Why I Oughta...

Earlier this year, I posted a couple of pieces on the notion of 'legibility' in the garden .  It was new (to me) and as part of learning about it, I wrote out my thoughts, researched what other people were saying and then followed-up with a post that outlined what Dr. Jared Barnes has created in his list of 'elements' that create garden legibility . Here are the seven elements (or components) of Garden Legibility ( via Dr. Jared Barnes ): 1. Clean edges 2. Desire lines and paths 3. Primary and secondary axes 4. Sightlines 5. Focal points 6. Entrances 7. Seeing over plantings Clean edges includes cut-edging, but also installed edges.  I've written about garden edges a number of times over the years.  Here , here , here and here .  Most recently, I was drawn to this timber-edging from a YouTube gardener and thought about using it as a retaining-wall(ish) under the Greenspire Lindens .  I still think that's a good idea (note for 2026 projects), but I was pointed...

I was in the Menards garden center recently and came across this rack that had four mailbox posts laying on it that had my gears turning a little bit.  Turning about what?  Well, that would be #11 on my 2021 to-do list for the season :   "Figure out SMALL tool storage - like pruners, saws, gloves, hand shovels, hose washers, other smalls." Could a mailbox post and a large, metal mailbox be the solve? I've danced around various tool storage ideas and have not settled on something that I'm in love with in terms of location, size, type, utility for gardening tool storage.  But, a mailbox solves A LOT of what I'm facing:  it is weatherproof, it closes and some of the larger ones can hold a lot of things like saws, shovels, gloves, even wire and automower supplies.  I currently keep everything in the garage, but that means that when I need them, I have to out front, grab them, then come back and do the work.   This would put my most-essential tool...

It took a little bit over a year , but I now have this folding pruning saw in my yard and garden toolset.  Last March, I shared a photo of a Fiskars folding pruning saw that I saw at Walmart and realized that I could put it to good use. We have plenty of limbs that fall from the trees in our yard that are too big to 'crack' but too small to pile up and process with a more formal saw.  Couple that dynamic with the fact that I don't own a chainsaw and you'll start to understand how I could use this saw. Look at the pile of limbs from that large downed Oak limb in this post for the type of cuts that I'd use this saw for in our yard. Here's a look at the saw below - out of the package: The back of the package includes an interesting nugget in terms of what this saw is applicable for:  wood, plastic and BONE (up to 4").  Bone, people! I haven't been great about keeping all my garden tools in one spot - in a way that makes them easy to tu...