Time to clean up, organize garden tools, supplies

You’re not alone if your garden shed or storage area is a bit disheveled at the moment. Even with the prolonged fall, many of us procrastinated at the less pleasant gardening tasks: cleanup.

If cleaning up from the season’s work isn’t your strong point, fear not; there’s time left to change your ways (and for me to change mine). If you tend to leave seed-starting pots and trays in disarray, tools soiled and unsharpened, seeds lying around in their packs, perhaps you’ll find time this month for a little tidying up before you order seeds for the new season.

Cleaning and organizing your pots is as good a place as any to begin. Sort the pots, cell packs and trays that you’ll reuse. Remove loose soil and wash them with water and detergent, if you wish. Sterilize by soaking them in a 10 percent bleach solution for a few minutes, using nine parts tap water to one part bleach.

It’s not necessary to scrub every particle of dirt from each pot. The idea is to expose any disease organisms on the surface of the container to the bleach, and kill them off so they won’t infect your young plant material come spring.

Depending on the size and quantity of pots, you may not want to clean them inside your home. Plastic totes work well for cleanup in the shed, garage, barn or yard. Use two or three: one for washing, one for the bleach solution, another for water for rinsing. Let the containers air-dry thoroughly before stacking them in storage.

Once the pots and trays are cleaned and organized, you’ll have a better idea of what you need for supplies this year.

Next, tackle those tools.

Most of our gardening tasks — cultivating, mowing, preparing new ground — involve the use of tools that cut through soil or plant tissue. Sharp tools are essential for getting a clean, healthy cut on pruning and mowing jobs, and for protecting plant stems and roots while cultivating.

Cleaning tools is fairly simple. Brush off the soil from spades and other tools, using water to wash off what is really caked on, if necessary, and let the tools dry. A little steel wool and elbow grease clean fairly well stainless steel pruning shears that are built up with sap.

Sharpening tools can be tricky. Keep in mind when sharpening the blade on hand pruners, digging spades and other gardening implements, that the objective is to try to return the edge bevel to its original angle, while retaining as much metal on the blade as possible.

Keep in mind safety while sharpening blades. Avoid holding tools under your arm or between your knees while sharpening. Use a vise to support the tool. A hand file generally offers a safer, more exact means of sharpening, compared with using a power grinder. A grinder is a quick way of sharpening tools, but requires extra attention to safety and may result in a greater chance of taking more off the blade than necessary.

If you sharpen your own lawn mower or tiller blades, always remember to remove the spark plug or unplug the electrical cord to prevent accidental starting.

Next week, I’ll offer pointers on how to store seed you may have saved or may have left over from last spring’s supply. I’ll give suggestions on how to plan out the timing of seed sowing for various crops.

Your questions

Q: One year I made the mistake of sowing morning glories all along the back side of my shed. Now I have them growing everywhere. Do you have any idea on how to control these obnoxious plants? They used to be one of my favorites. — O.P., Belfast

A: Morning glories are lovely, but despite their pretty flowers, they may become a nuisance. The best way to control rogue plants is to hoe them down when they are tender and small. Try applying mulch to the area after you’ve hoed a flush of growth, and perhaps this will limit light enough to prevent others from coming up.

If the morning glories get away from you, you can certainly hand pull them or chop them off when they are larger.

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, c/o Maine Weekend, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.