Steven Leckart

Snakeguardz Are Also Bulletproof!

CrackShot's Snakeguardz are $70 gaiters made from tough, 1000-Denier nylon. They not only keep snakes from slithering up your pant legs, but prevent bites.

Cool stuff, but even cooler is the fact Ben Meadows says the gaiters are "strong enough to stop a 12-gauge shotgun blast at 20 yards."

I would hate to be the dude who tests these.*

*Yes, I realize no one actually wears them and gets in the line of fire.

Lisa Katayama

Gardening tool combines plant pot and watering can

NY product designer Deger Cengiz has invented a new gardening tool &mdash it's plant pot and watering can hybrid, designed so that whenever you tip it on its side the water directly hits the plant pot. He calls it "Selfish and Devoted" &mdash the plant pot is selfish because all it does is suck up water, and the watering can is devoted because its whole being is dedicated to feeding the plant.

[Deger Cengiz's web site via Dezeen]

Steven Leckart

Growing Ice Mountains: Coolest. Hobby. Ever.*

BBG reader bazzargh reminded me of the awesome, Alaskan ice wall we blogged about four years ago.

At the time, the wall was 132 feet tall. Since then, it seems they've perfected the art of ice gardening.

Not only does the block appear even more massive and challenging, but the climbers who scale it sure do seem to enjoy the finer things in life. Cheers to them.

If you want to get a handle on ice climbing, here's a solid primer on the science of ice.

*har har!

Steven Leckart

HOWTO: Build A Milk Crate Toilet Composter

The folks at Homegrown Evolution, authors of The Urban Homestead, put together a great guide for creating one of these "humanure" Johns out of a five-gallon bucket, milk crate, seat, cable ties, and some scrap wood.

Assembly is straightforward and requires only basic tools, including a jigsaw or keyhole saw.

If you're going to try preparing poop-manure, be sure to read up beforehand.

If you're not interested in compost, this badboy could also make a fine emergency toilet.

Steven Leckart

Help Out BBG's Favorite Guerrilla Gardener

Annie, the guerrilla gardener I wrote about for BBG, is in a fracas with Caltrans, which wants to remove some of the work she's done.

Pretty lame, considering she is the only reason this freeway off-ramp transformed from nothing to something.

Want to support the cause?

Sign this petition.

...And buy a "Runs with Pruners" t-shirt ($5 goes towards garden tools, supplies, etc.)

Steven Leckart

Tick Removers: Which Do You Use?

"Uh, I think I snapped it..."

I got my first tick on the BBG camping trip. I was lucky. I didn't even know it was there until it was gone. I brushed it off in the shower somehow without leaving any of the tick in my body *knock wood*. My completely uneducated guess is the hot water must have shocked the little bugger, and when I inadvertently passed my hand over him, he backed out and/or fell out because he had yet to burrow? (if you're a tick expert, feel free to weigh in).

Next time, I won't be so lucky, which is why I'm going to: a) use bug spray, and b) pick up a legit tick remover just in case. Cause there's no way I'm going to try the above method.

Here's a series of tick removers, including one that uses cryotherapy. I'm tempted to buy the one with a mini-lasso and just call it a day. Before I do, though, please feel free to chime in with any suggestions, experiences or links to videos of yourself removing ticks.

Joel Johnson

Whoa there, Sun Chips: Ingeo corn plastic not suitable for backyard composting

NatureWorks (a subsidiary of Cargill), makes "Ingeo", a bioplastic spun from lactic acid generated from corn sugars. It's the same stuff used by Sun Chips to make their new "compostable" bags that will be released in 2010. It's exciting stuff, and I support the notion, but the commercial (linked above) is misleading about how you'll be disposing of Sun Chips bags.

According to NatureWorks' FAQ:

Can I throw Ingeo™ biopolymer into my backyard compost?

Ingeo™ biopolymer should be composted in industrial compost facilities, which contain the right managed combination of temperature and moisture. Therefore, it is not recommended for use in typical backyard composting due to the lack of high temperature and inconsistent conditions.

Joel Johnson

Getting local farmers' crops to restaurants using the internet

Alexis Madrigal:

FarmsReach wants to make ordering from local, small farms as easy and reliable as ordering from Sysco. Farmers with smartphones would snap quick photos of their produce, then upload their products into their "virtual stalls." Restaurants could cruise through the vegetables online and pick what they wanted. It's a classic farmer's market with a high-tech twist.

Joel Johnson

Plant identification field guide coming to iPhone and more

The National Science Foundation is working on a plant identification guide for the iPhone and other portables, reports the Times:

The field guide, now in prototype for iPhones and other portable devices, has been tested at three sites in the northeastern United States, including Plummers Island in Maryland and Central Park in New York, said W. John Kress, a research botanist and curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, who is also on the research team. The computer program compares the leaf snapshot to a library of leaf images.

"We believe there is enough information in a single leaf to identify a species," he said. "Our brains can't remember all of these characteristics, but the computer can."

Steven Leckart

NuBarro reinvents the wheelbarrow, again

The NuBarro's polypropylene roller wheel never needs pumping, never goes flat and can hold up to 750 lbs, allegedly. Just don't tell James Dyson, whose Ballbarrow debuted in 1974 and eventually evolved into a vaccuum.

[via Toolmonger]

Steven Leckart

A Spray Bottle Worthy of Spiderman

Swiss engineering at its best, available via Lee Valley.

Steven Leckart

How To: Garden What's Not Yours

"Just watch out for needles, please..." And with that sensible yet troubling advice, I started re-planting and weeding a 120x100 ft. lot hugging I-280 in San Francisco. The property is owned by Caltrans, but the garden is definitely Annie's. In December, after five years of staring at a mostly-barren lot across from her home, the web designer (at Sega!) set to work guerrilla-style! -- without any permission, public meeting or hesitation*. Adopting an array of Agave, Dianthus, Crassula ovata, Grevillea, Ornithogalum, Anisodontea, Osteospermum and more (a good portion culled for free from Craigslist!), she started transforming the landscape and simultaneously found a way to escape the "sterile and predictable" mindset of toiling in an office. No power tools. No soil moisture sensors. No radio... Right on. So on a sunny Saturday morning, I joined her at the Pennsylvania Garden . Hear more about the artifacts unearthed (needles?), the bum who used to live there (King Cobra fan), and how I hurt my back, after the jump...

*She eventually called the city, then Caltrans, and got their blessing -- and a spigot repaired -- to ensure the plants won't get ripped out. She's invested well over $1,000, let alone the time.

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Lisa Katayama

Make your own mini-urban garden with DIY Veggiepatch

DIY Veggiepatch is a fun web site that teaches you how to make your own individual-sized urban garden using fabrics that are lying around the house. Some tips from Jo Szczepanksa, its creator:

1. Print out the templates.
2. Recruit friends. Not everyone knows their way around a sewing machine or a jigsaw/hammer. Plus its a lot cheaper buying the materials in larger quantities.
3. Consider using companion planting, so that you get less pests and bugs munching on your yummy veggies, and you don't have to use pesticides.
4. Find a spot with sunlight, or consider creating a spot with sunlight with some shiny reflectors.
5. Worms! The best thing to gardening ever. Put worms in one of your veggie patch pockets and they will eat up all your veggie leftovers and give you great soil, that will protect your vegetables from diseases and help them grow brilliantly.

Joel Johnson

Five things my sister learned when starting a community garden

My kid sis Rachel Fracassa and her friend Megan Grimwood decided to start their own community garden in Raytown, Missouri, despite having limited gardening experience themselves. Rachel's a go-getter, so I asked her to tell me what hurdles she ran into so far, because I figure she's already found how to get over them.

If the lot is vacant, there's a good reason.
Growing some veggies on empty land is not as easy as it sounds. When we first started thinking about organizing a community garden, we became more aware of all the abandoned lots around the city. It seemed like there was so many lots available, it would be no big thing to just grab one and grow tons of food to pass out to the neighborhood.

Perhaps it is indeed that easy if you don't mind trespassing, but trying to get permission to use vacant lots is another story. Just trying to figure out who actually owns the property can be quite a feat. And as it turned out, the majority of vacant land we encountered was owned by the county for back taxes (which must be paid before anyone can step foot on the property).

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Lisa Katayama

How to make a minpin poop compost bin: an illustrated guide

I am great with dogs. I have two minpins at home, Ruby and Malcolm. They're both well-fed and happy, and they each poop twice a day. On the other hand, I am terrible with plants. Most don't live more than a few weeks under my care, even though I water them and feed them and love them just as I do the dogs. So when we decided to have a gardening theme day @ BBG, I figured this was as good a chance as ever to have my dogs help me become better with plants. My minpins are 8lbs each and their poop is maybe the size of your pinkie, but the USDA estimates that an average dog poops 274 lbs of poop a year--I figured I should do my part in reducing that number, even if it's just by a millifraction. I decided to make my very own customized minpin poop compost bin. Read on for a step-by-step guide on how I did it, and pictures of dogs pooping:

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