Thrifty Thursday: Tools and Garden Helpers

Part 2 of our 3 part Spring Garden Series. Hope you learn something new and interesting. Check out Part 1 HERE.

Your gardening tools are meant to last a lot longer than your perennials, so you'll want to keep them clean and protected from the elements. And you want to keep your garden watered during droughts. You can do both by recycling some old containers.

For your garden hand tools, such as pruners and trowels, just fill an old coffee can with sand and a little motor oil and use them the same way to clean and oil them. {Meaning shove them into the sand as though it were dirt.}

To water your plants during dry spells, it's a good idea to place several drip irrigators around your garden that will get water down to the roots of your plants. Again the solution is in your recycling bin. Make your drip irrigators from 1-gallon plastic juice or detergent jugs.

Cut a large hold in the bottom of a clean jug, then drill two to five tiny -- about 1/16-inch -- holes in or around the cap. Keep the holes small so that the water seeps out slowly.

Bury the jugged caps upside down about three-quarters submerged beneath the soil near the plants you need to water. Fill them with water through the hole on top as often as needed.