I have been playing with my new toy this morning. It is a meter that reads soil PH, moisture and light levels. Brilliant, why didn't I have one of these things years ago? I have a tendency to overwater my plants, having a clay soil it is difficult to tell because the top surface can be dry but underneath can be still very wet. Also, one border is PH 6 while the other one, only about 10 meters away, is PH 4.5.
Whilst I was messing about in the garden with this it got me thinking about what other gadgets are out there that I don't know about. So thought I'd start a thread to see what other people's best gadgets are, perhaps theres something else out there that I am missing out on. ;D
Agree - it reads it if diligently applied.
But you may find, as I have said, that meters can be 10% inaccurate. In the end, I think that a chemical soil test is a better bet. I posted a site the other day which has a huge array of these things. We've had several for decades, but it was only recently that we did a critical check on the fridge thermos and found them miles apart. And that in a life or death application. = Tim
I have a pH meter that doesn't seem to read anything different than what it is reading at the mo - have moved it round the plot and the needle not shifted - maybe it is time to buy a new one...
Mr w got pH meter and soil testing kit as a gift one Christmas about 5 years ago - keeps bringing it out, looking at saying this will be really sueful - then back it goes in the drawer!
My best gadget is the cat scarer, finally reached pay back time, love to watch them jump to great heights when they are just about to dump. :o
I also have a triple Ph, Light, moisture metre but only ever use the latter as it is very useful for keeping my sub-tropical plants at a level of dryness they prefer. ;)
Roy ;D ;D
My best gadget....my garden knife! Ava keeps it nicely sharpened, and it is poket size and folds out easily and smoothly. Cuts through thick and thin things, including caterpillars!
Note to Father Christmas - would love a ph/water meter thingy for the plot and greenhouse.
Roy I'm pleased that someone else finds the moisture detector useful, was beginning to think I was alone in finding a use for it. Please tell me more about the cat scarer, two cats decided yet again to have a fight in my garden at 4am this morning and have trampled my leeks despite having holly strategicall placed around them. I have spent the morning trying to salvage them, fortunately not too many damaged this time. EJ I must remember using a knife for catepillars, much better than using your fingers for squishing them, yuk!
Jess, I can’t remember the name of it as I have had it a while now, I bought it from our local garden centre cost me £50. You simply push the unit into the ground (some come with other attachments for fence/walls) where the cat uses to relieve itself and a passive infra red detector triggers a sonic sound that only the four legged critters can hear and that sends em packing. :o
I did consider a product called the Scarecrow that also worked with a PIR and was plumbed into the mains tap water that squirted the buggers but had a tendency to freeze in winter.
This looks like a very similar device.
http://www.diytools.co.uk/diy/Main/Product.asp?iProductID=1118
Roy. ;D
I've got some garden snips which I use to cut caterpillars in half with!
Ten x
I want a shredder. Two reasons:
1. to speed up compost making
2. because they are such fun.
trouble is I will probably end up shredding everything, just to see what it looks like: we don't need a duvet. it'll shred nicely. ::) destructive child me! ;D
;D Aqui, but I have to say it is the one noise that drives me mad when I am sitting out with my glass of vino on a hot summer sunday afternoon!(When did I last do that!) Next door but one have one, and the sound really grates on me, give me a mower sound anyday!
Aqui, we have a shredder, had to buy one because our hedgerow needs trimming/cutting every year and we are left with a mountain of branches. The shredder is great and from a mountain of branches we are left with a nice neat pile of chippings which I put in with the compost or use as a mulch back under the hedge. Unfortunately there's not much you can do to silence it but we only trim once a year so at least it's not every weekend.
I loathe our shredder -but it's invaluable. Noisy and slow, but it's better than 50 trips to the tip. I think some of the newer ones are quieter as they crush rather than shred.
I use ours for the hedge too, but anything reasonably fine and leafy I'll run over with the mower in preference to shredding -much quicker but you might not want to walk on the lawn in bare feet afterwards.
Jeremy
We have just inherited a shredder. Wonder if we will ever use it. ??? ::)
Inherited a shredder five years ago, had it serviced and it's sat unused in the shed ever since.
I guess it's usefulness depends on what's growing in your garden. We have a hedgerow of Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Cobnut, Apple etc. Lots of the trimmings we get each year are thorny and woody which is not so good in the compost. But a shredder makes it usable either as mulch or putting in the compost bin. If we didn't have the hedgerow then I don't think we'd use it very much.
Roy, I bought one of those cat scarer things from Ebay, just waiting for delivery now. Can't wait, the cats have decided to use my garden as a litter tray once again. When we first got the hens they stayed away but they've got brave and have made a return to my garden. Even had a cat sitting in the hen house the other day, cheeky thing!
Ooh err Jess! Make sure you point it away from the Hens as it may scare them too :othat might not be good for the egg yeild. :o
Already thought of that Roy, the cats come into the garden from the hedgerow near the front of the garden but the hens don't go there (they're fenced in at the back end of the garden) so will put the scarer at the entry point, well away from the hens.
8)
Was speaking to a neighbour today who was moaning about the cats mess, (his wife managed to tread it through the house :P!) his cat scarer has died, so he has put out a rubber snake! Wonder if this works!!!
Uh Uh! spose to work for Herons and other birds but I doubt if it would work for cats, a plastic pop bottle half filled with water may work for a while, (not a pretty site round your garden tho) can't quite remember what it does to scare em. :o
It`s the low maoning noise made when the wind blows acrpss the tops of the bottles that does it. But it only works when the wind blows directly across the tops - rather like all these electric-generating windmill farms that are springing up everywhere.
I love my shredder. We have tall bushes bordering our garden. The shredder turns the big pile of branches we have to cut down into fantastic compost fodder / mulch. Really good mixed with grass clippings.
My favourite gadget is an automatic dripper waterer thingy that screws onto pop bottles. Keeps the chillies nice and healthy in the greenhouse.
Shug, please tell me more about the 'dripper-waterer-thingy-that-screws-onto-pop-bottles' please. Never heard of it. It sounds just like something I need in the greenhouse at the lottie. Thanks.
ooo They are good Ina, I have some. Mine are bright orange plastic tubeey things, pointy with a hole in the bottom. You fill a plastic drink bottle up with water then screw this little dripper onto the end of the bottle, upturn the bottle and spear the orange end into the ground. It slowely allows water to trickle out into the pot. Bad description! I shall look for a pic.
My friends neighbour has a cat scarer thing but he swears he can hear it when it goes off. I wakes him up more than the cats!
:-\
I made a water dripper thing from an old, plastic, milk carton. Just stab a hole in the bottomand screw the cap on almost tight (or stab another hole in that).
I use it to water the Xmas tree when it's indoors, or on pots that have dries out too much.
Jeremy
Irrigation system building for the complete idiot, even I understand it hahaha.
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/garden/dripsystem.php
Found another one and I understand this one too hehe.
http://www.raw-connections.com/garden/maint/bleachbt.htm
Shredders are noisy but great fun. When you run out of stuff, I seem to be looking around for something else to put in!
Have tried feeding the end of loo roll in and see how fast is whizzes round ;D Newspapers also ;D(Messy)
Last year I thought I would make a slug deterant with about 150 scallop shells I had from diving. WHAT a noise! What a mess! Didn`t know they were so hard :o And a white floury dust EVERYWHERE! :-\
My mate inherited a petrol version which is great gadget for taking to allotment as no elec there. Both are at least 20 years old but don`t know why my elec one has managed to last so long!
Both those links seems to have open tops! I just put pin hole size drill in lid and put in growbag to bottom of it. My theory was that when bottom of grow bag had no water in it then it dripped out more. in the cooler times it dripped slowly but in mid-day sun it ran out in an hour. And a pain to fill and put back in.
Will await for details on those mentioned by Shug & EJ
Those little plassy watering tube things, in the latest copy of the Kleeneze catalogue that was shoved through my letter box today! Looked on their website but not on there, typical! Couple of quid for 4 I think it was. Can't find a piccy anywhere on the web of them, and of course, my scanner isn't working to copy a pic...will keep trying! ;D
You may stop now EJ hehehe. My British friend is sending me some! Whoopee.
Thank you for trying, you're dear.