End of Season Tomato Review

...al partial shade conditions, they weren’t that tasty. See also our earlier reviews of Banana Leg and Red Currant varieties. Most of the tomatoes were grown in cages made from concrete reinforcing wire (instructions on making tomato cages here) in raised beds with a drip irrigation system as pictured above. As an experiment for folks in apartments or with limited space, we grew a bunch of tomatoes in self watering containers on a strip of concrete...

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Nursery Customers From Hell

...plants. On a whim, Kelly took a look at their overwhelmingly positive Yelp reviews. But some of the Yelpers prove how hard it must be to work in a nursery and deal with a public that can charitably be described as disconnected with the natural world. Take this Yelper: I’ve driven by this place soooo many times and really needed some advice on a dear plant of ours. We’ve had it for 5 years and it suffered trauma from our kitty pushing it off the le...

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Picture Sunday: Amazon’s “Rasta Imposta” Squirrel Costume

...els be so confused that they’d leave my fruit trees alone? From the Amazon reviews: it even comes with nuts By squirrelman When I first saw this squirrel costume, I went a little nuts (pun intended đŸ™‚ ). I starting buying one for everyone I knew. My wife, kids, lawyer, dentist, family practitioner, our local barista, and even my boss. Needless to say, we all suited up for halloween and went out as a dray (for those of you not as into squirrels as I...

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Maggots!

...e the compost in a large barrel. We’ve never tried one of these things and reviews that we’ve seen are mixed. With any compost pile it’s best to maintain a 50-50 ratio of carbon material to nitrogen materials. Carbon materials are essentially everything that is brown, like dead leaves, sawdust and dry grass. Nitrogen materials include fruit, vegetable scraps and coffee grounds. The type of pile you construct depends upon the materials you have ava...

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Cutting Dovetail Joints With a Router Jig

...some other jigs on the market that work just as well but, judging from the reviews, I’d avoid the cheap models. Setting up a dovetail jig is a time intensive process and somewhat confusing in terms of orientation and adjustment. It took me the better part of a day and some repeated YouTube viewing before I made a functional joint. An inexpensive pair of digital calipers made fine tuning the jig a lot easier. Once the jig is set you can crank out a...

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