Category Archives: Product reviews

Home and garden product recommendations from first hand experience.

Getta Gator Grabber

Posted on November 22, 2010 by | 1 comment

Christmas Gifts for Gardeners

Gator Grabber
is a back-saving tool that is useful well beyond fall leaf cleanup. After I tried it, I asked the neighbor to give it a try. We both agreed that using Gator Grabber http://www.patsybell.com/2010/11/13/gator-grabber/ was handy and timesaving.

Picking up pine cones is easier with a grabber

If you have balance problems or just don’t want to bend over 150 times to pick up all the pinecones in your yard, consider the Gator Grabber. I also use it to pick up a gazillion black walnuts.

Buy these ergonomic grip garden tools online or use the store locator to find a retailer. Gator Grabber is made by the folks that make the tools with Large “O”-shaped handles in “can’t-lose-in-the-garden” green

I have the Radius Trowel with that comfortable curve providing more leverage with less wrist stress. These aluminum blade tools are both light weight and very sturdy. I’ve been using this trowel for two years. It’s the kind of tool a gardener only has to buy once. Well, maybe twice, if you have a tool borrowing spouse.

Find it here.:buy on line
store locator:

Price:  $34.99

More good news: free shipping now through Decemner 31, 2010.

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The best Christmas Gift U CAN Give

Posted on November 22, 2010 by | 1 comment

Christmas Gifts for Gardeners

The perfect Christmas Gift for the gardener in your life is the new U CAN

The U CAN does it all.

This watering can combines several useful functions and it is well balanced, easy to carry and easy to hold.

If you are thinking of wrapping up this as a Christmas Gift, consider simply decorating the colorful can with a pair of garden gloves, and a flower or two.

Keeps fertilizer handy – liquid, water soluble or dry.  Whenever measurements are needed, use the built-in spoon or meausuring cup. ( An optional liquid pump dispenser is sold separately.) The sprinkler head has a gentle flow perfect for newly planted seed.

Choose the unique all-in-one watering can to use with any kind of fertilizer, wet or dry.

Home and Garden Center stores that may have The U CAN available now or for Spring 2011.

Price: $29.95

More good news: Made in the USA with recycled plastic.

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The Garden Bistro – a review

Posted on November 20, 2010 by | Comments Off on The Garden Bistro – a review
The best of fresh food, dinner and lunch

The Garden Bistro in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

I get to Eureka Springs, Arkansas once or twice a year, it seems as though new restaurants come and go as quickly as I do. Or, as Dorthy said, “My! People come and go so quickly here!”

My point is, there was a decent restaurant in this location the last time I was in Eureka Springs­, but now there is a different great restaurant at 119 North Main. The good news: everything I had at the Garden Bistro was good. Bad news, I only “discovered” The Garden Bistro on my last day in Eureka Springs.

Chef Lana Campbell brings garden-fresh dining to Eureka Springs via the local farmers markets. The menu is seasonal. Meaning the menu in spring is different than the menu in fall, all based on what is fresh and local. The Garden Bistro serves the best of locally grown and produced fruits, vegetables, herbs, eggs and meats.
Diners at the next table allowed me to share their opinions and photograph their food. They were pleased with their entrees, none of us had dessert. Portions are very generous.

Strawberry Lavender Soup

My fellow diners started with a fried green tomato appetiser followed by a dinner salad. I started my meal with a fabulous strawberry lavender soup*. Campbell also makes the bread. The heavy yeasty rolls are rich enough that I did not not even want butter.

My entre choice was a pecan encrusted salmon. It was a generous portion of perfectly cooked and beautifully served salmon. Side dishes are served family style, and include a vegetable and starch.

Herb & pecan encrusted salmon, hot bread, green beans, baked potato

There is a new restaurant in town every time I come to Eureka Springs. I hope The Garden Bistro makes it. It will become a favorite, like Ermilios and Mud Street Cafe.

Getting there:
119 North Main, Eureka Springs, AR 72632 Contact:Phone:(479) 253-1281.Website: not yet
Hours:Tea Room style lunches from 11 am – 2 pm Thursday through Monday.
Casual fine dining dinners from 5 pm – 9 pm every Thursday through Monday.
Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays

The recipe for Strawberry Lavender Soup from The Garden Bistro in Eureka Springs Arkansas is on my Herb Companion Garden Blog

The restaurant review for The Garden Bistro in Eureka Springs Arkansas is on my Blog, Oh Grow Up!

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Posted in Eat Here, Herbs in the kitchen, Oh Grow Up!, Ozarks Travel Examiner, Product reviews, Recipes

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“Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire” by Margot Berwin

Posted on October 29, 2010 by | 2 comments

In late spring, I volunteered to review “Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire”, a first novel by Margot Berwin. I can count the books I’ve reviewd on one hand, so I thought this early work of Margot Berwin, would be a great “summer read.”

Hot House Flower

The book was free, as was my review. The paperback, “Hot House Flower and the 9 Plants of Desire,” by Margot Berwin, is published by Random House and retails for $14.95. I expected this to be a lightweight summer read and was looking forward to “discovering” a new garden writer.

I, being a slow reader, usually get the benefit of early reviews from my speed reading garden blogging friends. I think many folks took this book too seriously and were disappointed. I was expecting a light and lively summer read and that is what I got.

Corpse plant

I was waiting for Hot House Flower to blossom into a full fledged romance novel, a genre seldom on my reading list. Thankfully, it was not. There was just enough travel and horticulture information to keep me turning pages.

Margot, you had me when you wrote the words Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Our protagonist, Lila, is learning about these nine plants of desire throughout the book. Each chapter starts with a little introduction to one of the nine plants and a hint about whats coming next.


I am glad “Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire” found it’s way to my reading stack. This is a romp through the jungle and there is even a bit of beach time, some totally unbelievable horticultural anticts and even a bit of magic and mystery.

This ain’t no botanical encyclopedia. My garden blogging friends would still be quibbling over the details of this book, if they hadn’t figured out it’s supposed to be fun and fictional light reading.


Heck, Margo took Lila and me to a place I’ve only dreamed. She even started out in a place I too would have wanted to trade in for tropics. She may not be that stong female heroine we are all looking for. She can’t turn all the raining monkey poop in to compost as she drives by, for example.

I received this book as a TLC Book Tour, a virtual book tour site. Virtual book tours are a promotional tool for authors to connect with readers via well-read book blogs and specialty blogs.

Realism? You want realism, well my friends, tune into reality tv. Accuracy? You want accuracy? Join the Royal Horticultural Society or stop by Martha’s on the way home.

You rarely find this kind of fun and imagination in contemporary (adult) literature. You don’t have to learn anything, just read. Relax. What could be more fun?

In garden terms think of an informal cottage garden, a little messy but delightful, never the less. After reading “Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire”, I wonder whats next for Margot Berwin.

  • Title: Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire
  • Author: Margot Berwin
  • Release date: June 1, 2010
  • Publisher: Vintage
  • Pages: 304
  • Genre: Adult fiction

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Black Krim

Posted on October 28, 2010 by | Comments Off on Black Krim
Black Krim

Black Krim with a slightly salty tomato flavor

So you thought I was done talking about tomatoes for the year.

But no. There are more heirloom tomato surprises from zone 6 in Southeast Missouri.

Called black tomatoes, Black Krim produces a medium size (10 to 12 ozs.), dark browish-red tomatoes. This heirloom is growing in popularity and being discovered by black tomato converts every year. It has just a hint of saltiness, and rich, comomplex flavor.

Black Krim gets darker in hot weather, which may shed some light to neighbor Bill’s very colorful cooler season Black Krim Tomatoes.

Here is a bit of a surprise. (I pulled up all the tomatoes in my garden 3 weeks ago.)

Patsybell,

This tomato plant you gave me this spring has just now sprung into action. All summer it produced a few tomatoes that would ripen and rot at the bottom of the fruit
while the top was still green.

When October got here – lots of fruit, ripening evenly and the very best tasting tomato of the year. Should I save some seed from them?

Hope you can see these pictures.

Thank you,
Neighbor Bill

Black Krims are a generous sandwich sized slices.

Black Krim plants were sent to me for trial from Hort Couture®,

Hort Couture® is only available through independent garden centers and retailers- you won’t see these plants in the mass markets. While the plants arrived healthy, I shared one plant with my neighbor, Bill, The head tomato grower in our neighborhood. These tomatoes have a very tasty smoky/rich flavor that was a regular and consistant indeterminate that only sucummed to late blight as did all the tomatoes in my garden.

Grown in the heat of summer, my Black Krim had brownish shoulders and red purplish skin and flesh.  The color was not as distinct this summer. I used the black heirloom tomatoes in fresh salsa the summer. The Black Krim just seems to add another level of flavor to salsa.

two late season Black Krims

Two late season Black Krims

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Posted in Herb Everything, Herbs in the garden, Herbs in the kitchen, My Gardens, My Homeplace, Oh Grow Up!, Ozarks Travel Examiner, Product reviews

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My Patio

Posted on September 23, 2010 by | Comments Off on My Patio

2 New Coleus

Red Head (Solenostemon hybrida)
Versa Crimson Gold Coleus ( Solenostemon scutellarioides)

Red Head coleus

I combined these two coleus in hanging baskets that had late afternoon shade. Generally these plants were left on their own. I cut them back only twice during the growing season.

Red Head is truest red color in the Ball coleus collection. I like these newer coleus that can take the heat and hold their henna color in both full sun and part shade.

The Versa Coleus series includes Crimson Gold. These coleus were neglected, not fertilized, and inconsistently watered in hanging baskets. The bicolor leaves held their color, were vigorous, and quickly branched into a full mounded hanging basket.

All coleus will be gone with the first freeze, but till then, these plants provide bright, bold color on the patio.

Bright color all season

I’ll be using more coleus in my gardens because, unlike flowers, you get bold, season-long color.

If I can get bright , fade proof red in my garden all summer, I am inclined to plant it again next year. Most folks look at a garden at a distance. They just see the red. And this Ball Horticultural trial plant is a long lasting, fade proof busrt of red in my garden from spring till frost. Look for it next spring.


Most of my trial plants went in containers like this.

Coleus gave my garden bright season-long color.

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Disease free home garden roses

Posted on September 19, 2010 by | Comments Off on Disease free home garden roses

Grow coral-orange Showboat roses in zones 4-9

Good news on the commercial release of a sweet little rose that thinks it’s a big shot blooming spring through summer with another heavy color burst in fall.

These StoryBook™ roses are tiny but mighty bloomers. They are highly disease-resistant and low maintenance. One delightful note to home gardeners: StoryBook™ roses can be easily propagated since they can be grown from cuttings on their own roots.

I’ve have two StoryBook™ roses growing in the front of my house for three years. With the exception of an occasional watering during the drought, I’ve generally neglected them. They are disease free, and don’t need the intensive care that keep many folks away from roses.

My StoryBook™ roses do not get pricey rose food, have no spray schedule and are happy to have a shovel full of compost and a couple inches of mulch every year. Thanks to its compact habit, they require very little pruning.

Advertised as “highly resistant to powdery mildew and little affected by black spot”, they proved to be disease-free in my hot, humid zone 6 garden. Even in containers, these hardy roses have survived week-long 100 degree days and weeks of freezing weather.

I have two StoryBook™ Roses. One is a floriferous coral double rose named “Showboat,” and the other, a bold and bright white rose with a yellow center, named “Moby Dick”.

There are two more StoryBook™ Roses. “Little Women”, is a soft pink semi-double rose. And the newest is “Sundance Kid” starts as a coral bud and opend to a soft yellow with a faint coral blush. Mature blooms are a soft yellow and hold their color even in the hottest weather.

Just imagine how beautiful they would be if I lavished a little attention or fertilizer on them. But after three years, I really do need to shape and trim them up. Now, I am headed out to cleanup these long ignored little roses because we are expecting company. This spring, you can come by and see my roses. Or, call 1(800) 770-2777 to order Storybook Roses.™

Brought to the industry by the breeder of Patriot™ Lantanas, R.J. (Jack) Roberson, StoryBook™ Garden Roses will be “whats next” in easy care home gardens. These little gems are perfect as patio roses or hardy in containers.

Story Book™ Roses are the closest thing to a maintenance free rose I have ever grown.

For more information: contact Jo Roberson at jo@americandaylily.com or go to www.gardensofglory.com.

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Cute as a Baby Bell

Posted on September 16, 2010 by | Comments Off on Cute as a Baby Bell

Bright and crisp

These little peppers are crisp and sweet. I ate the first ripe pepper right in the garden. I’m growing a few  chilies and several different mild or bell peppers.  These mini bell pepper plants are compact and heavy producers. Baby bells are a good choice for growing in containers.

There are truly a rainbow of colors for bell peppers. Try something new, like Baby Bells, beautiful in the garden and tasty in recipes. The green peppers are not as sweet and sometimes more bitter than the red, yellow or orange peppers. Bell peppers are at their sweetest when allowed to ripen on the plant in full sun.

Red peppers also have twice the vitamin C content of green peppers. Bell peppers are an excellent source of vitamins C and A. One raw pepper provides more vitamin C than one cup of orange juice.

Red Baby Bells

The red and yellow baby bell peppers are beautiful together on an antipasto plate or in a big summer salad.  This pepper seed is easy to find in several catalogs.

I got my seed at Renee’s Garden. I like that both the red and yellow peppers came in one seed pack. After all, how many pepper plants does a home gardener need?

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Posted in Herb Everything, Herbs in the garden, Herbs in the kitchen, Ozarks Travel Examiner, Product reviews

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La Crema sage for fashionistas.

Posted on August 20, 2010 by | 1 comment

IN THE HERB GARDEN

Flavorful Bicolor sage

Hort Couture is a company that offers “the most sought after new plants and genetics from the world’s best breeders and plants people,” according to their website. One of their more popular plant collections is Culinary Couture, a line of fashionable heirloom vegetables and herbs.

So far, I’ve grown the following plants with panache this summer: Salvia officinalis ‘La Crema’, ‘Black Krim’ (an heirloom tomato) and the worldwide hit ‘ Tomaccio’ (a new dried snack tomato). I’ll share the results of my tomatoes later this year. (It will be more than a month before I’ll have dried tomatoes and a final report.)

One of my favorite herbs from Culinary Couture is ‘La Crema’, a fragrant, variegated sage that is currently thriving in my Zone 6 garden. Reminiscent of the familiar common garden sage, ‘La Crema’ is aromatic and beautiful enough to be in the flower garden.

8-18-2010-4
Look for ‘La Crema’ in independent garden centers next spring.
It is thriving in my humid, Zone 6 garden.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

What I’m most excited about is using this flavorful herb in my family’s cornbread and sage dressing this Thanksgiving. I suggest that you use this sage as you would any other garden sage. Low-growing sage can grow as a border plant in a perennial garden. In spring, blue sage flowers appear about the time chives have blossomed. The flowers also make a pretty bouquet or can be used as an edible garnish.

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Photos by Patsy Bell Hobson

Hort Couture is the fastest growing plant brand in North America. Their plant collections include Avant Garde Annuals, Prêt a Porter Perennials, Tres Chic Tropicals, Culinary Couture and Sunny Succulents. ‘La Crema’ is from C. Raker & Sons, a wholesale plant propagation specialist based in Litchfield, Michigan. C. Raker & Sons is in partnership with Hort Couture, the fashionistas of the plant world.

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Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Have you ever bought herbs from Hort Couture? What do you think of their products?

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I’m headed to the Yucatan

Posted on August 9, 2010 by | 2 comments

Books

I’m headed to the Yucatan with author Margot Berwin in her first novel, Hothouse Flower. The book is an ficticious journey for the reader and the writer. Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire is just plain fun.

The rainforest is home to some of the most exotic and deadly flowers

So, grab a cool drink, this paperback and enjoy a fun summer read.

Margot Berwin creates an adventure and horticultural myth about 9 flowers from her dreams and intuition. We get to go with her on an adventure of exotic plants, romance, travel and spirit animals that takes us from New York to the Yucatan peninsula.

Costa Maya is a fishing village where “the villagers are of Mayan Indian descent with the usual smattering of expatriate alcoholics, criminals, and students slumming it on the beaches between semesters.”

I’m giving away a copy of Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire, written by Margot Berwin.

Email me by August 18, the drawing will be August 19. I’ll contact the winner for an address and send it to the publisher who will mail your copy of Hot House Flower.

To enter the random drawing for a free copy of this book, send me an email: Patsy64068@yahoo.com. Tell what flower you think is romantic. For example, I might write “I think the For-Get-Me-Not is a romantic flower.” One entry per person please.

My review is coming in October. But I want you to read this book now because it’s a great summer read.

Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire written by Margot Berwin
Category: Fiction – Literary
Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-39054-7 (0-307-39054-3)

Growing orchids may be easier than you think.

Garden writers, horticulture bloggers and coaches, keep in mind – It’s fiction and it’s fun.

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