Proper tool maintenance another gardening necessity
The days are growing shorter, mornings are cooler, and leaves are turning to their brilliant fall colors. That means it’s time to prepare the garden for spring.
What? Don’t we mean prepare for winter?
Well, preparing for winter really means preparing for spring, because what we do now will pay big dividends when spring rolls around in about five months. Yes, believe it or not, spring is only five months away!
One of the big things we often neglect at the end of the gardening season is the drudgery of proper care of our equipment and tools. Yes, it’s dull, and yes, it’s usually dirty work, but things will last longer and perform better if we take the time to do appropriate maintenance.
Power equipment: Old gasoline left in the tanks, lines and carburetors breaks down, develops water condensation or both, leaving the equipment vulnerable to corrosion. Drain the gas tank and run the engine until it stops, thus ensuring that the fuel lines are empty. Or add a gas stabilizer and run the engine for a few minutes to make sure the stabilized gas gets into the carburetor.
Put a few drops of lubricating oil in the cylinders through the spark plug ports and store the equipment in a dry place with good ventilation.
Oil any moving parts, but beware of the sections that will come in contact with fertilizers or other materials that would combine with the oil and create a messy gunk. You can use graphite instead of oil. It should be available in your hardware store.
Clean mower and edger blades, dry well and sharpen if necessary. When sharpening with a file or whetstone, file against the bevel.
Hand tools: We work our garden tools hard all summer. They deserve the finest treatment once the job is done in the fall. Rust is the worst enemy, so wash and dry the tools well. If a bit of rust has already developed, a little steel wool will often remove it easily. Sharpen the blades of shovels, hoes, pruners and other edged equipment. Then apply a thin film of oil to the blades to keep them rust-free all winter. Sand and paint wooden handles to prolong their life and prevent splinters.
Next spring, you’ll be glad you spent a few hours on a sunny fall day taking care of your equipment. You’ll be raring to go when the snow melts and the garden beckons
This week in the garden
If your landscape is crying out for a new tree or two, take a walk around your neighborhood or visit Finch Arboretum and look at the gorgeous fall foliage on various types of trees. I guarantee you’ll find something to fall in love with, and you’ll also have the advantage of seeing how the tree will look when it’s mature.
You have stopped deadheading your roses, haven’t you? Leave the spent flowers on the stems to help the plants prepare for winter. Don’t mulch your roses until after the first killing frost.
It’s normal to see big clumps of brown needles on the branches of our native pine trees; they lose the needles closest to the trunk at this time of year. Keep the rake handy and get those needles cleaned up. They make great mulch for your roses and other perennials that need a little help getting through the winter.
If you have deciduous trees, you have falling leaves. Rake them up, too, and dump them in the compost bin. If you don’t want to compost them, you can till them into the vegetable garden, and they’ll break down by spring. You can put them down on the paths between raised beds to help keep weeds down next spring.
Clean up the debris from your garden after the frost has killed the foliage on your annuals and perennials. But if you leave your ornamental grasses intact, they will provide winter interest, and you can cut them back as needed in the spring.
Water, water, water until the ground freezes. Our trees and shrubs need lots of water, especially after the dry summer, to make sure they stay hydrated over the winter.
Enjoy the sights and smells of the autumn garden!