Oily Way - Toolshed Meditation

Tool shed meditation

There’s always something very meditative about cleaning up the tools in the garden shed.  Unless you have a fully heated, dry and well ventilated place to store tools they do get condensation on them in winter which could cause rust on the metal parts.  Many a time I have gone into the shed to get out the secateurs or loppers to find that they have seized up despite me spraying them liberally with WD40 only a few months previously.  The same fate can befall the throttle cable on the mower.  I try to drip the runny spray oil into the gap between the cable and the other protective cover, but I don’t think it really soaks in.  I used to plunge spades and forks into buckets full of sand with some old engine oil in it, but again this didn’t seem to give enough protection throughout the winter months.  I was also stuck with a rather messy bucket too which has to be taken to the recycling centre as you can’t pour old engine oil onto the garden or down the drains (not that I ever did I might add) So that’s why I periodically pop into the tool shed to do a bit of wiping down of rustable items with an oily rag, that way all of the tools will be ready to go come the warmer weather. 

Buy and Sell

If you are looking for a decent used mower then now might be a good time to start looking on the buy and sell websites. It’s the quiet time of year and prices are low, like if you were trying to sell a convertible car in January, there’s not much interest.  There are some things to look out for though, like most machinery you need to check they have been well looked after and serviced regularly (oil and filters changes and no signs of a cracked case or blades).  If the prices are high initially than you might end up having to pay to do a bit of work on them to get into tip top condition.  This is where maths needs to come into play. It is sometimes cheaper to buy new mowers with a years warranty than to throw money at something that requires a lot of spare parts being bought for it. Although if you get it right you are quids in (or euro in) This goes for most things that we buy now.  I speak from experience as I bought a used iphone recently from someone on Ebay and by the time I had paid to get it unlocked it would have been cheaper to buy a new one. As a wise old salt once said to me “It’s easy to buy something, but not so easy to sell it.”  Buyer Beware! I’ll make do with the old tools I have and enjoy the cleaning process with my oily rag.

Sifting through the junk

There are some great non mechanical products on the market for gardeners, but you do need to sift through the junk.  Cheap tools can be dangerous if they break under pressure so it pays to do a bit of research before you make a decision. This goes from anything to the cheapest trowel to the most expensive ride on mowers.

Wise Investing in plants

This is the time of year that garden centres are stocking up on early spring flowering plants. If you have any money left over after Christmas and the New Year sales it might be an idea to invest a few euro in a bit of winter/spring colour. I still have a few summer flowering containers on the garage wall, I have been meaning to empty them for a couple of months now as they are in a real state with soggy looking geraniums and bits of dead twigs hanging from them. This week I’m definitely going to get around to it. I thought I’d put some pansies in them to brighten them up. The old soil from the containers will have to be taken out and composted, as the summer plants will have taken all of the nutrients. You never know what horrors lie in the soil either. Vine weevil love container compost and once those start munching the roots it’s not long before your prized pansies topple over and die. 

More Jobs to do

The thought of going outside to do a bit of gardening might appear to be a crazy one, but it’s not that bad when you are out there. It’s a good time to go around and have a look at your deciduous trees and shrubs now. Prune trees that are getting to be a nuisance by growing over paths, near telephone wires, or too close to the house. You will probably find a lot of old leaves under the shrubs too, these can be left on the soil but if they are on a path you could sweep them up and put in the compost  bin. Plant pare rooted trees now too if you have any but do it on a frost free day.

Leave flowering shrubs such as forsythia, spirea and quince as they are spring flowering and you don’t want to chop off all of the flower buds. Leave them until after they have flowered in late spring before you trim them.