06 Feb What do gardeners do in the winter – Part 1
As you can imagine winter is the time to catch up on all the things that don’t get done during the busy growing season. There were mountains of paperwork on my desk that remained largely ignored that had to be dealt with.
But once that was accomplished it was time to turn to other things. My tools. I am good about maintaining my equipment. I like to keep my tools cleaned and sharpened. Especially my hand pruners. It takes some time to pull them apart to clean, oil and sharpen them, but it is well worth the effort.
As you can see they look really dirty. That is from the plant juices that dry on them while I was using them.
The first step to cleaning them is to take them completely apart. I used to take the locking mechanism apart, but I don’t find that necessary to do at every cleaning. There are many parts and if you aren’t familiar with them it can get confusing as to how to reassemble them. There are many good videos online that can teach you how to do it.
You can see the difference between the first pruner that was cleaned and the one on the right that still needs work. The blades aren’t black anymore and the blade has been sharpened on a sharpening stone.
And finally all 3 pruners are cleaned and ready to be put away until the spring.