(Stupid post) Garden Lusts: Practical Version

(I am on holiday and as the family and I do Thanksgiving/Christmas wrapped all together, the subject matter is a little focused on gift-age here)

Pardon this bit of drivel, but I figured I can inspire some people's holiday gift lists.  I know I don't NEED any of these things, make do with what I got, but damn, some of these things are pieces of art and not just tools!

Darn, darn the odd blog that injects some sort of wonderful garden item into my mind that I think:

"Oooh. And it's useful too. So, it's not just an expensive garden item/tool. It's PRACTICAL."

And that is the magic word: practical

It seems LESS irrational to want to spend $130-145 on a watering can if it will last you all your life:
Haw's watering cans (look at that handle! and the removeable rose! ).  I feel like some men who adore cars about this watering can!

This is what mine looks like now: :(

or howabout this, $65 on pruners (because the blades can be resharpened! All of the other moving parts are SOLID)

And finally, I have recently encountered this site:
http://www.gardengiftsdirect.co.uk/

And did another, "OOH!"

and then "NO!!!!!!" Darn you British and your garden loving far away-ness!

and now all I can think is, "THANK GOODNESS."

and pretend I didn't see that and glad I'm too cheap to pay for shipping and not go broke on garden lusts, no matter how practical.

Cobrahead weeder!

Many thanks again to the Carol at the garden blog May Dreams Garden (http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/) and the CobraHead Company for their very generous prize of a short handled CobraHead weeder!

1) It is super cool to have won something just by reading a blog (hint, hint all garden supply people)

2) I generally don't have a weed problem in my main garden as I use raised beds nearly exclusively for the vegetable/herb/fruit areas, however when my husband and I so brilliantly attempted to "renovate" the original garden beds we pulled up those curvy cement divider things and then promptly got too busy and forgot about renovating the beds.

After a sufficient amount of time, the weeds/grass invaded:

....and now, I have a problem :( Which will hopefully be solved with the Cobrahead's help!

A couple of cool things I like about the tool:

1) it's curved, sharp, pointed head does make it easier to lift up and out weeds
(DOOM game-style shot)

2) It reminds me of mongoose (one of the coolest animals EVER)
3) I totally feel like a ninja when I use it. Doesn't it look like some sort of ninja weapon?!!?!
(So happy here in this picture that I am smiling)

Hopefully it will free my Aghast Frogs/ Escaping-with-gnomes statues from the tyranny of the perilla plants and weeds around it:

Some things that I find of issue include:

1) that it's still a bit big for my tiny hands, and therefore I get "weeding-pains" faster as I chop away with it because I have to use more force and it's just slightly unwieldy in that fashion for me. A marriage between it and the ergonomic tools would be excellent. If their adopted child could be like the Felco pruners where they have smaller sizes too that would be cool.

2) Maybe I am not holding the tool properly, but with the baked clay here, I am still not getting all the weeds out I like. This is not CobraHead's fault of course, but I was REALLY hoping it would make it effortless. I suppose until they can attach some sort of plasma gun or light saber technology to it will this be more effective.

Anyways, pardon the lack of recent postings on my end here, lots of unexpected work came up and I am in semi-shock at the advent of autumn weather here. Cool 56 degree weather in August (albeit the end of it) in Memphis. Very weird.