Proper storage of garden items will simplify your chores Make spring easier

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By Pam Baytos

OSU Extension master gardener volunteer

Once you’re sure all your fall weeding, pruning and planting are finished, it’s time to retire your tools for the winter. Clean and sharpen them before storing. Remove all caked soil, sharpen edges with a file and give them a protective finish with a light coating of oil to keep them rust-free. I keep a bucket of oiled sand to dip my tools into after using to keep them in good shape during the summer. Now is also a good time to paint your tool handles a bright color. I always seem to lay a tool down when gardening. Having a brightly painted handle helps me find them faster.

Move all pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, etc. — someplace where they won’t freeze. This applies to organic items as well. Always store these chemicals in locked cabinets or out of reach of children in their original containers.

Choose a few urns or large containers to use to display fall and winter decorations. Have a plan for easy movement of these to a garage or shed after the holidays when it is slick outside. Empty your outdoor containers to keep them from cracking during winter months. Use a stiff brush to loosen soil on container walls. Disinfect them with a 10 (water) to 1 (bleach) solution. Let them dry, then store them in a building or turn them upside down.

Before you put away your outdoor furniture, give it a good cleaning to get rid of summer’s grime and pollen. This is when I do any paint touch-ups. Put your cushions somewhere mice can’t get to them, such as a plastic tote, or bring them into your house. If you store your grill, give it a good cleaning. We use ours all winter. Here in Northeast Ohio, you just need a good grilled cheeseburger to get rid of the winter blahs.

Place all garden ornaments, stakes, cages and rain barrels in a shed or garage. Drain your garden hoses, roll up and put away. If you don’t have a shed or garage to store your garden items, a good, waterproof tarp will do the job. Just make sure the bottom is secured. When my brother covered my mother’s furniture last year he didn’t secure the bottom and birds overwintered there. What a messy spring clean-up!

Clean out and store birdhouses. It’s time to get out your nesting boxes and clean suet feeder cages and bird feeders for winter use.

After you’ve mowed and mulched leaves the last time, give a thorough cleaning and sharpening to your mower blades. Drain fuel tanks of power equipment or add fuel additive. Give your snow shovel a quick once over, your snow-blower a tune-up, then gas it up and wait for the dreaded white stuff. This is when I call the snowplow guy to make sure I’m on his “plow my driveway” list. Get ready to hang out by the fire, read your garden catalogs (they get us through the winter) and start the countdown till spring.

For details on cleaning and storing tools for the winter, go to: http://go.osu.edu/winterstorage.