ABC Wednesday 5: W is for...


This post is especially for Helena and The Constant Gardener, who both commented recently when ABC Wednesday stood at S for Secateurs.

Helena asked the question:

How do you keep yours from going rusty? I'm sure I dry them off but when I come back to use them again in the spring they are stuck fast and at least a little rusty and never the same again! I wonder if rubbing a little olive oil on them would work....

The Constant Gardener kindly answered:

Helena - WD40. Spray, preferably, all over the blade + joint when you put them away for the winter.

Though I carry on using mine all winter long these days... and just a few drops of 3 in 1 [a brand of oil which claims to have rust inhibiting properties - Ed] on the bolt that holds everything together from time to time seems to keep everything in tip-top working order.

Because this conversation concerned tools, NAH (who was peering over my shoulder at the time) couldn't resist joining in. Apparently his dad used to use the oil from the end of his car's dipstick, so it looks like most kinds of oil will do the trick. I've even heard of baby oil being used. NAH also added that if you can bring your secateurs indoors over the winter, then there isn't really the need for oil nor WD-40, assuming you've wiped the blades dry after using them and your house has a dry atmosphere. However, if it hasn't or if your shed or garage is where they'll be over the next few months, then WD-40's the way to go. I'd still use the oil too, so the blades are ready to get cracking when you start winter or spring pruning.

NAH then also told me the name WD-40 is the shortened form of Water Displacement - 40th attempt: apparently the inventor had 39 attempts before he hit on the formulation which actually worked! As soon as he told me that, I immediately knew what I was going to use for W today. I for one am very pleased the inventor persisted, because a can was part of the required toolkit for my old-style Mini when I owned one. The merest hint of rain and my car would refuse to move: one spray with the can and off it would go again. It's a known problem with them and all kinds of protective covers were made to go under the bonnet, but nothing worked quite as well as good old WD-40 :)
Update: Soilman's quite rightly pointed out in the Comments that the use of engine oil's a no-no, so let's stick with Constant Gardener's original advice!

Why not visit the ABC Wednesday blog, for a Whole feast of Ws?

Comments

  1. James A-S23 December 2009 at 17:00

    I only use the finest Extra Virgin Otter Farm Olive OIl: as a result my tools are extremely rusty!
    Have a very lovely Christmas, VP.
    I look forward to bumping into you all over the place next year
    lots of love
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carrie23 December 2009 at 17:09

    I learnt that same fact about the name last week from a friend! Cool. We use it too but have also found that we need a sharpening stone fast.
    Merry Christmas to you and yours xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. colleen23 December 2009 at 18:07

    W is also for wondrous stuff. Where would we be without it. I would be pleased if there were a can in my Christmas stocking.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tumblewords:23 December 2009 at 18:14

    I can't imagine a world without WD-40! Headed to the garage now to spray the blades. Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kim, USA23 December 2009 at 18:17

    Oh now I know what is the best for my tools. WD-40 is the answer of it all...I hate it when every spring I buy tools all over again it is a waste of money to do it all the time. Thank you for sharing this...Merry Christmas!

    http://kissess4u.blogspot.com/2009/12/abc-wednesday-w-is-for-world-war-ii.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous23 December 2009 at 19:17

    I agree with Colleen, although I'll pass on a can being in my Christmas stocking! Flighty xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mara23 December 2009 at 20:00

    I used to carry WD 40 around with me as well, but for some reason it never worked. I later found out I used it on the wrong part of the engine!

    Merry Christmas from the Netherlands

    ReplyDelete
  8. Helen/patientgardener23 December 2009 at 20:16

    Thanks for that bit of info - will surprise the boys with my technical info

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anna23 December 2009 at 21:06

    A wonderfully useful W post :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. The bike shed23 December 2009 at 21:43

    I never knew that about WD 40 standing for water displacement. The things you learn on blogs... Have a great Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Judi24 December 2009 at 02:42

    Water displacement, huh? I hope I can retain this bit of information in case it comes up. I'll sound so smart:) Good info. Good product.
    Happy Holidays!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Roger Owen Green24 December 2009 at 03:17

    I'm a BIG fan of WD-40 for the squeaky doors. But it doesn't work on my creaky knees, unfortunately.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Soilman24 December 2009 at 07:58

    Would advise against using the dipstick oil method, folks: used engine oil is very nasty stuff – full of carcinogens and heavy metals. Not something you regularly want on your hands or your veg garden...

    ReplyDelete
  14. NewShoot24 December 2009 at 11:31

    Winnie the mini used to run on WD40. Did you ever use the rubber glove over the carburettor trick too?

    Merry Christmas and thanks for the fab blogging over the year - always something interesting to read.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Rose24 December 2009 at 13:29

    Fascinating info about how this useful product got its name--I always wondered about that.

    Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, VP!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Esther Montgomery29 December 2009 at 16:53

    I'm a huge fan of WD 40. It seems a wonder-oil to me.

    A word of warning for people with grass eating pets like guinea pigs - you shouldn't cut grass for them with oiled sheers.

    It's a great shame that Philip's Garden Blog seems to have stopped but I remember reading there the idea of having a bucket of sand outside the shed / store-room. Shove your garden fork in and out of it each time you put it away helps to keep it shiny and sharp.

    Esther

    ReplyDelete
  17. VP5 January 2010 at 20:36

    I see there's a lot of WD-40 fans out there :)

    Soilman's quite right, so I've updated the post to warn everyone off using engine oil. Thanks for the reminder Soilman!

    New Shoot - tried just about everything with my mini to keep it going. I was really sad the day it went though, because it was my first car.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter,
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi
Read more