Gardening Simplified: Time-Saving, Practical Products

How-to

Everyone loves a beautiful garden. Fabulous fragrance perfumes paths, cheerful flowers, and gorgeous foliage decorate landscapes, and homegrown tomatoes delight taste buds. But wow…it’s a lot of work!

Those pristine plantings mean that a gardener worked hard to make the landscape look effortless. Planting, weeding, watering, feeding…a beautiful garden takes time and effort. Fortunately, many of our National Garden Bureau members offer terrific products that save time and make gardening easier. And we all want more time to relax and enjoy the garden, right?

Here are some of our favorite gardening products that simplify the gardening process:

Beware of any product that advertises “effortless” gardening. While the products we’ve included here help save time and energy in the garden, all gardens require attention: choosing the right location, planting in good soil, adequate watering, watching for problems (like pests and diseases), and feeding the plants. If you’re growing edibles, add harvesting to the list, too. Gardening isn’t effortless—but it IS rewarding!

Poor Soil? No soil? No Problem. GardenSoxx® to the Rescue!

If you want to grow a gorgeous garden but lack good soil, space for raised beds, or just want to tuck some beautiful blooms into a tight space, you’ll love the versatility of GardenSoxx®.

GardenSoxx - The Best Container for Growing

A Green Thumb Award Winner, GardenSoxx® is a mesh containment system that’s similar to container growing—but without the expensive pot or bulky container. Instead, place GardenSoxx® where you want to grow, fill the mesh with your own compost or potting soil, snip openings in the mesh, insert the plants, and voilà! You’ll soon enjoy fabulous flowers or tasty treats straight from your new instant garden space.

GardenSoxx® also eliminates worries about overwatering. The mesh provides perfect drainage, so your plants’ roots won’t sit in standing water, which can be an issue with poorly draining containers. Plus, the EZ Filler kits come with irrigation and fittings in one simple-to-install pack. One 4’ x 4’ kit produces an average of 75 to 100 pounds of fresh, organic, nutrient-rich food while using less fertilizer and water. With GardenSoxx®, there’s no tilling or extensive weeding needed. Just fill, plant, water—and enjoy your bounty!

Gorgeous, Rich Soil to Get Growing ASAP

Natural and Organic Potting Mix Black Gold - National Garden Bureau

Are you ready to start growing right now? Those first warm, spring days make gardeners itch to play in the soil. If you don’t want to wait for compost to decompose or soil test results, Black Gold® Natural & Organic Flower and Vegetable Soil simplifies the most critical component of gardening: providing perfect soil to get your garden growing fast.

The OMRI Certified organic soil makes a great addition to garden beds, containers, and window boxes. (Or use it to fill GardenSoxx® to grow anywhere in your garden.) With good drainage and water retention, it’s an ideal soil for annuals and perennials, bedding plants, vegetables, and herbs. Black Gold® also offers convenient products for seed starting, container gardening, and more to simplify your growing needs.

Wondering When to Water?

Crescent Garden Nest on Balcony - National Garden Bureau

Mod Planter - Crescent Garden - National Garden Bureau

Dot Bronze Crescent Garden - National Garden Bureau

Self-Watering Containers

If you love homegrown garden goodies but lack garden space, you’re in luck: you’ll find a wide selection of containers to turn your patio, balcony, or sunny porch into a garden-to-table oasis. Container gardening offers many benefits that simplify the gardening process. Elevated beds make growing easier for gardeners with sore backs, while containers also provide the perfect solution for gardens with poor soil: just fill the container with high-quality potting mix, and you’re ready to grow. Gardening in containers provides almost-instant gratification.

For many gardeners, the only drawback to container growing involves water. Containers dry out more quickly than in-ground gardens, requiring daily watering in hot summer climates. Luckily, Crescent Garden’s containers take the hassle out of growing with innovative watering systems. It doesn’t get much simpler!

For gardeners looking to grow a lot of food, herbs, or edible flowers in little space, Crescent Garden’s Nest elevated planter makes a perfect addition to porches or patios. The contemporary design, available in a wide range of colors, looks terrific right outside the kitchen door for easy harvest. With an innovative self-watering system, the double-walled planter holds enough water for 2 to 6 weeks. Refill as needed, and the TruDrop One system keeps plants happy without overwatering. The easy-to-read water level indicator lets you know when it’s time for a refill.

If you’d like to create a mini modular urban farm or border of flowers, try Crescent Garden’s Mod planters. The self-watering planters with TruDrop One system not only minimize the time spent watering, but the planters can be stacked and combined in dozens of different configurations to create green dividers or interesting garden designs. Square or rectangular planters in a wide range of colors give you a great choice for designing your container garden.

If you prefer round containers to showcase your fruit, flowers, veggies, or herbs, try Crescent Garden’s Dot container. With the same TruDrop One system, the classic round pots look great whether grouped with a variety of sizes, decorating entryways, or lining a patio for a pretty, delicious harvest of edible flowers or fruit. Fill with potting soil, plant, water, feed, and harvest your favorite treats.

Inground Watering System

Garden Row Snip-n-Drip Soaker System- National Garden Bureau

WaterEase Programmable Timer - National Garden Bureau

What gardener enjoys dragging hoses around the yard during summer’s high heat? No one–but watering is a must. Luckily, Gardener’s Supply Company offers a simple solution to watering angst: the Garden Row Snip-n-Drip Soaker System. The customizable system allows you to water just where your plants need it most—at the base, allowing the roots to get the moisture they need without wetting leaves and encouraging disease. Easy to install, set up takes less than an hour, with the kit covering up to four 25-foot rows. No special tools are required: just snip the hoses to the sizes you need with scissors, snap the fittings into place, and you’re ready to water.

With minimal loss due to evaporation and runoff, soaker hoses use up to 80 percent less water than sprinklers—and produce healthier plants. Plus, if you add a timer, like the WaterEase Programmable Timer, you’ll save even more effort when watering your plants. Set the timer—and walk away. (But make sure to check your plants throughout the growing season for pests or harvests.) There’s also a kit available for raised beds, too.

Make Your Back Happy

True confession time: how do you feel after a day of marathon-planting? While relishing the results of your labor, you might be reaching for a heating pad or Advil the next day. After all, gardeners are known to get a tad overly enthusiastic on those first pretty spring days. Fortunately, there’s a terrific tool to save your knees and back: the 5-in-1 Proplugger.

Instead of kneeling and bending over beds to dig holes for your bulbs, annuals, or veggies, the Proplugger allows you to dig to the ideal depth—while standing. Using 2-inch, 4-inch, or 6-inch depth rings attached to the upright tool, you can dig multiple holes, as the soil is stored in the tool as you work—and then empty the soil by simply turning the Proplugger upside down. It’s also useful for planting and transplanting lawn plugs, as well as removing tough weeds like wild onions and thistles. Your back will thank you!

Keep Gardens Tidy and Harvest Easily and Comfortably

Corona FlexDIAL® Adjustable Bypass Pruner - National Garden Bureau Member

How often have you noticed a fading rose that needs deadheading or a perfectly ripe pepper—but had to hike back to the garage or potting shed for your pruners? Or maybe you’re in the garden with snips but see a branch that needs pruning—and those snips won’t make a dent. Such a hassle. Fortunately, the Corona® FlexDIAL® ComfortGEL® Adjustable Bypass Pruners makes the perfect garden accessory.

Small enough to slip in a pocket, the pruner offers a wide range of applications. Perfect for harvesting herbs, trimming overzealous tomatoes, or snipping ¼-inch branches, the easy-to-adjust dial lets you tackle whatever jobs you need. Set the dial at 1 for small tasks, like deadheading or harvesting, or move the dial to 8 to cut branches. Best of all, the pruner works comfortably whether you have small or large hands. Specially coated non-stick blades provide smooth cutting performance. Plus, the blades are easy to clean, helping you prevent spreading diseases among plants when you prune. Corona offers a wide range of tools to simplify gardening work, but you’ll want to keep these pruners with you always.

When harvesting fruits and veggies, it’s always best to use snips. Some plants, like peppers and eggplants, have fragile stems that can break when pulling a pepper from the plant.

Simplify Weeding and Cultivate Crops Easily

Trying to remove weeds from compact clay soil is no joke. Pulling weeds by hand seems futile, especially with sunbaked soil. Fortunately, the folks at Cambridge, Wisconsin-based Cobrahead® took pity on frustrated gardeners and created the Cobrahead® Original Weeder and Cultivator to make weeding a breeze. With an ergonomically designed, recycled plastic handle and a forged, tempered steel blade that cuts through hard soil and tough roots, the tool simplifies garden maintenance.

The narrow—but very sharp—blade easily removes weeds around plants and between rows, reaching pesky weeds without damaging plants. The blade also makes planting easy—use it to dig holes for flowers, veggies, and herbs. Want to plant a neat row of seeds? Use the Cobrahead blade to dig a row to your required depth, sow the seeds, cover with soil, and water—simple!

From self-watering containers to keeping gardens tidy, pick a few new products to simplify your gardening season—and spend more time relaxing and enjoying the pleasures of your garden.

“This post is provided as an educational/inspirational service of the National Garden Bureau and our members. Please credit and link to National Garden Bureau when using all or parts of this article.”

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