Category: Products for the garden

Pizza is good. Pizza done on the grill is better. The absolute best pizza you could hope to have is made in a wood-fired pizza oven. We all know that. But why?

The main reason a wood oven does so much better of a job than your kitchen hotbox is heat. Your home oven maxes out at around 500 degrees. Depending on fuel source and oven construction, a wood oven can exceed 800 degrees. That means a faster cooking time and a crispier crust, more browning on the cheese, and a flavor that can’t be duplicated. A wood fired oven is surprisingly simple to get in your Virginia outdoor kitchen.

Oven kits

Oven kits are typically the most cost effective way to get a wood fired pizza oven in your backyard. There are several manufacturers out there, but with all of them you get similar components:

• an insulating base, on which you set the oven
• a masonry (often concrete) dome or vault, either shipped in one piece or in pieces you assemble on site
• an insulating blanket
• a chimney or flue pipe (these may be less costly to source locally)

You still need to have the base of the oven and all the masonry buildout constructed on site, but this makes for a much simpler installation. When dealing with specialized trades, less time means less cost to you.

From scratch

Of course, if you really want that Old World look and feel of a brick dome or vault, you’re typically looking at having a mason build your oven completely from scratch, one brick at a time. The materials cost will be much less than buying a kit, but unless you’re building it yourself it will likely cost more to have it built this way.

Accessories you’ll want

You’re dealing with high temperatures with a wood-fired pizza oven, so you’ll want accessories that can stand up. You’ll also want items that will make your life easier. Look for:

• a temperature gauge that can be built into the oven
• a great pizza peel
• brush and scraper for cleaning the floor of the oven
• high heat gloves
• a door or something to block the opening and keep heat in

What you need to know about your wood-fired pizza oven

If you haven’t gotten to play with one of these ovens there are a few things you may not know. Here goes:

• they can take several hours to heat up, since they’re a lot of thermal mass. You can’t just come home from work at 6 and be cooking at 7.
• they’ll hold heat for a long time, especially if they’re well insulated. Think of ways to use that residual heat – baking, roasting veggies, etc. Sounds like a baba ganoush opportunity to me!
• the wood you use is important, so be sure you have a good source for hardwoods.
• wood storage is a good thing to factor into the design
• it’s not a fireplace. Your wood-fired pizza oven sits much higher than a fireplace to allow for easy access while cooking. There are some combo units, with a fireplace below and a pizza oven above, but they’re much more complex to build. They also tend to be less efficient.

What does a wood-fired pizza oven cost?

You’re going to love the answer: it depends. For a starting point, a kit will probably set you back anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 just for the oven itself (the “igloo” in the picture from the kit section). Add in either a metal frame or a masonry surround, and for a kit oven with a built-in surround you’re probably in the $10-15k range, done nicely with stone veneer and some accessories. Built from scratch, it depends on your mason.

If your budget doesn’t allow for that, you can always get a unit like the Tuscan Chef. They can be fully or partially built in, or totally freestanding on a cart. Shipped to your door, you can get the smallest one for well under two grand.

Admit it, you want one. Shoot me an email and we can start designing your outdoor kitchen.

 

When I took B out for her morning walk today there was actually almost a hint of a chill in the air. Fall is coming, which always triggers conflicting emotions in this seasonally-dependent line of work, but fall brings with it the prospect of evening fires. We don’t have an outdoor fireplace (yet) but we do have a couple of nice big firepits. With the heat of summer I’ve missed evenings spent around the firepit, Bonnie on her bed gnawing on a stick while MJ and I talk and watch the flames dance. Fire can be a wonderful focal point AND gathering point for your backyard. Here are some ideas to knock it out of the park this year.

1. Make sure your firepit is big enough

Some of the box store firepits are between 25 and 30 inches in diameter. That’s adorable, what are you going to burn? Candles? Unless you love cutting everything into itty bitty little chunks, get a nice big firepit. I think the cast iron one in the picture is one of the best I’ve found. It’s from a company called Fire Kettles in South Carolina, and you can get them up to 5 feet in diameter. You can also purchase a standard base or the deluxe footrest base shown. They’re not cheap – the 60 incher and a deluxe stand will set you back $1600 plus freight – but this could well be the last firepit you ever need to buy. They’re beautiful and tough as, well, iron.

2. Close to the neighbors? Keep the smoke down

A while back I wrote about the smokeless Zentro firepit. Then, a few months ago, I got to see one in action at Shenandoah Stone in Harpers Ferry, WV. This thing really does work! The secret is in the design, as it encourages better combustion of the wood. They say good fences make good neighbors, but a fence won’t stop billowing smoke from smoking your neighbors out of their kitchen. If your firepit will be close enough to you neighbors that smoke could be a problem, check out a Zentro firepit.

3. Go all out and cook some pizzas!

A wood-fired pizza oven is the perfect weekend relaxation engine. You need to fire it several hours in advance to get it up to temperature so there’s no replying to work emails right up till cooking time. And let’s face it, it’s a fun communal experience for you and your friends. It’s worth noting, however, that a full-on professionally built pizza oven isn’t an inexpensive proposition. Still interested? I design outdoor kitchens and wood pizza ovens. You should contact me.

4. Go cheap and cook some pizzas!

A few weeks ago I discovered this guy Eric’s YouTube channel, gardenfork.tv. In the video above he talks about how to build a dry-fit, pretty much portable, brick oven. Does it work? I haven’t tried it, because MJ’s concern (rightly) is that if I build a temporary oven I’ll be satisfied and won’t get around to building the real one. But if you want brick oven pizzas and you don’t have $5k+ to spend on a wood oven, this could be a good solution.

5. Keep it low profile

There’s something incredibly appealing about a firepit that’s sunk into the ground. I think it’s a primal instinct sort of thing. Just remember a) your sunken firepit needs to drain somewhere lest you create an ashy swamp, and b) be sure to come up with a way to keep people from falling in. We don’t like to set friends and family on fire.

6. Go with gas

Don’t get me wrong, I love a wood fire. But wouldn’t it be nice to flip a switch and have the fire pop into view, and not smell like a campfire all night? The best part is that when it comes to gas firepits and fire features you’re not limited to the tacky crap they sell at the box stores. For example, the folks at Raw Urth Designs in Colorado not only make firepits, they make these amazing gas-fired fire features that you can virtually guarantee your neighbors have never seen before. Go on, live on the edge. Be the trendsetter in your crew.

7. Find local artists who do crazy stuff

Imagine Metal Art is based in Ontario, Canada and they certainly qualify as doing crazy stuff. How amazing is that firepit? If your goal is to be just like everyone else on the street, that’s easy. If you want people to remember the BBQ at your house, let your freak flag fly!

Do you have a really cool fire feature in your yard? I’d love to see it! Go ahead and share it on the Revolutionary Gardens Facebook Page so we can all oooh and ahhhh!

 

We all love game shows, right? I think we’re mere years away from the future predicted in the movie The Running Man, where every major decision in society is made before a live audience. And for the record, I watched Joe Millionaire so I have no stones to throw. But I am culturally aware.

So here’s the premise: your boss heard you just put in a pool and redid your backyard and volunteered your house for the next company get-together. You’re going to need to provide food and beverages for the masses and everything needs to be top quality. Let’s assume you have a grill, because otherwise this would be a stupidly obvious blog post. What are three appliances you’ll have to have in your Virginia outdoor kitchen? Go!

Fire Magic Echelon Diamond Style Power Burner

Do you know what 60,000 BTUs looks like? Remember that scene at the end of Terminator 2 where Ah-nold lowered himself into the molten steel? It’s kind of like that.

The power burner’s intense heat is perfect for crab boils or any other boil (corn, shrimp, haggis) where you want to get huge amounts of water to 212 degrees as fast as possible. That sort of intense heat is also perfect for stir frying. You can’t get that sort of heat on a residential indoor range, but you’ll be able to live out your wok and roll fantasies (like that?) with this appliance. MSRP is $1616 but contact me for current specials.

Alturi Beverage Center with Sink

Uh-oh, chief, the corner office crew is headed your way and they look thirsty! Better whip up some margaritas for them, and maybe a Shirley Temple for the intern. He’ll laugh about it later, just hope he doesn’t become your boss. Who’s he related to again?

The beverage center has the ice bin, condiment tray, and speed rail to keep all your components close at hand, with a sink to wash fresh glasses in and a bottle opener for those who prefer beer (or grape Nehi) to spirits. The LED lights will keep the party going well after the sun drops below the trees. MSRP is $1799 but contact me, we can do better than that.

Tuscan Chef Deluxe Family Oven

This is your chance to strut your stuff. After this shindig do your co-workers refer to the epic picnic at your place, or do they speak in hushed tones about the employee who threw a mediocre bash the week before security helped box up the whole cubicle? Grills are awesome (and I am the best Virginia outdoor kitchen and grill source, don’t forget!) but you know what’s memorable? Crisp, delicate, delicious pizzas from a wood fired oven. Rather that mess with all the masonry and effort of building one from scratch you should get a Tuscan Chef Deluxe Family Oven.

This model takes up a pretty small footprint, 27.5″ wide x 19″ deep, but you’ll be knocking out pizzas every 2-4 minutes. At the end of the evening you’ll be the hero, and who doesn’t want that? If you buy a Tuscan Chef oven as part of a larger kitchen, list starts at $2199. Contact me for details.

Those are my top three appliance choices. You’ll still want a fridge (I recommend a Summit two-drawer unit) and an ice maker (Fire Magic makes a great one!) but those are your workhorses. These three appliances… these are what get you noticed!

Enjoy your corner office on Monday. You earned it.

 

Every once in a while I tackle pruning and shaping jobs for clients. For example we were doing a planting job the other day and a tree needed limbed up. I knew the look I wanted so I went ahead and did it, leaving the boys to the planting.

The best pruning saw I’ve used

Last year I was at an arborist’s supply shop here in Culpeper and saw the Silky Pocket Boy 170 (no, it’s actually NOT an affiliate link. I just really like the saw). At fifty bucks it was twice what I usually pay for a basic pruning saw from the box stores, but now I see why. It’s seriously the best pruning saw I’ve ever used. It weighs less than half a pound and is so perfectly balanced that it feels like a sheet of paper in the hand. Cutting? This saw is probably the closest I will ever come to wielding a light saber. Effortless is a decent word for it, although I don’t know if it goes far enough.

I love that it also comes with a hard plastic case with a belt loop. It’s small enough and light enough that I could see myself easily losing this, and again – it’s the best pruning saw I’ve ever used. I’d be super disappointed if I lost it. Generally I just think this is a brilliant tool and a wonderful example of why paying a little extra for high quality cutting tools makes a world of difference. We’ve all heard that a dull cutting tool is a dangerous cutting tool, and I have the scars to prove it. The way this thing slices through wood is a thing of beauty. MJ and I have talked about starting back to camping and if we do, I’m buying a second one of these for the camping footlocker.

Is this the best pruning saw EVER? Probably not, I’m sure I could spend even more money and be even more amazed. But it’s the best pruning saw I’ve used and I’m in love. Now I’m just trying to resist the urge to cut everything with it, like when I bought my Sawzall…

Full disclosure: I blog for WORX, so for one of my posts they sent me an Aerocart for free.

When I got the offer to blog for WORX, I checked out their product lineup. Having used pro grade equipment for my entire adult life I’m not usually too excited by stuff made for the homeowner market. Take my string trimmer, for example. I only use it at my property, and can we be honest? I don’t trim and edge every single time I mow. That said, having used commercial lawn equipment for so long, I get easily frustrated by non-commercial equipment. There’s something about the weight and the power that feels wrong in my big fat hands.

The Aerocart appealed to me, though, because it looks really smartly designed. I may have mentioned that I have two blown lumbar discs and some days even walking is hard. Products that are ergonomically designed are a good bet for me. I was also drawn to the slightly lower capacity of the Aerocart, since the less I’m lugging around the less likely I am to further damage myself. So I was super stoked when I got the call from my receptionist that my package was in.

Setup

I’m pretty handy with tools, finding the jokes about how hard IKEA stuff is to assemble to be pretty pathetic. Still I was expecting it to be something of a hassle to unbox and assemble my shiny new Aerocart. Boy, was I wrong. The handles slid right into place and locked with a spring loaded pin, and the wheels slid on and were held with cotter pins. Done. It took longer to break the box down for recycling than it did to set up the cart. Score one for the designers.

First use

I have a big steel wheelbarrow and while I’m not the fittest of guys, I have no trouble using it (unlike the woman in the WORX Aerocart infomercial who dumped a wheelbarrow in a classic “for reals?” infomercial move). I was really excited about the dolly capability of the Aerocart because while I own a dolly, the tires always go flat between uses. For that reason the dolly lives in the back of the shed and when I have to choose between digging it out, putting it in the truck, driving to 7-11, filling the tires, and driving back, or just manhandling whatever it is that I need to move… well, I’m not a patient man, which is why I’m a regretful man. The Aerocart’s tires won’t go flat, which means I’ll actually use it.

So I flipped the dolly plate down and got to hauling. The trash can full of crap? No issues. The 3’x4′ slab of stone, 6″ thick, that probably weighed north of 400 pounds? Yeah, that was a problem. The Aerocart is rated for up to 300 pounds and I bent the dolly plate a little by exceeding the limit. Let me just say, though, that WORX isn’t lying about the ergonomics. Between the placement of the wheels relative to the load and the size and placement of the handles, it was pretty easy to wheel the stone slab over to where it needed to go. Bottom line: I can’t fault WORX for not accommodating a load way in excess of the stated capacity, but I will totally applaud them for making said load easy to move around.

I also used the Aerocart to move bags of mulch around the yard and I will say, that’s a great use for this tool. Instead of wrestling with a wet, heavy 3 cubic foot bag of mulch to get it up over the sides of the wheelbarrow, the Aerocart let me just slide it across the ground onto the extension arms, and slide it off when I got there.

Second use

This year I finally bought a cherry tree for the backyard. We had it delivered to a client’s site along with his plant order, his guys put it in my truck, and I took it home. The tree was a mini-beast. Nursery standard puts the weight of a 2″ caliper tree at about 400 pounds and this rootball was a sopping wet bag of mud after sitting outside in the rain overnight. I slid the tree off the truck and hooked up the Aerocart. I lowered the extension arms and tried to fit the rock mesh sling that came with the cart to the rootball. Too small. Huh.

So I dug under the seat of the truck and pulled out some ratchet straps, hooked the ends to the wire basket of the tree, and lifted the tree with the Aerocart. Or tried to, anyhow. Turns out that I hadn’t read the manual thoroughly enough to see that while the Aerocart will do 300 pounds in the bin or on the dolly, the extension arms? 80 pounds. I tilted back on the cart and promptly bent the extension arms. Idiot.

Now picture the scene: I’m standing there, annoyed that a) it didn’t work and b) I broke my Aerocart. My wife and I established years ago that we shouldn’t do DIY projects together because that’s one area where we’re oil and water. She’s just finished telling me that she told me the tree was too heavy and now we needed a machine and there’s no way we’re moving the tree by hand, and I’ve just lost it and channeled Unikitty and yelled “why are you being so negative? You need to be more positive!”

Then it hit me that because of the curved shape of the hopper, I could use the Aerocart as a tree dolly! Sure enough I was able to slide the bottom plate under the tree and tilt it back, where the rootball was cradled in the hopper. Because the wheels are in the absolute perfect place to balance a load I glided across the yard with my cherry tree and deposited it right next to its future home.

Conclusion – would I buy the WORX Aerocart?

Right now the Aerocart is $160 on WORX’s site. At that price, if you’re a homeowner who does a bunch of projects around the house and you’re not an idiot with your tools, I think it’s well worth getting. Out of the box it comes with the strap for moving around pots, the mesh for moving around stone, the insert for carrying tanks/bottles, and the attachment for hanging trashbags for leaf pickup (or in my case, picking up all the pods my sweetgum tree drops). The accessory that turns the Aerocart into a wagon with a seat? Don’t much care, I’d probably never use it (plus it only holds up to 300 lbs and I’m… not svelte). However, the 20 gallon water bag that fits in the cart? That’s great, and for twenty bucks I’ll grab one. I just planted a tree (as discussed above) down at the far end of my yard. It’s not that far, but if I can avoid schlepping a hose all the way down there? I’m in.

This cart is a perfect gift, too, for that relative who loves to do stuff around the yard. I would get this for someone like my dad, who would have respected the cart’s limits and also loved that he could store a dolly, a garden cart, and more in a very small footprint in the garage. Bottom line: the Aerocart isn’t for jobsite use but it’s a pretty cool little homeowner tool.