Category: DIY

For those of us who use small hand tools for gardening, here’s a cheap and easy storage device you can make that will keep them clean of dirt and rust. I call my own, the Pail. (insert flash of lightning and horses neighing, here ⚡🐴)

The foundation of this project is a pail, containers of all sort can be turned into pails. An inanimate object is not constrained to one identity by its creator. No, metals and plastics do not have to be born a water bucket to transist into something their manufacturer never intended, there will be no controversy about the change. Unless you’ve a family member or neighbor cursed with a Use As Labeled OCD issue, of course.

You can use almost any sturdy container as a garden tool storage pail so long as it is weather-resistant, strong enough to hold a few pounds of sand and accessible enough to easily get your gear in and out. While metal bins will certainly work for this project, I prefer plastic when it comes to outdoors use containers. Molded plastic weathers well and won’t mark pavement or stone. The current Pail⚡🐴 is a repurposed kitty litter bucket. Lidded, handled and super strong, kitty litter buckets are great solutions for all manner of gardening needs; including soil, fertilizer and seed storage.

See Also: Xiden to Issue …

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Once you find the perfect container for you, fill it about 8″ deep with some clean sand. You can go deeper if your tools are unusually long, of course. Ahem. Mix a half cup or so of mineral oil, not too much, into the sand until it’s been evenly distributed. Your sand should not look greasy, nor ought there to be any oil pooling at the bottom of the pail.

After a day of using your small garden tools, stow them away in the sand filled pail. Push the metal part fully into the sand leaving the handle exposed. When you are ready to use your spade or trowel again it will be shining clean, free of dirt and rust. If your garden tool storage pail will be exposed to the elements, make sure you put a lid on top so it does not turn into a bucket of dirty, sandy, slightly oily water. You’ll drown your hand tools and make a greasy, gritty mess.

Be careful your fancy new garden tool storage container does not morph into . . . a Pail⚡🐴.

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This Spring, my outdoor tool storage container decided to play host to a Carolina Wren couple. Yep, a silly bird decided the Pail⚡🐴 was some prime real estate for nest building. What a silly wild bird nesting site – on the ground, very accessible to critters that like a nice raw egg snack from time to time. Also silly because it’s about six feet from the door we regularly use to enter and exit the house. And, it’s where the Roomie and guests go outside to smoke tobacco products. (We keep the heroin and meth smoking contained to the shed, it’s the shame. And yes, that is smartarsing. We don’t let anybody smoke anything in the shed. It’s where fuel for the generator and lawn equipment are stored so smoking in there would not be safe . . . I could do this all day but will get back to the point.)

Considering the location, the last thing I was thinking when I saw what seemed to be a wad of weeds in my gardening pail yesterday was that I was looking at a bird’s nest. A bit distracted, I shrugged off the odd bits of moss decorating the dead grass and twigs as something to think about later and lifted the mess using a spade from the bucket. As it came up, three small eggs rolled out onto the sand in the container. Their size and rusty red/brownish spotting pattern suggested I’d just dumped the nest of a Tufted Titmouse or a Carolina Wren, two beautiful little backyard birds. :-(.

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Horrified that I’d been so careless, upsetting a precious home and babies-to-be, I stepped inside the house and had a sob for a few minutes, pondering the pros and cons of returning to the scene of my crime to make repairs. A Carolina Wren was on the back porch, screaming her heart out. Confirmation that the eggs were wren eggs. I needed to try and fix this for that poor Momma! Grabbing a paper towel, I walked with purpose back through the house and out the door, to the nesting site. As I reached in the Pail⚡🐴 to gently place the baby eggs back where they belonged, a flurry of feathers and Momma Bird rose up out of the nest. OH NO! Even worse! She’d come back, decided the two eggs left in the nest were worth keeping and now, I’d startled her by sticking my hand in there!

Watching from inside the house, I saw her return a minute or two later, hop up into her nest and almost immediately fly off . . . for good. 🙁

Roomie talked me out of trying to incubate the eggs, which is quite a process, and probably illegal to birth wild birds in one’s home. We shall allow Nature to take it’s course. Those eggs are now nourishing other life forms and the nest . . . well, I’ve not yet decided if I want to leave it there and make a new pail that doesn’t trigger celestial events and horse screams, or, take it out and toss the nest into the woods to complete the life cycle. I’ll decide when I’m done kicking myself in the head for not being as careful as I ought to have been. Twice.

Folklore tells us to nevah, evah touch a bird’s nest or egg because the smell of Human will make the bird then abandon the nest and eggs. Untrue. Birds do not have a sense of smell. What causes them to leave a nest and build new housing elsewhere is the disturbance. Whether it was a person, an animal or the elements, when a wild bird sees their nest has been disturbed – somebody done re-arranged the furniture while I was out – they’ll assess things and decide if it’s still a safe place to live. During the nesting and egg laying stage, a majority of birds who return to a disturbed nest will leave it to build another a distance away. There just won’t be babies this year. If the eggs have hatched and there are actual fledglings in the nest, look out. That’s when Mom and Dad get protective and dive bomb your eyeballs if you get too close to their little family.

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Though fairly sheltered from the elements where it rests, I believe my garden tool storage pail is going to have a lid on top from now on. No more silly little birds will then be able to view a sand and tool filled bucket as the perfect place to raise a family. And, I’ll no longer have days of WHY?!?! born from accidentally donning the hat of avian house wrecker/abortion services provider.