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Getting Tools
Ready for Spring

pruning shears

Did you clean your gardening tools last fall when you stopped gardening?

Hopefully, you did and don’t need to read this article. However, if you didn’t, it’s now time. After all, spring is just around the corner! Let’s get this done and be ready to jump in when spring arrives.

First things first…assemble your tools. Let’s leave the power tools for another day. Round up the shovels, hoes, rakes, and picks. Gather the hand tools such as pruners, loppers, saws, cultivators, weeders and all those little special gadgets you use.

shovel

Next, let’s wash. Fill a bucket or sink with sudsy water. Combine some elbow grease with some rags, a stiff wire brush, steel wool and small toothbrush and wash off the dirt. Remove sap from pruners and loppers using rubbing alcohol, turpentine, paint thinner or other solvent. Be sure to clean the handles. Towel dry.

How do the wooden handles look and feel? To prevent splinters, lightly sand and apply a protective coating of boiled linseed oil. (Boiled, not raw, as raw won’t dry.) This is also a good time to apply brightly colored rubberized paint to hand tool handles. Not only will this improve the grip but makes it easier to find the tools when left in the garden. Last, but not least, do any of the handles need replacing? Replacing a handle now could prevent injury.

Got rust? Get the rust off using sandpaper, steel wool and/or a wire brush. For difficult rust, you may need to attach a wire wheel to your drill. Safety googles are necessary eye protection when using a power tool for cleaning. Afterwards, coat the metal with a thin layer of oil such as WD-40, machine or 3-in-One oil.

TIP: To prevent rust, make an “oil bucket” and keep where you store your tools.
• Half-fill a 5 gallon bucket with coarse sand such as builder’s sand
• Pour in a quart of oil (used motor oil is fine)
• Mix until all of the sand is lightly moistened
• After using a garden tool, plunge into the bucket with an up and down motion to thoroughly remove soil and thinly coat the metal surface with oil

Check the edges and moving parts of the tools. To sharpen shovels, spades and hoes, fasten in a vise and use a hand file to restore the same original bevel angle, usually between 40 and 70 degrees. Use a fine grit grinding stone along the back edge of the tool to remove the burr created by the file. Wipe the metal surface with machine oil.

Hand pruners and loppers also require sharpening. Follow the instructions that came with the tool for the best way to take the tool apart and sharpen the blades. Oil moving parts with machine oil.

Now, you’re ready for spring.

In the Greenhouse

Bulk Topsoil Clifton Park, NY

Kulak’s Nursery & Landscaping provides a wide variety of garden basics. Our garden center is located in Rexford, NY and proudly serves Clifton Park, Saratoga & Albany, NY. We specialize in providing bulk topsoil, bulk mulch, landscape supply and landscape design & installation.

Providing Bulk Mulch & More!

Additionally, we provide different models of sprinklers designed to get the job done. Some of these models include oscillating sprinklers, impulse sprinklers, gear drive sprinklers & many more! These are all essentials to creating the perfect garden or backyard for your home. We are committed to taking the time to complete each task to our best potential!

Keeping a Garden Journal
Who should keep a garden journal?

EVERYONE should keep a garden journal! Remember the old saying, "If your life is worth living, it's worth recording." So, why would your garden be any different? Whether you are recording your landscape, a vegetable garden, or both, the details make the difference.

Wondering what to put in a garden journal?

garden journal

Record your landscaping activities. A simple sketch of your landscape provides a basic plan. Track the dates of planting and blooming, fertilizer application and other maintenance duties to determine if the activities are worthwhile and effective. Map the placement of bulbs and perennials so you don't have to remember over the long season when they disappear. Note your color combinations. Did they look good or was “something” missing? Maybe you saw an article with some ideas to try, so tuck it in and remember try it.

Record your vegetable garden. Use graph paper to design your plantings. Next year you can use this to plan your veggie rotation. By recording the details in a garden journal, it serves as your memory, reminding you what you planted, how it did and what you could do better and easier. Wouldn’t it be nice, at the end of the season, to see how much money you saved by "growing your own?" Keeping track of expenses and harvest will do it.

Garden Planning

A garden journal provides a great place to save sketches, lists and photos. Depending upon your personal use, they can store excess seeds and plant tags, bed rotation and fertilizing schedules, and gardening brochures. After all, it's your garden journal, use it as you wish.

Now is a perfect time to start a garden journal. You’ve been cooped up in the house during the long winter and probably have lots of ideas about the upcoming garden. Beginning a garden journal now ignites your creativity, sets your goals for the upcoming year and lets you plot your upcoming journey. Twelve months from now, when you look back and review your goals and plans, you’ll see how much you’ve done. Then, you can look forward to the next year.

Come see our assortment of garden journals. Whether you prefer loose-leaf or bound, simple lined paper or adorned with sketches, we have just the right garden journal to get you excited about the upcoming gardening season.