Hi, Michael

You seemed to have already focused in on most of the gardener's concerns. The biggest concern of most of us is affordability...translation...cheap. :) For example, why should a rain barrel made from a 55-gallon food service drum cost us $180 and up (which doesn't have $50 worth of material in it)...when the used barrels are sold by local individuals for $5 to $20 each? Why not sell an affordable kit to make a rain barrel...which includes a top screen, bottom spigot, and holes premade in the barrel? This would help people who don't have access to the parts locally. The same for the composters made of plastic barrels. Way over priced.

Non-professional people are frustrated they can't find coarse vermiculite and perlite or bark fines (all for making soil mixes) especially in consumer sized bags.

I realize these don't really fall in the garden equipment categories, but it is frustrating for all of us out here. How about a garden hose reel that actually works and is easy to use? Or any kind of solution to dragging a heavy hose all over the yard which also always bypasses any hose guards/guides you have put around your flower beds.

How about something that actually would kill off invasive plants? Or how about something that really keeps weeds out of your flower beds? (Black ground cloth does not stop grass and weeds...they just grow thru it).

The ideal garden cart would be easy to load things onto (like the flatbed wagons)and would hold gardening tools, a drink holder, a small trash bin/bag (for all the glass/junk you dig up in the yard), covered containers to hold fertilizers and lime etc, an attached wand & hose (coiled maybe) that could be connected to a nearby spigot via a short hose, and an ashtray (some of us need it!), a bin to hold small items (labels, plant ties, string, etc) and a hook to hold a towel like on golfbags. :) Now this conglomerated contraption should also be very easy to move and very affordable. ;) Hmmmm...I think I have to go give my garden cart an overhaul.

Anyways, I know these are all silly things that no manufacturer would ever go along with (especially the "affordable" part)...but these are things that bug us.

Whatever it is that you design...just make it really work and not be a waste of our money and time. (Some of us out here would willingly be product testers) ;)

My big issue is mobility. I have osteoarthritis in my knees, and they are often very painful. This got really bad *after* we moved onto 3 hilly acres and dug lots and lots of gardens! I sit on the ground to do a lot of my gardening, and sort of work my way around while sitting, but if I need to get down/up very often to move to other areas it aggravates my joints pretty quickly. I've often wished for 2 things:
1. A sort of hobbyhorse thing on wheels that I could get on to push myself around without having to walk - not a wheelchair, it'd never make it up and down the hills - more like a wheeled sawhorse design maybe?
2. something that could give me an assist to get from sitting on ground to standing, perhaps with levers I could push with my arms?

One thing I've found that has been a huge help is one of the new large garden wagons with a mesh bottom and sides that fold down. Mine is pretty big, but not huge, and it pulls very smoothly and can carry a large muck bucket for weeds, another large bucket for tools, plus flower pots, scrub brush, roundup, etc. I keep *everything* I commonly use in mine, and no longer have to make side trips all over to get things I need.

Another tip that helps is to have multiple compost piles around the property. Ours is bounded by the woods, and so I have various areas where I dump compost, near various gardens. That way I can empty my compost bucket without having to haul it all the way to one main area.

I hope this is some help.

I second a garden hose reel that really works, letting out the hose easily without tipping over or someone having to stand on it so that it doesn't 'walk' with you, and with a handle that really reels the hose in easily too.

Hi every one
Thanks for the replies the feedback will be useful.

The mention of multiple composting piles was interesting as it is an area I have been looking into in more depth.
I have researched this and it seems 20% of household garden waste is thrown out and goes into landfill releasing greenhouse gasses when it could be composted in the garden
I am potentially going to develop a composting "system" for use in the kitchen and garden to combat this.

Im interested in the idea of a compost system or bin that isnÂt an eye sore in an attractive garden and doesnÂt attract files or pests and something that would encourage more people to compost their own garden waste instead of binning it.
Kerbside collection seems to be a contradiction to me with the fossil fuels, taxpayerÂs money and man hours going into operating it.

Does any one have any experience or criticisms of existing compost bins?

Thanks Again

Thank you
Michael Reznor.
Email: -
alanahapartridge@hotmail.com

re: existing compost bins: commercial ones are almost invariably over-priced (hello out there, all that is really needed is a place to put the stuff!). IMHO, one of the best of the commercial styles [especially if your wallet is fat] is the 'pyramid composter' see one at the link. Another good composter is DIY wire mesh fastened to metal stakes in either a 4' circle or square; or the set of 3 bins (for the true compost enthusiasts) that you use in sequence (DIY with wooden pallets). The most effective with the least effort is to practice trench composting right in your garden - one digs a short but deep trench, leaving the soil on one side and puts a cover (preferably a wide board) over the trench. Starting at one end, dump in the stuff to be composted and cover with some of the soil that had been removed. When you get to the end of the trench, dig out another length and repeat the process. I have found that digging 15 to 18 inches deep, and being sure there is about a foot of soil on top of the raw stuff seems to be sufficient to discourage animals from digging up the unfinished stuff, and it turns into compost in just a few months. Interestingly, a garbage can or very large bucket (lidded) that has soil [and a couple earthworms] on the bottom is quite effective as long as one wraps the 'green' scraps in newspaper and occasionally adds a sprinkle of soil on top.

I think the biggest issue is patience. We tend to be an impatient society, and having a pile of stuff laying around for a year, "just ain't right." So part of the problem is social.

When you look into composting as I did, you quickly discover that tumblers can help speed up the process. Of course they're even more ridiculously priced than normal composers. So the other part of the problem is a lack of reasonable tools to address the time factor.

I think any inexpensive, homemade tools that can increase the turn around time would greatly improve the adoption, and most important, the ongoing practice of home composting. (Have you been to craigslist or signed up for freecycling? Composting bins from the city are given away for free in the 1000s.) Many people try composting, but give up because the reward seems so anti-clamatic.

There's all kinds of literature about the benefits of composting and the right mixes, but there's scant information about how to speed it up--cheap chipper/shreader ideas, home made tumblers that work.

Taking out the labor and increasing the through put, I think will do more to reduce landfill waste than aesthetics.

Hmm, some of the problems you've listed don't strike me as needing products, but rather as needing social engineering, public education programs, or a different perspective.

Re kitchen waste. Some of the best management practices (BMPs) are systemic. San Francisco and other cities have combined green waste and kitchen waste collection. It all gets composted (and food-contaminated paper products are also allowed in the same bin). Other cities looking into zero waste plans are considering composting food waste. In my town, three-fourths of the food waste comes from businesses, only a quarter from residences, so home composting is not a solution to the food-waste problem. (I compost because I enjoy composting...)

One solution to the kitchen-waste prob is worm bins. Some communities subsidize worm bins (sell them at a much-reduced cost). But this may be a hard sell for people not used to handling worms. (Start them young -- a worm composter in every first-grade classroom!)

Compost bins. I have four different compost bins and my favorite is the Bio-Stack because it is the easiest on my back. The layers come apart, the lid is exceptionally well designed, it is rodent-proof, it is light weight (or at least the parts are), and the parts easily fit together. I think this is one of the best designed objects I've ever used.

Re weeding. I have essentially eliminated weeding in my garden by using mulch with a layer of newspaper or cardboard underneath. I started with a garden and garden paths overrun with bermuda grass and bindweed, and 2 years later I need to weed other people's gardens to satisfy my weed-pulling urge. The best weeding tool I have ever used is the hori-hori, another exceptionally well-designed tool. It is the best thing for rooting out deep bermuda grass rhizomes, and it also works as a trowel for planting, as a knife for dividing perennials, as a soil-smoothing and -leveling tool, and as a prying tool to get staples out of wood.

Re harvesting. I reuse the #1 plastic (PETE) containers that berries and other produce come in for harvesting. They are the best containers for tomatoes, especially small tomatoes, because I can pack 8-10 of them into a canvas tote bag and be assured that no fruits will get damaged. They are also good when harvesting different crops -- cucumbers and strawberries, for instance. These containers protect the berries from being squashed, and they also prevent the cukes from mashing the berries. They can be stacked in any order, since they are rigid enough to hold their shape. At home, they are ideal as holding containers for tomatoes that are not yet ripe. Instead of placing tomatoes individually on a windowsill, I simply leave the tomatoes in the containers near a sunny window. They also are the best way to keep cukes fresh in the refrigerator.

A product that I have not found that I wish existed is a quiet, effective garden shredder for greens. I use my hand pruners to chop green waste into 6-inch segments, but the composting process goes much faster with more finely chopped ingredients. I wonder if something like a garbage disposal could be adapted for garden use -- though it's not a quiet device by any means. The chipper-shredders that are on the market seem to be noisy and fairly expensive, and meant for dry woody materials. I do not have woody material to shred, but I do have a lot of green material, and wet greens tend to clog chippers. Imagine: instant household compost piles with one stream of "browns" coming from a paper shredder, and another stream of "greens" coming from a [insert invention here].

Is this the kind of info you're looking for? Ask some more specific questions.

Simple request..........
A hose nozzle that will last more than a few weeks without springing a leak.
The cheap plastic ones seem to have something go wrong pretty quickly. The metal ones bend or something so they begin to leak as well.
Yes, I have "good" rubber washers in there, that's not the problem. I think they just get abused, dropped, etc. and don't withstand this.

On the other hand............I don't want to spend $20.00 on a stupid nozzle either!
JMHO

I'll second Habitat's idea for a greens chopper! But the blades should be strong enough to handle dried perennial stems and leafy twigs as well as greenery.

Trent - Design one for us! Here's what I'd like to see: Lightweight and slim-line, but with tall, fat wheels so it can travel over mulched paths through the garden - and a sensible handle for pushing it along. Funnel-shaped feeder-hole with a *wide* mouth. The exit chute high off the ground so you can put a 5 gallon bucket underneath to catch the choppings -or, better yet: the chute should be a flexible tube that can be guided into bucket or cart. And with 2 sets of easily sharpened/replaceable blades: one set heavy-duty to coarsely chop twigs and stems, and one set with closer blades to chop green stuff into finer bits -- and we shouldn't need brute strength in order to be able to change the blades! Design the blade-unit so it can be easily slid in and out of place. It should have an electric motor strong enough to chomp green cornstalks without jamming or stalling. And a push-button or flip-switch (big enough to use while wearing gloves) for start/stopping the motor. Safety requirements will demand a protective screen over the exit -- 2 points: a) make the durn grid-holes wide enough to let the chopped pieces pass through, and b) design it so it can be removed for un-jamming (and surely that design can contain a safety feature which prevents the motor from running unless the grid is in place). I'm not sure, but use of a discharge tube may negate the need for a safety grid. Use a plastic like tuff-Pro urethane for most of the body parts to cut down on weight and eliminate rusting problems. And of course, do all this at a reasonable price :) -- and when you do design this gadget, let us know!