This back-saving tool attachment was created by an Alaskan fisherman named Stout who wanted to ease the strain of hauling heavy dip nets full of halibut and salmon.

Stout’s friends liked it so much they transferred the grip to their garden and snow shovels, rakes, push brooms, pool skimmers, paint extension poles, tree trimmers and saltwater fishing rods.

Its creator says this back-saving Gimpliment improves the performance of long-handled tools by transferring effort from the back to the legs, which lets the user stand up straighter under a heavy load and ease the strain on the back, neck and shoulders.

Click here to see a video of the backsaver in action.

Insects ravaged many of our flowers this year, but passed by these lovely Green Zinnias which stand about 30 inches tall and send up more buds as you cut them throughout late summer.

These reach their deepest lime color in partial shade and turn more yellow chartreuse in full sun. They are incredibly easy to grow and have attracted many hummingbirds and butterflies to our garden this summer.

Cait & Marty, who frown on lawns in general, think suburbia should be covered with grass that benefits the environment and requires little attention.

The Prairie Nursery has come up with lawns that form a dense mat, thrive in sun or partial shade, require little - if any - watering or fertilizer and need to be mowed once or twice a year, if that.

Their no-mow lawns also look very dog and kid friendly.

Click here to check out more pictures.

“They distinguished themselves by going from reasonably normal to unquestionably insane without ever pausing at peculiar.”

From T.R. Pearson’s “A Short History of a Small Place.”

Eds. Note: It may be stretching it to think we were ever “reasonably normal.” But all the people who last winter asked us, “What do you do with all those garbage cans?” now know because the many cans of the Gimpy Garden are overflowing with fruits and vegetables. It’s heavenly eating tomato a sandwich anytime we feel like it.

If you have arthritis or limited hand strength, these neoprene grips with Velcro closures will give you a more secure and comfortable grip.

Machine washable, they wrap around tool handles to absorb shock and vibration and can be easily removed to shift them from shovel to rake to wheelbarrow to lawn mower handles.

Users of these grips say they love the cushioning, which makes tool handles larger and, therefore, easier to grip. Each set includes two grips.

Eds. Note: Cait also recommends these Bionic Gloves which have reduced her hand pain during much gardening and yard work this year.

We’ve had this Black & Decker cordless trimmer and edger for about three years now and consider it a must-have garden Gimpliment.

Cait, who has issues with arthritis, likes that she can adjust the handle for increased comfort and she doesn’t have to mess with gas, oil, tune-ups or having to fuss with a feed spool. This Black & Decker battery-powered trimmer automatically advances the string.

Granted, this cordless trimmer doesn’t have the power of a gas trimmer, but it gets the job done for us - unless we let things get too far gone, and then we start talking again about getting a couple of goats for our gone-wild suburban landscape.

Eds. Note: That’s how Take-Back-the-Yard Revolution Begins: first a smattering of chickens as the thin end of the wedge, then a couple of goats, and the next thing you know there’ll be a small herd of Jersey cows living on the patio next to Marty’s hot tub.

A sample of the luscious Black From Tula tomatoes ripening so fast we can barely keep up with eating them and giving them away to friends.

We planted 12 varieties of tomatoes in 30-gallon metal garbage cans this year. The cans produce tomatoes earlier than planting them in the ground because the sun heats the metal and starts warming the soil early in the season.

Our sunflowers are attracting many bees and soon birds since we’ll let the heads dry in place.

Our Gimpy Garden is in all its glory and whelming us with produce.

Most of our gardens are in containers, as seen here with this cucumber growing up a trellis from its home in a metal garbage can.

If a golf club lawn rates a 10 and a weed-filled empty lot rates 0, our lawn is a 4, well, maybe a 3.

Through the summer, our lawn progresses from a blanket of bright yellow dandelions to a field of white clover blossoms. (It’s quite pretty just not very American, if you know what I mean.)

It’s not that we don’t like our lawn, which is mini in the front of our duplex and huge in the back, where we have the whole thing fenced in as a common yard.

It’s just that it’s so much work for something that produces little more than lawn clippings for the composter and yet is a huge polluter because we own a gas mower.

We owned an electric Brill, which is perfect for flat small lawns. But our lawn is hilly on the sides and big and unruly in back. We’re heartened, however, by the newer electrics that promise more get-up-and go like gas mowers.

This video from the Today Show walks you through new electric mowers and an electric wheelbarrow, which we haven’t tried and want to know more about.

Eds. Note: Truth be told, it wouldn’t take much for Cait & Marty to convince each other to let the backyard grow wild - permanently. Or be taken over by pumpkin and squash vines. So much green chaos. So little time.