This video is a punt for an electronic product called Rapitest. Although it’s an advert it is well worth the 1 min, 26 seconds it take to watch it. It is interesting to learn that a small electronic device can tell you this much about the environment in which you have planted or are planning to plant lawns, shrubs, flowers trees and even plants in containers.

As the spokesperson rightly says, “Healthy soil and the correct soil for the plant in question are key to successful gardening and lawn care.” This little device tests a whole range of factors, including the soil quality. First it measures light so you can be sure you are planting the plant in the right spot. Then it tests fertility so you can see whether composting is required. It also tests the pH so you can ascertain if the soil is acid or alkaline. Some plants are sensitive to pH. Finally it tests moisture. Is the soil too wet, too dry, just right? I like this last feature for house plants, or any plants in containers, which are notoriously susceptible to dying of thirst. This Rapitest electronic soil tester is a neat device for keen gardeners who like accuracy and dislike failure.

When you need to buy a shovel, don’t just go picking one off the shelf at random or selecting one according to what is the cheapest. Shovels by their nature take a lot of strain, so make sure you buy the strongest, best-made one you can afford.

DIYMaster shows you in a 4 min, 43 second video on Life Videopedia just what to look for. He does this the best way possible, by comparing an inferior No 2 shovel with a strong and well-made one. As the DIYMaster says, “Shovels are the most frequently used tool, but they do come in a bewildering array of sizes and quality types.” That sums up the reason you should look at this video before taking the seemingly pedestrian step of going out to buy a shovel.

I learned a few fascinating facts from DIYMaster, who certainly knows his shovels. The most commonly used size shovel is a number 2 shovel (the size he demonstrates in the video). Your shovel should be appropriate to your age, strength, state of health and the task you envisage for the shovel.

Then there are two basic ways in which these shovels are constructed. (This is really interesting.) There is the hollow head type, which is beaten steel with a handle pushed through the frog-like fitting at the end of the head. And then there is the super-strong and properly made type, the forged steel type which is manufactured at high heat (1600 to 2000 degrees) and formed into a shape. These forged shovels are heavier and denser than the sheet metal type, really good for heavy duty work and long life. The forged type has a strong, hollow tube into which the handle fits snuggly so no water and dirt gets in to promote perishing. A really good shovel will have a tube that does not end straight where the wooden handle enters but has a tail-tab with an extra rivet for extra rivet. Watch the video for details of this vital characteristic of a good shovel. Finally, the handle should be good, clean, straight-grained piece of lumber, usually American ash, with the grain running parallel to your leg, straight down to the shovel-head for extra strength. And make sure the handle is the right height for you. A shovel should be as custom-made for yourself and your task as it possibly can be without going to an ironsmith to have one made.

Down Sacramento way this is how the ladies of The Sacramento Bee make a simple garden fountain when the cookies are baking in the oven. It is well worth watching this 3 minute video on Howcast if you are serious about putting together a garden or tabletop fountain. It is also worth noting that the spokesperson Gwen Schoen omits to tell us two important things: how the water pump gets powered and where the water comes from (is it the same water used over and over?), so you need to ask someone at the craft store, hardware shop or gardening center to explain this when you buy the pump.

Okay, what you need is a water pump, rubber hose, flower pots, a cork, cobble stones, water and water plants. You need a small pot to work in conjunction with a larger pot. You really need to watch the video to get a measure of this. The pump you need should be able to pump water to a height of 12″ to 24″ and the lower pot should be deep enough for you to submerge the pump entirely. This pot must also be one that does not rust or leak. As long as you know how the pump is being powered and where the water comes from, making this simple garden fountain should be a breeze — if you follow Gwen’s video closely.

Are the hose pipes in your yard a muddy, tangled mess? Anne McMahon from Yardlover.com says there is a solution to this problem. What about hose pots! She describes hose pots as “a beautiful solution to an ugly problem.”

Using a hose pot you are placing a pot around the “neck” of your hose and storing the tail of it within the pot. The head part feeds through a hole in the side of a pot leading to the faucet. These pots remind me of the type of containers occupied by the snakes of snake charmers in India. They are beautiful. The ones Anne shows are made of resin or metal. They are certainly a lot nicer looking than a piled up and forgotten hose.

Humans are notoriously inert. Will the type of person who allows a hosepipe to hang around the yard develop into a paragon of efficiency who will painstakingly coil the hose into the pot after use? I’m not sure. It’s a well-meant idea anyway. Take a look at the 1 min, 16 second and make a snap decision about whether hose pots are for you.

I just love Kimmie Haworth of the National Gardening Association. Apart from having a nice rosy complexion, she is irreverent. Lots of her gardening videos are quite tongue in cheek, such as the one about a hundred ways to control snails.

In this video (just over 1 minute long) Kimmie talks about something I would never have thought would justify a video of any duration at all — garden gloves. According to the inimitable Kimmie, “A gardening girl can never have enough gloves.”

Okay.

She then goes on to show that all you need are two pairs of gloves: one pair made of leather or thick material for working out in the garden with thorns and foliage and stuff, and a neoprene pair for working with chemicals (not rubber, not plastic, not latex) because neoprene prevents chemicals from penetrating the glove and getting through to your skin.

Then Kimmie washes her hands of the whole subject by illustrating how you should clean your dirty garden gloves. Why, you just wash them with them still on your hands, just like you wash your hands, even using a handwash liquid, then spray them off with the hosepipe. Take them off and let them dry so they are ready to use next time.

Cool.

Young SprinklerDaddy over at YouTube sums up the difference between spray and drip irrigation quite nicely:

SPRAY IRRIGATION Here a spray head is attached to a pipe for widespread water about 6′ to 12′ in all directions. “This method is good for watering a large bed of flowers or perennials that are all the same size,” says SprinklerDaddy. And lawns, he might have added. It is not suitable for a bed where there are different sized plants as the larger shrubs tend to block the water and the small shrubs get nothing.

DRIP IRRIGATION SprinklerDaddy really likes drip irrigation. He describes it as “cool.” He says: “This is for localized type of watering where you want to get water to the root of each shrub. There is no blocking out of smaller plants and no wasted water. It is a really good option when mulching. Once you have put down the bark or rocks, lay the pipes on top and cover with mulch. No need to dig a trench for the pipes.” And no need to watch the 1 min, 48 sec video either. All you will see is a talking head repeating what I have written above.

Somewhere down in Texas one winter, a man looked at the camera to tell us about the two types of irrigation you can use for your raised garden bed. According to the man with the winter grass stretching out behind him, compliments of ExpertVillage and YouTube, you can have Precision Button Irrigation (for directing water to a specific area) and Laser Drip Irrigation (for soaking a wide area).

Button irrigation involves small pipes leading off a main hose with a button at the base to control the flow of dripping water. Laser irrigation is a long, thin pipe with laser holes drilled all over it allowing water to leak all over the required area. If you want a short visit down south for some contrasting visuals and some very basic information, spend 1 minute, 53 seconds checking out Mr. “Lone Star” Irrigation.

Melinda Myers, a.k.a. The Plant Doctor (for Birds and Blooms Magazine), was asked for her choice of 5 Must-Have Garden Tools. She came up with the following:
1. Bypass pruners (the small hand-type)
2. Loppers (these are long pruners for reaching high branches)
3. Neverdull scissors (great for dead-heading plants)
4. Cast aluminum trowel (never rusts and is well-shaped for easy use)
5. An intriguingly-shaped weed remover, a so-called cobra hoe

Melinda couldn’t resist throwing in collapsible weed-carriers and a gathering basket with a wire bottom “so you can wash of the harvest right there in the basket, in the garden.” Take a look at the video. Some of these products you might never have known existed!

No, this is NOT a video about snails that are really controlling, insisting that you take out the trash and be in by a certain time and stuff like that. To the contrary. This is an overview of the variety of measures available to discourage snails and slugs in your garden by killing them. Sadly, there is not silver bullet for getting rid of those destructive critters once and for all. If there were, this lady would have told us so.

Kimmie Haworth of the National Gardening Association talks like someone whose life’s mission is to control snails. She really hates them, and gets really excited when talking about how these silent menaces just love the wet weather “cos they can slide around in your garden eating all the goodies out of your plants.”

Kimmie recommends a whole armory of products and techniques for controlling snails. Note that this video is not called “Getting Rid of Snails Permanently.” A pity.

Kimmie says you can use chemical grains or pellets, liquids, organic substances (I love the one called Sluggo – isn’t that a great name?) or salt. I get the feeling Kimmie is saying that snails and slugs are so persistent that you had better use all of these at once. Or you can make snails feel completely uncomfortable and totally unwelcome by casting crushed eggshells or fireplace ashes around the garden. Kimmie says: “Snails don’t like rough things on their feet.” Feet? Oh well.

Kimmie even mentions salt as a snail and slug control measure but concedes that the results are “psychadelic.”

Finally, Kimmie says plain violence will also work. “Snails like to hide under things,” she says, seizing a pottery bowl. “Such as for instance under this. So lift things to find them and then..” Kimmie puts down the bowl and squirms it around a bit. “..squeeze them to death.” Wow, Kimmie, you really ARE controlling…

If your container plants have lost their lust for life and you want to do something about that, watch this video. Sloat Gardens is a 10-store California gardening chain operating in San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa and San Mateo counties. Here an expert from Sloat Gardens reveals two products that are key to successful container gardening. A business-like presenter takes 2 mins, 54 seconds to impart this knowledge.

Whether you are planting veggies, herbs or color plants, use good potting soil and transfer the seedlings in their plugs to the container. Then you take something called Zeba (a cornstarch polymer tagged as “super absorbant granules”) on the box and put a little of it around the root zone of the plants – not too much. This retains moisture in the soil and breaks down in about a year. (You can also use Zeba when sowing seeds.)

After that you take a product called Sure Start (a kind of ancient fungal material with a scientific name I couldn’t quite catch) and put about a cup of it in the container. The Sloat Gardens representative swears by this product. She says that if you put two containers next to each other and treat one with Sure Start and the other one not, the difference is “like night and day”, with the Sure Start container doing much better, of course. “There is a symbiotic relationship between the Sure Start and the plant,” she says. “Sure Start encourages the plant to take up nutrients and water while the Sure Start draws some starch from the plant’s roots.”