What’s in your tool-box?

What tools are your “must-haves” for gardening? Mine are relatively few and pretty low tech. It seems there is always some new fancy tool/toy being reviewed on the popular garden blogs, but my tried and true garden companions are powered only by me (nothing that plugs in or requires gasoline) and decidedly not fancy. At the top of my must-have list are my little red handled scissors. I do own a couple of proper clippers but these little scissors (someone told me they are bonsai scissors?) are my go to for just about everything that requires cutting. I’ve owned them for over 10 years (I’ve recently taken to sharpening them) but have no idea how old they really are as they were given to me by an ex, he found them in his garage and thought I could use them. I should also add that the only reason I still have them after 10 years is the red handles which make them easy to spot when you leave them lying around the garden…or accidently dump them in the yard waste bin along with the garden debris.

Next up are my two tubtrugs. I love these things! I was using an old galvanized bucket but my husband bought me the larger of the two tubtrugs when he saw it at Garden Fever, it was so useful that I later bought the second smaller one. You name it and these can help you do it. Haul compost and soil, take loads of dead leaves and debris to the yard waste bin, even serve as a carry all for transplanting. Their soft sides and double handles make them easy to carry no matter how heavy the load.

Unfortunately gloves are a must, and they must be this style from Atlas. If I could get away with it I would actually prefer not to wear gloves, but since I have such a fondness for the spiky plants (and clean nails) I wear gloves. These gloves are sized (xs-l) so you can find the pair that fits you like a second skin. I love them. I’ve always got a second pair on-hand for when the inevitable nail break-through occurs.

Again due to my spiky plant obsession I’ve got a couple of frequently used tools that are probably not seen on the average gardener’s bench… Since breaking out the vacuum to clean debris from your agaves on a regular basis is rather inconvenient a small paintbrush can successfully be used. And what about when you’ve got to cut off a dead agave arm? Nothing beats a serrated kitchen knife, yes seriously. Now of course I do have a great shovel for digging real holes but mostly I use my hand trowel and scoop. I love the serrated edge on the trowel… And the scoop is unbelievably handy! Mulch, potting soil, gravel…you name it. Weeding? Then it’s time to break out my grandpa’s old wooden screw drivers. Just slide it into the ground next to the weed, wiggle a bit and tah-dah…it pulls right out (most of the time). Speaking of Grandpa’s tools his half-moon edger is in serious lawn care rotation. It, along with my reel mower, keeps our small patch of sod in shape. When it comes to watering I love this spray nozzle with its multiple settings. Shower, Jet, Flood, Mist…I can do it all! However I must admit that I buy a replacement every couple of years, either they don’t engineer them terribly well or I am just amazingly hard on my spray nozzles. So, what’s in your gardening tool-box?

(*the name for this post was inspired by a column on the blog design*sponge where they ask designers, artists, and other taste-makers “what’s in your toolbox?”)

Visiting the Lilyvilla Garden...

Last weekend was the Hardy Plant Society’s Study Weekend, once every four years this event is held in Portland (the study weekend alternates between Eugene, Seattle and Vancouver BC). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the study weekend events (such as lectures with Fergus Garrett, Nan Sinton and Bernard Trainor) but all was not lost because I did have the opportunity to volunteer for a few hours in one of the coolest gardens open for the event! This is the personal garden of Lauren Hall-Behrens, garden designer (Lilyvilla Gardens), I first visited her garden as part of the 2009 ANLD (Association of Northwest Landscape Designers) Behind the Scenes Garden Tour (click here to see pictures of the garden as it looked then). Lauren has reworked most of the ground plane of her garden in the last few months, planting for greater continuity. Luckily one of my favorite elements, the entry gate, remains. Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens' carries the color scheme nicely (I assume this was no accident). After the massive entry gate the most prominent carry over from the old garden are the huge stands of hardy bananas. However tall structural anchors like this Loquat… And the Nothopanax delavayi/Metapanax delavayi (names they are a changing) stayed in place too. Gone is the monster Tetrapanax, replaced with these containers atop cut and rolled steel columns (designed by Lauren). I regret that I was unable to capture better photos of this beautiful garden. Sunny weather that makes for a lovely day of touring gardens definitely does not make for great garden photography! Lauren had a book of “before” photos available for people to look through, hard to imagine that this amazing space started out as this… This often asked about bench with decorative roof line was a gift from an artist friend of Laurens. However all of the fabulous rusty steel screens and accents are of her design. The steel edging throughout the garden measures 4,” I was surprised to find out it is so deep. Here you see the back of one of her steel screens, which is part of a fountain enclosure, which I failed to get a good photo of (and if you look closely at the bottom right corner of this photo you see that Lauren has an agave too, and she claims to not like spiky plants!) The side garden features a fern stumpery made with wood from a Plum tree removed earlier this spring. Personally I am lusting after this Schefflera delavayi which Lauren planted last fall. Mike Darcy was one of many visitors to the garden on Saturday and he told of at tiny Schefflera delavayi given to him by Sean Hogan which has grown on to stand over 5 ft tall and never suffered even a bit of winter damage (lust! must have…) More photos from the garden… Thank you Lauren for inviting me to be a part of your open garden! And I promise when asked by visitors “is this your garden?” I quickly confessed that it was not, even though I really wanted to say yes...

Brown Building Materials, a rusty paradise.

During our recent visit to Spokane we stopped by another favorite old haunt, Brown Building Materials. As with everything, it’s changed over the years. This used to be essentially a big junkyard; you could spend hours walking around looking at scrap and discovering treasures. Then there was a big fire, and they cleaned up their act. Moved and consolidated, organized. In fact I’ve never seen it so organized. There was still plenty of inspiring rust though. Things that had me thinking of Reuben at Rancho Reubidoux, oh what he could do with these amazing finds! Garden structure, trellis material, planters…it’s all here…if you have a little imagination. Of course not much is priced, you risk falling in love with expensive junk. In my case all I left with was pictures (remember I had already filled the car with plants bought earlier in the day), but I was very inspired by these… You’ve got to love plants (some would say weeds) that are happily growing regardless of their location. And it’s not all rust at Brown Building, they’ve got some fabulous concrete and clay relics as well. In the end this visit had me thinking about the book The Revolutionary Yardscape, by Matthew Levesque, a book that I read and just didn’t click with. I also read a review of the book on Reuben’s blog and commented saying as much. But walking through and looking at all of this great stuff just dying for a new life I think I finally got why Mr. Levesque’s book has been such a hit. Not everyone has the ability (or time) to see the possibilities in the junk that surrounds us. Someone who can get others excited about reusing things that have already been useful once, and then cast off, rather than going out and buying new things, is doing a very good service to the planet. I think I’m going to email Brown Building Supply and suggest they get a store copy of the book!