101 ways to collect leaves

Every year we find ourselves paying the price for the coolness of that wonderful tree out front as the leaves come down and blanket our lawn. And every year we are bombarded with the latest idea of how to pick those leaves up.

It's not that these ideas don't help some...but as you know if you 've been out there, it's still a big tough job no matter what cute new tool we use.

Your back still hurts and the shear amount of leaves seems overwhelming.

That overwhelming amount has created even more special bags and machines we have spent money on only to find, although maybe it herded those leaves into a more contained area, it was still our muscles that had to lift and move those leaves.

Have you ever considered the amount of money we spent on those cool new tools being spent on labor to help us out there :)

So are these Garden Rip Offs? Well not in a sinister way by any means, the designer truly believed it would help you gather up those leaves.

 

But instead of spending all that money on gadgets, what about the tools we already have?

 

Keep in mind that leaves are one of the best mulches we have in this world. The tree dropped those leaves to fertilize their roots. We steal that away from them and then wonder why they struggle.

 

Honestly, still the best way to pickup leaves is with the lawn mower you have in your garage. Now we've all done it, and the mower clogs in minutes and the bags fills in seconds. But is it the tool or the expectation?

 

Here is a good video on how to get your lawn mower to be more effective at NO extra cost.

 

Mulching up the leaves first reduces the amount of bag you need. Then having tarps placed around the yard so you don't have to walk so far to dump the leaves actually works as well as anything.

 

If the leaves are frozen to the ground, your lawn mower again is the answer (click here).

 

So it really is a rip off to keep buying gimmicks to pick up your leaves when you have the best tool already.

EZ garden rip offs

If it is Easy as a sales pitch in gardening, then it probably is a lie or a rip off.

I know this is a rough statement but the truth is gardening is work, and just like dieting, if they say it's easy to lose weight we know from experience it isn't true. So it is with gardening, gardening is work and if you don't want to work then you shouldn't do it.

One of the rip offs I see are these "new" ideas that will take no time out of  your busy schedule. Plants are like children, they need care, attention and time. If you don't give them this they are going to fail.

So when you see a "new" product that is so "easy" be suspicious and don't be digging for your credit card until you've checked the reviews on that product and done some back ground.

One of the checks I like to do is go to Amazon and only read the bad reviews. The other trick my computer geek friend taught me is not so pleasant but I guess it is the way the modern computer people talk, type in the product then put "sucks" after it. Evidently this is the universal computer way of everyone listing a product as bad.

I don't really agree with it but it is how you can find information the advertiser may be trying to hide.

Don't get ripped off, be informed!

Cheap Water Meter Rip Off

 
 
 
 

This is the reason this blog was formed. I received this plant water meter today ordered through ebay; put it in a jar of water and the meter doesn't move. Tried it in many different plants around the house and it doesn't work. Brand new and a complete rip off.

In talking with a couple of professionals that suggest buying water meters, I got an honest answer from www.diylawntime.blogspot.com about how these meters often fail. Ted said that the problem is there really isn't an in-between, you have these cheap meters then really expensive meters. But if you don't use a meter you are just guessing. So he suggest buying two and testing them against each other and as I did, in plants you know are wet and those you know are dry, to make sure it is working.

He also said that the ph meters on a lot of these really are not accurate enough to trust when testing your soil ph. That you should take random samples from the plant root area and have them tested by a laboratory.

So I guess we have to do the best we can with what we buy from china with these because I'm not willing to pay $65 or even a hundred dollars for a high end unit, but I want to know how the water is doing around my plants. The one Ted has on his site has a lot of good reviews from Amazon and a supplier that replaces bad ones quickly is why he recommends them.

It still beats sticking your finger in the soil and guessing.

Do Lady Bugs Work for Pest Control

  We all would like to use natural or organic means to do pest control. One of the hard sells we are often approached with is using Lady Bugs instead of chemicals for aphid control.

Will Lady Bugs actually control my garden pests or is it a rip off?

Lady Bugs or also known as Lady Beetles or even Ladybird Beetles and sometimes spelled Ladybugs are a part of a important group of beneficial predator insects that feed on plant damaging insects. These insects include one of the biggest problems, aphids which they can eat as much as fifty per day which can add up to thousands of aphids in their short lifetime. They will also go after other problem insects such as scale, leafhoppers, mealy bug, mites and other problem insects that are soft bodied.

So as a pest control method the theory sounds great. A few things to consider though.

The first is that if you buy a bag of ladybugs online and release them in your garden, it's been proven that a majority will fly off into your neighbors property before settling down. The travel is stressful on this creature and it will take time for them to settle into a new location and call it home. To prevent this it is suggested to net the area so the ladybug can not fly off. This can help so make sure that you get the net with the ladybugs when you buy them.

The second thing is to make sure you are getting indigenous Ladybugs. The multicolored Asian Lady ladybug was introduced in the United States some years ago and proved to be a problem. They were brought in to control aphids on agricultural lands, and subsequently became a pest, driving out native species, wintering over in large numbers inside homes and biting the human residents. They have effectively crowded out the indigenous bugs and took over.

The third item is to make sure you are providing an environment they will stay in. The garden needs to be wet or damp and it is best to release them in the late evening so they will have a cool time to adjust to the new surroundings. There also should be plenty of aphids or whatever pest you are trying to control to feed the.

So the idea is not a rip off, however be sure and see where the insect is coming from, if you have enough pest pressure to make it worth while, and of course, price shop before buying.

Pricing seems to be the cheapest online. The nursery may carry them and they may be fine but actually look at the insects and the environment they are being contained in. If buying locally and they are refrigerated, ask for a warranty that the vast majority are alive. Make sure the net is sufficient to cover the area you are trying to treat and follow the directions in the release procedure.

The rip offs are coming from unscrupulous sellers from outside the country and from people selling them as a must have when you may not even have the pest pressure.

Another alternative many sales people do not mention is you may be able to use your own natural environment and encourage the Ladybugs in your area to propagate and naturally take care of the problem without having to spend that money.

You can attract the locals by supplementing their natural diet with pollen and nectar from flowers like Aster, Sunflower, Alyssum, Cilantro, Carrots, Chives and Yarrow which they will use to nest and hunt from. This can make your garden area more attractive and help encourage a true bio-sphere in your garden that is from the cycle we would find in a real world instead of introducing a predator and hoping it will take directions to attack what we want.

Another thing to consider is where the Lady Bugs come from. There is a lot of talk about bringing in Lady Bugs from the wild or from farmed situation with disease that can harm your natural Lady Bugs in your area. Some discussion on that subject.

So the answer is you can be ripped off when buying Ladybugs if you do not do the research and make sure you know what you're buying and how to take care of your environment an have a plan on how you are going to proceed.

A little more expense now saves a lot later

Let's be honest, we are all trying to get the job done with as little expense as possible. This drives us to tool places like Harbor Tool and Freight to get that tool for less. But there is no single bigger garden rip off than a cheap tool.

We have a limited amount of time to get the job done. When that tool breaks that precious time is lost. There just is no substitute for good tools that work.

Consider the fact that a tool that cost double, is it a rip off to pay that extra money?

Let's put it to the test:

A Shovel with a flimsy steel in the blade and weak wood in the handle will cost $11.50 at Harbor Freight on line.

A proven quality shovel such as a Seymour SV-LR20 is $33 on Amazon.

That's nearly triple the cost, so you are very tempted to purchase the cheap one. But if it breaks in the first job and you go buy another one that week, now you are down to only 30% more, and that doesn't count your time loss that could have finished the garden job or the fuel to go back to the store.

Quality tools ALWAYS pay for themselves.

Some Shovel Quality discussion 

This get's even more important as we look at pruning tools. Poor quality pruning tools will actually shatter or crush the plant instead of shearing it properly. Corona has been the leader in quality tools but as the years go by they have tried to make them cheaper, so if the name brand is there with a cheaper price, you probably are going to still get what you paid for.

I like Fiskars as a medium level pruning tool, they are not the best but probably the best for the price for the average home owner, doing smaller jobs every year.

If you want to stop getting ripped off by cheap poor quality tools you have to change the way you purchase them. Tools should be bought as an investment. If you are going to pay more for them you are going to be willing to take the time and look them up online to see what kind of reviews they are getting. You'll take better care of them with a tool shed. And interestingly enough, as the years go by and that tool continues to serve you well, it will become like an old friend to you that never lets you down.

Do not be ripped off with bagged potting soil

Soil Foundation

As you walk through the bags of pre-built potting soil in your local box store, it looks like you can buy good soil in a bag.

The truth is soil that grows plants is actually alive with micro-organisms. When this is put in a sealed plastic bag without oxygen, and heated to extreme temperatures in the sun, those micro-organisms die.

If you only use bagged soil, what you will have is fluff often loaded with nitrogen which will make a plant green and tall, but without those micro-organisms you are not getting the minerals and nutrients you were growing the food for.


The answer to nutrient rich soil is to build your own the old fashion way. Aged compost from a farm or someone with chickens is the first element. Soil that has been growing crops or even weeds, proving it is active is your next step. Compost from your own chemical free grass clippings and leaves rounds it off.

The best compost comes from a worms digestive track. So a worm farm is one of your most powerful tools in creating live soil.

All of this takes time and effort. The leaf and grass clippings compost should be turned every week to keep the oxygen or (aerobic effect) in the composting process. This avoids odor as well as speeds up the process. You will probably have to search on craigs list for a farm to get your aged manure.

The results will be worth it though as this foundation is critical to really getting your garden to produce food that makes you healthy. Do not be ripped off by pre-bagged potting soil that is empty of what you really want in healthy food.

A Garden Rip Off

Review: 4 Foot Farm Blueprint eBook

This is such a classic case of why the Garden RIPPOFF site was created.

If you go to this man's info commercial it is really well done, so is the cover and the idea. So novice gardeners get excited because they want a great garden in a limited space.

He claims he spent so much time coming up with these secret ideas. Do the three point inspection on this product and you will find the reviews on Amazon give you all the information you need to decide if this is a rip off. As a matter of fact, one reviewer even used the word "rip off".

The sad thing is, with a little more effort he could have created a product people could use to get started but the goal here was to make a fast buck on our need for garden information, with no care in actual gardening.

There are good beginners books about square foot gardens out there, but before you spend a lot of money on books, take a look at the huge wealth of free information on line that a few days of study can give you.

SQUARE FOOT GARDENING FOUNDATION

ORIGINAL SQUARE FOOT GARDENER

YOUTUBE ON SQUARE FOOT GARDENING

and remember, don't get ripped off on garden gimmicks. always do your research first.