10133 Mother Earth News Premium: Guide to Starting a Garden

Table of Contents

MOTHER EARTH NEWS • Guide to Starting a Garden

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54 83 Fall in Love With Spinach

SUMMER

Had little luck with spring-sown spinach? Bust the slump by instead planting this brilliantly green, nutrition-packed vegetable at summer’s end.

50 Terrific Tomatoes for Spectacular

Sauces and Creative Canning

Address garden challenges as they come, such as putting down weed-barrier cloth to combat severe weed problems.

A tomato connoisseur and organic gardener recommends his favorite cultivars based on flavor, reliability, and years of experience.

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86 Bright Bites: Growing Arugula

and Turnips for the Table

Grow crisp turnips and arugula in cool-season gardens, and pair their peppery flavors in your kitchen.

54 Build Permanent Beds and Paths

Permanent beds make gardening easier and soil healthier.

WINTER

58 Rainwater Harvesting: A Better System

BEGIN YOUR GARDEN

Never Need to Replant

6 Beginning Gardening

Break through seasonal barriers with these expertrecommended techniques.

This season-by-season planting plan for a no-dig, easy-care bag garden features 25 favorite crops.

28 Top Gardening Challenges and

How to Overcome Them

48 Subversive Plots

Veteran organic growers detail how they cope with vexing gardening problems.

Use your garden to disconnect from industrial food and take control of your food supply.

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Not sure how to get started on your first-ever vegetable garden? Use these labor-saving methods to transform any space into productive garden beds.

72 Garden Methods: Which One Is Right for You? There are many ways to plant a successful food garden.

Here’s a guide to help you figure out which method will work best for you.

COVER PHOTOGRAPH: ARTRACHEN01

44 Start a Quick and Easy Food Garden

Save money and grow superior varieties by starting your own seeds.

102 How to Start a Vegetable Garden

Expert advice for the next half of the gardening season.

Tap two efficient watering strategies—soaker hoses and drip irrigation—to conserve resources and save on your water bill.

24 Best Tips for Starting Seeds Indoors

DIY PLANS

What, When, How

42 Smart Hoses Water Your Garden for You

Pack your pantry with the help of this crop-by-crop guide to food storage.

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66 Grow Your Best Fall Garden:

SPRING

18 Easy Ways to Preserve Fresh Food

With the right light, you can grow tomatoes indoors all through winter.

FALL

Learn the pros and cons of the implements you need to manage a large-scale food garden.

A Regional Guide

98 You Can Grow Winter Tomatoes

Lack experience? Here's a guide for beginning gardeners.

38 Best Tools for Big Gardens

12 Eat From Your Garden All Year:

Keep up with your winter tool maintenance by following these tips.

60 Dare to Dig In

Manage these vigorous self-seeders so you’ll never have to buy seeds again.

For those thinking about creating their first Eden on Earth, we offer some beginning gardening advice.

92 Winter Tool Maintenance

This simpler, cheaper approach will help you harvest much more free water for your garden!

34 Self-Seeding Crops You’ll

106 Grow a Healing Garden

Plant medicinal herbs and find good health just outside your door with these helpful gardening tips to grow your own healing garden.

77 Cool Kohlrabi

Cabbage’s crazy cousin is a fun and tasty addition to your fall vegetable garden.

110 Container Gardening With

Vegetables and Herbs

80 Avoid Common Gardening Mistakes

With these pointers, gardeners just getting their trowels dirty can sidestep six classic food-growing faux pas.

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Lacking a good garden spot? Create a bountiful, diverse garden in containers.

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sensitive plants in midsummer.

And even northern slopes can be put to good use as orchard sites, since lingering spring cold can keep early buds from opening too soon.

You might not know it, but there’s a great little microclimate on the south side of your house or outbuilding, which offers protection against north winds and provides mass to absorb radiant heat during the day and slowly release it at night. Lakes and ponds also reflect heat and light to edge-of-the-water plants, but sometimes they provide open pathways for winds as well.

Rain and snowfall. Does the ground drain or puddle? Does snow melt quickly (a sunny spot) or linger for days (possibly too shady)? Will crops get at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight each day?

Think water. Is the area in mind close to a source of reliable, easily tapped water? If not, consider what it will take (laying pipe, purchasing a pump, etc.) to

Pull weeds when they’re young. It’s easier on you to cart out handfuls now instead of armfuls later—and it’s easier on your plants, too.

service, home kits, and many standard labs are much cheaper—but will you know what to do with all those unexplained numbers and equations?

Fall is the best time to send samples for evaluation, and you should plan to prepare for next year’s garden this autumn. I guarantee the results will be quicker than in this year’s unavoidable last-minute spring rush.

With clean utensils, and without touching the soil with your hands, gather samples at a depth of from 6 to 8 inches, and do so in 10 to 15 places around the garden. Mix the soil thoroughly to create a composite specimen.

Secure at least a pound of dirt in a plastic bag enclosed in a small but sturdy box, and mail it off.

Gardening Tools I’ll bet a quart of fresh raspberries that no two sheds in America contain the exact same set of garden tools. My neighbor’s traditional hoe has a deep, smooth gully worn in the handle from years of use. I, however, tended to avoid hoes 8 MOTHER EARTH NEWS • GUIDE TO STARTING A GARDEN

until I discovered the more recently introduced stirrup kind.

Equip yourself with at least the basics, some of which you may already have.

You can always add more equipment if and as the need (or, let’s face it, simple covetousness) arises. For starters, round up a wheelbarrow, leaf rake, garden rake, trowel, soil-turning tool of choice (motorized tiller or garden fork), spade, hoe, and sharp knife (for harvesting, cutting twine, etc.). Add some quality hoses, a few sprinklers, and a hose attachment (such as a fan sprayer or, better yet, a watering wand) for watering by hand.

You’ll also need a hammer, pegs, and twine for laying out lines and patterns, plant tags, a file for keeping a sharp edge on things, buckets (plastic are often free for the asking), and an assortment of empty containers (coffee cans, milk jugs, and such).

After you’ve obtained the basics, anything you can imagine—from the practical to the absurd—is out there for your pleasure. I’m pretty sure I can forgo ornate brass faucet handles and copper

watering cans, but don’t ask me to give up my soft-spray nozzle attachment, hand pruners, or minimum-maximum thermometer.

Site Selection Think big—dream of future orchards, vine-covered walkways, and stone walls—but start small. A compact garden will leave you with enough time to get to know your piece of earth and the plants and insects that share it with you; time to do things right.

Think weather. The placement of a garden, even within the framework of a small lot, can significantly determine how much energy you’ll have to expend battling the elements. Generally speaking, hillsides are better locations than either the tops (where wind can batter plants) or the bottoms (where water and cold air accumulate). A south-facing slope gets the most sun and turns its back on cold north winds. Western slopes allow frozen plants to thaw slowly, though higher overall temperatures occur there than on east-facing hillsides, which shelter heat-

The placement of a garden, even within the framework of a small lot, can significantly determine how much energy you’ll have to expend battling the elements.

Think big—dream of future orchards, vine-covered walkways, and stone walls— but start small. bring the life-giving liquid to your crops.

All factors considered, it pays to choose a location close to your house.

The farther you must go to weed the carrots or pull some greens for dinner, the greater the chance you won’t. If you’re lucky enough to have several small sites, plant herbs, lettuce, tomatoes—things you cook with most often—within plucking distance of the kitchen door.

Last, but not least, the dirt. Dig up a spadeful at each potential site. Handle it, squeeze it, smell it. Crumbly, loose, and sweet-smelling earth will be easier to work with than soil that feels like modeling clay, or sand that sifts through open fingers.

There, that didn’t take too long, did it? And now—get out the champagne, straw hat, and redribboned spade—it’s time to finally break ground.

Site Preparation If weeds and grass now stand tall where your dreams call for corn and tomatoes, top them with a mower or swing blade, pile the cuttings near the site of your compost heap, and consider yourself fortunate to have found a good source of organic matter. Then, pull out any large rocks and clear the area of trash.

Now stand back and once again envision that garden-to-be. Try to put borders on that dream. To do so, simply ask yourself: How much time will I honestly be able (and willing) to devote to this garden?

A postage-stamp plot (so called for its tiny dimensions) is perfect for people with busy schedules. One or, at the most, two 4-by-20-foot raised beds or a single 20-by-20-foot row plot is garden enough

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From the cool Northwest to tropical Florida, gardeners in several USDA Plant Hardiness Zones offered tips for this article. Warming global temperatures have been pushing Zones farther north over time.

Asian and mustard greens, chard, beets, parsnips, carrots, fava beans, and wheat through winter. Beets and chard planted in late October have the added advantage of avoiding the leaf miners that often plague these crops in summer. The cooler temperatures are also ideal for cilantro. “Most people try to plant cilantro in summer, but it bolts,” she says. “If you plant it in September, it will produce through winter and flower in March, attracting beneficial insects to the garden.”

She rarely needs cloches or row covers for frost protection. “To protect my frostsensitive citrus trees, I hang old-fashioned white Christmas lights in the trees. They give off just enough heat to prevent the trees from freezing and look very pretty.”

Creasy preserves her garden’s summer flavors in her signature minestrone soup and her apple, tomato, marinara, and

ranchero sauces, which she freezes for winter use. Her frozen treasure trove also contains savory roasted tomatoes, herbs in olive oil, blackberries lightly dusted with sugar, chopped basil layered with Parmesan cheese, and lime juice cubes.

Southwest 4 Cornville, Ariz. (Zone 8). Native American corn and bean varieties are ideally suited to the hot, dry conditions of the Southwest, says Bill McDorman, founder of Seeds Trust, which began in Idaho but has been headquartered in Arizona since 2005. Many varieties McDorman grows and recommends have been selected over many generations for their ability to thrive in the region’s harsh environment. He harvests grain corn into November, and then stores it for use through winter

SOURCE: USDA

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and early spring. He recommends ‘Rio Grande Blue,’ a flour corn that’s ideal for tortillas. “Dry the corn on the stalk before you pick it. If it isn’t completely dry, peel back the husks to let it finish drying,” he suggests. “Don’t shell the kernels from the cobs until you’re ready to use them. That’s the secret— it makes an altogether different food from what you’d get at the store.”

‘Candy Mountain,’ an early, openpollinated variety with rich flavor, is his favorite sweet corn. Its strong emergence in cool soil and its early season vigor make it a standout for the Southwest and many other high-altitude locales.

Among beans, McDorman favors what are now known as “Anasazi”—a type of bean believed to have originated from seed found in a clay pot among ancient ruins of ancestral Pueblo people. “The beans store for up to 10 years, cook relatively quickly, and have a creamy texture and rich flavor,” he says. He also considers tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius) a regional gem. Native groups in Arizona and northwestern Mexico grew and selected these beans to thrive there.

Tepary beans need a short season (60 to 80 days) and are drought-tolerant.

McDorman harvests fresh Jerusalem artichokes, oregano, and garlic through winter. Plus, he’s never without greens: “Wild mustard grows in the shade of mesquite trees everywhere around this part of the Southwest. So, I plant ‘Slow Bolt’ arugula, a relative of mustard, near mesquite. I get an unlimited supply of fresh greens for several years without replanting.”

Bend hoops over beds to easily add and remove row cover when needed.

Can, freeze, or ferment your summer harvests to stretch them into fall and winter meals.

14 MOTHER EARTH NEWS • GUIDE TO STARTING A GARDEN

5 Ketchum, Idaho (Zone 5). Bill McDorman is also well-acquainted with the extremely cold, short growing season of the North. He began his seed company, Seeds Trust, in Ketchum, Idaho, to help meet the needs of gardeners dealing with that region’s challenges.

He suggests starting seeds indoors, and also taking advantage of warm microclimates, such as an area at the south side of a building with a concrete foundation. Try adding rocks to garden beds to increase thermal mass. “Or, site the

FROM FAR LEFT: ROSALIND CREASY; FOTOLIA/JOHNBRAID

Northern Tier

garden on a south-facing slope,” he says.

“The soil will start to warm about three weeks earlier in spring.”

Gardeners in this climate can grow kale and Brussels sprouts well into fall and early winter if snow cover is good, he says.

‘Dwarf Siberian’ kale, selected to stay low under the protection of snow, is a favorite.

He also notes that many gardeners plant crops relatively late in the year and try to get them to mature as temps are dropping, which is rarely successful. Instead, focus on planting in time for crops to mature right before the first fall frost, and then use protection devices to keep them going.

To give corn a two- to three-week head start in spring, McDorman says, sow the seeds in the bottom of a 1-foot-deep trench, cover them with a couple of inches of soil, and then roll plastic over the top to trap the heat and moisture. When the corn reaches the plastic, around your last spring frost date, remove the plastic and fill in soil around the growing plants.

McDorman also urges gardeners in cold, short-season areas to grow Siberian tomatoes. In 1989, he collected seeds of 60 Siberian varieties that are now worldfamous for their hardiness and flavor.

“They were selected for the very best

flavor by the gardeners who grew them and then traded the seeds,” he says. All are cold-hardy, but many tolerate hot temperatures, too. ‘Mikarda Sweet’ and ‘De Barrao’ are good Roma types for storage. And because all the Siberian tomato varieties are open-pollinated, you can save your own seeds and develop the best strains for your microclimate.

6 Waterville, Maine (Zone 5). Fedco Seeds horticulturist Roberta Bailey harvests brassicas, carrots, beets, cilantro and spinach well after her first frost, using high tunnels and row covers. ‘White Russian’ kale has held in an unheated greenhouse all the way down to zero degrees, and survived in the garden until January beneath insulating snow.

Gardeners in the area can also grow ‘Vates’ collards, ‘Green Lance’ gai lan (a Chinese kale used like broccoli), and yokatta-na (an extra-hardy Asian green similar to bok choy) beneath row covers. “If snow cover is constant, ‘Kolibri’ kohlrabi, parsnips, and horseradish will survive winter, too,” Bailey says.

Central 7 Mansfield, Mo. (Zone 6). The Midwestern area has a longer growing

season than its northern neighbors, but frost-free dates can vary widely from year to year. The growers at Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. use row covers, cloches, and cold frames to protect cabbage, lettuce, and other greens from damage in spring and fall. They recommend ‘Wong Bok’ Chinese cabbage, as well as the heading cabbages ‘Early Jersey Wakefield,’ ‘Red Express,’ ‘Cour di Bue,’ and ‘Late Flat Dutch.’ Tatsoi, bok choy, collards, arugula, and ‘Giant Red Japanese’ mustard also thrive.

“For storage, tr y ‘Pusa Asita Black’ and ‘Atomic Red’ carrots, and ‘Chioggia’ and ‘Golden’ beets,” says spokesperson Kathy McFarland. “Also, ‘Blue Hubbard,’ ‘Galeux d’Eysines,’ ‘Mini Red Turban,’ and ‘Moranga’ (also called ‘Pink Pumpkin’) squash will keep all winter long.”

Mid-Atlantic 8 Devon, Pa. (Zone 7). Contributing Editor William Woys Weaver grows mustard, lettuce, and celeriac beneath tunnels covered with greenhouse-grade plastic. He says the key to overwintering vegetables is to plant early enough for the crops to develop a good root system.

BEGIN YOUR GARDEN • www.MotherEarthNews.com 15

Best Tips for

STARTING SEEDS INDOORS

Save money and grow superior varieties by starting your own seeds.

By Barbara Pleasant Illustrations by Elayne Sears

I

began growing my own vegetable seedlings more than 30 years ago, and I still remember my sad first attempts.

Many seedlings keeled over and died, and some seeds never germinated at all. Experience has taught me how to prevent these problems, and every year I deepen my garden’s diversity, save money, and share favorite varieties with friends by starting seeds indoors.

Thousands of superior crop varieties are rarely available as seedlings in garden centers, and the same goes for wonderful culinary crops, such as red celery and seed-sown shallots. If your gardening goal is to fill your table and pantry with an array of homegrown organic food, then starting plants from seed can help you achieve that goal.

Starting seeds indoors under controlled conditions, with no aggravation from weeds or weather, allows you to get a prompt start on the season, whether you are sowing onions in late winter, squash in summer, or lettuce in early fall. And where growing seasons are short, some crops require an indoor head start to later reach maturity.

fully formed embryos. The carrot family is at a disadvantage, however, because most Umbelliferae seeds (think parsley, fennel, and dill) need time for their underdeveloped ovaries to grow before they can sprout. Other slow sprouters—spinach, for example—have compounds that inhibit germination in their seed coats. These compounds have to break down in the soil before the root and sprout can burst forth into the world.

Oxygen is vital to the germination process. Until seedlings have leaves to enable them to use solar energy, they rely on the food reserves in the seed combined with oxygen found in the soil to grow new cells. This is why you should always use a light-textured potting medium to start seeds, and why overwatering can cause seeds to rot instead of grow.

Appreciating the hard work that seeds must do during the germination process will likely enhance your seed-starting experience. You can watch time-lapse videos online of fastgrowing bean seeds germinating, but watching them in person is even more amazing. The seeds that impress me most are squash. By the time the seedling leaves shed the seed coat, the little plant is already supported by a small mountain of roots.

ter they can grow, which is why using fresh seed-starting mix each winter is so crucial. Quality seed-starting mixes are formulated to discourage common soilborne pathogens that cause seedlings to rot, and to retain both water and air with ease.

You can make your own seed-starting mix by using either peat moss or coir as a base, and then blending it with compost that has been heated to 150 degrees Fahrenheit to kill any pathogens and weed seeds. Small amounts of vermicompost can be a beneficial addition when added to a seed-starting mix, but use no more than 10 percent by volume.

As a 2005 study from North Carolina State University revealed, it’s not the precise mixture but what’s on top of the soil

Seed-Starting Mixtures From the day they germinate, vegetable seedlings face challenges from fungi and bacteria in water, soil, and air. The fewer troublemakers they face, the bet-

With a proper setup and some determination, you can start your own vegetable seedlings indoors.

The Germination Process All seeds contain specialized cells that mobilize and grow when the germination process is triggered by moisture, temperature, and sometimes light. Moisture and stored nutrients energize the embryo, which contains the latent structures for a plant’s root, stem, and leaves. Most vegetable seeds that germinate quickly (such as cabbage and tomatoes) enter their dormant state with mature, 24 MOTHER EARTH NEWS • GUIDE TO STARTING A GARDEN

BEGIN YOUR GARDEN • www.MotherEarthNews.com 25

With these pointers, gardeners just getting their trowels dirty can sidestep six classic food-growing faux pas.

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By Barbara Pleasant

ust as there’s no such thing as a perfect garden, there’s no perfect gardener either. We all make mistakes, but, in doing so, we learn which ones never to repeat, and along the way we discover savvy strategies to add to our gardening routines. So, what are vegetable gardeners’ biggest blunders? I’ve made each of the following six gardening mistakes, and after talking with thousands of organic gardeners, I know I’m not alone. Get a head start by learning from our errors instead of laboring through your own.

80 MOTHER EARTH NEWS • GUIDE TO STARTING A GARDEN

1 Tackling Too Much Spring fever inspires big dreams among gardeners, and it’s easy to forget that every planting requires a commitment to future maintenance. Before you know it, your springtime aspirations will have turned into an overwhelming summer reality—weed, water, thin, plant, prune, stake, and harvest, all at once and for weeks on end!

If you’re a novice gardener, you’ll greatly enhance your chances of success by starting small with only a few rows or beds, allowing yourself to focus on each individual crop you’re growing and better understand its needs. Instead of trying out 10 unique tomato varieties and every hot chili pepper under the sun, pick one or two of each and build your plant-care confidence.

Another smart idea is to limit the number of different types of veggies you tend in each part of your growing season (spring, summer, and fall, in most climates). Vegetable plants need the most attention during their first month in the garden, so by having only three to four juvenile crops going at a time, you’ll be able to

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AVOID COMMON GARDENING MISTAKES

keep up without a hitch. For exbut struggle in Minneapolis. ample, you might grow potatoes, Choosing to grow crops that salad greens, and snap peas in are adapted to your region is early spring; peppers, squash, and an excellent first step, but you tomatoes in late spring through will still need to take additional summer; and cabbage, carrots, measures to protect plants from and spinach from late summer wild weather. to fall.

Springtime can be especially To avoid taking on too much, hazardous because beautiful, some gardeners start by growing sunny days alternate with othonly in pots or containers, assumers that are cold or windy, or ing this will be easier—but this both. Placing milk jug cloches often isn’t true. A container limits or row cover tunnels over spring the spread of roots (see illustraseedlings will keep your plants’ tion, Page 82) and the plants can stress levels low, and, if you live easily become water-stressed and in an area prone to storms, could quite warm on hot days, while shield your seedlings from getthe same plants grown in enting pummelled by hailstorms, riched, mulched beds would enA nice option for newbies is “bag gardening.” Simply cut out the too. For some crops, row covers joy consistently cool roots. The top of a bag of soil, make slits in the bottom, and plant seeds. are an important step in pest crops that grow best in containers prevention as well, so they’ll do are heat-tolerant plants, such as eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes, double duty for you as you become a more experienced gardener. which can take warm root temperatures as long as they’re given With warm-season crops, a common misstep is planting too a large pot and plenty of water. But even still, you may need to early. You’ll be better off waiting for warm weather to settle in water container-grown crops twice a day during summer’s hottest and the soil to warm up than pushing for an extra-early start, stretches, which is a major commitment. Comparatively, you’d because warm-natured plants will not grow in cold soil. Plants only have to water plants in garden beds a few times a week. that need warm soil and weather include beans, corn, cucumInstant “bag beds” are a better no-dig option than containers bers, eggplant, melons, peppers, and tomatoes. While you wait, (see illustration above), because, with this method, you cut slits you can plant any of these crops that do well in cool soil and can in the bottoms of the bags so roots can move down into the soil take a bit of frost: broccoli, cabbage, collard greens, kale, leeks, below. Plus, the bags can be mulched to help retain soil moisture. peas, radishes, and spinach.

2 Underestimating the Weather

3 Misunderstanding Soil

Every climate is kind to some vegetables and cruel to others, which is why heat-loving okra plants are irrepressible in Memphis

Especially for beginners, soil may be the most mysterious piece of the gardening puzzle. In addition to serving as comfortable digs for plant roots (airy, friable, and able to hold moisture), it needs to provide your crops with nutrients.

The sure path to better soil starts at your compost pile, which is why newbie gardeners would do well to dive into composting the same year—or even the year before—they jump into gardening. If you can dig about a 1-inch layer of mature compost into your soil every time you plant, your soil quality will steadily improve. These frequent infusions of organic matter have a neutralizing effect on soil pH and also support beneficial soil organisms, especially earthworms and mycorrhizal fungi.

Another big key to creating super soil: Don’t skip the mulch. Mulching liberally with grass clippings, straw, Score bigger, better harvests by consistently improving your soil with organic matter. shredded leaves, or other biodegradable FALL • www.MotherEarthNews.com 81

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6 Materials for Shaft Replacement • Replacement shaft • Hacksaw • Center punch or common nail • Drill • 1/8-inch drill bit • Vise or clamps • Mallet • Ball-peen hammer

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Shaft Maintenance

5 What most of us call the handle of a tool is really the shaft.

(The handle is the often D-shaped grip that we hold on to at the top of the shaft.) Over time, the shaft can become loose. If the shaft is loose, but the wood is still sound, the easiest way to secure it is to drive a couple of self-tapping screws into the socket—one screw close to the top on the front side, and then another screw toward the bottom on the back side.

6 A careful inspection of the shaft of the tool can reveal errant splinters or gouges that could lead to a hand injury or a broken shaft. Correct the damage before it gets any worse by sanding the entire shaft with medium-coarse sandpaper or steel wool.

7 If the shaft is in fairly good Sharpening a Serrated Grass Whip condition, just oil it after sandIt may seem a bit daunting at first glance, but sharping (boiled linseed oil is a good ening a serrated grass whip is as easy as sharpening a choice) and the tool is good to go. shovel or hoe. Simply clamp the grass whip securely in 8 If the shaft has serious dea vise or to a work bench, follow the factory angle of the fects, you might have to fill them blade with a grinder or mill file, knock off any burrs, apin with wood putty, let the putty ply a light coat of oil, and you’re good to go! cure, and then sand it smooth. If the damage is bad enough, you

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MARY BETH DUDA (8)

softly across the back of the blade once or twice—keeping the file flat against the back of the tool face—to deburr the edge. Blades can also be sharpened with an electric bench grinder or angle grinder, but it takes a bit more precision and experience.

4 Finally, protect your freshly sharpened blades by oiling them. While my grandafther always had used motor oil around for such things, you can use any vegetable oil for a more environmentally conscious option.

To store your tools, hang them. If a blade rests on the floor very long, it will collect moisture, especially if the floor is concrete.

may even have to replace the shaft entirely. Fortunately, most hardware or home improvement stores carry replacements. If the original shaft has a fixing ring, ease it up out of the socket and then pull the remaining shaft free. Some tools may only have a fixing rivet, which must be removed. If you’re lucky, you may be able to slip a hacksaw blade between the rivet head and the socket to cut the head off. However, if the rivet is fastened tight against the socket, the only way to remove the rivet may be to drill out the head. Use a center punch to indent the rivet head so your drill bit doesn’t wander. If you don’t have a center punch handy, a common nail usually works just as well.

9 After the rivet is out, you should be able to pull the rest of the shaft out of the socket. Won’t budge? Clamp the shaft of the tool and use a mallet to remove the blade.

0 Replacement shafts usually come with a replacement rivet.

Push the new shaft into the socket firmly and drill an 1/8-inch pilot hole through the rivet opening and completely through the shaft. Then hammer the new rivet into the hole. ! Flip the tool over to the other side of the rivet, resting the head of the rivet on a piece of metal or other sturdy surface.

Pound the straight end of the rivet flush to the socket with a ball-peen hammer. On cheaper sockets, the holes sometimes

fail to line up. In this case, use wood screws to fasten the shaft to the socket.

Fixing a Bent Shoulder @ On shovels and spades, the blade shoulder—the turned part of the blade that you step on to drive the spade or shovel into the ground—occasionally becomes bent out of shape.

Over time this will hurt your foot. A pair of sturdy pliers can be used to bend it back into shape, or several taps with a ball-peen hammer might do the trick.

Eco-Friendly Rust Removal In addition to vinegar, there are many safe and effective solutions for rust removal. For big jobs, soak rusty items for one to two weeks in a large bucket or tub filled with a mixture of one part molasses to nine parts water. (This may be your least expensive option, especially if you buy your molasses in bulk from a grain co-op.) If you want to blast rust off in a hurry, try soaking rusty items in Metal Rescue, a nontoxic, noncaustic, reusable, and biodegradable rust remover.

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