THIS IS THANKSGIVING holiday season, but we are being asked to limit gatherings to keep each other safe.
So, since we are going to be staying close to home, here are 10 more essentials to consider for your garden and its maintenance.
1. Live Christmas tree.
Why not go to your favorite nursery and pick out some superb specimens known for growth characteristics or color?
These trees can be expensive, so wrap it as a gift card and have it outdoors ready to plant.
The Christmas tree will become the best plant in your yard for years to come.
Excellent varities would be evergreens such as cryptomeria Japonica “Elegans” (beautiful red with leathery foliage), Chmamacecyparic “Thai Temple” (outstanding pendulous yellow), Pinus strobus glauca pendula (weeping white pine), or some other favorite such as the gorgeous blue Cedrus or Blue Atlantica Glauca Pendula.
2. Orchard ladder.
Now here is a real treat for the would-be pruner.
What good is that nice new Felco pruner and orchard saw when all you have to stand on is a five-gallon bucket? Orchard ladders are very strong, three-legged and designed for uneven ground, that uses a third leg for closeness into tree limbs.
3. A dump truck load.
Every gardener would revere a gift as useful as a dump truck full of “whatever.”
It is your chance to match product with recipient.
Maybe it’s a 10-yard dump load of rock for the long desired rock garden.
Or decorative gravel for a pathway.
Or decorative bark and decomposed mulch.
Who among us wouldn’t relish a 10-yard load of premium topsoil or compost/manure?
4. Heavy duty cultivator (spreading fork).
Get a professional steel- or alloy-tined model.
They tend to be a very useful tool for your garden.
5. Double wheeled wheelbarrow.
Two wheels give stability, increasing weight loading capacity.
It’s another perfect gift for the elderly or disabled.
They make moving product around your garden and yard so much easier.
6. The Mantis.
This is the greatest little cultivator ever made, eager and able to fully cultivate and mix the best flower and garden beds.
They are small, lightweight, easy to carry around with four tines, each designed to mix the soil and additives most efficiently. They do this to a depth of 6 to 8 inches — perfect.
7. Hanging baskets or window boxes.
You can kill two birds with one stone by also buying a gift certificate for some neat container plantings to go into the basket or window box.
8. Mattocks.
The vast majority of people on the Peninsula garden atop some sort of gravel pile and could use some digging help.
Mattocks are pickaxes on steroids.
A blade at one tip and a root cutting, ground slicing on the opposite end make this tool the “Terminator” of the yard.
9. Load of rocks.
Rocks are great! They don’t die, get sick, need to be watered, pruned or sprayed, and never rot away.
Rocks add real value to the home and are most aesthetically pleasing.
10. Tarps.
Yes, that’s right, tarps.
I just adore tarps because they transport leaves, cover the woodpile, as well as wrap up the mess, and cover the driveway and sidewalk, weed and soil messes.
They also work well on the shop floor as I oil my tools.
Get several sizes from small to large, and don’t forget the green or brown colored ones.
So again, there we have it.
Ten more essential ideas for you to purchase to make life easier around your yard and garden.
And please, stay well all.
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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).
