LifeWell Technologies Aluminum Garden Trowel

Going back to the garden, I like hand tools best. Not only are they easier for me to use and control but they are a little more intimate than Hubby’s larger, more rugged tools. And when LifeWell Technologies offered me their aluminum Garden Trowel, I was thrilled. I’ve had a few different garden trowels, of various materials and build qualities, and almost all were found to be lacking. They’d bend, break, rust, or just plain fall apart and fail me. Usually mid-job, and nothing will frustrate a gal more. LifeWell Technologies claims this is “The Best Trowel You’ll Ever Buy”. Bold words. Let’s see if they live up to them.

LifeWell Technologies Garden trowel looks to solve all of those previously mentioned issues. Rust? Pffft. It’s made of aircraft grade aluminum, polished to a flawless chrome-like finish. The edge is sharp enough to dig clean through rocky, uneven ground with no issue. Bending? A thing of the past, what with the thick, robust neck and full tang handle. Break? Did I mention that it’s made of aircraft-grade aluminum? This LifeWell Technologies trowel shouldn’t break even under heavy loads and stresses. So now that we’ve established that this trowel is better than all my past trowels, lets get into how it’s been so overbuilt that it became my favorite.

A lot of trowels I’ve owned have been just a straight wooden handle, with little thought given to ergonomics or comfort. This LifeWell Technologies Garden Trowel has a handle clearly made by someone who has used the before and knows exactly when one puts their fingers and thumb. It has a rubberized non-slip coating too, that not only reduces hand strain my being slightly padded, but means your damp or wet hand won’t go sliding down the handle and crash painfully into the spade. It even has a slightly elongated tip if you need to pound the trowel past a tough root or two. It’s even a bright and attractive neon green that means your not going to lose it in the grass or tall shrubs. It’s not so heavy that you get hand fatigue but not so light that you think it’ll break on the first rock it hit. “Built like a brick ‘out’house” Hubby would say, although not so politely. I think I’ve found the garden tool I won’t be sharing with Hubby. This green beauty is all mine. As for LifeWell Technologies boast of this being the best trowel I’ll ever buy, it might well be, as well as the last  trowel I’ll ever need to buy. Well done, LifeWell Technologies.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from LifeWell Technologies.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

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Pine Tree Gloves Bamboo Gardening Gloves

Aside from my latest spurts of artsy-fartsy-ness, I love to garden. I love the outdoors, I love my flowers and my plants. The butterflies, and bumblebees and dragonflies. But what drives me bonkers, though, is completely destroying my manicure digging in the dirt. Hubby always tells me we have gloves, and I’ll occasionally use some nitrile ones, but anyone can tell you those aren’t made for gardening. When Pine Tree Gloves offered me a pair of their bamboo gardening gloves, I was more than eager to try them.

I’ve used “dipped” gloves like this before, and I was (and still am!) a huge fan of them. Ideally, they are lighter and less cumbersome than Hubby’s leather outdoors gloves, offer decent finger and palm protection as well as grip, but fit the hands much better for fine motor control and manipulation. Pine Tree Gloves bamboo gloves seem to tick off all these important metrics. But they fall a little short for me and I’ll explain why this might be my situation and not yours.

See, I don’t mess around gardening. When I’m done I’m usually covered in dirt. Digging up bulbs, planting new shrubs, reclaiming decorative rock…It’s no “Martha Stewart” stuff with me, all dressed to the nines with my hair and makeup did. No, no, no. So I need tools (and let’s face it, gloves are tools)  that can keep up with me. Pine Tree Gloves Bamboo Gardening gloves were saying “No mas” by about hour 4. While the back are a light woven bamboo fabric, it’s not a tight weave and dirt gets in. It collects in the fingers that are not porous and since I have short-ish fingers, there’s some space at the front of the glove for all that dirt. And it grinds into your fingertips something fierce. Then, at the very end, I noticed that the plastic coating they’re dipped in started to break down, kind of crack apart. Little pieces were lost to the dirt and one finger ended up “exposed”. So, after one use, they were pretty much toast. At $8.99, that’s a little steep for a single-use product. Now, granted, I probably used them a lot harder than maybe was intended. Digging out old bulbs in rocky, densely packed soil is not my every day gardening activity, and probably not yours either. But I’ve had some others last at least a few uses before being tossed, so I’m not entirely sold on these for my needs.

In the end, if you do light gardening or just need some gloves on while you use a tool or two, these might just fit the bill. But if you have heavy, hard work that needs doing, you’re probably better off with some split leather and canvas gloves for a couple of bucks a pair.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Pine Tree Gloves.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

 

Hori Hori Digging Knife by Ezy Garden Tools

We just recently covered a type of this knife here, and I was surprised at how useful a tool like this is for little ‘ol me. Not something I would have picked up of thought about before trying, and now not something I can imagine gardening without. So I won’t spend too much time going over what it is and what it does again, and instead do a compare and contrast with the last one I reviewed.

Like the previous product, it’s a stainless steel tool with a concave or curved blade so it can double as a garden trowel. It is also marked with depth indicators, has a sharpened straight blade on one side and a serrated blade on the other. It’s not quite as high-polished as the last Hori Hori Kife, but that is a plus to me, because it’ll show damage and wear a lot less that way. What I didn’t like about either tool is the lack of a full-tang blade. A full tang is when the metal in the handle extends to the end of the handle, and not about 1/3 of the way like with both Hori Hori knives. It makes the tool stronger, and it will last longer that way too. Where the last version did better, though, was that it was an injection molded handle with a decent bolster so you don’t have to worry about your hand sliding down the handle and being shredded by the blade. This Hori Hori Digging Knife by Ezy Garden is a smooth, riveted wood handle with hardly any bolster to speak of, and no texturing on the handle at all. So while the wood may hold up to impact better than the plastic, it’d be very careful about any stabbing action while digging.

Another area that Ezy Garden excelled with their Hori Hori Knife is the sheath, or holster, included. It’s a genuine, thick leather with a sturdy belt loop, not the flimsy whatever that was with the other version. It, like the Hori Hori Knife from Ezy Garden, is designed to last a long time. No worries about cutting or stabbing through the sheath. Like the last knife, the Ezy Garden Hori Hori Knife is backed by their 30-day, 100% money back no hassle guarantee, but the Amazon page states “Lifetime Guarantee”, so I’d get clarification from the manufacturer which one they plan to honor before buying. So in the end, this is a decent garden tool with multiple applications, and is sturdy and well made, though not without it’s flaws. I still recommend it, but I would use it with extreme care.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Ezy Garden Knife.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

Alite Advanced Hydroponic LED Cultivation Light

You would think in Southern California, the one thing we have no shortage of is sunlight. In fact, it’s sunny here 11 months out of the year. But a side effect of so much sun is heat. And we have that in spades here too. So what’s a gal to do when you want the brightest, most vibrant blooms and leaves but leaving your plants outside in California is akin to putting them in a blast furnace? Chromo, Inc. has the solution with their Alite Advanced LED hydroponic plant cultivation light.

Chromo, Inc. designed their Alite Advanced LED grow light to stimulate plant growth by producing light at the specific wavelength plants require for photosynthesis. No more weary, tired blooms on your indoor plants and flowers! The wavelengths required for maximum chlorophyll (both A & B) productions are 460nm, 630nm, and 660nm. This Alite Advanced LED lamp produces just those wavelengths, all while fitting into a standard E27 (or A19, if you prefer) socket base! With aluminum fan blades at the back to help dissipate heat, this lamp stays cool even if you run it for 24 hours! With 12 1w LED’s in the lamp head, it is energy efficient and should net you a 50,000 hour life span. That’s one long-lived light! It’s even good for underwater plants. Not too shabby!

Lamps like these will dissipate quickly at long focal lengths, so to maximize growth, one should situate the plant as close and as directly beneath the lamp as possible. The Alite Advanced Hydroponic LED light by Chromo, Inc. is suitable for all stages of a plant’s growth, so don’t be stingy helping your blooms look their best!  It works best in a dry, well ventilated environment, and should be kept away from other sources of heat. It even comes with a one year warranty! Neat-o! Competitively priced at just $28.95, it also qualifies from free shipping via Amazon.com.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Chromo, Inc..  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

VREMI: Organic Garden Seeds for 10 Vegetable Varieties #Seeds10

Even though we re suffering the Winter’s cold, getting ready for Spring and especially growing vegetables is a simple “can-do”. You can start germination indoors via pods or as the days grow warmer, you can even start off in a planter!

VREMI provides you with a nice array of vegetable seeds that are manufactured by Natural Green Seeds. The seeds are organic and a nice variety. The stater packet includes:

• California Red Pepper; 50 seeds
• Mid-East Cucumber; 30 seeds
• Radish; 75 seeds
• Beef Tomato; 90 seeds
• Carrot Sweet Crisp Flavor; 100 seeds
• Mid-East Courgette (Squash); 20 seeds
• Cherry Fox Tomato; 90 seeds
• Riverside Onion; 80 seeds
• Hungarian Hot Wax Chilli Pepper; 50 seeds
• Jericho Lettuce; 150 seeds

You also get labels for each vegetable in sticker form and 10 Popsicle-style wooden sticks.

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Retail Price Point: $19.90 and the product comes in a nice (cardboard) box to keep future packets in or any unused seeds.

All you need is a little dirt, water and love to start growing your own organic garden. Each vegetable packet includes a full illustration on the back-side with simple directions about what you are growing. Mistake-proof and a great way for any family, kids, to even just adults to get started.

I have not started growing yet but will as soon as February hits,  I will be getting an early start. My only con about the package is that the seed packets have an area where the expiration date should have been noted, it was left blank so I don’t know how long the seeds will be viable, but I have no worries as long as I plant them soon.

Get a healthy start in 2015 and start your own garden with VREMI:

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from VREMI TM.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.