Gaia x GTFO = Discounted GPS!

gaiagps

Gift Guide for the Yard and Garden

Posted by GTFO Jason -

Have someone who loves growing a flourishing garden and verdant yard?  Here's a guide to perfect gifts for them this holiday.


Lawn:

Electric lawn tools.  Maintain your yard without wasting time maintaining your tools.  I've been using the Ryobi One+ system for the past 3 years and will never go back.  No trips to the gas station with a fuel canister in my trunk; no mixing oil and gas for a two cycle engine; no spark plugs to deal with...just throw in a battery and go.  Why Ryobi?  The One+ system has almost 200 tools and appliances that all take the same battery, I use them for lawn care, woodworking, and cleanup, all with out multiple chargers and battery types.



Garden
Christmas time is also the start of the spring planting season for gardeners starting from seed, and its the perfect time to get the outdoor beds ready for transplants.  With the right shade and water, Phoenix is a great place for backyard/porch garden that can produce nearly year-round.  Nothing beats a home-grown heirloom tomato...except maybe one that you can still pick off the vine in early December.





Canning and Preserving
It would be a shame to let all those garden products go to waste!  Just one jalapeno plant will produce more peppers than a family can reasonably eat in a season; a couple tomato plants will top your sandwiches and make you spaghetti sauce.  Canning, drying, and preserving will help you get the most out of your harvest.

Outdoor entertaining:
Because no one spends hours making their lawn and garden look perfect so they can NOT show it off.

  

Comments

Post a Comment

Gaia x GTFO = Discounted GPS!

gaiagps

Popular posts from this blog

Shade cloths, a vegetable garden lifesaver in the desert

Posted by GTFO Jason -
Image
Oh what a difference shade makes!  The left-half of the garden only got covered an hour before the photo was taken, while the right-half has been covered for over a month and is still verdant.  Ignore the sunflower mess. Once June heat takes hold in the low desert you will see a decline in garden productivity. Some of your plants, like peas and beans, will probably be done for the season and will die off completely.  Others, like peppers, might not care much that they've been placed into an oven.  But others, like tomatoes, will stop producing yet stay alive until a second spurt of fruiting in the fall--if you give them enough water and protection from the sun. Some of you might be lucky enough to have a perfectly positioned tree that shades your crop in the summer, the rest of use have to rely on shade cloths .  They can be so effective that I have a lavender that lived through multiple 115+ degree days in the most exposed part of my yard because it's under...
Read more

Smart ideas for the Smart Home

Posted by GTFO Jason -
 When the internet of things was in its early years the concern about hacking run rampant seemed to dominate the conversation.  In addition, did anyone really want to swap a lock and key for a smart lock that just hit the market?  But as the years have passed, the technology has matured and improved, and having a Smart Home finally seemed like a rational idea. Make sure that any product you choose is compatible with whatever smart home system you are using--Google Home/Nest, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Samsung Smart Things, etc.  This may become less of a concern once the new smart home standard, Matter, is introduced.  But for now definitely check.  Most products are compatible at least with Google, Amazon, and Apple, but sometimes the only work with one or two.  It's probably also best to choose one ecosystem and stick with it.  That way you can avoid becoming this person whose editor obviously tasked them with making up an article about how chal...
Read more

My favorite power tools for the yard

Posted by GTFO Jason -
When it comes to lawn and garden maintenance it all starts with a good set of tools. When it comes to the power tools, I'm generally partial to battery powered equipment. The maintenance is practically nonexistent, they're far quieter, and since they don't run on gas they don't pollute or require trips to the gas station and fuel-oil blends. Ryobi's One+ system of 18 volt battery powered tools is the way to go--the entire line of tools use the same battery so you can power your mower, impact drill, and dust buster all with the same power source. Ryobi also makes a 40 volt line of battery powered equipment for those who need more umph, but the product line is far more limited than the 18v options.  I have three of the 4 amp batteries and they are all I need to mow, weed eat, and have juice left over for my driver when needed.
Read more