Garden Tool Maintenance by Tina Ligon

Fall is a great time to do garden tool maintenance

Fall is a great time to clean up and maintain all those garden tools before storing them for the winter. Many Farmer's Markets have booths to sharpen tools (for a fee) if you don't want to take it on yourself. However, there are several good videos available to guide you through the process.

The first step is to gather up your tools if you are sometimes like me and leave them where I last used them.

Give them a good cleaning, sharpen if needed, do any needed repairs, lightly sand wooden handles and coat with linseed oil, oil any metal parts with a light machine oil.

Here is a link to a short video about using oily sand to clean garden tools by Jefferson County Master Gardener, Gail Wilson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWl7UmIAdPg

University of Nebraska Extension General cleaning and sharpening video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-rc-KF-ON8

I include garden hoses in the garden tool category. Don't forget to disconnect, drain and put away.