Recip Blades- I ended up getting the carbide tip Diablio 9" all purpose demo blade (wood and nails). Thought the carbide would stand up to the rocks I'll run into. Hope the weather holds.

This the folding cart from Gardeners Supply that I bought four years ago. I bought if specifically to use at the cemetery. I got tired of dragging bags of mulch, trays of flowers, and cleaned up debris from grave to grave all over the cemetery. It can be frustrating sometimes to get the back wheels in place and overall is kind of heavy when lifting in and out of the car trunk, but not super heavy.

folding garden cart

And this is my electric Overland Cart I purchased in 2013. Lately it needs charged more often and I've replaced the battery twice since I bought it. I use it a lot. Sorry I couldn't just post a photo, for some reason I'm having trouble here. So this is the link, I see the price has really gone up! Overland cart

ETA: oops, that isn't my Overland. I don't have the power dump option. No wonder it's more expensive. Mine dumps, but you have to use a lever to unlock the bed, then raise it manually. The power dump would be great esp. when you have the cart full of dirt. It's really heavy to lift by hand then.

It's good to know about the power option. I was starting to look at powered carts for next year and auto-dump hadn't occurred to me. My husband and I have only two working shoulders between us, so lifting up and rotating heavy loads doesn't happen without a struggle (and pain afterwards).

Woody - Thanks for that thought on the hoses…I’ll try to save myself money then. [g]. When you had them in place, did you feel they were effective, saved you effort? Were you able to connect more than one together and water larger areas at one time?

I seem to end up watering one area at a time then disconnect and go to the next. Maybe I need a pressure regulator.

Ceilsan32 - I put my soaker hoses away for the winter and then one year got busy and didn’t do it. The next year half of them were leaking and shooting up too far. So it does make a difference.

What brand of spray nozzle do you get that is high pressure with brass fittings?

We usually use a ‘two wheeler’ for anything heavy, but we have a small level lot. We bought just any ole cheap one and we’ve had it for over a decade and I keep waiting for it to wear out so I can buy something better, but it keeps on ticking.

Same with a simple, cheap plastic rolling cart that I use almost every time I’m in the garden. I was looking for a new fancy one about 5 years ago and my husband said, what’s the matter with that one. [I’m usually the one that says that. [(g)] So I thought, okay I’ll wait until it breaks down. It is still going.

We use a small child’s plastic rake to get into tight spaces, it works great.

Also use a battery powered mower and we love it.

I never heard of Anti Vibration gloves….I’ll have to look for those, thanks!

Have never tried the lawn bag chutes either, put that on the list.

Wish I had time to read the whole thread….lots of great information here.

@woodyoak-the soaker hoses are used to water large evergreens which were evidencing signs of drought. They are located at a distance (and uphill, uneven terrain) far from the house, saving me dragging a hose hundreds of feet to the farthest point. It also saves wear and tear on a damaged spine, as well as other arthritic joints. Were the hoses not removed for the winter, they would be moved by herds of deer, frequenting the area and dragging things with them or knocking things over.

@prairiemoon2 z6b MA- my hose nozzle and brass fittings are antiques, made in the U.S.. Most of what is available today is poorly designed and rarely lasts one season, as I discovered when attempting to "try something new".

I believe you might have more luck finding a high pressure hoze nozzle from companies selling to professional landscaping companies. I suppose that it may also depend upon the water pressure to your home/size of your water supply lines.

The anti-vibration gloves are fabulous for arthritic hands/those with tendonitis. I highly recommend them. I also love Bear Wallow Gloves which are real leather and suede, meant for dealing with heavy berry brush/climbing roses, cutting tree branches, etc., to avoid bruising, as they fit to your elbow, or higher.

Thanks Ceilsan - I'll keep looking for the hose nozzle. I've bought Dramm and I've put them away in the winter, but still, they seem to start leaking after a very short time. A.J.Leonard is a professional supplier, I'll check there.

And I also need some gloves for roses, so I'll check those out. Thank You!

PM2 - When we used the soakers, we used either 50' or 100' hoses - we did use the quick connectors that have been mentioned here to easily connect/disconnect the main solid hose to the soakers. (We mostly used brass ones from Canadian Tire - a good washer ring was important for any type of connector to not leak.) We found that running the main hose at full force was the best way to get the soakers to provide good water along their full length. We would run the hose for about 30 minutes at a time but only ran them if there hadn't been rain. We used them just for a couple of years to get the garden established. After that things survived or died on their own....! If something can't survive in the long run with the water that falls from the sky, it doesn't belong in my garden! I don't have any interest in standing out there watering a fussy plant! So the soakers were important but they were not intended to be a long-term part of the garden

I think soakers are made from cheap rubber - from recycled tires I think - so they are not going to last many years plus the holes in them that ooze the water naturally make them weak structurally. By the time they had deteriorated to the point of shooting unexpected streams of water, they were ready to be taken out permanently or were buried under enough leaf litter that they could be left in place but be invisible :-)

ceilsan - I know about spine issues etc. from personal experience! My solution, as noted above, is to only do the minimum necessary to get something established and then leave them to survive on their own. Anything that dies gets replaced with something tougher :-) I don't have to cope with deer though, so that is something I'm thankful for!

e.t.a.... PM2 - I forgot to add this picture of DH wearing Bionic Rose Gauntlets:

I have smaller goatskin rose gauntlets from Lee Valley Tools.

prairiemoon2 z6b MA, If you're not trying to spend a lot on puncture/cut resistant gloves for roses you might try these, which I use with my Rosa rugosa; haven't been stuck yet: https://www.zoro.com/showa-cut-resistant-gloves-m-size-black-pr-577m-07/i/G3553899/

Thanks Woody, we've probably done basically what you've done, but our pressure must not be as good as yours. I've used 50ft hoses and tried to connect two, but the water never reaches the end of a 100ft hose. And that is a lot of changes. I always thought it would be great to lay them all out around the yard and connect them to each other and make one connection from the main hose and leave it running and you were done. [g]. I know, dream on.

I also thought with soaker hoses, a level lot is a disadvantage, but I'm sure I haven't thought that through. What goes down must come up I guess.

I cannot have a policy of letting my plants go without watering. It doesn't seem to matter how tough they are, we have too many Maple Trees, A sycamore 8 spruce, a Pine tree and a half dozen silver Maples, two red maples and Japanese maple all around our property in other people yards, right up to the lot line. They suck the moisture right out of the beds. So I either water, or I don't have a garden. Many of my neighbors have grass from lot line to lot line.

Those look like great gloves for the roses. I keep trying to get by with the thin stretchy gloves that reach to my wrist and I'm always catching myself.

@woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada/@prairiemoon2 zone 6b MA-I totally agree with you, but unfortunately I invested a great deal of money into many Green Giant Arborvitaes to secure some much needed privacy. This Summer was horrible in my area-you'd have thought this was the Sahara Desert. After hours of watering expensive perennials and trees for months on end, I had sticker shock upon receiving my water bills. It would have been easier to erect 1/2 acre of shadecloth... Dealing with clay soil and slopes only adds to the dilemma, as I'm getting too old to stand on slopes and apply that much mulch every year or two.

I like your DH's gloves! The Bear Wallow gloves might fit to the elbow, but avoid my tendency to attract scratches and bruises.

Were it not for deer herds and groundhogs, I could enjoy some roses, hydrangeas, Nine Bark, tulips, etc. These animals are so destructive, despite sprays and soaps, that stakes and hardware cloth are a mandate.

Prairiemoon2 has my sympathy, because eventually those silver maples will fall, crushing anything in their path. Some landscapers here refer to them as "silver weeds". Have you considered elevated gardening to save water for your own plants?

Ceilsan - I put in raised beds for a vegetable garden, about 25 feet away from a mature Maple. I expected to see some roots come up into the beds, but some of the beds, I found after just one season, I end up having to dig the whole thing out again before I can plant. That defeats the whole purpose of the raised bed. [g]. I'm considering growing in large containers instead.

Luckily all the Silver Maples are not mine and behind us in someone else's yard. I suppose if they fell they might catch the house. I'm going to have to go take a good look at them, now that you say that. LOL

PM2 - where we most needed the soaker hoses was in the backyard under the white pines (and there are old spruce trees along the back fence on the neighbour-behind-us’s property.) All that high evergreen canopy deflects a lot of rain so the ground was always very dry under there. There was another pine back there (not sure what kind but not a white pine...). It died a few years ago and we used pieces of its trunk as ‘nurse logs’ along the back fence which has helped hostas do better there. And we planted a ‘Wolf Eyes’ dogwood beside the dead stump. Things that go dormant (e.g. trilliums) do well under there. Sweet Woodruff survives as a ground cover and Christmas Ferns can take the dry conditions. Under the edge of the pine canopy a few more shrubs and perennial survive. So there has not been soaker hoses under there in more than a decade but there are enough things growing there that the space is not empty. At our previous house there were two Norway maples which provided tough growing conditions, so when we were looking for a new place, I paid attention to what trees were here! Softwood nurse logs can help a lot in dry areas by being sponges to hold water, and by being sources of nutrients as they break down. If you haven’t tried that, it might be worth experimenting with them....

ceilsan - we’ve be been lucky both here and at our previous house not to need to worry too much about privacy because we liked our neighbours and the 1/4 acre lots were big enough to not make the neighbours seem ‘on top of us’. Both there and here, the fences were/are chainlink which keeps an open feel. The neighbour to the north here is an active gardener too and our gardens sort of merge along the fence and we consider each other’s plantings and views when we add new things. We’ve never needed to plant an evergreen ‘privacy hedge’ or put up a solid fence. We’ve been very lucky I think! :-)

This is so nice, to talk with fellow gardeners about tools and such. I never get to do this. If I'm excited about a purchase and express it to most friends or family members, they just look at me like, "Huh?"

These are the gauntlet gloves I bought this Spring from Spring Hill Nursery, not esp. for roses but to aid in pulling English Ivy out of my privet hedge. Last year my arms got tore up, I looked like I had been in a fight with a wild cat when I finished. So I thought I'd try the gloves. But instead I used them only once so far and that was for weeding a shrub rose.

@woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada-You've taught me something new. I'd never heard of "nurse logs". Do they get infested with carpenter ants or other unwanted bugs?

Hostas are on the "caged only" list, due to deer. I think I'll try Trillium at some point, to go with the bleeding hearts, astilbe, sweet woodruff and brugansia (sp?).

Don't you love the roses in schoolhouse_gwagain's photo? They are beautiful!

So, will we spend the winter planning next Spring's additions?

Do any of you own "Wellies" for mud areas? Any brands you'd recommend?

I agree with schoolhouse's comment re: being able to discuss issues with others so interested in gardening. How many of you plan your planting selections to complement your home's colors?

ceilsan - carpenter ants are a natural part of decomposition of wood in a woodland/forest environment, so they can/will be present when a nurse log decomposes to release nutrients. If you are concerned that the ants may invade your house, keep the nurse log away from the house. Ants, including carpenter ants, are a key element in spreading trilliums. Trillium seeds have a flashy structure attached - the elaiosome - that contains lipids and attracts ants - the ants carry off the seeds, eat the fleshy structure, and discard the seed - which then germinates in the new place it finds itself in! The trilliums here have obviously spread where there is a nurse log nearby - in the pictures below you can see seedlings growing beside the rotting trunk of an old apple tree that fell and was left to decompose. That area is now densely populated with trilliums:

So nurse logs have definite value but do think about where you place them if you think they may cause a problem with an ant infestation.

I don't have the traditional green Wellie boots but I do have sort of lavender-colored Hunter boots. You can see then in this picture from a few years ago:

(that walker is my 'garden walker' that carries my most commonly used tools around with me... Note the 'weed bag' hanging off the side :-) You can also see part of the neighbour's garden through the fence - the picture was from early May so things are just starting to grow. garden through the fence

re house color - our house is yellow and I rarely plant things with yellow flowers - in part because yellow flowers make me think of weeds (if I see something with yellow flowers I'm apt to yank it because it's likely a weed here...!) and partly because the yellow flower might not go well with the yellow of the house. Besides, I figure the garden has enough yellow in it because of the house color!:-)

SIX GREAT GARDEN TOOLS ARRIVED TODAY! In the form of strong guys with gas powered leaf blowers. They did in an hour and half what I wouldn't be able to accomplish in two weeks. Lordy, is it expensive! But it is off my mind and I now I can see where to plant the homeless perennials.

I hate the sound of leaf blowers in the neighborhood, but in my yard it's like beautiful music. and it's magical to have a tidy garden. without a screaming lower back.

LLBean Rubber Mocs for me. I never have standing water or mud in my yard and have not had a need for higher boots. I love the ease of slipping in and out of these at the door.

Chiming in again to share an experience with the new rose pruning gauntlet gloves that I just purchased from Gardener's Supply, from Mud. Here they are. I used them for the first time this weekend to prune back my rambler (Seven Sisters), and I did get poked a few times through the gloves. I figured that was just normal, but now I'm wishing I had the benefit of this thread before buying them! I wonder if Gardener's would take a return based on not performing as advertised? Are those gloves supposed to completely protect you from thorns?

@ banana stand - I've not had good experiences with returns with Gardener's. YMMV. But if they didn't perform correctly that may make a difference in their policy.

I've had a pair of leather "rose gloves" for 30 years (don't recall where I purchased them) and have never had anything "poke" through them. You should return those gloves.

I would call Gardeners Supply customer service. Just explain politely and I bet they will accept a return of your gloves or give you credit toward another purchase. You would probably have to pay postage for the return but maybe not. I rarely have trouble with customer service of most online shops and sites.

@woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada-your Trilliums are phenomenal. I love the path they make, leading the viewer to the next garden section. Were they difficult to start? Are those oak leaves acting as mulch? My next property has to be more level than my current one. It's become impossible to manage as well as I'd prefer, and qualified landscape companies are prohibitively expensive.

The trilliums are a 20 year work in process! There is an amazing natural display of them in a nearby woodlot around the local water treatment plant. That has been my 'reference landscape' - I try to give ours conditions as close as possible to what the woodlot trilliums have. I grew up with trilliums being relatively abundant but they were red trilliums rather than the white trilliums common in Ontario. Most people around here have trilliums (probably poached from the woodlot....?!) There were a few here when we bought the property and we have got those to multiply by both seeding and offsets, but we are still a long way from the woodlot display - this picture shows some of the the trillium patch in the woodlot:

So we still have a long way to go to achieve that....!

The oak leaves in the pictures I posted of our little trillium patch usually get chopped a bit but they do form a mulch - the trilliums in the woodlot certainly live with a thick layer of leaf mulch!

We do have a few red trillium too but they don't seem to spread as quickly as the white ones.

I got this soaker hose this year at Harbor Freight: Soaker Hose

When not in use it is flat and compact. Instead of Rubber it appears to be made out of some type of very strong fiber. It seems to be much sturdier than the rubber type of soaker hose.

Woody....amazing Trillium patch!! What do those look like the rest of the year? Are they ethereal? And is that a Havanese dog? My daughter has been looking for a dog.

PM2 - trilliums go dormant after they finish blooming. Ferns of various sorts are good companions - there are ferns in the woodlot and miscellaneous other wild perennials.

Misty was a Lhasa Apso. She is long dead now - that’s an old picture. :-)

I have lots of roses, some with serious thorns. I’ve found the rose gauntlet from Bear Wallow the best of all I’ve tried. Not the cheapest, but to me they are well worth it. Mary

http://bearwallowgloves.com/protector-basics-gauntlet-rose-gloves/

Update on the rose gloves: I called Gardener's supply, and they immediately offered to ship me a pair of a different brand of rose gloves, at no cost to me, with no need to ship back the pair from Mud. Way better customer service than I expected! Looking forward to trying out the new pair.

Very good Bananastand! What a great outcome!

OH....Woody - well, that is quite a sight. Planted with ferns is a good idea.

Misty was very sweet looking. You must miss her. She was the dog you made the home made biscuits for? I still have that recipe that you posted and used to make it for my son's dog, who he lost last December. Did you get another dog?

PM2 - I have made home-made dog treats/cookies for all the dogs we’ve had (Chelsea, a Golden before Misty and now we have Cole, a miniature poodle - who failed out of qualifying for training to be a Hearing Ear Dog). Most of the dogs in the neighbourhood know I always have cookies with me and they expect their share too! I used to do Christmas treat bags for the dogs in neighbourhood but stopped after I made ~60 dozen cookies one year! Cole is a greedy, cookie monster! :-).

I do miss Misty - she was my shadow indoors and out. She was also a demon rabbit-killer and we didn’t have problems with rabbits in the garden when she was on patrol! The breed is a small dog but their origin was as part of a guard dog team for remote Tibetan monasteries - and she clearly thought she was a big, tough dog :-)

That is an amazing amount of cookies to bake for Christmas!! lol. I can see why you would have to rethink that. [g]

Now I remember your mini poodle, Cole. That's nice that you still have him. How old is he now? And Misty being a good guard dog for such a small dog....I guess they don't realize how small they are. :-)

We've never had a dog that was interested in chasing things or digging. This spring we had an explosion of rabbits and I had more damage than I ever have from rabbits. Then all of a sudden, we stopped seeing them in the summer. I ran into a neighbor yesterday who was telling me it's the coyotes in the neighborhood. She walks a lot and saw a lot of rabbit carcasses. And she has a small dog that she walks and the coyotes tried to follow her one day as it was getting dark. She managed to get home safely, but certainly startled me to hear the coyotes have become so plentiful and killing off the rabbit population. I suppose there were so many it attracted them. I've been told the coyote population have been here for a couple of decades though.

I saw a rabbit in the yard this morning and I felt bad for it. Especially since I was not really thinking good thoughts about them in the spring. [g]. And now we're having to be more careful about going out at dusk, sunset and after dark.

I'm thinking of making this my next purchase. Every Fall I take my mower into the shop for maint. and clean up to get it ready for next Spring. I called one day this summer about what type of jacks they use to raise mower decks in order to clean under them. They said they use the Bulldog. So, when I take my mower in this month I'm going to check it out. I want to see just how high it raises the deck. I don't want to get down on my back or side to reach under to scrape. I know the ad says 24", but I want to see for myself. The shop where I take my mower (I buy all my mowers there) can order and install it for me. Anyone have one or similar?

Jack for mower deck

ETA: I have a Jungle Jack, bought it years ago from the shop, but lifting, taking out the pins, re-inserting pins, etc. I get confused. ha It does work but just looking for something a little more easier to use.

Is it to be used so you can do the maintenance your self or so you can clean accumulated grass and junk? You still couldn't sharpen the blades yourself, could you, from this position?

Just to clean grass and junk from underneath the deck. There's usually not too much as I have the guys at the shop spray that product that helps to repel accumulation. It really does work, and I have a can of it in the garage, but there are some small areas that grass still builds up.

I wouldn't attempt to sharpen the blades altho sure would save me money if I did. The shop does that.

What about just flipping the mower over and hosing it down. That's what the manual for our Toro self propelled battery said to do. I don't soak it; brush it off first then enough of a spray to dislodge the crud.. They must use some silicone product to make it slippery.

You sound like youre very careful with your tools. Good.

I appreciate the wisdom of getting it serviced in fall, before the spring rush and before the lawn needs mowing!

Oh, I didn't clarify that I'm talking about using the jack for my 48" Toro Zero Turn mower (riding mower), not the push mower.

My first one, the 32", had a special connector on the deck for a hose that could spray water under it, but I found it messy. I bought this new 48" in April 2019 and to tell you the truth I never noticed if it has the same hose connector. Anyway, I prefer to scrape it clean then hose if necessary.

I can see why you couldn't turn your riding mower upside down...

If we talk about mowers here it is usually on a smaller scale; electric vs gas vs battery.

though there's no reason to assume perennial gardeners don't have riding mowers.

My lawn's too small to justify one but I wouldn't mind riding instead of pushing....even a self propelled one isn't completely "self propelling"

I have both, rider and self-propelled the latter of which I use in close corners and vignettes. My perennial garden extends to the orchard where I have flowering weeds and wildflowers that I allow to grow in certain areas.

I used to walk all of it with a non- self-propelled mower! Not until I retired did I buy a riding mower.

If you want a trowel that will NEVER bend or break, get the no Blist'r trowel from A.M. Leonard. I've had one for close to 40 years and, except for the red handle fading to pink, it is in perfect shape.

Schoolhouse,

Warning, you're painting yourself in a corner (reachable with the smaller mower) where we'll be asking fyou or photographs. Not because I doubt you, but I'm already getting hungry for new garden to look at. An orchard? Not just one Sargeant Crabapple? C'mon, share!

lol, well I've posted many garden photos on GW over the years but you know I don't even take many anymore. I used to take photos every month of the year and put them into my picture file folders. I looked last night and the last time I took good photos was in 2018. Several months in 2019, and just a few in 2020! I guess as I age, so does my garden and I'm downsizing instead of planting more and more.

In November, there is not much see. Altho Fall is one of my favorite times at my place. I can post some from 2018 if you wish or wait until next year.

Oh and the orchard was an apple tree orchard years ago that my Uncle planted but by the time I bought the place and for several years after the old trees succumbed without his care and I'm left with one original. I still call it "the orchard".

Here are some 2018/2019. There's quite a few, I'll split them into more than one post if that works.

The orchard. These are Spring/early summer shots. I don't have any recent Summer or Fall.

I'd better stop. I actually do have three flowering crabs, but I'll post pics of those some other time, two are in the garden and an old one down front.

ETA: oops I have six flowering crabs, forgot the two at the edge of the yard near the field and one in the orchard at the edge of field.

Bumping this up for Marie.

I saw it. Thank you. I've spent 2 days dropping g in on election returns and look forward to looking at your photos more closely tomorrow. I assume that sometime Friday we will be released from election purgatory,

What a gorgeous property

Schoolhouse how lovely!! I love all the spots you have for sitting and enjoying the garden. Thanks for sharing!

:)
Dee