Create Your Own Garden Workstation

If you are a gardener with lots of yard equipment, set up a special potting area and storage for your garden tools and supplies to keep them in order.  A well organized garden work space means you can save time, energy, and money:  you won’t have to spend 15 minutes looking for that special weeding tool; you won’t be frustrated moving bags of potting soil out of the way so you can get to the weed-eater; and you won’t spend extra money to buy a pair of goggles because you can’t find yours.  Position this garden workstation near a door for easy access to your yard.  Use these guides to keep all your garden tools organized.

• Hooks and Pegs:  Install a large hook with a steep angle on an easy-to-get-to wall to house your garden hose making it easy to find and getting it off the floor.  Hang a toilet paper holder on its side and use it to hold twines or thin wires.  Be sure to keep a cutter close to a spindle of twine. 

• Long Handled Tools:  Buy a heavy-duty plastic garbage can on wheels for storing long-handled yard and garden tools such as rake and hoes.  With all the yard tools in one place, all you have to do is wheel the garbage can with you around the yard or garden. 

• Small Garden Gear:  Keep your frequently used gardening gloves, kneepads, trowels, and small pruning shears in a portable basket, canvas tote, or light plastic bin with handle.  It is easy to grab and go when you need to get to work.    

• Potting Bench:  Build a potting bench indoors so you can plant or repot your favorite container plants even when it is raining. 

• Potting Mix:  Store potting mix and mulch in bushel baskets underneath your potting bench. 

• Containers:  Inexpensive plastic bins with lockable lids are an easy way to keep bird feed, chemical, and fertilizers moisture-free and squirrels and rats can’t get to it. 

• Lockable cabinet:  Store individual items in separate plastic or metal containers to organize them into mini zones.  Buy cabinets with adjustable shelves; the flexibility to match shelf height to bins is worth the cost.    

• Calendar Board:  Keep a calendar of landscaping activities so you won’t have to guess when you last fertilized your lawn or planted seeds.  By keeping track of planting and harvesting dates, the varieties of plants you grow, and pest encountered, you will have a valuable resource to help you gauge success and avoid next year’s garden problems.

Having a designated area for all of your yard and garden needs can make yard and gardening maintenance chore more pleasant.  Set up your garden workstation indoors and assign all your garden gears to their own space; keep them easy to find and displayed with style.  Take advantage of new and spiffy tool organizers and make your life simpler.  You should be digging in the dirt and not wasting time digging for your garden tools out of your kitchen junk draw.