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Good organization is the key to a successful garden. As suggested by online experts good gardening organization comes from having the right kind of tools and keeping them in good shape. That means keeping them stored in an orderly garden tool shed, in the basement, or some other out of the weather place. Do not allow them to stand out in the weather where they can rust and where the handles can succumb to decay. Must have tools are rakes, hoes, pruning shears, spades and shovels.

These need to be maintained and cleaned and oiled thoroughly in the fall to prevent rust. Extra chores such as these can be done in the colder days after the first frost when the ground is too frozen to do any actual garden work.

Pruning is a messy job that will clutter up a garden if you do not carefully pick up all the broken sticks and limbs and no allow it to lie where it fell. As an aside here, I will mention that if you are bird lover and want to help out with their building materials, you can collect small dried vines and other building materials salvaged from your pruning and keep them neatly piled up in an out of the way place in the garden but within finding distance for the birds.

Mulching can make the garden look neater and will cut down on the time of weeding and cleaning up. It will take only a second to pull a weed that has the tenacity to grow through the mulch. This is what separates a serious gardener from a hit or miss tomato and lettuce grower.

Safety for fingers and toes and small children playing in and around gardens is another good gardening essential. Keep all tools out of the way of small feet of unsuspecting visitors but keep them handy and ready to use when they are needed. For this purpose a small shed that will house a well stocked wheelbarrow for the next gardening outing and out of the way of busy little people looking for gardening adventures when mom and dad aren't looking.

Keeping good records of your gardening ideas is another way of assuring you of easier maintenance and will help keep you organized. One online efficient gardener tells of her garden file box. The essence of what she keeps in there alphabetically arranged is not important but one thing about it stood out. She was persistent about keeping all the best gardening information and tips where she could quickly retrieve them whenever she needed them.

Other methods of keeping all gardening tidbits together, sales tips, notes, articles on gardening, seed packets together is to throw everything into a shoe box and scramble to find what you know is in there when you need it. This is for those who are less inclined to get so involved but still want to keep the information in the same place.

Which ever method you use, you will be glad when you can easily find whatever you are looking for and will not have to usurp the rest of the house looking for the name of that scrumptious lettuce your mother was drooling over. And if by chance you cannot find a place for something, such as a cute saying your granddaughter made about her strawberry patch, do as this author did and file it under U. That's the section for those items that fit nowhere else. Actually, however, Mary, being exceptionally gifted not only in gardening but in organizing facts about gardening, would have filed that under K, for kids.

Source:

Burrell, C. Colton. "Garden Care Tips." 04 April 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. > 23 February 2009.

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