How to Take Care of Your Gardening Equipment

When you think about it, it’s amazing how much gardening equipment we can amass. If you have a reasonable sized garden with a lawn, you’ll probably have a shed containing a lawn mower, a grass or hedge trimmer, assorted hand tools and plenty more besides. It’s no wonder some of these items get forgotten or set to one side sometimes, when we could really do with taking a little more care of them.

Regular maintenance is a good idea

Proper maintenance should be a regular part of your gardening routine. Whenever you use a particular tool – let’s say a rake in this example – make sure you clean it properly before returning it to its normal storage location. A stiff brush can be good for cleaning, but it depends on the item. Sometimes a softer brush similar to the one you get with a dustpan and brush would work better. Keep a couple of these around – they always come in handy when cleaning items like this.

Always make sure you have some oil or similar lubricating product around too. A can of spray oil will work best, since it sprays a fine film of oil onto the item you want to protect. This will prevent rust from forming: something that is always a hazard when you store items in your shed or garage. You will also be able to enjoy tools that work properly, instead of picking up your secateurs only to find they are too stiff to use.

Keep your gardening tools safely locked away

Another good tip for taking good care of your garden tools is to keep them locked out of sight. Even though your shed is in your garden and should therefore be relatively safe, you never know if someone might seize the opportunity to hop over your wall or fence to see if they can break in. The best course of action is to buy a secure lock of good quality. Look for a closed shackle lock as this is very difficult to break through if the would-be thief has a crowbar with them. Look for a lock that has hidden screws as well, otherwise the thief can just unscrew everything and gain access to steal your garden tools. If your shed has windows you can attach a grille to the inside of them, to further put anyone off breaking in. Remember also that you can get your shed contents insured as part of your home insurance agreement. This means if the worst happens and someone does break in and steal your garden tools and lawnmower, at least you will be covered.

Getting organized

Of course the interior of any size shed can become extremely untidy if you don’t take steps to do something about it. Furthermore an untidy shed is more likely to lead to damaged garden tools. You may have invested a lot of money in your tools so it is wise to ensure you take proper care of them.

Some items can be hung up on the interior walls of your shed. Consider getting a range of hooks for this very purpose. It also provides you with more floor space for storing other bulkier items such as lawnmowers. Another good way of getting organised is to install some shelving in your shed. Consider your needs before you do this though. Do you need one relatively high shelf running around the entire perimeter of your shed, or would you rather install a shelving unit at one end? Look at all the tools and other gardening items you have before making your decision, so you can be sure of finding the right solution for your needs.

As you can see there are lots of things you can do to take good care of the gardening tools and implements you own. If you put all these strategies into practice, you’ll get far more life out of each item, not to mentioning keeping everything more secure and lessening the chance of being burgled. The good news is it doesn’t take much to protect your gardening equipment either. A few simple steps are all you need to take to enjoy using your range of gardening tools long into the future.