Becoming knowledgeable about caring for and the proper use of your gardening tools will not only increase the lifespan of the tool, but it will also help to prevent you from injuring yourself and make taking care of your garden a lot more enjoyable. Take your backyard hoses for instance if they aren't coiled up correctly it can cause a tripping accident. If your garden rake is left out, imagine stepping on it and having one of the times go through your foot, or on the other hand having it come up and smack you in the head. You mustn't leave any of your tools with sharp edges or points in the grass or leaves, or other type of material which can hide that edge and cause an accident. Keep your fingers away from the blades of the lawn mower: merely smacking your hand against the blades can lead to a brutal injury. If you have a tool with a wooden handle on it and it has a small crack on it, you can repair this with some black tape. It actually works pretty well. A glass filament tape is particularly useful for such a job.

If any of the wooden handled tools that you own have splinters, then you can easily cure this problem by sanding them down smooth. Doing this doesn't only guard your hands, but it will keep the splinters from spreading into full-blown splits which will end up in a broken handle.

A really easy way to make your wood handles last a little longer is to put on a few coats of either quality varnish or a good coat of paint. The metal parts of the tool may be painted, with a primer coat, and two coats of exterior paint. However, any metal part which goes into the ground should not be painted.

Preservation of the tool isn't the only reason you should paint it though as when you paint them appropriate colors it makes them much easier to find. SO make sure that you paint your tools in bright colors which will make them easy to spot when they are laying on the ground, like red, or blue for instance.

The metal edges of shovels, hoes, rakes or other backyard tools may become nicked. You can repair these easily with a nice metal file or a grinder with a sanding disk if you have one on hand. By using an abrasive material like steel wool or something similar you can effectively get rid of any of the rough surfaces that sometimes occur on the metal parts of tools that are not correctly maintained. Dents may be straightened out by hammering with a mallet. Prompt attention always needs to be paid to parts on a wheelbarrow that are broken or cracked be they metal or wood parts. If you want to protect your wheelbarrow for a little bit longer period of time, you can easily do so by painting it as this helps to preserve the wood. The parts on your tools that move or turn need to be oiled on a regular basis for guaranteed smooth operation. For winter storage, keep tools in a dry spot as dampness could be harmful. Wipe all tools clean of any dirt or grass before being stored. If you want to prevent rust from forming on your tools, you can apply a mixture of petroleum jelly and light oil before storage.

Taking the time to appropriately care for your yard tools will make sure that you have them for many years to come.