Properly storing garden tools can help them last much longer and work much more effectively and it doesn’t require some big, fancy, expensive racking system. Check out this clever little solution for storing your favourite small hand tools for the garden!
I’ve been needing to do a better job of storing garden tools for the past few years so I love this simple but effective solution that I came up with. We do have an area in our garage with hooks and racks for our larger garden tools like our rakes and shovels, but the smaller garden tools like the spades and the little hand-held cultivators were always sadly neglected. This was especially silly since those are the ones I end up using the most. I wanted to keep them tidy, in a place where I could always find them, and also take better care of them.
So here’s what I did!
A Simple Solution for Properly Storing Garden Tools
You’ve probably heard that you should sharpen some of your garden tools so that they work more effectively and you may have also heard that it’s a good idea to oil your garden tools after you rinse them off to prevent them from rusting. This solution helps to take care of both of this issues!
What You’ll Need
- 10″ Terra Cotta Pot
- Clean Sand
- Mineral Oil
Start out with a simple terra cotta pot. The one I used is about 10″ in diameter.
Paint it a pretty color if you’re feeling fancy. 🙂
I gave mine a faux aging treatment with paint, which I told you all about a few days ago.
Next, working in a large bowl or bucket, mix together enough sand to fill the terra cotta pot with some mineral oil. You want to use enough oil so that your sand is fairly evenly coated. It should stick together but still have a crumbly-ish texture.
Fill your pot about 7/8 full of the sand/oil mixture and there you have it!
Place your favourite hand tools down into the sand when you’re done with them and they’ll get a little sharper each time (kind of like when you use sand paper to sharpen kitchen scissors) and they’ll be coated in just enough oil to keep them rust free!
More Springtime Garden Starter Tips
- How to Sharpen Pruning Shears
- Farmhouse Style Flower Pots and Planters Under $25
- The Secret to Perfect, Easy to Work With Garden Soil
- How to Test Soil PH Levels
Do you have a favourite solution for storing garden tools?
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- DIY Automatic Plant Waterer
- How to Revive a Sad-Looking Hydrangea
- Uses for Baking Soda in the Garden
- How to Make Cut Flowers Last Significantly Longer
- The Creek Line House Gardening Idea Archives
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.