Gardening : Hand Tools : Brilliance of the Bucket : Home & Garden Television

Figure A

Want a great organizational tool that will help you find things quickly? Look no further than your nearest bucket. It has a myriad of other uses as well:

One of the most useful buckets is the five-gallon pickle bucket (these buckets are used for storing other kinds of food products as well). The best place to get them--often for free--is from a restaurant. You can also buy them new at hardware stores or home-improvement centers for less than $10. Make sure it has a lid--preferably one with a rubber gasket for a tight seal (figure A). A tight lid keeps spiders and other critters out. If your bucket was used for storing food, scrub it well with bleach and water, and rinse it several times.

Figure B

Figure C

Buckets are great for hauling hand tools and other gardening items to the garden, and they can hold much more than you think. If you want to dress your bucket up a little, get a skirt that fits over the bucket and has pockets for holding all sorts of items (figure B). You can also buy several types of stackable organizer inserts, which fit inside the bucket (figure C). And you can top off your bucket with a comfortable cushioned seat.

You can use buckets to prepare compost and manure teas and many fertilizer blends. They are invaluable for mixing and storing raw materials used in special potting mixes, such as perlite, vermiculite, compost and sand.

Figure D

Figure E

Buckets also come in handy when you're weeding. Cleanup is as simple as tossing the weeds into the bucket and emptying the bucket in the compost pile. If a hard freeze is predicted, buckets this size make good plant protectors (figure D).

Jumping up in size, the familiar trash bucket has its place in the garden. You can store long-handled tools in one, and it makes a dandy receptacle (figure E ). They are also great for storing more of the same things as the smaller buckets; however, when they are full of material like sand, they can be pretty heavy.

Figure F

Figure G

Similar in shape but smaller in stature is a bucket that features a locking lid, which is a good thing if you have spiders in your area--especially poisonous ones. Plastic tubs (figure F) are ideal for storing small boxes and bags of fertilizer and insecticides. The contents stored in these containers stay dry and tend to stay fresher longer.

Small buckets (with lids) are perfect for storing seed packets (figure G); you can add a handful of rice to absorb any excess moisture. Stored this way and out of direct light at room temperature, most seeds will last at least a year.

Figure H

Figure I

Figure J

Coffee cans also make great mini-buckets for storing small gardening items such as hose fittings. They're great for storing and dispensing garden twine. Just drop a ball of twine in a can and cut a small X in the top of the plastic lid (figure H). Then, run the twine through the X and you should have no more tangled twine (figure I). The downside to using coffee cans is that they tend to rust if left outdoors.

Galvanized steel buckets (figure J) make good trash cans, and they won't rust after a rain. With a locking lid, this type of bucket is good for storing birdseed; you're essentially locking out rabbits and raccoons.

Also in this Episode

Gardening by the Yard : Episode GBY-620
•	Chain Saw Safety
•	Brilliance of the Bucket
•	Gardening Improvisations
•	Colored Mulch

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Brilliance of the Bucket

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