Five Multifunctional Garden Tools

Bar of Soap

Soap does more than clean your hands. It cleans your nails! Before working in the garden, scrape your fingernails across a bar so soap lodges under them, blocking out soil, sand and other muck. Later, simply wash out the soap with a nailbrush. 

Credit: Beatriz Da Costa

Birdbath

Use your birdbath as an attractive, low-maintenance pot for succulents. Plant shallow-rooted varieties in the container with soil. The lack of drainage will keep the soil moist, so you'll need to water even less frequently than usual.

Credit: Beatriz Da Costa

Croquet Wickets

Croquet wickets can effectively coral a garden hose. Make an arched pathway from the waterspout to the flower bed, then feed the hose through the wickets. Now the hose can't migrate and crush your impatiens.

Photo Credit: Beatriz Da Costa 

Grapefruit Knife

Take the knife out of the kitchen and use it to remove weeds. Use the curved blade in container gardens or tight spaces where traditional tools are too big for the job.
 

Photo Credit: Beatriz Da Costa

Styrofoam Peanuts

Try replacing the potting mix in a large planter with styrofoam peanuts. Fill the bottom half with leftover peanuts before adding soil. They are light and improve drainage, which promotes healthy roots and easy-to-lift plants!

Photo Credit: Beatriz Da Costa