Paul James, host of HGTV's Gardening by the Yard, discusses some of his favorite gardening gadgets. Have you ever been working in the soil and needed to get something out of your pocket? You can avoid putting your dirty hands in your pockets if you have a hand-cleaning device (figure A), whose tiny rubber bristles sweep the soil off your hands. "Garden hands" (figure B) are useful for picking up piles of leaves, straw or light garden debris -- especially when the material is full of pine needles or stickers. Hose holders (figure C) are handy for tending hoses that have been fitted with on/off nozzles. Just stab the attached stake into the ground, and you have hands-free watering. The Scarecrow Motion Activated Sprinkler (figure D) is used to scare away garden pests such as raccoons, deer and rabbits. It uses two 9-volt batteries to power a motion detector, which opens a valve and squirts a 3-second spray of water as far as 45". The "shrake" is part shovel, part rake. The tool is useful for sifting rocks out of soil and for pond maintenance. Miniature versions of standard-sized garden tools are handy when you're working in small areas or tight spaces. Small versions of shovels can be used as oversized trowels, and they're useful on camping trips too. A compost aerator works like a corkscrew: Insert the twisted end into the compost pile, and give it a few turns to incorporate air into the pile. It's much easier to use an aerator than to turn the entire pile with a pitchfork. The tomato spiral (figure E) is a new kind of tomato stake. Place spirals in the soil, and plant tomatoes next to them: the plants will climb the stakes without tying.
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