Pest-Control

Garden pests are the single most frustrating part of growing anything. You water, weed, and wait for weeks, then come out one morning to find your tomato plants stripped bare or your lettuce riddled with holes. The key is matching the right control method to the specific pest instead of spraying everything with whatever is on sale. I tested eight pest control products across a full growing season to sort out what works from what is basically expensive water in a bottle. ...

A good garden sprayer is one of those tools you don’t appreciate until you’re pumping a cheap one every thirty seconds while trying to hit aphids on the underside of a tomato leaf. The right sprayer makes quick work of fertilizing, weed control, pest management — even cleaning gutters and applying sealants. The wrong one leaves you with a sore arm and patchy coverage. I tested 7 sprayers — from a $15 handheld pump to a $150 battery-powered backpack — and learned one thing quickly: you don’t realize how bad a cheap sprayer is until you use a decent one. ...