Gardening is all about enjoying peak-season veggies, delicious fruits, beautiful flowers or a pristine yard. But there’s an important, everyday task you may be neglecting: maintaining your garden tools.
Garden tools — whether hand tools like trowels and shovels, bladed gear like pruners and saws or other equipment like garden hoses and wheelbarrows — need regular TLC.
“Regular maintenance keeps garden tools in good working order and helps them last longer,” says Bill Freimuth, founder of Centurion Brands, a manufacturer of lawn and garden tools. “It only takes a few minutes in each gardening session to take care of your tools.”
Here’s a look at how to maintain your garden tools, plus tips for storage, organization, sharpening and more.
Clean your garden tools after use
After digging in the garden, mowing your lawn or sprucing up your shrubs, you might be ready for a hot shower and a cold drink — but there’s one more task. Giving your garden tools a quick cleaning will ensure they’re ready to go next time and extend their life.
Freimuth recommends rinsing tools like trowels, transplanters, hand forks and shovels with the hose to remove dust or loose soil. Scrape away caked-on dirt with a wire brush or putty knife to prevent wear and keep your storage area clean.
Tools like pruners, shears and loppers should be lightly scrubbed with a nail brush and mild soap to remove surface dirt. Remove tree sap stuck to blades with rubbing alcohol before it dries, or rub with a few drops of mineral spirits or turpentine on a clean cloth to remove dried-on sap.
Cutting tools should be sanitized with rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball, a spritz of hydrogen peroxide or soaked in a solution of one part bleach to eight parts water to kill any plant diseases that may be hitching a ride on the blades.
“Blades need to be clean and sterile. Tools are exposed to plants or soil that can carry bacteria or fungal or insect infestations,” Freimuth says. Without sanitizing, those problems can be spread to other plants the next time you use those tools.
Once they’re clean, allow the tools to dry thoroughly, then wipe them with mineral or linseed oil to protect them from moisture and prevent damaging rust.
Other types of gardening gear, like watering cans, sprayers and garden hoses, don’t need to be maintained after each use, but they do need to be put away at the end of the season. Make sure these vessels are empty, roll up hoses neatly and put them somewhere they’ll be protected from cold winter weather, which can cause plastic to crack.
Keep your garden tools sharp
Bladed tools like pruners, shears and loppers work best when they’re sharp. Dull blades require more force to cut through stems and branches, and they make tools more dangerous to use.
“Dull tools make bad cuts,” says Phil Forsyth, co-executive director of the Philadelphia Orchard Project, a nonprofit organization that plants and tends community orchards in the city. “As they get less sharp, they tend to mash rather than cut cleanly.”
In addition to investing in high-quality tools to keep blades sharp longer — Swiss brand Felco and Japanese brands Nishigaki and ARS are some of his favorites — Forsyth recommends keeping a pocket blade sharpener on hand. These compact, affordable sharpeners can be used as needed in the field and don’t require taking tools apart to get the blades back into good working order.
When it comes to toothed tools like pruning saws, though, don’t expect to sharpen these yourself. In fact, it’s likely more economical and easier to buy a replacement blade and toss the old one when it gets dull.
Store your garden tools properly
After you’ve cleaned your tools — whether after a session in the garden or at the end of the season — it’s important to put them away properly, too. Storing your garden tools the right way will help keep blades sharp, prevent moisture from spreading and ensure you can find what you need next time.
After cleaning and drying your tools, store them in a secure, dry place. Depending on your space and the size of your tool collection, this could be a shed, garage, large outdoor tool chest, mud room or a dry basement. Avoid storing tools in a damp, humid area, which can lead to rust on metal surfaces.
Keep your garden tools organized
When it comes to keeping your garden tool collection organized, vertical space is your friend. Hanging hooks, peg boards, tool racks and tool cabinets mounted to the wall will get long tools like shovels, rakes, hoes and forks off the floor and neatly organized. Freimuth recommends storing small hand tools handles up in a bucket of coarse sand or small pebbles mixed with mineral oil to protect them from rust and avoid dulling blades.
If you’re short on space or don’t have an outbuilding to store your tools, consider a deck box or storage bench you can keep outside. If you need to make the most of your outdoor space, look for slim or vertical sheds, which are tall enough to hold your tools but have a much smaller footprint. These storage boxes should be waterproof and lockable to keep your tools rust-free and secure.
Get the rust off your garden tools
If you discover rust on the surface of one of your tools, don’t toss it just yet. There are a few methods you can use to remove rust.
“If you get rust on your tools, soak the area in a one-to-one mixture of vinegar and water overnight,” Freimuth says. The next day, “scrub in a circular motion with steel wool, rinse with soapy water and then plain water, let the tool dry thoroughly.”
Afterward, treat those clean, dry tools with a thin layer of linseed oil or mineral oil to help prevent rusting in the future.
Even if you’ll never be the kind of gardener who cleans their tools after each use, it’s a good idea to give your garden tool collection a thorough cleaning after you’ve put your garden to bed in the fall. That way, they’ll be in good condition and ready to use come springtime.
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