7 Gardening Items You Should Absolutely Toss Before Winter Arrives

Ditch these gardening supplies at the end of the growing season to set yourself up for a successful spring.

Jay Wilde

During the busy growing season, it’s easy for garden sheds and garages to become cluttered with broken plant pots, bags of fertilizer, and other debris. With winter on the horizon and less to do in the garden, fall is the perfect time to take stock of your gardening supplies and clean out things to make room for the essentials you want to keep. To inspire your fall cleaning, here are some common gardening items you might want to get rid of to ensure your garage or shed is clean, organized, and ready for spring.

Almost everyone has at least a few of the following unused, expired, or broken gardening supplies sitting around. Clear them out after the growing season, and you’ll be ready to jump right in again when spring returns.

Most herbicides, fertilizers, and pesticides don’t have expiration dates listed on their packaging, although many chemical herbicides and pesticides are intended to be used within two to three years of purchase. Fertilizers typically last longer when they’re stored properly. However, lawn fertilizers with added weed killers usually expire after one to two years.

To determine which products to keep, check product packaging carefully for expiration dates and safely dispose of any expired products and those with obvious signs of damage or contamination. It’s usually safe to compost old organic fertilizers, but take synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides to your local hazardous waste collection day. While you’re at it, you might want to get rid of any old solvents, cleaners, and cans of dried-out paint to make room for the products you’ll need for next year’s projects.

Bagged potting mix and compost stay fresh for about one to two years with proper storage, but their nutrient content degrades over time. While older bags of compost or potting soil are safe to use, they won’t provide the same benefits to your plants.

Potting mixes and soil that have been used may not be ideal for growing more potted plants, especially if there were pest or disease issues present, but they still have life left in them. If you have old or used potting mixes or compost that you want to get rid of, add these products to your compost pile, mix them into your garden beds, or use them to fill in divots in your lawn.

Most vegetable and flower seeds remain viable for at least one to two years before their germination rates start to decline. However, some seeds spoil faster than others. Onion seeds, for example, stay fresh only for about one year, while tomato and cucumber seeds last for four to five years with proper storage. High humidity, water damage, heat, and pests can cause seeds to spoil faster.

To freshen up your seed collection, check seed packages for expiration dates and throw out any expired, wet, or moldy seeds. While you’re at it, toss out used plant labels for seed varieties you won’t be planting again.

Some seeds stay viable long after their expiration dates have passed. If you don’t want to throw out your seeds yet, plant them in large quantities in spring to increase the likelihood that at least some of them sprout.

Shovels with broken handles, chipped clay pots, holey gardening gloves, broken storage containers, and torn tarps take up a lot of room. Often, gardeners hold on to these products in the hopes of mending them, but if they’ve been cluttering up your shed or garage for a while, it may be time to part ways. If you’re crafty, you can repurpose some of these items into fun garden art, fairy garden decor, and other DIY projects.

Empty plant pots and seedling trays can accumulate quickly if you buy a lot of nursery plants for your garden. While these items can be disinfected and used for seed starting in spring, you can also give extras to friends, family, or neighbors. If you ask, you’ll find many garden centers take back empty pots and trays.

A spare tool sometimes comes in handy if your shovel breaks or you misplace a few plant labels, but few gardeners need three identical rakes or 10 sets of gardening gloves. Donating some of your duplicate items can free up space in your shed, reduce waste, and help you rediscover your favorite gardening tools so you can use them even more.

After you remove the larger items from your garden shed or garage, use a broom to sweep away spilled soil, autumn leaves, and any other scattered debris. Larger bits of detritus, like empty potting soil bags, can be thrown in the trash, while bits of cotton twine and other biodegradable items can be composted. When you’re done, your workspace will look much cleaner, and you’ll have more room to store the items you’ve decided to keep.

Make sure to bring the batteries from your lawnmower, weedwhacker, or other power tools indoors before winter sets in. Exposure to extreme temperatures in a shed or garage can sap batteries of energy and cause them to degrade faster.

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