{"id":5151,"date":"2017-06-06T12:32:36","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T17:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/3.146.49.248\/?p=5151"},"modified":"2025-08-27T07:14:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T12:14:56","slug":"gardening-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/gardening-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Gardening 101: Essential Tips for Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We at the Lock Up love helping people who are in the midst of moving. Whether it&#8217;s moving extra stuff out of a home or office or making a big move into a new space, our staff are at the ready with their knowledge about the moving and storing questions you may have. Our goal is to make these things easier on you. But we don&#8217;t draw the line at self storage or moving items into your self storage unit. Our on site staff often get to know people who are moving into new homes while they visit their self storage units, and we know that storage tips at the home can really help sometimes. So we&#8217;ve gathered a few tips for new home gardeners on how to build and store their gardening tool arsenal.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-sheets-root=\"1\">The Lock Up\u2019s Guide to Storing Your Tools<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you&#8217;re moving into a new home that has a yard, or a condo that has a nice balcony, chances are you&#8217;re going to want to exercise your green thumb. There are some essential tools you&#8217;ll need for the task. And while you&#8217;re learning, you should also know how to store them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You should have a designated place to store your tools. Be sure to fully rinse off your tools after using them. Hand tools should be stored in a garden bag and long handled tools should be stored by hanging them on a pegboard. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another great tip for keeping metal tools in tip top shape is to keep a bucket filled with sand that is soaked with linseed oil. After gardening, plunge your tools into the bucket to condition them and they&#8217;ll last a lot longer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are the absolute must haves for every gardener. Whether you&#8217;re a window sill, balcony, or yard gardener, you will need these items. These tools should be stored in a garden bag that you bring around with you as you tend to your plants.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gloves<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, it can be fun to get your hands in the dirt, but after a while, you&#8217;ll realize that your hands really take a beating. Be sure to have a waterproof, durable pair of gloves in your gardening bag to protect your hands. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hand Trowel<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This little tool will dig, plant bulbs, and help divide small perennials.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shears<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These will help deadhead your flowering plants, trim leaves, make clippings of plants, and cut back ornamental grasses. Keep them sharp and oil the joint with an all purpose oil every so often.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hand Pruners<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A good pair of pruners will clip branches that are about \u00be of an inch thick or less. Like shears, keep them sharp and oiled.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All purpose plant food<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have a bottle of this in your garden bag, you&#8217;ll have beautiful blooms all summer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hand weeder<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Along with plants, come weeds. This tool lets you get at the roots of weeds without disturbing the surrounding plants.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watering Can<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The size can you need is based on the number of pots you need to water. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These items are for gardeners that have some land to deal with. This is not a full list, but they are all must haves. Set up a pegboard in your garage, basement or shed to store these.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hose<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of lugging an unwieldy regular hose, consider getting one of the hoses that expands when you turn on the water. They&#8217;re small when not in use, lighter, and don&#8217;t kink when they&#8217;re in use. Store it in indirect sun and be sure to bring inside during winter.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Long Handled Pruners <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These pruners will clip branches thicker than \u00be of an inch and will help keep your bushes in good shape and bushier when used regularly. Keep them sharp, oiled, and store them by hanging them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Round Headed Shovel<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A trowel is great for planting containers, but you need a shovel for planting anything in the ground. Keep it in good shape by hanging it off the ground.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leaf Rake<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lightweight rake that will make cleaning up fall leaves a breeze.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bow Rake<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This kind of rake is heavier than a leaf rake and used for spreading mulch, gravel, sand, compost, and for leveling dirt, or removing large debris.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And of course, if you&#8217;re in need of a self storage unit, visit us as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">thelockup.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> today to secure the unit perfect for you!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lock Up has tips for new gardeners and how to store their tools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-storage-by-item","category-storage-tips"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5151"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9389,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151\/revisions\/9389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelockup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}