Organic Gardening
Announces its
2009 Editors' Choice Awards
The most prestigious award in the gardening industry, it is given annually to products in recognition of outstanding innovation in design, materials and/or performance. The awards are based on months of trial testing by teams of highly experienced test gardeners. With no set categories and no set number of recipients, the products and testing process drive the awards. This year, GardenTalk's Peacock Plant Supports and Felco #8 Pruners were two of only eight products that have been honored with the 2009 Organic Gardening Editors' Choice Award.

Here's what Organic Gardening had to say about them...

SMART SUPPORTS
Peacock Plant Supports were obviously designed by a gardener - one who knows that we always forget, in June, that zinnias flop and dahlias slump, even though they do it without fail every August. Adaptable to any pose your posies may strike, the last-forever rings, partial rings, and scallops offer myriad support options for your flowers (and here's the good part) even after they've flopped and slumped. Plus they're practically invisible. Start with a half-dozen 50-inch stakes and 21-inch half-circles, $93 from gardentalk.com
    We also liked a simpler staking option we tried: 3-foot Y-stake Supports with bendable arms, $34 for five at gardentalk.com.

PRO-STYLE PRUNERS
Like most experienced gardeners, we have long recommended Felco brand pruners for their durability and smart design. But to be sure we are not locked into prejudice against other models, we compared them with five other brands. We used them to remove suckers from tomato plants, cut flowers for bouquets, snip twine for trellises, and a variety of other purposes that would make the manufacturers cringe.
    The result? The Felco #8 model is still our favorite. The ergonomic design makes every job quick and easy on the hands. It has a wire-cutting notch that is a real blade-saver. Easy-to-find-in-the-litter red handles, holster-perfect size, and wide blade opening all add to the appeal to veteran gardeners.