What's In My Gardening Bag
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Dallas Garden School podcast. I'm your host, north Texas gardening expert. Callie Works. Leary School is now in session.
[00:00:10] Welcome everyone. If this is your first time joining me, I'm so glad that you're here and if you are returning to the podcast, welcome back. Today I thought I would do something fun and. Go through what I have in my garden bag. In the last few years, I've started carrying a single bag that is kind of the repository for the things that I use on a daily basis, so that I know exactly where they are.
[00:00:38] When I'm done using them, they go straight back into the bag. That sits right outside my back door. I always know where these littler things are, so I'm gonna talk about those things that are actually in the bag, and then I'm going to channel Mary Poppins and also include some of the supplies that I cannot live without, but don't necessarily fit in my small little garden bag.
[00:01:03] If I had a Mary Poppins garden bag, I could fit. All of these larger things in them. I'm gonna go supply by supply and tell you the things that I use all the time that I rely on that are good quality or just things that work really well for me in case. That's helpful as you navigate the wide world of various options that are out there for gardening supplies.
[00:01:29] So let's start with the number one item in my garden bag that I cannot live without. I use every single day, is a ryhorry knife. And this is a garden knife, a Japanese style garden knife, and it can be used for a million different things. I use it to slice open compost bags. I use it to plant as a spade. I use it as a measuring tool because it has measurements marked on it.
[00:01:58] If I can't find it, I start to freak out. The brand that I have is a Leonard, and it's a brand that I will continue to talk about in this episode because I've started to more and more love what they offer.
[00:02:15] As I always say in all my classes, if you want professional results, you need to use professional supplies and utilize professional techniques. A and Leonard is definitely catering towards either the professional farmer.
[00:02:28] Gardener or just someone who is looking for really good quality and I've been using the AM Leonard Horry Hory knife for a while now, and just recently I've started. Getting more products from AM Leonard, and I'll talk about that, but the Ryhorry knife, this is something that I use every single day.
[00:02:45] There's different options. You can get one with a wooden handle, which is the more traditional style of the Ryhorry knife. However, I have found that over time. That wood starts to break down unless you take really good care of things. I do not. I am known to leave things in the garden for days on end in all the elements, so I need something that can withstand my laziness.
[00:03:11] And the AM Leonard Ryhorry knife has a plastic handle. Also, it is bright orange, so if I leave it somewhere in the garden, I can quickly find it. Let's move on to number two. Number two. Is a tool that I have different brands of, but it is a tool that I need and reach for all the time, and that's a pair of garden snips.
[00:03:34] Snips are different than pruners. There is a tool called a bypass pruner, and this is a hand tool, but it is truly designed for thicker items. If you're pruning, for example, a woody shrub snips are designed for. Pruning tender stems, and I use my snips for harvesting flowers. I also use it when I'm pruning vegetables.
[00:04:00] For example, if I'm cutting off the lower branches of my tomato plants that are touching the ground, I'm gonna grab for my snips. I use them every single day. FCO is the gold standard in terms of hand tools, but I recently have purchased a pair of AM Leonard Snips to replace a pair of FCO snips that disappeared. I'm sure it's somewhere in my garage. I just don't know what happened to it. I've been very happy so far with the Leonard SNPs.
[00:04:31] So those are the two brands that I personally use and recommend. Number three in my garden bag is a roll of juke twine. I know this isn't very exciting, but when I don't have my twine I start to panic. So I make sure that I always have it on hand, and I primarily use my jute twine for supporting my plants.
[00:04:52] I can use it to tie tomato branches to the cages. Mostly what I use it for is when I need to support a plant in my garden, I will. Put a bamboo steak in the ground and then tie the plant to that steak with the jute twine. Why does it have to be jute? When you use synthetic materials, they don't have any give.
[00:05:14] If you use, for example, nylon twine, and the risk is if you tie a stem very tightly to a stake. That STEM will continue to grow over time and because those synthetic materials don't have any give in them, they have the potential for damaging the stem.
[00:05:32] But love jute twine, always keep it on hand, and it's really inexpensive. I do recommend though getting it on Amazon. You can find Jute Twine at Home Improvement stores, but I found that they're ridiculously expensive for what you're actually buying. Again, most, if not all, to the products that I'm talking about are available on my Amazon store, and the link to my Amazon store will be in the show notes if you'd like to check that out.
[00:05:57] The fourth thing that I love and must have is a garden marker pin. And I use this for writing on plant labels, whether I'm starting seeds indoors, or I am marking somewhere that I direct sowed seeds in the garden.
[00:06:14] You cannot use a sharpie. For outdoor use. I love Sharpies, but they're not magic enough to withstand the elements outdoors. They're definitely meant for indoor use. So you need to use a specific marker pin that is for outdoor use.
[00:06:30] It's not only going to withstand water, but it's also going to withstand sun. The brand I use is Statler and I make sure that I reorder it frequently and I make sure that I always have it on hand.
[00:06:44] The fifth thing that I have to have in my garden bag is sunscreen. I have become very serious about protecting my skin in the past few years. I'm outside so much, and I've definitely started to notice more sun damage the more time that I spend outdoors.
[00:07:02] So I'm very careful to protect myself, and when it comes to sunscreen on my body, I like to have something that I can quickly grab out of my garden bag when I feel like I need. To re-up my sunscreen, I try to apply sunscreen every single day to my face and also everything on my body that's going to be exposed in a given day.
[00:07:27] But when I'm outside, if I've been working and sweating for a few hours, when I want to reapply, I do find that a spray sunscreen is a lot easier for me to use. A lot easier than trying to. Put on a lotion sunscreen in the middle of the garden. So I really like Neutrogena ultra shear body mist. And one of the main reasons that I like it is because it's very inexpensive at Walmart.
[00:07:52] Sunscreens have gotten more and more expensive over the years. However, I can find the Neutrogena ultra shere body mist for roughly $9 a can. You gotta love that.
[00:08:02] The next thing that I can't live without is Alaska Brand Fish Emulsion. This is a water soluble organic fertilizer. I love it 'cause it's effective, right? I've been using it for many years. It's extremely reliable. But the other reason that I like, it's 'cause it's easy to get if I'm in a pinch and a product runs out and I need it, I can quickly run down to the home improvement store and get a bottle of the Alaska brand Fish emulsion.
[00:08:28] I just discovered that Vigoro has a fish emulsion as well. I have started using it recently and the jury is still out on whether or not that's good or not, but Alaska brand fish emulsion I will use if I haven't mixed a granular into the soil before planting, or if I notice the particular plant seems to have some nutrient deficiencies.
[00:08:50] If it's stunted, it's not growing. It's a little bit yellowing, and I suspect that it needs a nitrogen boost. Fish em motion's. A great way to reverse any deficiency because plants can utilize the fish emulsion very quickly. The next fertilizer that I can't use with that and probably is number one, is Micro Life.
[00:09:07] Multipurpose. Micro Life is a company based in Houston. I love supporting a Texas based company, and it is all natural ingredients. It's so safe that they regularly show on their Instagram. Videos of their dogs eating it. And you will find that if you mix it into your soil and you don't monitor your dog, they are gonna go straight to your garden and try to eat it.
[00:09:28] So do be aware of that and try to mix it in really well into the soil. So that doesn't happen. But if they do start eating it, just know that it's perfectly safe. The MPK is 6 2 4, so it's perfect for our soils that are naturally deficient in nitrogen.
[00:09:43] We need fertilizers where nitrogen is prioritized. The first number is the highest, so the largest ratio of nutrients is nitrogen in that fertilizer. It also is a slow release, so it lasts a really long time I will tell you it's available in two different size containers. It comes in a jug, and then also comes in a very large 40 pound bag. I do not recommend buying the jug. It's way too expensive per pound for what you're getting. I do recommend buying the 40 pound bag.
[00:10:17] It's a little bit of a sticker shock, but pound for pound. It's an incredible value if you go out and bought another organic granular fertilizer in small bags, it can be as much as. Oof $12 a pound, but the micro life multipurpose is anywhere from a dollar 50 to $2 a pound. So really good value there.
[00:10:39] Alright. The final fertilizer that I keep in my garden bag is Fox Farm, grow Big. This is a 6 4 4 NPK ratio, and it is from Fox Farm. When everything that I use, I try to be as organic as possible. However, when you're starting seeds indoors, you do need to use a synthetic fertilizer. That is because organic fertilizers will mold indoors, when you're using cell trays. And you're starting things indoors. Using organics is not a great idea.
[00:11:13] Now, there are water soluble fertilizers that are marketed as organic that are no smell. They have all these different promises. I tested some of those out this past spring. I tested the Arbor brand fertilizer it actually caused a lot of problems. The minute I started using it, my plants started to get discolored. They started to get stunted. So I'm definitely not using that brand again, and I'm just gonna go back to grow big. You can also use Grow Big on any plant. At any time, I do prefer to use them on my indoor plants, and then also I will use them after I pot up my ceilings and before they go into the ground.
[00:11:52] Just because when you're working with a very small nursery pot, it's hard to mix in granular fertilizer, especially if it's only gonna be in that nursery pot for a few weeks before it goes into the ground. Fox Farm, grow big. You can find on Amazon and you can usually find it at local independent nurseries as well.
[00:12:12] The next thing that I love is my Peter Grim lifeguard hat. I get it from the Peter Grimm website and it's a huge wide brim hat that fully covers my face. I have started to get a lot. Of my sun damage along my jawline, and that's because if I was to wear a smaller brimmed hat and sometimes I just put on a ball cap, what happens is that doesn't provide enough sun protection.
[00:12:38] And along my jaw where it's exposed to the sun, I started to have a lot of discoloration. So I make sure that when I'm out in the garden, I'm wearing the biggest brimmed hat that I can, and I love the Peter Grim lifeguard hats.
[00:12:54] The last two things that I can't live without, and this is actually a brand new one I have been using for many, many years, the DR Brand Watering Wands, and I use the more kind of grade wands that are all metal. You have to buy the wand separate than what they call the breaker. The piece that goes on the end of a watering wand that disperses the water.
[00:13:21] That's called a breaker. And when you buy more pro-grade watering wands, the breaker is sold separately. From the wand, and that's so that people have more flexibility. Sometimes you need a different breaker for different scenarios, but my dream watering wand started to leak at a point in it that could not be fixed.
[00:13:45] I ordered an AM Leonard watering wand and I'm loving it. The amount of water that comes outta that wand is amazing, so I can get all my hand watering done really fast. I also love that it is, again, bright orange, which is nice to see outta the corner of my eye if I've accidentally left it out in the garden.
[00:14:04] And then also it has this durable foam handle, which makes it a lot. More comfortable for me to carry through the garden. And then the final thing that is in my Mary Poppins gardening bag.
[00:14:17] I am back to the miracle grow cactus and succulent potting soil for my indoor seed starting. Because I wanted to find a good indoor seed starting mix that was organic. I started testing out the coast of Maine seed mix that you can get on Amazon. It is quite expensive. And I did like it.
[00:14:41] It had the right consistency. What I'm looking for in a seed mix is something that drains quickly. I do not want to have to pre-mix my seed mix with water before I put it into my cell tray. It makes a mess. If I can eliminate unnecessary steps, that's great.
[00:15:00] Most seed mixes, have such a high peat content in them that if you put the mix dry into a cell tray and then tried to water it, the water would just sit on the surface of the soil and go nowhere.
[00:15:15] Those mixes, you do have to put the mix into a bucket, add some water, mix it up, and then spread it into cell tray. Some of my students say, I don't care. That's not a step that bothers me. However, what I've found is both Coast of Maine.
[00:15:30] And the miracle Grow Cactus and succulent potting soil, not the garden soil, the potting soil, both are seed mixes that I can put into the cell trays, water them in, and the water goes straight through. One caveat, make sure it's a fresh bag. I've had some students say that they used a really old bag and they said that the water beaded up on the top.
[00:15:55] I've never been able to replicate that, but just a recommendation. Try to start with fresh bags. I go through my seed starting mix so quickly that I really never have that problem. But the other reason that I like the Miracle Grow Cactus, and I've gone back to it recently, one is the quality of my seedlings are always excellent.
[00:16:13] But the other great thing is that I also mentioned with a few other supplies is that I can just run out to Home Depot or Lowe's and get a bag of it.
[00:16:22] I don't have to order it online and wait for it to arrive. Again, I wish I had a great organic seed mix that I could rely on that had the same draining qualities. For now, I'm gonna go back to Miracle Grow Cactus and Succulent Potting Soil as my seed starting mix hack, if you will. I hope this was helpful. I hope you learned a lot.
[00:16:43] In addition to just being informed on the products that I'm using. Again, I encourage you to experiment. There may be products that you use that are completely different that you absolutely love, and I'm not saying that this is what you have to use. I'm just sharing what works for me and what I love as someone whose job it is to garden and whose job it is to make sure that.
[00:17:05] The plants grow as best they can so that I can accurately judge how well they do in North Texas. If I'm using supplies that don't work for me, the result is plants that are going to suffer or aren't doing as well, and then the results of my research are not as high quality as they could be.
[00:17:25] Thanks for joining me today. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, rate, and review. This helps other gardeners find the podcast. And for more North Texas specific plant picks and tips, visit [email protected] or on Instagram at the Dallas Garden School. Until next time, happy gardening.
