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Gardening Tool Maintenance and Storage - What do you do?

PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
edited February 2023 in Problem solving
Do you have an untidy collection of gardening tools and equipment in your shed or garage or do you clean them after every use and stow them neatly away on hooks, shelves or in cupboards?  How often do you sharpen tools like secateurs, hedge trimmers and lawn edging shears or don't you?  I'm interested to know what other gardeners do, in preparation for a busy season ahead! 
Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


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Posts

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I have hooks in the shed but things don't always end up back on them. Cleaning - hardly ever. Secateurs and loppers get a wipe if I've been pruning something that I suspect might have a disease. Sharpening very rarely happens.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    I'm feeling less guilty now @JennyJ!  I usually prop mine up in a corner of the garage and they all fall over when I'm looking for the one I need!
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    Much as @JennyJ but OH will sharpen things


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I have hooks for everything or little pots hanging off a rack - useful for labels, scissors, small secateurs, reading glasses......   I put tools away not always cleaned but with soil wiped off.  OH has a tendency to prop a spade/fork/hoe where he was working or it may make it back to the polytunnel or shed but not be cleaned.

    I do clean secateurs regularly and I sharpen them and put WD40 on the moving parts.  Ditto loppers and I clean the spades, fork, hand tools and assorted Wolf tool heads before we stop for winter.  I don't go anywhere near lawn mowers since OH retired.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Much as @JennyJ. I do wipe mud off tools before putting them back in the shed. Sometimes when I'm slapdash is because I've been gardening too late and it's getting dark or I must rush because we are going out or it's lunch time or dinner time so I must go in.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I throw them in a bucket and sometimes I miss😒
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    Most of ours are hung tidily on hooks or spring clips in our sheds. I keep my wellies, clogs, secateurs and gloves in the kitchen (keeps them warm and spider proof!). 
    I wipe mud off after use, clean secateurs occasionally and take a selection of tools to be sharpened by the mobile 'knife' man at the GC sometimes.
    I also keep all my plant labels in alphabetical order in an old shoebox - also in a kitchen cupboard.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • ColinAColinA Posts: 392
    Tools should always be cleaned and stored properly after use as virus and disease can stick to the surfaces, I sharpen all cutting tools at this time of year so as to be ready for the start of the season, neglected tools fail earlier and so case extra expense.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    How to you read the reading glasses label without your reading glasses? @Obelixx 😉
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • NormandyLizNormandyLiz Posts: 788
    B3 said:
    I throw them in a bucket and sometimes I miss😒
     :lol:

    I'm due a tidy up but with one thing or another it hasn't happened yet! Since getting rid of the old oil tank, there is space in the garden outbuilding for gardening stuff, instead of in a corner of the garage. Pots and things have been moved there but I can't get out of the habit of putting tools, etc. back in the garage. It'll happen, one day...

    As for cleaning, sharpening, etc, I'm afraid forks and the like don't get cleaned, after all they'll only get dirty again, won't they? The do get stacked vaguely in the right place, sort of. I do wash secateurs/loppers if there is a risk of disease transmission, and I sharpen them probably once a year. Not very good at it, though!

    Pots and seed trays do get stacked vaguely neatly as they just end up all over the place otherwise, and sacks the same to stop them spilling.

    But, as my school reports always said, 'Liz has a tendancy to be a bit messy and could try harder to be neater'. Some things never change.
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