Throughout the spring and summer season, you have had plenty of time to indulge in your favorite passion of gardening. Unfortunately in winter, you have no other choice but to put away your apprentice gardener outfits, take the opportunity to maintain your garden equipment . Let yourself be guided!
Cutting tools are those generally equipped with steel blades and wooden handles, to name only pruning shears, spades, shovels, hoes, or even rakes. For my part, each time I finish using them, I always take the trouble to clean them well, before putting them away. As a result, I effectively protect them from rust and premature wear, thus keeping them in good condition for many years.
In short, the maintenance of cutting tools will consist above all in cleaning their heads and their handles. So I start dry brushing the dirt and mud residue on my spade, my rake or even my hoe. If there are traces of rust, I scrape them off with a wire brush.
Then I disinfect everything with a soft cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol. For tools with wooden handles, I coat them with linseed oil to protect them from cold and frost. I also take this opportunity to oil and grease the springs, rotation axes and others.
Lawn mowers, plant shredders and edge cutters are the motorized gardening tools most commonly found in private homes. Of course, we can never repeat enough that the ideal would be to clean these devices after each use. However, before storing my lawnmower in winter in a dry place, I must first perform these few maintenance actions.
First of all, do not forget that like any engine, that of my mower also requires an oil change, which I schedule if possible once a year. At the same time, I also empty the fuel tanks of my motor tools. If it is a thermal model, I carefully remove the spark plugs.
Afterwards, when I store the machine, I take care to lean the handlebars back slightly, to prevent the carburettor from being flooded with oil from the engine.
