Garden Product Reviews

Garden Hose

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 05:54:00 +0000

I know a bit, perhaps a lot about garden hoses and the trouble they can be.

With our large one-acre garden I have to do a lot of watering so I need a good quality hose.

There is nothing worse than having to continually take out kinks in a hose.

Some hoses go hard in the sun and perish which is so frustrating, especially if they have been expensive.

I recently bought this hose from Bunnings, it was a risk as it was made from new material.

To my delight the hose has never kinked and remains supple and easy to handle and has an eight year warranty.

Yes, I am happy with my purchase and would recommend it.

Heat Mat for Propagation.

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 05:35:00 +0000

We have found this firm to be very good and helpful and there product is Australian made.

Best Potting Mix

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 05:58:00 +0000

Best Potting Mix

Trip to Centenary Landscapes at Darra today to collect one metre of potting mix and some composted bark.

This is for Judy to continue propagating and for me to start potting all my stored Amorphophallus tubers.

For the Amorphophallus the composted bark and perlite will be mixed in with the potting mix.

It's a fair trip one we only make of a Sunday to avoid the traffic but it is worth it as the potting mix is the best we have found so far.

Beneficial Fungi.

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 05:10:00 +0000

I have been sent a pack of this beneficial Fungi.

Will be interested to see how it goes.

All I have done so far is add it to my compost, later I will water it into the garden.

Soil Improver

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 06:04:00 +0000

This is without a doubt a fantastic product. 

Used to be 'Active 8' but now they have improved it adding a further eight elements into the mix.

Bunning's do not sell Rocky Point products but most Garden Centers, Produce Stores do.

We grow vegetables with this mixed into the soil and when it's time to plant the Caladiums lot's of bags go into the garden.

#rockypoint

Potting Mix

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 06:02:00 +0000

This was a great potting mix but now they have changed the formula and we hate it.

It is very light without much body and it dries out very quickly.

Seems to have a lot of sand in it.

Hope they soon go back to the old mix as they will be getting a lot of complaints.

I will be testing other products soon and hope to find a really good mix that I can recommend to you.

#rockypoint

Ryobi One Power Shears

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 05:56:00 +0000

This is a great tool by 'Ryobi One' powered by an 18 v battery.
As I have said previously I need to make my gardening life a bit easier so I looked at this at Bunning's and said 'That looks like it may help me" so I bought it just in time to help me with cutting back several Carambola trees.
So am I happy, yes it did help and made my life a bit easier.
Ryobi One if registered on line with extend to warranty to six years.

Ryobi One Garden Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 06:47:00 +0000

I am always looking to make life a little bit easier especially at my age.
I work dammed hard in the garden most days and sometimes get lot's of aches and pains.
So if I see a product that makes life easier I will go out and buy it.
Ryobi One products have impressed me, I now have quite a few and if registered online you get a six year warranty which means if anything goes wrong it's just a quick trip to Bunning's to exchange the tool.
I will post more at a later date of some of the other tools I have.
The ones today two hedge trimmers, one extendable and one not
All of these I have found useful.
As you can see the fruit trees have been trimmed nicely.

Great Top Dressing Soil

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 05:55:00 +0000

I have had so many problems with crook soil over the years so it is with relief that I have actually found some good stuff.
This product is a fantastic blend of goodies for top-dressing your lawn, it is sourced from 'Candy Soils' and sold at 'Rocknsoil' situated on New Cleveland Road, Capalaba.

I have just used three cubic metres on my back lawns and it is so fine that is disappears into the grass very quickly.
It is $85 a cubic metre but it's worth paying for something good.

Fiskars Pole Pruner

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 06:31:00 +0000

A big thank you to Fiskars for incredible service and great product.
Replacement Pole Pruner arrived today honoring their 25 year warranty.
I honestly could not look after my fruit trees without this great tool.

Fiskars Garden Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Sat, 28 Jul 2018 06:09:00 +0000

I am a big fan of Fiskars garden tools.

After buying on a budget cheap Chinese junk garden tools I realized that if I wanted a quality tool that would virtually last me a lifetime I would have to pay more to get the quality and lifespan I desired.

All Fiskars are made in Europe and are a Finnish firm.

Another great thing about these tools are that they are ergonomic.

So over the past few years I have been steadily building up my collection of these great tools (see picture).

Some I have been given by Fiskars but the majority I have bought myself.

I have never had any sort of problem until now.

The cord on my Telescopic Tree Pruner snapped and as much as I tried to replace the cord the more frustrated I became, I just could not get it right and yes I did download the instructions.

So at $200 plus it is an expensive tool to purchase and I am coming up to the time where all my Custard Apple trees will be needing their annual prune.

I noticed while shopping in our local Bunnings that Fiskars tools have a 25 year guarantee.

I will let Fiskars know and hopefully may have a positive outcome.

January 2018 Garden News

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 06:45:00 +0000

No blog last month (December) as we were just so busy with family and of course Christmas.

We had great rain in December which filled all our seven tanks.

I was mowing the grass twice a week, which is a very rare event.

We looked after Grandchildren for a couple of weeks during school holidays and I was fortunate enough to see some quite good children’s movies.

Not much done in the way of gardening except for cutting out a couple of White Sapote trees which had never borne any fruit and constructing a shade area /walk where they used to be.

I replanted this area with all the new Costus and Beehive Gingers, should look great when established.

I think I should just forget about January, just so hot without a day being under 30c in the shade and absolutely NO rain whatsoever.

Thank goodness we had our tanks full because most of our time this month has been spent watering.

I must admit spending so much time watering really annoys me when I could be doing other things, but has to be done if we want to keep our plants alive.

One Sunday we had to drive with the trailer to Centenary Landscapes at Darra.
This is the only place we can find the 15 mill pine bark needed for bromeliads.
Left a very dry Birkdale and when we reached the suburb of Rocklea it started to pour with rain, so much so that we had to switch on the car lights and slow to a crawl and this lasted for some time, the curbside gutters were overflowing.

We picked up 1 and 2/3 rds metre of bark and returned home.
Guess what, Birkdale was as dry as a bone.

Hopefully it will rain soon, cannot be as dry as last year surely.

I split up my Native Bee hives and have four hives soon to be picked up from orders taken during last years 'Open Garden'. Waited until I was sure they are settled and happy in their new home.

You know they are Ok when you walk past the hive you get a strong smell of their honey.

A couple of years ago I bought a pool pump shed from ALDI, anyway it started to corrode and over a couple of days I have built a new one.

Also had to buy a new air blower for pool spa and our old one burnt out.

I actually found time to take my boat out and catch a feed of prawns from our local creek.

Rocky Point Potting Mix

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 06:26:00 +0000

We have been using Rocky Point ‘Active 8’ for some time and love this product.

It has done wonders to our vegetable garden, so much so that our Hippeastrum and Day Lily gardens have also benefited from a layer of this with great results.

The biggest result was with our Caladium garden, I have never seen bigger flowers than this year.

‘Active 8’ has lots of goodies in the bag including, cow manure, blood and bone, trace elements, zeolite, seaweed, gypsum, compost, fish meal and iron.

You can actually just open the bag and plant straight into the mix if that’s what you want to do, we mix it into our existing soil.

It is not dear, Capalaba Produce sell four 30 litre bags for only $20 which is reasonable.

All in all a great product which works.

We were using a bulk potting mix from a landscaping yard but they got lazy and took things out of the mix, so that was their loss.

We then started to purchase a well-known brand of bagged potting mix but found it to be too fine and very ‘saw dusty’.

We then tried a bag of Rocky Point Premium potting mix and instantly liked it, a bit coarser than the other but that’s good as it assists drainage. It’s all we use now.

The potting mix has nine month long life fertilizer, wetting agents, coco fibre/chip, fish and seaweed, compost and trace elements.

Judging by how the plants that Judy has potted with this mix are going we intend to keep purchasing this product.

I have not received any favours from Rocky Point for this review, just like the product and it’s local.

Gardena Secateurs

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 06:45:00 +0000

I am always on the lookout for quality garden tools, there's nothing worse than shoddy cheap and nasty tools especially ones coming from China.
The old saying 'you get what you pay' for is very true.
These Gardena secateurs are brilliant and come in two different sizes 24mm and a smaller 22mm which is suitable for my wife.
They are made in Germany and have a 25 year warranty, which is pretty amazing.
They feel good in my hand with two different hand settings.
Gardena say they have tested these to 50,000 activations (cuts).
I am impressed and have started to use these around the garden where they will get plenty of use.

Long Prong

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 21:46:00 +0000

I have started a fairly large new project and have finally a chance to use my 'Long Prong' garden tool.
This project will have a park bench sitting within the garden and will be planted with gingers and Costus.
It will probably be my final large garden project as there’s not a lot of lawn left to steal from and anyway Judy has threatened to divorce me if I take any more lawn away.
Just survived this one by the skin of my teeth.
It has certainly made life a bit easier, instead of hammering with a crowbar this tool lifts the pavers and rocks and makes it much easier to remove.
It is also useful for removing stubborn roots.
These are an invention of Peter Nicol from Toowoomba and you can only buy them on-line, not sure but I think I paid around the $70 mark for mine.
There are four models including a lady Prong, it is pink of course.
Thanks to Judy who was the video operator.
http://www.prong.com.au/

Silky Saws

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Sat, 30 Jul 2016 06:22:00 +0000

I bit the bullet the other day and bought myself a new extendable pole saw.
As you are probably aware I am very particular about the tools I use in the garden and if they are bad I will say so and if they are good I will also say so, regardless of whether I have bought or been given the product.
In this case I love this product.
Yes, it was expensive, just a tad under $300 but it is probably the best quality saw money can buy.
It is a Silky 'Forester' with a extendable reach of 4.5 metres, so that means with my height taken into consideration that the saw will reach almost 6.0 metres.
With the 'Forester' you can purchase a handle and use the blade as a hand saw.

Now that is real handy for me as we have over 70 trees that need pruning on a regular basis.
I looked at other and cheaper saws but of course they were for the most part made in third world countries so quality would be a bit suspect.
I have bought some saws in the past that either became very blunt very fast, rusted out or I could not buy replacement parts.
With Silky you know you are going to get the best quality made in Japan with steel that is top quality, plus the availability of spare parts.
With these type of saws the cutting is done on the downwards motion.
I am happy with my purchase.
The Silky representative called by the other day to inquire if I was happy with the pole saw, he dropped me off a set of secateurs on loan to trial, now I usually use Felco number 2 secateurs, anyway I did some cutting with the Silky ones and really liked them and thought the quality was great.

The saw that I have used in the garden for the past few years is a Silky 'Gomtaro', it's a small straight saw ideal for the smaller pruning jobs around the garden. This saw is around the $90 mark but lasts you for years.

Shadecloth

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Fri, 06 May 2016 06:32:00 +0000

http://theshadecentre.com.au/

I feel like giving this business a plug.
We have been buying our shade cloth from this firm for a number of years, it's cheaper than Bunnings and they have a greater range.
For example you cannot buy 50% shade cloth at the big stores.
I ordered x metres yesterday and it arrived today and the postage was only $12.50.
They are situated at Brendale, just north of Brisbane.
Highly recommended.

New Gardena Hose Fittings

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 06:58:00 +0000

If you are familiar with this site then you will be aware that not only do I post positive reviews I also post in the negative.
With Gardena products I must admit I cannot say anything bad, they are well made, easy to use and last much longer than any other brand.
They have now brought out a new range of hose fittings which are very easy to use and of course very good quality.
Here are a few photos.
They are a bit more expensive than most other fittings but will last much longer so you should save in the long run.

Selecta Sprayer

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 06:33:00 +0000

This is not a good review.
Selecta sprayers have a very good reputation or at least used to
This is the second one of these sprayers as pictured that I have purchased from Bunnings.
The first one leaked through one of the seams as they are plastic welded.
The replacement has only lasted one tank of spray before leaking, only this time it was not on the join but in the main body.
I am taking this back to Bunnings to get a refund, twice returned means there is something terribly wrong with the manufacturing process.

As you can see the liquid is spraying out of the sprayer body.
I suppose that's what you get when you contract out to a Chinese company and are not too worried about your company's reputation.
I personally believe a company's reputation is everything, surely they want return customers.

Kelp in the Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 06:35:00 +0000

Natrakelp

Doug and Kaye McGaughey own Natrakelp, it’s a family business with both son and

daughter involved.

The factory is situated just out from Maroochydore, Queensland.

We use this product all year round in our garden and advise others just how good it is.

Natrakelp Liquid Seaweed is a certified organic product made from brown kelp.

The Brown kelp comes from the cold, unpolluted waters of both the southern and northern hemisphere (Tasmania and Canada).

Don’t forget that kelp is the fastest growing plant in the world

The efficacy of a seaweed product is judged by the amount of Alginic acid retained in the product.

Alginic acid is a naturally occurring hydrophilic colloidal polysaccharide (sugars) obtained from various species of brown seaweed (Kelp).

Seaweed products also contain a wide range of minerals and trace elements.

The kelp is either harvested or collected from the shoreline.

It is then hung in the open, allowed to be washed by the rain to remove any sand and excess salt, then kiln dried and put through a hammermill to the consistency of meal.

It is then bagged and shipped to the factory at Maroochydore for processing.

It is then put into large stainless steel vats using a unique bacterial fermentation process for 21 days with absolutely no heat,chemicals or acids used.

This process retains all the vital elements of the original kelp including the alginates.
There is a great video by Doug on youtube, see linkhttps://youtu.be/whgi_pF2CSU

Other well known products are manufactured either after the alginate is removed or used as a bi- product or by using either heat or chemicals (acids) which tend to destroy much of the original alginates.

After the fermentation process the liquid is filtered to 100 mesh to allow it to go through all types of sprays.

Natrakelp is packaged into various sizes from 1 litre for home garden use to 1,000 litre for commercial growers.
The product ranges from pure kelp to kelp with trace elements, soil conditioners or foliage sprays.

Seaweed products are used for the ability to:

Provide more rapid germination

Increase nutrient uptake

Increase both yield and quality

Increase shelf life

Increased frost tolerance.

Increase photosynthesis

Decrease water stress due to either drought or salinity.

So, all in all it’s a great product that does wonders for your garden as it has done for ours.
We love this product and recommend it to all gardeners.
Unfortunately the product is not available at retail outlets, but can be bought directly from Natrakelp or if you live in Brisbane we sell for Natrakelp at their wholesale price on a non profit basis.

Greenfield Shredder

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 06:28:00 +0000

Just over 15 years ago I bought my Greenfield 6hp garden shredder.
It is a decision I have never regretted.
At the time I think they were just under a thousand dollars.
It has been a great machine with no breakdowns all I have need to do is change the filter, plug, blades and oil occasionally.
I suppose the blades are the most expensive item to buy but they are double sided and do last for several years, I think I am only on my third set after 15 years.
I do shred a lot of garden waste but DO NOT put hardwood of anything that has a fibrous stalk like ginger through it, my advice is just be careful what you shred, for instance palm fronds are OK but only until you hit the hard end bit.

By observing this method of shredding your blades will last much longer.
I know that Greenfield now make shredders with much larger engines but I have found my 6hp copes pretty well with my garden waste.
All my shredded material goes into the compost bins and eventually end up back in the garden, like the old saying ‘what goes around comes around’. ‪#‎greenfieldshredder‬

Hose Reel for Small Areas

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 07:19:00 +0000

First this is not something that I would purchase.

Why, you may ask especially when I am reviewing the product.

We live on a 4000 square metre block so all our hoses have to travel a long way as there are gardens everywhere with literally thousands of plants.

That’s not to knock this product as it is quite cleverly designed and marketed by Hozelock.

If where you live is anything like Brisbane then you will have seen thousands of units built or being built, I think this is where this product will come into its own.

It is retractable with ten metres of hose complete with a high quality nozzle and is very portable, light and importantly for small area's is very easy to store.

So in the right place this is a great product.

Made in Great Britain so you can be assured of the quality and it has a two year warranty.

Garden Soil Brisbane

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 06:22:00 +0000

Well there was certainly no sign of Christmas spirit at Nuway landscape yard at Chandler today.

I went in with my trailer to buy a half metre of garden soil.

I do this often but usually from TLS or Colonial so I know how exactly how much is in a half metre.

The guy working the loader drove into the soil bay and proceeded to drop the load of soil into my trailer.

I had noticed that the bin of the loader was not even, there was a fairly large space at the back without soil.

Now these buckets are half metre fully loaded and level from front to back.

I complained and after a bit of to and fro he put the tiniest extra bit in my trailer.

I still felt cheated and went up to the office to complain.

What the hell happened there? I left feeling ridiculed, laughed at and being called a liar.

So much for the customer always being right.

Never again will I cross the doors of this company, the attitude of the staff was terrible especially when you compare it to other nearby landscape yards that treat you decently.

I just wonder if they short change a lot of customers who do not complain, they can make a lot of profit over time by doing this.

Yes, I am bloody angry and I am going to circulate this on my blog and websites.

Rainwave/oscillating Sprinkler for the Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 06:43:00 +0000

Gardena send me some garden watering products including a oscillating or as I prefer to call it a 'Rainwave Sprinkler'.
I must admit I rarely use a sprinkler these days as water is just so expensive but as I had an 'Open Garden' coming up and the lawns were brown I decided to give it a try.
I found it to be a very good garden sprinkler to have in my inventory.

Why you may ask?
Not one drop of water was wasted, I could control the width and the length of the water with the simple control levers on the sprinkler.

I must admit that there are several makes of gardening equipment that I consistently purchase and one of these is Gardena, hose fittings, hoses you just cannot get any better.
I am not just saying that because they sent me some gear to review I honestly believe it as I have been purchasing these products for years.
#rainwavesprinkler #oscillatingsprinkler

Best Garden Watering Products

noreply@blogger.com (Ian) — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 05:48:00 +0000

When it comes to gardening tools only the best will do, there is nothing worse than a fork bending or a hose kinking or a fitting blowing off and soaking you.

Usually a good product will save you money in the long run as they last for a long time.

I have made mistakes in the past buying cheap stuff and living to regret it.

One thing I have never scrimped on are garden hoses, I hate hoses that kink and burst, that’s why I have for the past 20 years only bought Gardena products, and yes I am still using them today.

One of the hoses I am using at the moment is a ‘super-flex kink resistant 6, which I think would be at the top of the Gardena range, it’s a great hose and well worth a few extra dollars.

The same applies for hose fittings, when I go to our local hardware store I do not look anywhere else but Gardena and they are trouble free and do not come off the hose unlike some other brands.

In some places in our garden I need two hose outlets and fortunately Gardena make a conversion that fits onto your tap and gives you two outlets, believe me it’s very handy.

Often when watering our garden I wonder just how much water am I using? Well Gardena have another great product which fits between your hose and spray gun (Gardena of course)

that tells you exactly how much water you are using, it’s called a ‘water smart flow meter’ it shows total per day, per watering cycle and even per season. I must admit I received a shock after watering the garden for a day; it made me a little more careful in my water consumption.

I also have an auto watering system and some sprinklers that I will review later; I have no doubt that they will be the highest quality.

I forgot to mention that all Gardena products are made in Europe and come with a guarantee, for instance the hose has a 30 year guarantee which is pretty awesome to think my hose will last me until I am 99 years old.