Allotments 4 All

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!!!