Becoming knowledgeable about caring for and the correct 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. An example would be making sure that your hoses coiled up correctly as it will prevent tripping. Another example would be leaving your yard rake out so you could step on it and have it come up and whack you in the face, or have one of the tines go through your foot. It is very important never to leave any type of tool with points are edges on them hidden in grass or leaves where you can't see them. 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 shovel or a hoe or some other backyard tool with a wooden handle that has a small crack in it, you can expect crack pretty easily just by wrapping some black tape around it real tight. It works pretty well and will help it to last quite a bit longer. The tape that is made out of glass filament works pretty well also.

If you have a shovels or rakes with wooden handles, or any other tool with a wooden handle for that matter, and it has splinters and it then you can easily remedy this by just using some sandpaper and sending them smooth. Not only will this sanding process prevent the splinters from going into your hand but it was also prevent the splinters from growing into full-blown splits and cracks which will end up giving you a broken handled tool.

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. You can definitely paint the metal parts on your tools as well, and when you do just make sure that you apply a coat of primer and a couple of coats of exterior paint on top. 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.

Often times when you actually use your tools, the edges may get nicked or damaged. These may be smoothed with a metal file. 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. If they have any dents in them, you can easily staighten them out by using a mallet. A wheelbarrow break, in the wood or metal parts, should be repaired at once. If you want to preserve 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 moving parts need occasional oiling, to run smoothly. For winter storage, keep tools in a dry spot as dampness could be harmful. Before your store your tools always make sure that they are clean and free of dirt and grass. The metal parts should be coated with a mixture of petroleum jelly and light oil, to prevent rust.

If you properly take care of your backyard tools they will last you for many many years.