Mother Earth News Garden Planner

A while ago I participated in a survey with Mother Earth News on garden planners and I was fantasizing about a system that would keep track not only of your climate but also your garden history so that it would warn you when you were thinking of planting things from the same families in the same places (which encourages diseases and reduces yields) . . .

Lo and behold, they must have listened, because they have come up with an awesome web-based garden planner application. I'm going to play with the free trial all through December and then join after January 1 ($25/yr). I can't wait! LOVESalem HQ really needs this.

Very useful this time of year! Fruitfly Deathtrap

Image via WikipediaFrom "Cool Tools" newsletter, where I always find one or two things worth looking at. Maybe I'm the last to know about this one . . . but better late than never!

fly deathtrap
Apple Cider Vinegar + Dish Soap Fly Trap

Fruit flies can materialize in even the most spotless kitchens. Until recently, I had no idea that they could be dealt with in a safe, effective, and cheap manner using apple cider vinegar and dish soap.

By simply pouring apple cider vinegar into an open cup or bowl and adding a drop or two of dish detergent you can easily make an incredibly effective trap for ridding your kitchen of fruit flies. Place it near your fruit bowl or trash can and within a day you will have nipped the problem in the bud.


Apple cider vinegar works as an attractant because of its strong sweet odor while the dish detergent decreases the vinegar's surface tension so that when a fly touches the surface it immediately sinks and drowns. It's particularly satisfying to see the collection of flies you have dealt with at the bottom of the glass. This has to be one of the best house keeping tricks I have ever picked up.

-- Oliver Hulland

Post-carbon snow-shovel for the heart-attack-prone set

Happily, one rarely needs a snow shovel in Salem, but many of our friends do elsewhere --- this seems like the snow shovel to have for the post-peak-oil blizzards. (Recall that climate change doesn't mean uniform warming -- it means more extreme weather in both directions thanks to the disrupted climate stability.) Hat tip to "Cool Tools" for the pointer quoted below.

Sno Wovel

As a Montrealer who has shoveled more snow than you can shake a very big stick at, I was intrigued when I first came across a video of this wheeled shovel in action. I live in the suburbs south of Montreal, on a street where there's a popular bus route; the snow plow can pass my house several times a day during heavy snow falls, repeatedly depositing a compacted mound of snow in my driveway entrance.

I bought a Wovel, and what was once a dreaded exercise in futility has now become a looked forward to workout! Thanks to the Wovel's design, all the snow's weight gets transferred to my arms and legs. The fulcrum at the center of the big wheel effectively allows the Wovel to do the heavy lifting for me. After becoming proficient in its use, I was able to master the natural seesaw action and launch the snow surprisingly high. Now, after a season and a half of use, I can consistently build snow banks up to five feet high. It's like having my own little nonnmotorized bulldozer.

I've been using mine to shovel my walk/driveway as well as my neighbor's for more than a year, and I’ve been beating the crap out of the thing. It won't quit. It’s made from a thick-gauge steel and is covered by a lifetime warranty. What was once about an hour of back-breaking work has been cut down to about 20 minutes, which makes this purchase one of the best expenditures I have ever made.

-- Billy Zavos

The Sno Wovel Wheeled Snow Shovel
$120

Available from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001I7JWTO/ref=nosim/kkorg-20

Manufactured by Structured Solutions II
http://www.wovel.com/