Garden Tool Tips

Full disclosure - I (Mary Hunt) have about 12 shovels, rakes, and hoes in my garage from Red Hen garden that need to be brushed up and winterized with a coating of oil. It's busy work that I've been putting off... next year, I won't have to do that because I'll be employing the above idea I saw last week.

Red Hen is done for the season and that means I have time to work in other gardens like the Quimper Grange garden. Doing so has allowed me to see the systems this 10 year old garden has in place to keep busy without the busy work.

Above is a dry sand box (kept under a roof). Next to it is a wire brush. When done using the tool, push it down into the sand and it's clean. Any stubborn clumps can be brushed off in a second.  (Neil Howe at the Salish garden takes it a step further and puts oil IN the sand to accomplish both cleaning and sealing at the same time.)

After that, it's hung up in the (again, dry) shed and cleverly kept in place on the double beams and JJ's stretchy cord system. Hand tools are dropped in a bucket to keep them in one place.

The tools are always ready to go in any season and the messy work is kept in the sand box.

Every time I work in a new garden, I learn a new trick. Do you have a time-saver to share? Send it to me  with a picture and description.  MaryClareHunt@gmail.com