Taking the time in the fall to clean, sharpen and maintain or replace your tools is an important aspect to having a healthy vegetable garden.

Clean tools:

Clean all your tools at the end the season before you put them away into storage. Quality tools can be expensive to purchase, so you want to take care of it.

1. Rub any debris off with a cloth or burlap sack, if the dirt is dried on use a wire brush or steel wool to scrape it all off.
2. Wipe any metal parts lightly with oil.
3. Wipe wooden handles with linseed oil.

Sharp tools:

• Sharp tools will make your gardening tasks easier to do.
• Tools need to be regularly sharpened especially your hoe and digging tools.
• Sharpened your tools before you start to work in the garden.
• Use a flat file to sharpen the tool by drawing it smoothly down the blade from top to bottom. Move the file in one direction until all the nicks are smoothed out. When the blade is sharp to the touch move the file over the back edge of the tool to remove any build up on that edge.

Learn more about garden tools.

Maintain tools:

• Take the time to fix or replace any broken tools.
• Replacing tools in the fall can often be bought at discounted prices.

" My 2010 Vegetable Garden Journal " is NOW AVAILABLE! This journal is a simple to follow book that will help you stay organized and give you all the information you need to have a successful vegetable garden.