Garden Gadgets

The new Power Rake makes fall chores much more efficient

Our friends over at Yanko Design have created an interesting and time saving device to make us that much more lazier. The Power Rake.

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With weather cooling down for the year, all of the outdoor plants will soon be dying off.  Instead of just waiting until next spring to have pretty flowers again, you can switch to indoor plants.  The indoor plants will allow for you to keep your home feeling like summertime, even if it is freezing outdoors.  Well this Superior Self Sustaining Indoor Garden will allow for you to keep a variety of indoor plants alive.

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I’ve always wanted to have a garden with a waterfall, but what if I had a garden with four waterfalls? Better yet, what if I had a garden with four waterfalls that went uphill?

No, this isn’t some sort of waterfall garden in some Land of Broken Laws of Physics, but the Chelsea Garden Show in New York this year. This “Wrong Garden”, designed by James Dyson, took about one year to create, and was inspired by the uphill waterfalls from artist M.C. Escher.

In case you can’t read the tiny print from the illustration, the waterfall works with air pumped from a sealed tank with bubbles rising to make the illusion of uphill flowing water.

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Don’t have green fingers as every single plant that has gone through your hands inexplicably dies off sometime down the road regardless of how much love, care and attention you shower upon it? Things might take a turn for the better with the Power Plant Growing Machine.

A result of pioneering NASA technology this mains-powered box of magic lets you grow plants, all season, without soil. A nifty internal microjet system constantly sprays roots with super-oxygenated, nutrient rich water so crops grow bigger and stronger. All you do is add water to a special nutrient mix (included) and pour it over the spongy strip that sits below the brim of the Power Plant. Next, sow your seeds on the sponge, replace the lid, stick the whole shebang on the window sill, sit back and dream of Alan Titchmarsh. Once the shoots appear, maintenance is minimal. You can even use the Power Plant to grow flowers.

This green growing machine can be used over and over again, making the £34.95 asking price pretty much a bargain considering the virtually unlimited use down the road. Perfect for folks who’ve always wanted a budding garden but never quite had the talent to match their ambition.

Summer’s here for those living in the northern hemisphere, and you’ll need to make sure you get enough sunscreen on your back if you plan to spend lots of time under the sun to attain that lovely tan. We’d highly recommend you bring the UV Monkey with you though.

This small keyring gadget is like your own personal space monkey. The UV Monkey will assist you by checking UV levels so that you know when to charge solar devices – and when to protect your skin. Once exposed to sunlight, the center will change to different shades of purple to indicate increasing levels of UV light (darker means higher level of UV). The UV Monkey can indicate 4 different ranges of the UV Index (Index 1-2, Index 3-5, Index 6-8, Index 9-11).

Spending $9.99 for a device that could potentially help prevent sun skin damage, why not? The money spent would clearly pale in comparison when placed next to hospital bills involved in treating skin cancer many years down the road.

Summer’s here for some parts of the world, and that would mean organizing cookouts as well as having a generally fun time with friends and family while the sun still shines. The Asado Grill Instant BBQ Stand ought to make those cookouts a much more fun experience, as it boasts both simplicity and genius in a single contraption – all you need to do is slot your instant barbecue in the top, place the Asado wherever you like, light it up and you’re good to go.

Because of those slender little legs that lift the Asado high up, you can place the BBQ anywhere you like without damaging the surface underneath – on grass, even on a tabletop. It’s based on a design of portable grill that South American gauchos would carry on their horses as they ranched cattle over the wide plains. They’d huddle together over an Asado each night, sizzling a juicy steak fresh from the herd as they went – then pack up and be off the next morning to repeat the process.

Made from chrome, you can pick up the Asado Grill Instant BBQ Stand for £9.95.

Star Wars fans will definitely find the following 3D Star Wars Starfighter Kites something worth purchasing, especially for those who live in the northern hemisphere where summer’s here, which means spending plenty of time outdoors with family and friends to enjoy the nice, warm sun before the chill of autumn and winter sets in.

Each ship is presented in all the kite detail that kites can provide. You can choose from either Luke’s X-Wing, Vader’s Tie Fighter, or Han’s Millennium Falcon (hey, he won it fair and square). Imagine the peaceful, floaty dogfights as Darth chases Luke in the trench of a cloudy-made Death Star, with Han zipping in and taking Darth down. Just like the movies, but a lot more relaxing. We love it, the Alderaanians loved it, and so will you.

Imagine having kite fights with these, where fierce battles are not decided by turbo lasers but the sheer sharpness of crushed glass pasted across the entire length of the kite’s line. The 3D Star Wars Starfighter Kites will retail for $39.99 each.

I usually like birds, that is as long as they’re in the proper environment.  I’m not exactly fond of them when they decide to use my car as target practice though.  There are just those times when birds go from being pretty melodious creatures to being a pain.  Well if you have a situation where the birds are causing trouble on a flat surface of some kind, that’s a little out of reach for you, you could pick up this solar device.  It’s a great alternative if you aren’t ready just yet to whip out a gun and camp out.

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