LawnCare.net

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina.  It was conveniently close to my Wilmington, NC home!  I had a great time and got to learn about all of the cool new plants, garden tools, books and general gardening stuff that’s coming out over the next year or so.  I also enjoyed hanging out with people who are as passionate about plants and nerdy about words as I am.  The highlight of these meetings is always the garden tours, and we traveled to several, including:

• Plant Delights and the Juniper Level Botanic Garden
• JC Raulston Arboretum
• North Carolina Botanical Garden
• Montrose Gardens
• S.E.E.D.S. a community garden in Durham
• Sarah P. Duke gardens

I’d seen some of the gardens before, but never in the fall.  My favorite was, hands down, Montrose, the garden of Nancy Goodwin.  Here are some pics I snapped on my whirlwind walk-around.

What I loved about Montrose is that there are manicured areas and wild areas in the same garden.  To me, contrast is what makes a garden beautiful.  If all of the plants in a garden are the same shape or same color, they blur into a big mass.  This is one reason why I think that a piece of well-cared for lawn has its place in our gardens:  it acts as a picture frame around the rest of our gardens and landscape beds.  If you read books about fall color, nearly all of them mention the place of evergreens in the landscape as a backdrop that makes fall color pop.

Coming Soon:  Highlights

The trade fair at the Symposium is a swag-fest like no other, and being a greedy gardener and voracious reader, I snapped up everything that I could, tried out all of the new gizmos and gadgets, and got the skinny on new books coming out within the coming months.  Here are some of the things that I most enjoyed learning about, or am most looking forward to hitting the shelves:

• The NEW Fiskars Reel Mower!  This will hit the stores in December or early January (PuHLEEASE let it come out in time for Christmas!).  The writers all had an absolute field day trying this out Witherspoon Rose Culture in Durham.  Since when do people ENJOY mowing?  The Momentum mower is so much easier to use than other reel mowers for a variety of reasons that I’ll detail in another post.
• Dramm watering products, including their re-designed watering wand.  If you read my other posts about water, you know that I’m a big supporter of watering wands.  I think that they give the most gentle spray, are easiest to control, and put out the most water in a short amount of time of any of the watering tools.  However, lots of people are addicted to their spray-gun watering attachments.  Dramm has taken this idea and re-vamped its long-handled wands to keep all of the attributes that I like, and infuse a little bit more “spray” into the wand.  They’ve added a squeeze handle AND a hook to hold it shut, so if you are a “spray-gunner” you can still pull the trigger.  They’ve also added a more tapered inside to force the water out a teensy bit harder.  None of this detracts from the function, though.  (DRAMM didn’t give me a new one of these, but I like it, and bought one, so I’m pluggin’ it! Maybe next time. . .)
• Grocery Gardening:  a new book by Jean Ann Van Krevelen, Amanda Thomsen, Robin Ripley, and Teresa O’Connor, to be published by Cool Springs Press in December 2009.  It’s being written by four amazing gardeners that I chat with on Twitter and got to meet in person at the Symposium.  A fun book of gardening and recipes that will have readers and gardeners chomping at the bit for warm weather and home-grown veggies. (I’ve seen the previews and it is a beautiful and functional book.

There’s so much more to share!  Suffice to say, my garden-writing well has been re-filled, and I can’t wait until next year in Dallas!

Your grass is healthy, green and thick as high pile carpet. But now the time has come to mow the lawn, edge the gardens and walkways, and trim the hedge. You know the lawn work needs to be done, but what lawn care equipment is available for you to use if you wish to implement green lawn mowing and maintenance? Before you spend hours at your local garden center, here are brief descriptions of standard lawn garden equipment.

Additional lawn care equipment includes:

• Ear & eye protection – Keep your eyes safe from dust or debris by weary safety goggles. For your ears, the National Institute if Deafness and Other Communication Disorders recommends that you protect your ears form sounds that are over 85 decibels—as the majority of trimmers and mowers exceed this number be sure you protect your ears.

• No-spill gas cans – Help keep you, your family, and the environment safe and clean.

• Watering utensils – hoses, rain gauges, sprinklers, etc.

• Wheelbarrows – one of the simplest yet most useful pieces of lawn garden equipment

• Rakes – A leaf rake, a metal rake, a bamboo rake and (optional) a landscaping rake

• String trimmers

The majority of the lawn care equipment is, or can be converted to being, eco-friendly, so your choice for cutting grass is vital. Owning a green lawn mower is the best option. If you own a gas powered motor, and want to make it environmentally friendly, there are conversion kits that will retrofit your gas mower to electric. In some states, there are special rebates when you trade in your gas mower for an electric one. Benefits of an electric mower are—

1. They are cleaner
2. They are quieter
3. They start with just the touch of a button

Now, it’s up to you—how will you decide what type of mower will work best? Use these quick guidelines for green lawn mower selection:

• Powered or manual? If your yard is less than 2000 sq. ft., go manual.

• Decide whether you want a mower with or without a bag for debris.

• Determine whether a rotary blade or a reel mower will best suit your situation.

Lawn care equipment doesn’t have to be scary. Know what you want, take your time, then go out and hit the green!