After years of frustrated experimentation, I've finally found a spray gun nozzle that works!

Don't get me wrong, like all nozzles I've tried this one will wear out over time, but after many attempts I've finally found a nozzle that makes me happy.

In fairness to nozzle makers everywhere, these hose attachments must withstand tremendous water pressure, and if you're like me, they get dragged through the dirt, dropped, and occasionally stepped on, as well.

But after the frustration of bringing home new nozzles that didn’t work from the start, I’m happy to report consistently good luck with the Dramm Revolver. With nine different settings -- from spray to jet to full to mist -- you get everything you need to water, mist, and spray clean everything in the garden, including the muddy tools. And the Dramm Revolver, which looks a bit like a ray gun from the latest sci fi cartoon, even comes in a rainbow of colors.

I prefer red because it’s easy to find and that means I’m less likely to step on it.

Order the Dramm 9 Revolver Garden Hose Nozzle from Amazon

When starting plants from seed, you will want to find a place that gets a lot of light each day -- and I mean a lot (at least four hours). I'm lucky in that my kitchen window gets that much sun so I've been able to start a number of plants from seeds there.

The other important thing is a good soil mix. Here is the mix used (and suggested) by the folks running the farm and garden at Esalen:

1.5 parts sifted compost
1.5 parts vermiculite
1 part coco peat
.5 parts earth worm castings
.25 kelp meal

Not having any coco peat or worm casting around, I start seedlings using an organic potting mix plus the vermiculite, compost and kelp emulsion.

If anybody has any soil recipes they'd like to share, feel free to send them along or post them in the comments section of this article.

Here's the thing: If you have a dog, you probably know that it is not good for the dog to ingest chocolate because of the chemicals theobromine and caffeine. What may not occur to you is that those same chemicals are found in the cocoa mulch that many people use in their gardens. One of the reasons people buy cocoa mulch is its sweet smell and this also attracts the dogs and makes them think it's a sweet snack.

The bottom line is that although, according to Snopes (see link below), there has only been one substantiated case of a dog dying from ingesting cocoa mulch, if you have a dog (or a cat, for that matter) it's probably best not to use it in your garden. 

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp