Need ideas for what to get your green-thumbed friend for Christmas? Garden Plot’s Mike McGrath has some gift suggestions for the gardener in your life.
A (mildly) shocking end to eaten azaleas
One of the biggest challenges in our region is a legion of big-eyed stomachs on four legs that eat six to ten pounds of plant material a day each — with a special appetite for your azaleas and arborvitae.
An excellent solution is “The Wireless Deer Fence.” Ordered direct from the inventor and manufacturer, you get three stakes and a year’s supply of scent pellets for $60 plus exact postage. If you have Amazon Prime, you can also get the same stakes with free shipping.
You attach one of the scent pellets to the inside prongs on top of each stake, snap two AA batteries into the waterproof belly and place the stakes in front of vulnerable plants.
The scent pellets attract deer; the deer lick the top of the stakes, get a mild shock, run away and don’t come back.
Wash those deer right out of your hair
Yes, one of the biggest challenges for gardeners in our region has big eyes, four legs and an all-you-can-eat stomach.
And yet, my summertime vegetable garden is not fenced. Fences are often inadequate against hungry deer (just ask anyone who ever woke up to find a deer with a broken leg thrashing the last life out of their tomato plants). My garden is instead protected by a motion-activated sprinkler.
You pop a battery into the head, hook it up to your hose, turn on the water and nothing happens … until movement in the area activates the sensor. Then, it lurches into action and throws cold water at the intruder. It works on deer, dogs, cats, Canada geese, groundhogs, evil squirrels and the neighbor trying to steal your tomatoes on a moonless night.
For years, we’ve been suggesting “The Scarecrow” brand of sprinkler, the original. It’s still the one protecting my own personal potato plants. But some of my friends have instead chosen from the “Orbit” line of sprinklers and had great results.
Baseball gloves been berry berry good to me
When it’s time for me to make my annual suggestions of Christmas gifts for gardeners, I do not read email pitches or articles about “trends.” Instead I look to see what’s on my porch — where I suit up to battle my plants every day.
There you’ll find good pruners (I like the Fiskars ergonomic line), a lopper, a bow saw and batting gloves. Yes, batting gloves as in baseball.
I always tossed my gardening gloves aside after two minutes in the garden because I couldn’t feel what I was doing. One evening I came home late from playing a game in my (then) corporate league and I realized I had to do some pruning and decided to just use the batting gloves in my back pocket to protect my hands. I haven’t looked back since.
Batting gloves are soft, flexible, super-protective, comfortable and easily available online and at sporting goods stores. (Maybe even at your local Walmart.)
If your giftee looks at the gloves with a hairy eye, tell them to just try them once. You’ll hit a home run.
Socks vs Ticks: Socks are undefeated
Ticks are no joke. Many years ago I lost a dear friend to Rocky Mountain spotted fever and it seems like most people I know have had Lyme disease.
But not me, even though I spend a lot of time outdoors in Tick Central (heavily wooded and brushy areas). And that’s because I wear tick socks and tick pants.
Yes, there are sprays you can use to treat your own clothes with permethrin — a synthetic form of a botanical insecticide and arachnicide derived from a specific variety of chrysanthemum. I did just that for many years and it works fine.
However, once I found professionally pre-treated clothing from a company called “Insect Shield,” I haven’t looked back. They sell all types of pre-treated clothing, but I decided I needed protection just down low, where ticks like to hop a ride.
When I remember to wear my Insect Shield pants and socks, I don’t even need to do a tick check when I come back inside.
Rosemary trees make the perfect hostess gift
By now you probably know that I am in love with the little rosemary Christmas trees you see for sale around the holidays at garden centers and upscale supermarkets.
But, as I also warn every year, these beautiful and aromatic plants are ruthlessly pot-bound and must be replanted into larger pots right away.
Do that little chore (scroll through the past few weeks of Garden Plot for specifics), and you will have the perfect gift for the host of a holiday party. Tell them in an accompanying note that there’s enough rosemary on that tree to season a dozen dishes and that rubbing the branches to release that unforgettable aroma exposes you to the most powerful herbal deterrent against dementia and Alzheimer’s. Really!
As retired USDA medicinal plant expert Dr. Jim Duke once noted, “Sage will not make you sage, but rosemary will.”
