With so many different garden and landscaping products for sale, it can be tough to know what is decent and what is rubbish. As a gardening addict, I aim to review as many landscaping and gardening products as I can during the cold fall and winter months.
Amazon used to be a solid source of product reviews but with so many retailers buying fake reviews and people writing reviews on products they never even touched, no-less actually used. It can be quite the shot in the dark finding good quality garden and landscape products.
Landscape Lighting Lies
This last summer I bought some solar landscaping lights that got rave reviews on Amazon. There were over 60 positive reviews and only a handful of negative reviews, most of which were focused on poor quality product packaging vs actual product qualities.
I ordered a 3 pack of these solar landscaping lights and when they arrived I was surprised to see they were absolute rubbish. The lights were made of cheap plastic (silver to look like metal) and the solar panels were of horrible quality as well.
I placed the solar landscaping lights along the rock garden path that leads from my driveway, along the rock landscaping wall and towards the entryway of my home.
They worked very well for about 3 months at which point one died completely and the other 2 began to flicker and grow dim at night. They would hardly make it past dusk before they went dead for the evening.
Turns out the solar panels in these little landscaping lights charge tiny lithium batteries inside the units which power the LED. The problem is the batteries are cheap junk that die quickly, and cannot be replaced. Total bullocks.
Fake Reviews Of Fake Rocks
I also bought some fake rocks to cover some ugly vent pipes I have in my yard. Again, the reviews on Amazon were great, with people raving about how realistic the faux stones are. They are plastic rocks made hollow so things can be hidden underneath.
When I opened the box my jaw dropped. The fake rock covers didn’t look realistic at all. They were downright ugly with wax-like texture that looked more like melted plastic than natural rocks.
OK I’m rambling on a bit now. As I was saying, I intend to use this website as a place for me to post my gardening and landscaping adventures with in-depth product reviews on different front and back yard landscaping and gardening products.
I am new to this whole blogging thing so please bear with me as I learn more about it and get this site up and running.
Below are some links to some UK and US gardening and landscaping resources:
Landscaping And Gardening Resources
Plants of the United Kingdom – A good guide of landscaping plants and the different varieties that are hardy enough to withstand the seasonal changes.
UK Woodland Trust – Great info here on the natural landscape of the UK and how we can help to preserve it by choosing native plant species in our own front and back yard landscaping areas.
Native Plants Of The UK – great guide for gardeners and landscapers wanting to use native plants, shrubs, bushes and trees in landscaping projects large and small.
USDA – United States Department of Agriculture – Great website for the yanks looking for hardiness zone maps for different types of plants.