Storing Your Gardening Tools

After mowing the lawn I usually use the weed eater to trim the areas close to the fences and around trees. At those times, it's quite exasperating to realize that I forgot to bring enough weed eater twine with me from the garage. What's even more exasperating, however, is when I finally reach the garage and discover that I cannot find the twine. If my garage were organized and tidy, I would have a place for all of my gardening tools and I wouldn't have to endure the inevitable frustration of not being able to find the stuff I need, when I need it.

Storing your gardening tools so that you know where everything is can save you much time, money, and frustration. Here are some great tips for storing your gardening tools:

• Trashcan. Buy the largest trashcan that you can find and store all of your rakes, shovels, brooms, hoes, and other long-handled implements inside. If you place them upside down in the trash can, more tools will fit inside, and you can easily identify one from the other.
• Hooks. Buy some heavy-duty hooks and screw them into the walls of your garage or tool shed to store your wheelbarrows and other bulky yard and garden tools out of the way. I bought some hooks for hanging bicycles on my garage walls and discovered that they are quite large enough to hang my wheelbarrow, the grass catcher for my lawn mower, my leaf blower, the weed eater, the electric hedge trimmer, and my large manual hedge clippers.
• Sand. A great way to store, polish, and lubricate your hand garden tools all at the same time is to use the sand-in-a-bucket method. Simply get a really large bucket or galvanized metal washtub and fill it with sand, and then dump in a quart or two of oil and mix it around. Place your garden tools into the sand up to the hilt of the handle. The next time you grab your hand spade or weed puller, they will be shiny and clean, and the metal will be lubricated against rust. There's no need to clean your hand tools any longer, since you can simply swipe them a few times through the oiled sand to give them a cleaning, and then leave them there to store them.

A good time to organize and create a place for your gardening tools is early in spring, while the weather is still cool. If you plan to use your garage or a shed to store your tools, open the doors to allow cool air inside, tune your radio to music you like, and just start organizing.