Great New Myth-Debunking Book

The Truth About Garden Remedies—What Works, What Doesn’t & Why
By Jeff Gillman (Timber Press)

Here’s a book every Renegade Gardener should love. Jeff Gillman, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota, and this hot-off-the-press release takes a science-based look at virtually all the garden remedies one is likely to encounter, from grandma’s organic fungicide concoctions to the practice of buying and releasing ladybeetles in the garden.

The results will surprise you; some of the most famous folklore and do-it-yourself remedies actually do work (beer for slugs, egg sprays for deer) and often work as well as their more pricey, commercial counterparts. Many others, however, actually do more harm than good—stay away from urine, ammonia, and chewing tobacco, among others. The book covers the topics of fertilizers, soil amendments, water supplements, biostimulants, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides.

But Jeff didn’t test only the favorite whip-it-up-in-the-sink folklore remedies, he’s taken on numerous commercial products to see if they actually do what they claim. Often they don’t, or at least don’t come close to producing the advertised results. You’ll be surprised by what the book proves concerning hydrogels, mycorrhizae planting amendments, antitranspirant sprays, and water-soluble “root & bloom” fertilizers.

Smoothly written in Jeff’s folksy, conversational style, this is a terrific book for beginning and advanced gardeners alike. Not only will you learn which homemade and commercial products work and which don’t, you’ll gain a solid layman’s understanding of the science and chemistry behind plant growth and plant protection.

Dear and Critter Repellant Product
ScareCrow Automatic Outdoor Animal Deterrent

It’s one of the most common questions I’m asked: What can I do to keep dear from munching on my garden?

To my usual list of pat answers (spray with egg-based deer sprays constantly during the entire season; erect a six-foot fence around your entire property; buy a dog; sell the house, buy a condo) I now add one more that is perhaps the simplest and most effective: Get a ScareCrow.

The fine Canadian garden product manufacturer Contech Electronics Inc. (located in one of North America’s most beautiful cities, Victoria, British Columbia) offers this innovative device to market, and test results and feedback look very positive. Scarecrow was introduced in 1997, and homeowners report an 87 percent satisfaction rate.

Place the ScareCrow in your yard along the perimeter, where deer are entering, and hook it up to a standard garden hose. When the ScareCrow detects movement, it releases a three-second burst of water towards the intruder. The effect of the sudden noise, movement, and spray of water is startling, and animals quickly flee the area.

Key to the design is a computerized “brain” inside the device that requires use of only one 9-volt battery. The ScareCrow can “fire” thousands of times (works night and day for up to four months on a single battery) with each unit covering approximately 1200 square feet. ScareCrows may be hooked up in series.

The product is designed not to trigger with the movement of smaller, innocuous critters such as songbirds. It will, however, scare the bejeezus out of pesky children who cut through your yard taking a shortcut to the school bus, and dampen their homeowork as well. It will also sense and become activated by intrusion from cats, dogs, rabbits, and geese. It should be noted, the ScareCrow is ideal for keeping herons and larger predatory birds out of water gardens and ponds.

The key to minimizing damage from deer is to use the kinds of deterrents that make it easy for deer to decide your neighbor’s yard is easier pickings than yours. ScareCrow helps you teach the deer in your area that grazing on Mrs. Ferguson’s hostas is a far less spookier proposition than that weird noise and water thing that occurs whenever they approach your property.

Best of all, it’s completely non-harmful to the animals and the planet. Contech’s full line of animal deterrent products (they also developed and sell the pet-training ScatMat, the CatStop Ultrasonic Cat Deterrent, and the WaterDog Automatic Outdoor Pet Fountain) are available at hardware stores and many garden centers across the US, or visit www.scarecrowinfo.com.

Nifty Deer Repellent Product
Havahart® Electronic Deer Repellant

This is why the quiet little science nerd you barely knew in high school has the last laugh. Those nerds took copious notes during chemistry and biology class, while the rest of us were doodling and passing notes. Then they grew up to invent products like this one, eventually purchased by the high school varsity quarterback who is now fifty and working as a security guard, and the prom queen who has been divorced three times and put on forty pounds.

The product is essentially a powerful electric fence on a stick. Deer are attracted by a lure scent, they stick their nose or tongue down for a whiff or a lick, and are jolted by 400 volts, which kills them where they stand. They don’t even fall over, the electricity fuses their bones together and they decay upright.

Just kidding. What really happens is the deer receive a light shock (the product delivers 400 volts with virtually no amps, substantially less than a static shock from a car door) and they don’t like it. They rear back and run, and learn quickly that your yard is no place to graze.

One device covers approximately 1,200 square feet and is powered by two AA batteries that will last over a year.

It’s about time the nerds entered the war against deer. Here’s the link: Havahart®

Fun Book on Plant Name Origins 

Who Does Your Garden Grow?
By Alex Pankhurst (B.B. Mackey Books)

Ever wonder about the story behind the person whose name (or derivation thereof) forms the variety classification of the plants you grow? What’s the story on Arthur Johnson, whose name is affixed to so many annual and perennial genera, most famously Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue?’ Ditto for Norah Leigh, immortalized by Phlox paniculata’Nora Leigh’ and Viola ‘Nora Leigh.’ What about E. B. (Bertram) Anderson, born in 1886 but living today in your garden as Sedum ‘Bertram Anderson?’ Why is there a dianthus named ‘Joan’s Blood?’ And just exactly who was this Madame Hardy?

This fascinating small book contains many great stories, intriguing tales of the men and women who literally gave their blood, sweat and tears in the discovery and development of hundreds of trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals cherished by gardeners over the years, through to today. Or else did all the work, and then named the final plant after their wives, husbands, mistresses, children, mentors, or an esteemed, deceased colleague.

It’s delightful reading. One attains a much stronger understanding and appreciation of gardening history, and while turning the pages you’ll travel to England, across Europe, to Asia, The Himalayas, South Africa, and beyond. The book is also beneficial as a gardening guide in that so often the gardening tastes and theories of our planet’s great botanical explorers are sensitively conveyed.

Personalities shine in this wonderfully written volume, as does author Alex Pankhurst’s wicked sense of humor. This is a great book with which to cozy up to the fireplace on a cold winter’s night.

The book is available from full service bookstores and Amazon, but a hint when ordering books: Don’t order from Amazon unless you’re having trouble paying the heating bill, because the author and publisher profit only pennies on the dollar. Small publishers (and starving authors!) receive fair reward for their labors only when you order their books directly from them. To order: www.mackeybooks.com.