Remember "Shimmer?"

If you watched Saturday Night Live in 1976, you may remember a classic skit with Gilda Radner and Chevy Chase featuring “Shimmer” the combination floor wax and dessert topping whose clean floors “never tasted better.” 

The idea of having a garden product doing two or more things in the garden at the same time is not new.  Weed and Feed products, for example do two separate tasks with one application.

Dual-purpose products offer gardeners the opportunity to do multiple tasks in the garden with a minimal number of applications, trips to the garage, or to the store. 

Some newer multiple use products are coming out of the Bayer Advanced products line.  One new product I especially like is Bayer Advanced All in One Rose and Flower Care.  This liquid concentrate has one big thing going for it in the fact that it is a drench and not a spray.  Drench products are mixed with water and applied around the roots of plants to deliver the control they offer.  Bayer All in One Rose and Flower Care provides three critical plant care components in one application, insect control, disease control, and fertilizer.  In effect, this product is like liquid “Roses for Dummies” allowing a single application to address the multiple functions necessary for great looking flowers. 

Another multi-use product I like which is beginning to appear at nursery and garden stores is a combination mulch and weed control product.  I admit I’m a little concerned about the effect of an herbicide in planting beds, especially around tender newly planted annuals, but the manufacturer assures us that the weed control capabilities don’t interfere with planting. 

Potting soils incorporating fertilizer, water absorbing materials, and even insect control are common now in garden centers.  Again, the “For Dummies” mentality yields a good quality product for gardeners.  Anyone who travels during the garden maintenance season can see the value of this product.  These multi-purpose potting mixes are available from a number of manufacturers. 

There are also a number of excellent tools, which serve multiple purposes in the garden.  These include carts and wagons, which also function as sitting stools for gardeners and a variety of hand tools with interchangeable blades or accessories to allow multiple tools to share the same handle, rather like a Swiss Army Knife of hand tools.

I expect more multi-function products to appear in stores in the 2007 season.  I’ll keep you aware as I find out more.

SG