A LOT of bending and weeding by hand in addition to mowing. Great cardio but not so great for my hamstrings, ouch!

This year, I have A LOT of things going on and I just didn’t want to go through this narrowleaf plantain hassle anymore, but at the same time, I didn’t want to buy a super loud, polluting machine either. That’s when I learned about the Greenworks cordless electric mower. It had great reviews online, and best of all, it wasn’t as loud as a traditional mower. Now don’t get me wrong, this mower is not whisper quiet; it sounds like a vacuum cleaner when you start it up and it gets a little louder as you mow, but it is powerful and cordless and since it chops through the plantain like a hot knife, it cuts my mowing time by 2/3. Did I mention that it has collection bag so I don’t even have to rake and sweep when I’m done? This is a high quality product that has a 4 year warranty, and it really has made a big difference for me so I’ve been posting about it everywhere.

I hope you will give these products a try and definitely try the fertilizer spikes before you tear out your plants because I thought my cucumber plants were on their last leg and I was still able to bring them back to life!