31 yard tool hacks that’ll make your life easier

When it’s time to clean out the refrigerator, be sure to save those plastic berry containers for repurposing ideas. You can toss the mushy raspberries, but wash and dry the container –it’s perfect for spreading grass seed on your lawn! Follow this tip to remember where you have placed grass seed.

Getting mulch up close to flowers and bushes is easier if the mulch is in a small container. So I place buckets and pails in my wheelbarrow and fill them up with mulch. It doesn’t matter much if the mulch misses the bucket and lands in the wheelbarrow. Once you’re done dumping the buckets, dump what’s left in the wheelbarrow in an open area and spread it out. – Eric Swartz

Working with heavy, clay-packed soil? Keep your shovel clean and make your job easier by spraying it with silicone. The light coating will prevent dirt from sticking, so you can work fast. Be sure to use a lubricant that contains silicone or Teflon and recoat the shovel occasionally. Head here to find out how to space plants evenly using a shovel.

We spend a ton of time planting, fertilising and watering our flowers. Once, while dragging the hose across the yard, I inadvertently raked it across the garden and destroyed a bunch of flowers. My solution was to make a path for the hose using the wickets from my croquet set. As I’m watering, I feed the hose through the wickets, keeping my flowers safe. – Ryne Rover

Try a garden rake instead of a hoe the next time you have to mix concrete. The rake won’t splash as much water over the edge, and the tines do a good job of combining the water with the powder. Here’s how to repair cracked concrete.

I only own one watering can, so I need to refill it four or five times to water all of the plants on my patio. Instead of buying more overpriced watering cans, I use old milk cartons. I drill a few holes in the caps, fill up the jugs with water and I’m good to go. – Harrison Berg

Try this method when you want to water plants slowly.

This compact rack is strong and simple to build. You can store shovels, rakes, a sledgehammer – any long-handled tools – conveniently up and out of the way. The unit holds up to 14 items, giving you more flexibility and storage capacity than nails pounded in the wall. See how to build it.

If you have a yard or a garden, you know that there are a lot of long-handled tools involved. You probably also know how obnoxious it is when you need the shovel or the rake and have to walk all over to find it. All you need for this organisation hack is a pallet, a couple of screws and a drill. And if you don’t have any pallets lying around, they are easy to get for free. Many businesses will give them to you, but you should call first! This is a quick one-hour project and after you’re done, your tools will be organised and easy to reach.

You could easily attach this pallet to a fence, shed or to the exposed wall studs in your garage. No matter what you choose, you’ll want to make sure that your screws are long enough to go through both your pallet and the wall you are attaching it to. We drilled two screws into the pallet, one into each exposed wall stud. You won’t need a ton of screws or nails because the pallet isn’t all that heavy. Now you have a quick and (possibly) free way to store your lawn tools!

Head here to see how to build 3 amazing vertical pallet gardens.

Get a better grip on your straight-handled shovel by epoxying a 2cm PVC tee to the end.

I had to dig a 5cm wide x 15cm deep x 128cm long trench for low voltage wire between my rock walkway and landscape rock planting area, about 10-15cm wide area to work in. I started with a trowel and then moved to 5cm wide x 30cm long pry bar on my hands and knees, not great for my old knees and slow. An idea came to mind, why not mount the pry bar on an old hoe handle I had in the garage. It worked great!