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.

Carpet Gardening

Carpet gardening

We’ve been laying carpet this week.  As you might guess with this being a gardening page, the carpet isn’t being laid in the house.  The large squares of carpet we have are going onto the soil in the vegetable patch to keep the weeds down.  The pieces seemed large when we were dragging them up the pathway to the plot but when they were laid out they don’t cover as much ground as we had hoped.  The garden has a lot of weeds and they do tend to spread quickly.  So we can add to the mosaic of coloured squares as and when we get them.  Each year more than 500,000 tonnes of carpet waste is buried in UK and Irish landfills. Fortunately the garden can benefit from an old carpet but it’s wise to put only natural woollen pieces with felt backing down on the plots. Check that there isn’t nylon running through the weave too as it’s a pain to get out of the ground when the wool has rotted down; it makes the ground very difficult to work.  Interestingly this use of weed suppression is forbidden on some local allotments due to potential chemicals in the weave.  The aforementioned allotment don’t discourage the over used and widely-banned weedkiller roundup. 

Let’s have a look at what a good piece of carpet can do for the garden.

Weeds be gone

If you lay old carpet over bare soil it will help suppress weeds. You can leave it over a plot of land throughout the winter before removing and digging over the following spring.

Compost

A hot compost heap is a happy compost heap. If you cover the compost heap, it helps to insulate it and keep the compost working throughout cold months.

Pond lining

Use an old carpet to line a hole for a garden pond. This helps prevent the pond liner being damaged by small stones.

Protect your knees

Place small squares of carpet where you are working to kneel on, especially on concrete paths.  They can be very cold.

Under mulch

Use old carpet under mulches and paths.

Other great uses for carpet

Use carpet for lining garden boots or wellingtons with an inner sole cut out of good short nap, use an existing sole as a template, insert the carpet upside down, this creates a durable comfort pad and keeps feet dry and insulated.

Furniture accessory

Small carpet pieces make fine outdoor furniture pads; indoor/outdoor washable carpeting may be cut to fit under a table for outdoor picnics.

Raised beds of course

We can’t forget to use carpets on raised beds.  They can be laid on top of course to keep the weeds down but also underneath the soil when making raised beds for vegetables or herbs.  First lay down a carpet, upside down and build a raised bed on top of the carpet, the carpet offers a weed barrier and soil holder for sand and soil in box.               

Barrow protector

When hauling metal and thorny material in a wheel-barrow, throw a piece of carpet as liner on top for protection.

Carpet squares

Carpet squares with thick backs make an ideal siding for the dog house or the doll house, the garden shed or tree house. This type of carpet drains fast and insulates, can be sprayed off and keeps looking neat.  Even the roof of dog kennels can be covered in this way.

In the house too

Small pieces of carpet under the wheels of a washing machine can stop it from moving around on laminate floors and also deadens the noise.

If your car is very tight fit in the garage put carpet on the wall where the car door opens. Put some on the part where the front bumper would touch.