Being a gardener starts with planting those tiny little seeds, and ends at having a handful of harvest. But in the meantime, there are countless steps and processes that a gardener has to go through. And needless to say, most of these processes involve some sort of gardening tools.
Starting from the pruning knife to the lawn mower, each of these tools requires care and maintenance. But a gardener’s inability to provide the required care often ruins the tool’s purpose or usefulness. In this article, we’ll point out right on that topic. We'll talk about some crucial gardening tool maintenance tips that you may find effective and actionable-
4 Tips on How to Maintain and Care Your Gardening Tools
This is the core of the article where we’ll note down 4 garden tools maintenance steps. Before that, let’s keep in mind that, these tips are not tool-specific. Rather, these are kind of generic tips that several kinds of tools may fit within-
Don’t Keep the Cutting Edges Wet
As long as your gardening tool is used for some kind of cutting, trimming, pruning, pinching etc, it must have one or more cutting edge on it. In almost all of the cases, the edge is metal, which can easily catch up rust if kept in touch with water.
On that note, don’t leave your tools wet. No matter how much time they’re left unused for, make sure to dry them up, or keep under open at least. In the case of long time storing, you might consider putting some grease or oil as long term prevention of rust.
Clean, Clean and Clean
It might sound weird, but we couldn’t help mentioning the word thrice! No matter if it's a cutting tool, mowing tool, aerating tool or whatever else, there is no alternative maintenance trick to keep them clean.
See, after each use, there will be mud, dirt, soil, leaves and other garden-borne specks of dirt. After a long session of gardening hours, take a bucket full of warm water and rinse the tools with it.
In case of large tools like lawn mower or weed cutter, you might need to pick up advanced cleaning techniques like pressure washing.
Sharpening is A Must
In usual cases, many of the gardening tools that we use, come up with some sort of cutting edges. As long as we’re concerned about it, we have to ensure that the cutting edges stay razor-sharp all the time.
For instant sharpening, you can use as simple tools as a whetstone. Tools like shovels, trowels, knives can easily be sharpened with it. But for higher accuracy of sharpening, using power tools is much.
Don’t Let Your Tools Spread Diseases
Sometimes, gardening tools might get in touch with plants with diseases. In case the tools are exposed to such plants or herbs, give them a quick soak before you get it used on any normal plants or tree.
To soak the tools, you can use a mix of diluted household bleach, mixed with enough amount of water. As an alternative, you can also use rubbing alcohol.
Author Bio: My Name is George Vance. I am an expert gardening instructor from Houston, TX. I am the Founder of Gardening Army and I have more than 12 years of gardening experience about indoor and outdoor.