December Tips
TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

Contact: Diane Relf, Extension Specialist, Environmental Horticulture

October 1996

  • Try coating your snow shovel with a "no-stick" cooking spray; the snow slides right off. Recoat as needed.

  • Don't store your lawn seeder/fertilizer. Use it to spread sand or sawdust on drives and walkways.

  • Consider purchasing garden tools, books, clothing, or a gift certificate to a nursery or garden center to give as a holiday gift for that special gardener in your life. The Virginia Gardener Newsletter would make a nice gift, too. For subscription information, write to: The Virginia Gardener, Department of Horticulture, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0349.

  • A home weather station that includes a minimum-maximum thermometer, a rain gauge, and a weather log is a splendid gift for a gardener, and it can be put to use at once.

  • Ask Santa for a special plant or garden tool for yourself. Begin a collection of your favorite perennials, and request a new plant every year. If you garden indoors, start a collection of succulents that can be added to yearly.

  • Check belts and spark plugs and buy replacements, change the oil, sharpen the blades or tines, and clean off dirt and plant debris so equipment will be ready to go when you need it next spring.

  • Drain the fuel tank and run the lawn mower or tiller engine dry before putting the machine away for the winter.

  • Clean and sharpen lawn and garden tools, and store them in a dry storage area. A light coating of oil on exposed metal surfaces will prevent rusting.

    Monthly Tips have been prepared since 1986 by various staff of the Office of Consumer Horticulture including Ellen Bennett, Michelle Buckstrup, Susan Day, Susan DeBolt, Sharon Dendy, Kate Dobbs, Sheri Dorn, David Gravell, Virginia Nathan, Jenny Shuster, Ellen Silva, and Ruth Sorenson. Resource material for the development of this information includes the Virginia Master Gardener Handbook; Extension Publications and newsletters from VCE, numerous other states, and the USDA; and an extensive library of over 900 books, magazines, and journals. Project funded by The Virginia Gardener Newsletter subscription fees. Diane Relf, Project Director and Content Specialist.

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