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Posts Tagged ‘garden gloves’
Sunday, August 29th, 2010
 Hardy Duncecap succulent (needs to be indoors in winter)  Allium Pink Curly Onion will be put in the ground for the winter  A pretty combination of tiny succulents and sedum  My first collection of troughs
After letting my cement troughs cure for 3-4 weeks in plastic bags, I took them out, donned my garden gloves and planted them up this afternoon. I bought several succulents at a local garden center, some of which are winter hardy and others that are not. I plan to bring all my troughs indoors this winter so I can enjoy them. They are not large, so I can put them on the long kitchen windowsill that gets southern sun. Before putting the plants in the troughs I cut a piece of screen to cover the hole at the bottom, to prevent soil from draining out too rapidly. What I did NOT do is let the troughs sit for several days or weeks outdoors to allow the free lime in the cement to leach out. It is harmful to plants. So, I may do this after the fact and then repot this fall. For how to instructions on making your own troughs, see our youtube video by clicking here.
Tags: garden gloves, Trough Gardening
Posted in Trough Gardening | No Comments »
Friday, July 30th, 2010
 By August, does it feel like the best is over in your garden? Spring and summer bloom is usually abundant, but by late summer the garden may look tired. With just a little extra care you can make your display last until early Fall by growing perennials that keep blooming throughout the season, or produce a second flush later in the season.
 Salvia 'May Night' “Off with their heads” should be your mantra. The act of deadheading stimulates lower buds to develop and produce more flowers. Perennials such as Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’, purple toadflax (Linaria purpurea) and coreopsis bloom more or less continuously throughout the season. Threadleaf coreopsis (C. verticillata ‘Moonbeam’ and others) are trickier to deadhead because they have lots of skinny stems that take a little more time to snip. I recommend a lightweight compact scissor from Womanswork, which is small enough to be precise.
 - Yarrow (Achillea)
With strong-stemmed spiky bloomers you can whack off the stems more readily and be rewarded by blooms on the lateral branches later. These include meadow and summer phlox, obedient plant, salvias, campanulas, monkshood, and yarrow. If you work around globe thistle (Echinops) or other spiny plants, protect your hands with Womanswork garden gloves. I like the original work glove or rose leather gauntlet glove for this job.
 - Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’
Some perennials can be cut to the ground after blooming, and new foliage and possibly some flowers will return in a few weeks. These include Lady’s Mantle, catmints and some hardy geraniums (G. endressei ‘Wargrave Pink’ for instance). Shasta daisies can be cut to the ground after their second flush, with the possibility of more blooms later.
To deadhead, cut the stem above a leaf bud further down the stem, where you may see new growth. After a severe cutting, give the plants a deep watering and feeding with liquid seaweed or other fertilizer. Also fluff up the surrounding soil so that late rains penetrate the soil easily.
Tags: garden gloves, Garden Supplies
Posted in Ruth Rogers Clausen Tells All | No Comments »
Monday, April 12th, 2010
 Mom's Greenhouse Our greenhouse is moving along slowly, thank you very much. In the meantime, I have noticed that greenhouses come in all shapes and sizes. For instance, my mother has a “greenhouse” of the type I would put in quotation marks. She lives 35 miles north of me in Sharon, CT. This morning we visited a couple of garden centers in her neighborhood and presented the Womanswork line of garden gloves, then we went to her house for lunch. This is her “greenhouse.” It was purchased by mail through one of my favorite gardening companies, Lee Valley, and it consists of a lightweight metal frame with 2 shelves, covered in clear plastic with a zippered window for entry. She puts her seedlings in there during the day, while the sun is shining , but she brings in her trays at night since temperatures are still low in northwestern Connecticut. In fact tonight they are predicting a frost in her area.
Another type of “greenhouse” is the window extension. You can have this built onto an existing window. It offers sun from the top and 3 sides and is very useful for a few seedlings and potted houseplants.
The next level up in greenhouses is the free standing greenhouse kit such as the one shown below. These greenhouses are often sold as “do-it-yourselfers” and are situated in an area of the yard where they can get full sun.
Finally, there is the type that is part greenhouse and part sunroom. Although our greenhouse will not be ornate like the ones shown here, it is more along the lines of these greenhouses because it is being designed to fit the architecture of the house. In winter it will get full sun but in summer a large oak tree will shade it so it won’t need as much ventilation and cooling as most free standing greenhouses do.
 The Conservatory Greenhouse  Free Standing Greenhouse from a Kit  Window ExtensionGreenhouse and Sunroom
 Greenhouse and Sunroom
Tags: Building A Greenhouse, garden gloves, How to build a greenhouse
Posted in Building A Greenhouse | No Comments »
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
So spring is here and the summer and fall-blooming shrubs need to be pruned—right? Well, yes and no. Don’t be in a rush. Beware of pruning too early, especially those silver-leaved beauties that have only just started into growth.
 Perovskia atriplicifoia Through bitter experience, I have found that it is better to wait a couple of weeks until at least 1″ of new young growth is showing. You can always cut back later, but too early pruning may indeed toll the bell for butterfly bush (Buddleia, shown here), common sage (Salvia officinalis), Russian sage (Perovskia), bluebeard (Caryopteris), lavender, etc. A friend of mine living in the Delaware Valley had a crescent-shaped bed with a row of tall butterfly bushes running down the spine. One spring, they were pruned hard just as the sap was rising and the buds were beginning to break. The following week there was an extended cold snap and every last butterfly bush was killed! It was a disaster and very hard lesson for her.
When I decide to prune these shrubs, I always wear sturdy and comfortable garden gloves to protect my hands, and am sure to use sharp hand pruners and loppers (www.felcostore.com). To encourage vigorous new growth, prune hard towards the base where new shoots are emerging. Cut above a bud on a slant so rain runs off the top of the cut. The harder you cut, the more vigorous the plants will grow. Every few years take the whole plant down to about a foot from ground level to increase vigor and control size.
 Salvia officinalis
Tags: garden gloves, pruning silvery leaved shrubs, spring pruning
Posted in Ruth Rogers Clausen Tells All | No Comments »
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
 Ruth's Greenhouse Welcome to my 10′ x 9′ greenhouse. It faces south with a sliding door from the living room. When spring comes I can walk through it onto the deck where I pot up lots of fun combinations in planters. Many of the plants I use have been overwintered and propagated in my greenhouse. My nitrile garden gloves live there too where they are close to hand. At the moment several varieties of velvety-leaved aromatic Cuban oregano (Plectranthus), a current favorite of mine, are being propagated through cuttings. Coleus and Streptocarpella do well, the latter in full bloom along with mini-fuchsia (Fuchsia cana). I keep geraniums, especially scented ones, growing and blooming through the winter. Chives, parsley and mint are residents too, of course. I’ll be starting seeds any day now—sweet peas in cardboard egg cartons, sweet alyssum (8 weeks to bloom), and spinach.
 Plants are Propagated with Cuttings Propagating plants with cuttings is an easy task. Clip a 1 ½” to 3″ long piece of a young shoot from the mother plant, recut where leaves emerge, remove the lower leaves, and insert the cutting into damp rooting mix: perlite or vermiculite. Water gently. I enclose the whole thing in a plastic vegetable bag, blow it up, and secure tightly with a twistie. This balloon-like cocoon prevents the cuttings from drying out. Keep them away from direct sun or they will cook.
Tags: garden gloves, greenhouse, Ruth Rogers Clausen
Posted in Building A Greenhouse, Ruth Rogers Clausen Tells All | No Comments »
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
 Early Catalog Cover for Womanswork This year marks Womanswork’s 25th year in business. We thought, what better time than now to say thanks to our garden glove fans with a little give away contest?
The Womanswork Story.
But first some background on us. Womanswork was started in Maine in 1985 because there were no good work gloves designed to fit women’s hands. A little black and white (and sepia) catalog was sent to a growing list of women who needed a good work and garden glove. The logo “Strong Women Building A Gentle World” was written and became the rallying cry stamped on the back of each pair of gloves.
What’s different about Womanswork gloves is that they are all designed by women, so the fit, the features (such as machine washability), and the designs and colors are all geared to what women like.
 Dorian Winslow, Womanswork owner  High-Performance-Garden-Glove I’m the owner of Womanswork and I like to stay in touch with our customers through email, phone calls, face-to-face at trade shows, and now Facebook and this blog. The feedback we get helps us make our garden gloves and other products better all the time.
Thanks for 25 Years!
 Thank you gift--Chocolate hearts The other day we were putting together little packages of gourmet chocolate hearts in a Womanswork mug and sending them to a handful of our favorite wholesale clients, mostly garden center owners and managers. It occurred to us that, while we can’t possibly say “thanks” to all of our customers in this way, maybe we could say ‘thank you for 25 years’ to our wider audience of fans in a different way. So that’s what we’ll do. Stay tuned for garden glove contest details.
 Our production line of thank you gifts
Tags: 25th anniversary, garden gloves
Posted in 25th Anniversary of Womanswork | 2 Comments »
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
We spent the last 6 days in New York at the Jacob Javits Center, along with thousands of other people (perhaps tens of thousands). We stayed at the W Hotel on Lexington Ave and 50th Street. How appropriate.
 "W" is for W Hotel and for Womanswork Eve was with me as we met with owners and representatives of retail stores across the country. They were all looking for new items and many of them seemed pleased to see us there with our colorful, well made garden gloves, sun hats and Garden Wheels. We also saw some media people including editors from Better Homes & Gardens magazine and our friend Madaline Sparks from Real Simple.
 Dorian and Eve at the New York Gift Fair Down the row from our booth was a fun collection of indoor/ outdoor containers and baskets. I purchased some of them at the end of the show, which I will use for planting bulbs next winter. One of the fringe benefits of these shows is you get to pick up items from other exhibitors who are happy to sell their samples. We sold a lot of our own gloves to other exhibitors in this way.
 Pots being sold at another booth
Tags: garden gloves, Garden Wheels, sun hats
Posted in Winter Topics | No Comments »
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
When my husband Tom asked me why I wanted a greenhouse I said that I wanted to be able to can and pickle and preserve vegetables and fruits. He replied that those are not exactly things you do in a greenhouse. He has a point.
I realized at that moment that I had constructed in my mind an elaborate fantasy that involved growing things from seed to transplant to harvest to preserving. I pictured a factory production line in my kitchen, with canning jars being boiled and cute little labels being printed off the computer. I would give away my homegrown preserves as gifts or someday sell them on my Womanswork garden glove website.
 cute little jam jars I am not the kind of person who lets fantasies go to waste. First thing we did was punch a big hole in the back of our house and put in a doorway that will lead to the future greenhouse. At that point I knew there would be no turning back. We call it ‘the door to nowhere.’
 Door to Nowhere with Foundation in Progress Then in October we built a full foundation ‘to code’. We completed it just before the first snowfall. (read about that in my October blog entry)
 Poured Slab With Snow Cozying up to Green house Catalogs and How To Books
There are many things to think about when planning a greenhouse. I got three books on building a greenhouse for Christmas and on cold days I can be found reading in front of the fire, sipping hot tea and hibernating under a fluffy throw, thinking about the fun I will have. In my next post I will review some of my reading material. I have also learned of websites for canning supplies, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
 How-To Greenhouse Books
Tags: Building A Greenhouse, garden gloves, How to build a greenhouse
Posted in Building A Greenhouse, Winter Topics | No Comments »
Friday, January 15th, 2010
We have decided to give away 3 pairs of garden gloves this week because we liked so many of your comments and gardening resolutions. We are sending a pair to Taylor who is 14, because we were inspired that someone so young dreams about gardening; we are sending a pair to LaManda Joy because we like her idea of teaching 5 people to garden and asking them to teach 5 others; and finally we are also sending a pair of gloves to Ann Carranza who is resolved to plant something in her vegetable garden that she has never eaten before.
Any comments received starting today will be considered for next week’s drawing. Tell your gardening friends to send in their comments. For more details about the contest and to read the comments of our winners and others, click here http://womanswork.com/garden-gloves-blog/?m=200912
 Womanswork High Performance Gloves in 3 Colors  Womanswork High Performance Gloves
Tags: best women garden gloves, free garden gloves, garden gloves, Gardening resolutions
Posted in Winter Topics | 1 Comment »
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