Social Media FTW (for the win)

I enjoy Facebook, just like the rest of the planet, and naturally I subscribe to a whole bunch of posts related to gardening/urban farming. One favorite is Tiny Farmstead. They have a super cute (read: much cuter than mine) blog about gardening in the burbs. Today on Facebook, they posted this bad boy:

Red Dragon VT 2-23 C Weed Dragon 100,000-BTU Propane Vapor Torch Kit

Whos-a-jigga-what? It took me a second, but I figured it out. This bad boy gets attached to a propane tank and burns your weeds. You heard me, BURNS your weeds. So you don't have to put any of that chemical shit on your yard.

Here is a meager action shot:

And as if I couldn't be more excited, here is the description of all the things it can do besides burn weeds:

Flaming reduces or eliminates spraying chemicals and is a lot more fun than pulling weeds. BURN heavy weeds and brush, stumps, debris and more. Perfect to burn off irrigation ditches, fields, culverts, pond edges etc. Start charcoal, campfires, burn barrels and back fires. THAW frozen water pipes. MELT snow and ice off steps, sidewalks, driveways and any nonflammable surfaces. HEAT metal castings, pipe and tubing, branding irons, pots, kettles, tar, asphalt and roofing materials. STERILIZE bird and animal cages, pens and other nonflammable confinement areas. REMOVE paint, grease, oil, plastic and other residues from metal, concrete and other nonflammable objects.

I want one, I want one now.

So I shared this little gem with my husband (via Facebook) and here is the conversation that ensued:

Me: "Holy crap Cary, so this exists"
Husband: "'So how did you burn the neighborhood down? Well officer, we had some weeds and....'"
Me: "You let me grill!!!! Why can't I have a weed burner?!?!?!?!"
Husband: "Cause I've seen what you do with a weed wacker."
Me: "That was an isolated incident and you know it."

I still want a weed burner, I'm a big girl. I can do it!!

Comments

My Little Review of Smart Gardener

My good friend introduced me to Smart Gardener via Pinterest . The description was something along the lines of, "this site plans your garden for you." As a new gardener, I was skeptical. Sounds a little too good to be true, but I checked it out anyways. At first I was enamored. It allows for garden planning in 4 steps: 1. Layout your garden - you are able to choose the square footage of an in-ground garden, or choose from a variety of containers/raised beds. Cool! 2. Select your plants - this is limited by season, and you cannot mix cool weather and warm weather vegetables. Not cool! Varieties of vegetables are also limited if you are looking for something specific, but you can add them manually. 3. View your plan - you get a little image with your selected plants on it, plus the space they require in your garden (square footage), planting depths, seed spacing, plant dimensions, and what to plant next to each other or not (F...

"New" Tomato Cages

One day (in 2014) I stumbled upon a post in the LA Times about tomato cages (article from 2012). There seems to be a lot of theories out there about how to grow tomatoes (up, on the ground, upside down?), and I knew our homemade cages last year where just painfully too short for how large those plants became. I really liked this cage configuration from the Times - it seemed simple enough and cost friendly enough. I initially checked out some of the basic cages at the nursery and were surprised how expensive they were. I went to Home Depot and was able to find fun colored ones for roughly $6 each. My wonderful mom purchased 10 for me, paired by color. They are nice enough that they can be reused year from year, and they stack well - not taking up too much room in an already too full garage. I was able to buy a pack of 6 bamboo poles for $3. So 5 permanent cages for $35-40. Perfect. Setting up the cages was relatively painl...

So Year 2 Happened, I Swear

It's been almost a year since my last post and oh what a year it was. Pregnancy kicked my butt, I remember planting my lettuce seeds sometime last May, looking at the fluffy dirt and just laying down. I know if I were living thousands of years ago, I would be dead. Easily. So while we planted the garden, the garden did not receive the love and attention of Year 1. Here's a little recap of the season: We planted very similarly to the previous year (tomatoes, zucchini, onions, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, lettuce). We tried to plant squashes on the hill, but right after they sprouted, they were mysteriously gone. Either rabbit or dogs, not sure which. Next year will require a more thorough defense plan. Tomatoes: They did better than last year, and I was excited about harvest time (kinda, chopping up tomatoes in a lot of work), but a tragic hail storm hit. And well, this happened: Zucchini: They did fine. We end...

Project Garden Noob - Year 6

Search This Blog