This is a great time to check out all your garden tools for wear and any problems they might have that can be repaired. There isn’t anything worse than getting excited about going out in the garden to get started and finding out your tools need help. Check the handles for cracks or splinters. Check the edges to make sure they are sharp and there are no nicks taken out of them. Your garden tools are very necessary for the health of your garden. A good tool in good condition can make your job easier in the garden. Go out to the tool shed today and check them out, polish them, and clean any rust off the tool surfaces. Happy Gardening!

If you are interested in Hindu art you will not want to miss this video about Buddha statues which is done by a friend that has recently discovered the new Video Boss videos by Andy Jenkins. Andy shows people how to do video marketing as one of his many talents. He is one of the leading Internet Marketers now for the last few years and has a lot to offer as far as teaching people. My friend Rob from Big Buddha Statues Is pretty talented when it comes to making video too but has become very excited after seeing the Video Boss videos Andy Jenkins just released as a pre-launch to his new private coaching video course that is sure to turn video marketing on it’s head as far as the Internet is concerned. According to Andy Jenkins most people are totally afraid of doing video. In the  three videos he released he gives some tips that can get anyone even if they have absolutely no experience at all making a video. He explains enough to get you going on making your first video and tells you that you should not be concerned about the quality of your first few videos. My friend Rob has watched these videos and put out a rather well done video about his  Buddha statues which shows that even most of us amateurs can do video if we just have a little guidance and know what equipment we need to work with. You do not need a bunch of really expensive equipment to make videos. You may already have just about everything you need to work with and in the Video Boss  series Andy gives you some great tips about where to find such things as templates, music, and much more to help make your videos look very professional. Take a look today at the Video Boss series and Rob’s video and see what the video buzz is all about and why it is going to be the new wave in Internet marketing.

When winter sets in and you find yourself stuck inside dreaming about what you want to do in your gardens next spring, you can get bored very quickly and disillusioned knowing the wait is going to be a long one. You can spend that time dreaming about the outdoor activities or you can stay occupied doing something totally different than gardening. My wife adopted a hobby a few years ago which I thought at first was kind of silly. She wanted a 1 inch scale dollhouse for Christmas so I bought her a finished dollhouse that required only minimal construction. Well each winter we find ourselves ( yes I got hooked too ) working at improving and making the house look and feel like a real home. It is simply amazing how detailed the objects are that are available to go into a dollhouse. We take trips on the weekends to a town about 30 miles from home which gives us some quality time together in this fast paced world we live in. We make a day of it and have some regular shops we like to visit on our day out. At this point in time my wife has kind of decided to move up to a new and more detailed project. She decided after seeing a fantastic dollhouse constructed from plans drawn of a Sea Captain’s home from Thomaston Maine.  Check it out at Captain George W. Robinson House This dollhouse will amaze you. The builder is definitely a master craftsman and very clever also. He has inspired us to take on a project similar to this house. We have prepared our selves to spend the next few winters working on this project together and get back out into our gardens in the summer. I have a short video of the dollhouse I got for my wife a few years ago and you will see why we need to move on to a bigger project from watching the video. Marion’s Dollhouse I hope you can find a hobby to make your long, cold winters pass quickly

The story you see below is a true story and the facts omit the true name of the poor lady that got taken by these unscrupulous scammers. I do know this to be a true story and feel very bad for her but there is a lesson in this for all of us. Only by banding together can we spread the word about businesses like this that prey on people that are just truly trying to form a legitimate business and make a fair living online. I am not so foolish as to think we can ever totally stop them all for good but if we could save even one more person from having to use their child’s education funds to pay their credit cards off after being suckered by companies like this we might all feel a little better about the difference we have made.

OK, Here goes. I’m very embarrassed to say that I have been scammed out of so much money, more than what I make in a year has been taken from me within 2 months. First, I wanted only to start an e-commerce business selling something and arrive at enough income to supplement my retirement when I’m too old to go to work anymore.
It all started with a company called Thrive. I had clicked on a click ad which stated “Work for Google at home”. Duh, why does Google need me? I know that now…. Anyhoo, Thrive turned out to be a $5,000 investment with just a bunch of coaches who I could call in the first 6 weeks with any questions as I struggled through their benchmarks. By the time I got to the drop shippers and products to research using a free keyword discovery tool site I was too late to talk with a live person but I plundered through anyways. I then get a call from a tax person stating I needed them for my bookkeeping of which I said, no I can do that myself, it will just be me. I then contacted Legal Zoom and started my LLC with my husband and me as partners. THEN CAME THE STORM! More »

Welcome to The Yankee Gardener Blog. We will be bringing you gardening news and tips. Feel free to leave us comments and suggestions so we may make the blog a valuable resource for you.

I am a native of  the great state of Maine and have enjoyed the state for 58 years now. My wife and I live on 20 acres out in the country and spend most of our time out working in our yard and our gardens. We love having the gardens to enjoy the beauty that nature provides and also to give the little animals, birds and insects a home in the very short summer we have in Maine. When we are not in our gardens, we spend our time running our Internet business, ” The Yankee Gardener ” to provide great garden decor and information for others to use and enjoy.

Just because it is winter does not mean it has to look like it. We keep something happening here at The Yankee Gardener’s home all year long. We love to decorate for Christmas even though we have no kids left living at home with us now. We see lots of other people bringing their kids by to view the lights. It takes us the better part of three days to dig everything out and set it all up. The power company just loves us for the month of December. It is all worth it when you see people stop and take pictures. Even before we got it all up and going this year we had people stop and express their amazement at the amount of work we put into our display. What you see in the picture is only a small part of the display. Christmas is a very special time of the year and we should all take some time to sit back and be thankful for our families and wish everyone a happy time. Just getting out and putting up a display shows people how much you care for others. They quickly realize that the display you put up is meant for them to enjoy. Getting out and doing the display is also great for you. That time of year we tend to stay inside and not get the fresh air and exercise we need. It is really a lot of fun and we encourage you to try it even if the display is small it is what you are doing for others that really counts. Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

It is getting down to temps low enough to create frost now in the northeast at night. If you have plants you want to be able to enjoy for a few more weeks you really need to cover them at night. You can use any light material and something as simple as a few small rocks on the edges of the material to hold it from blowing away in case a breeze comes up during the night. A lot of people don’t realize that frost actually falls down and lands on the plants. It isn’t always the temperature that kills the plant it can be the icy frost landing on the leaves. Some plants actually thrive with very cool temps at night and rebounding warm temps in the daytime. We use old saved bed sheets or curtains to cover all our vegetation that we want to keep until the temps drop to the point of freezing and kill the plants for the season. Now is a good time to get building the permanent plant covers.

Any perennials you have deserve to be protected so they will be here for many years to come. You can find sources for cover making material at many construction sites like a new home being built. If you go there and ask the contractor, he will usually have waste pieces left over from sheet goods that they wind up tossing in the dumpster that are quite often large enough to make great plant covers. Grab a couple of old barn door style hinges from the hardware store for a couple dollars and a couple of bolts and nuts too. Drill a few holes and hinge two pieces of material together and you have a cover you can use for several years for less than $5.00. Give your plants a fighting chance against the snow loads and the cold and save money at the same time by not having to replace plants unnecessarily.

In the northern part of the country it is rapidly approaching time to button things down for the winter. You invest good hard earned money in all of your garden tools and lawn tools too. It does not take a lot of time to protect those tools for the winter months but in those short few months those same tools can rust at an alarming pace. A short amount of time with a piece of sandpaper can ready those tools for some well deserved oil or paint to protect the metal parts for the winter. While you are at it why not sharpen any tools that require sharpening before applying oil or paint to their surfaces.

One more trick we use here in the northeast is an old trick my Grandfather taught me when I was very young and I still use it today. Almost all tools have wooden handles. Wood does have a tendency to dry out naturally over time. It is just the nature of it’s construction. Without the tree roots to supply moisture to any piece of wood it will dry out. You can treat the outside to help it retain some of it’s moisture but eventually it will lose some of that protection and the wood will do what it knows best once again, dry out. Well here is a very easy solution that will only take you minutes to do and it only needs to be repeated a couple times a year and will extend the life of your tools by many years.

Take an extra long drill bit, usually about a 1/4″ bit will be good enough. Go straight to the very end of the handle and drill in the very center parallel to the length of the handle as far into the handle as the bit will allow. The deeper the better and you will understand that better in a few seconds. You now have a 1/4″ hole directly in the center of the handle down about 5 inches or so. You will also need some 1/4″ furniture plugs like they use in wooden furniture to cover the screw holes to plug the end of the tool handle. Fill the hole you just drilled with some Linseed oil and cap off the hole with the furniture plug. Stand the tool on end so gravity can do it’s job and naturally let the oil work down through the handle. The oil will keep the handle from drying out and keep it somewhat flexible. More good tools have been tossed in the dumpster because of a simple broken handle.

People have gotten used to the inexpensive tools and the ease of just replacing them when the break a handle. My tools are good and trusted friends to me and I like to take as good care of them as the do me. They make my gardening easy and enjoyable so I feel I owe it to them to take a few minutes out of my time and keep them clean and well oiled and sharp. Clean sharp tools will make a job go smoothly and it is also easier on the tools if they are in good working order. Try this out on the next rainy weekend and you will see next spring that your efforts will have rewarded you.