Welcome to The Yankee Gardener’s little corner of the Internet. We hope to share many things with you about working in your yard and decorating your gardens. One of the many great things about garden decor is that you can constantly move it around and therefore giving the appearance that you have added something new to your garden.

Garden decor can come in many forms. You can find unusual items at a flea market sale or buy very fancy items from an Internet store or your local big box store. I would caution you though that the big box store items are generally not of very high quality. If you are in it for the long haul like my wife and I are you might want to think about initially spending a few extra dollars on some higher quality decor.

It will be with you much longer and it also will take on it’s own aged look as time goes by. We recently added a solar Gazing Globe to our yard and the neighbors instantly wanted to know where to get one and just how it worked. We explained it all to them and they just had to have one. We have a pretty special neighborhood now. We people pass by at night they must think that space travelers have taken up residence. It is all in good fun and having great neighbors to boot. This is my first attempt at a blog so bear with me and I promise I will get the hang of it very fast.

In the northern part of the country it is rapidly approaching time to button things down for the winter. You invest good hard earned money in all of your garden tools and lawn tools too. It does not take a lot of time to protect those tools for the winter months but in those short few months those same tools can rust at an alarming pace. A short amount of time with a piece of sandpaper can ready those tools for some well deserved oil or paint to protect the metal parts for the winter. While you are at it why not sharpen any tools that require sharpening before applying oil or paint to their surfaces.

One more trick we use here in the northeast is an old trick my Grandfather taught me when I was very young and I still use it today. Almost all tools have wooden handles. Wood does have a tendency to dry out naturally over time. It is just the nature of it’s construction. Without the tree roots to supply moisture to any piece of wood it will dry out. You can treat the outside to help it retain some of it’s moisture but eventually it will lose some of that protection and the wood will do what it knows best once again, dry out. Well here is a very easy solution that will only take you minutes to do and it only needs to be repeated a couple times a year and will extend the life of your tools by many years.

Take an extra long drill bit, usually about a 1/4″ bit will be good enough. Go straight to the very end of the handle and drill in the very center parallel to the length of the handle as far into the handle as the bit will allow. The deeper the better and you will understand that better in a few seconds. You now have a 1/4″ hole directly in the center of the handle down about 5 inches or so. You will also need some 1/4″ furniture plugs like they use in wooden furniture to cover the screw holes to plug the end of the tool handle. Fill the hole you just drilled with some Linseed oil and cap off the hole with the furniture plug. Stand the tool on end so gravity can do it’s job and naturally let the oil work down through the handle. The oil will keep the handle from drying out and keep it somewhat flexible. More good tools have been tossed in the dumpster because of a simple broken handle.

People have gotten used to the inexpensive tools and the ease of just replacing them when the break a handle. My tools are good and trusted friends to me and I like to take as good care of them as the do me. They make my gardening easy and enjoyable so I feel I owe it to them to take a few minutes out of my time and keep them clean and well oiled and sharp. Clean sharp tools will make a job go smoothly and it is also easier on the tools if they are in good working order. Try this out on the next rainy weekend and you will see next spring that your efforts will have rewarded you.