The county fairs are just around the corner - it isn’t too late to add a secret ingredient to your prized plants!

Just a little plug for our favorite energy drink:  Great Big Plants.  If you haven’t tried it, this summer is the perfect time.  For prizing winning entrees, add 4 ounces of Great Big Plants to one gallon of water.  Apply one time every other week during growing season and one time per month thereafter.

It is the affordable, healthy way to feed your plants.   

photo courtesy of Dan’s public gallery at the Iowa State Fair.

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Looking for a unique gift to give your gardening loved one?  Clean Air gardening put together a listing of gardening gifts for the men and women in your life who love to till the land. 

They have tools and pots and garden gnomes but the one I thought was cool was the Wearable Stool.

Perfect for the gardener that needs to sit while they weed or prune and reasonably affordable.

Gifts.com has a whole collection of sites that offer gifts for the gardener and one really caught my eye:  Poetry stone kits.  You’ve seen the garden stones with your child’s hand and foot print or some that offer a predetermined saying, but with this kit you spell out the words on bricks you make yourself.  Cool.

If you could get any gift for the garden - what would it be?  Have you told anyone?

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You love the look of a healthy green lawn and full, beautiful flowers and one of the most effective tools to achieving that beauty is a great fertilizer.  Why do plants need fertilizer?

How Stuff Works published a great article on why fertilizer is important for our plants.   In the article they offer the following information:

In order for a plant to grow and thrive, it needs a number of different chemical elements. The most important are:

• Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen - Available from air and water and therefore in plentiful supply
• Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (a.k.a. potash) - The three macronutrients and the three elements you find in most packaged fertilizers
• Sulfur, calcium, and magnesium - Secondary nutrients
• Boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc - Micronutrients

The most important of these (the ones that are needed in the largest quantity by a plant) are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

You may not be aware of this, but there is an actual Fertilizer Institute in Washington D.C. whose mission is to promote and protect fertilizer from the plant from which it is manufactured to the plants on which it is used. In their bank of articles they offer extensive research and information on different fertilizers.  For example in the article on basic fertilizer facts it explains the numbers on the back of a fertilizer bag.  Those numbers refer to the “analysis.” It is the percentage of nitrogen, phosphate and potash that is available to plants from that bag of fertilizer.”

If a bag has 5 /10/15 or 20/20/20 - what is in the rest of the bag?  “While brands vary, typically the rest will contain some micronutrients and filler material, which allows for even application of the nutrients across the fertilized area.”  

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our energy drink for plants which takes the guesswork out of fertilizing your plants, shrubs and lawn.  The Great Big Plant Energy drink provides all of the nutrients your plants and lawn need that are missing from most other fertilizers.  Check us out. 

Photo courtesy of Scenic Environments.

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Just getting started with your garden as Spring approaches?  Organic Gardening offers a list of the most basic tools you should have in your shed:

• Shovel
• Spading fork
• Leaf rake
• Bow rake
• Leather garden gloves
• Pruning shears
• Trowel
• Sprayer (even if it’s just a hand-held, window cleaner type)
• Wheelbarrow

A little more advanced gardener?  They also tested a number of tools and accessories (and some plain fun stuff for gardeners) and offer their 12 favorite tools of 2007.  Here are the first few of the Editor’s Choice

Folding Saw
Josh likes the Pocketboy 170 Folding Saw for its comfortable rubber handle and secure locking mechanism. The clip-on carrying case keeps it handy (such as on Josh’s belt here), and the blade is replaceable. Pam and Maggie rely on the extra-fine-toothed tool for fast and smooth pruning of errant branches in the OG Test Garden. $29; silkystore.com Moth Protection
You can protect crops from flying pests effectively without toxic sprays using this product created by a home gardener. Pam notes that the medium Moth-Blocker completely prevented cabbage moths from laying their eggs on broccoli and cauliflower, then went on to protect Brussels-sprout seedlings destined for the fall garden. $35; mothblocker.comRow Cover/Shade Fabric
Nylon reinforcing threads make Tufbell more durable than other row covers, says Don, our North Carolina test gardener. Here, Josh and OG art director Gavin Robinson use it in the OG Test Garden to let sunlight and water reach the plants while protecting them from weather and animal damage. $60 for 20 feet; groworganic.com

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Looking for a creative way to display your plants?  Friendship Gardens has the coolest looking plant stand that either sits on the surface or can be hung from a tree in your yard. 

It looks like it will fall over any minute, but is constructed in such a way that allows the largest pot on the bottom is to balance the smaller pots that appear to sit right on top of the foundation plant.

If you are looking for a conversation starter – check out Friendship Gardens, the Home of the Incredible Plant Stand.

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