After a summer of planting, transplanting and (not to mention) that awful cramping in your legs, it's time to hang up your gardening tools for a little R&R. However, next spring, you'll be kicking yourself when you find rusted out tools from sticky sap. Now's the time to thoroughly clean your blades and metal tools using a tough solvent, such as kerosene. Then do what many gardeners find to be the slickest antidote around: Oil tools by wiping them with a rag covered in motor oil. That's it!

And, remember since sharper tools make garden work easier, it's time to take off the dull edge. For most tools, a hand file works great. Check to see what side of the tool was once sharp and then repeatedly file it lightly back and forth.