Lawns Hub

Picture Perfect: Mowing Techniques For Lawns, Landscapes and Sports (Hardcover) is a virtual peek inside the techniques of those amazing maintenance crews who so invoke the imagination on the sports fields and landscapes we so often look at in such wonder. How on Earth could the Red Sox feature a big “B” – in script form, no less! – in the strips of mowing application at Fenway Park? How do they make those cool checkerboards at Oakland’s amazingly and always-striking Emerald Green ball field? Dave Mellor is the Director of Grounds for the Boston Red Sox and is thoroughly knowledgeable about grass. His advice is sound and easy-to-follow. He has you begin by testing your soil to see what it is missing, establishing your turf properly, fertilizing appropriately, fighting off weeds and disease, mowing properly with the right equipment, and solving problems.

From there, set now with a perfect growing medium, Dave moves on to explain the art of adding patterns to the grass by using rollers with the mower to push the grass down. The color plates show many examples of this art form, which are really intriguing. He includes some patterns of real interest as suggestions which are the coolest stuff in the book, in my opinion. He also addresses typical lawn problems, damage issues when that occurs and the entire realm of turf lawns and maintaining them.

This is the Coffee Table Book for the lawn addict – expect many hours of research from your lawn magician and maybe even expect something exceptional out there in the good ole front yard!

For more on Dave Mellor’s fabulous book – and for his and other’s related work – click here.

If you’ve been reading up on composting, you probably know by now that you can either have aerobic or non-aerobic composting. Briefly recapping, the difference lies with the type of micro-organisms that break down the organic material into what we use as compost: the process can be either aerobic (literally meaning involving air) or anaerobic/non-aerobic (where the breaking down is done without air).

Aerobic composting is much superior to the anaerobic kind. It means your “ingredients” will break down faster and almost no smelly side effects (whereas anaerobic composting tends to produce more smelly gas).

The problem? To get the desired aerobic process going, you have to take time to manually turn your compost heap, at least once a week. Now, some folks love this type of work, taking care of their precious heap as if it were a family pet. They know what its temperature is on any given day and nurture it accordingly. However, if you want to take composting to the next level, or if you want to save on manual labor, Earthmaker has the solution for you:

This dark looking talk is an advanced aerobic composter with three chambers. Operated by the force of gravity, it moves organic material through the chamber for continuous cycling and perfect aeration. This means both faster composting, producing up to 10 gallons per month, and less gas emission (in other words, eco-friendly and doesn’t stink ).

So, if you recycle organic waste for your lawn, you may want to consider moving on to this smart system. Check it out on Amazon here.

Remote control lawn mower technology has actually reached a viable stage. Mind you, there is a learning curve with this sucker and there are not many brands out there, but someone has combined game technology with a gasoline-powered lawn mower resulting in a machine which you can actually drive from elsewhere. This thing has to be a hugely fun toy for the guy who has everything! Or it may be just another cool way to have some fun while enjoying your lawn maintenance chores.

I would be interested in a consumer report on this monstrosity, myself, before I begin advising anyone to buy one. Besides, they price may just be through the roof as yet. There are questions begging for answers: How does it do in rain? Can a starter be locked to prevent kids from using it as a toy? What is the software or guidance failure rate and what are the implications in terms of safety if the guidance system fails? If I chop up my neighbor’s angry dog who follows it all over my lawn while it operates, will he sue? I can think of about 100 other scenarios for resistance.

Funny enough, however, I confess to a certain love for the project. I guess I have to relegate that to my male personality in the end, sigh. As in: The bigger the boy, the bigger the toy,” I may love it but I can think of 1,000 reasons a wife might not, especially if she is in the field of Law. Then again, she didn’t like the convertible either, but changed her mind one fine Spring day. Come to think of it, her feelings for basketball changed with tickets to a game too. Maybe there’s still a chance yet with the remote control lawn mower!

A lawn “slit seeder” is supremely useful for lawn renovation projects. Slit-seeders combine vertical mowing with seeding. As the machine goes across the lawn, it opens the soil and deposits seed directly into the soil opening. Most slit-seeders have a roller that helps firm the soil after seeding. Seed is metered at a predetermined rate; it’s suggested to apply half the desired seeding rate in one direction and the other half on a second pass perpendicular to the first. These machines have an incredibly high success rate for seed taking root and growing. Obviously, seeds are protected and nearly guaranteed protection from sun, birds and drought by being packed firmly into the soil where, once it grows, it will remain in place.

These units are hydraulically powered and are quite ingenious. By allowing the seed to go neatly into the subsurface of the soil, one saves in all the preparation labor of grading and amendment entry and goes directly to the source of what will be new: the seed placement. As mentioned, the protective layers of soil serve as the perfect medium for a new lawn.

A lawn mower starter can be man’s worst enemy. There, I said it. These infernal little necessities rank somewhere around computers for sheer irritation value. The worst case scenario has it thusly: You wheel your mower out to commence a mid Summer mowing before the heat comes up. Bending down, you give your starter a crank with a mighty pull, yet it won’t catch. Pulling again, you feel a twinge in your lower back, ripping that sucker out this time with a bit more force. Still no luck. Finally, you give a mighty heave, feeling a certainty that your effort plus luck itself will get her going and you hear a “snap!”……….whoa, the cord is broken! Your day now consists of trying to rewind the cord (perhaps driving down and getting a new one) and challenging you already limited Mr. Fixit abilities. What a nasty start to a fine day.

Well, I can only help a little. One secret now possessed by people who use motors daily, starting and stopping many times, is to make certain of a few needful items before commencing. One, the spark plug is something of a Holy Grail for starter cords. These get fouled in may ways, sometimes by age and sometimes by the contaminates in those gas tanks we store for weeks at a time. Insuring a good spark plug is a necessary factor in success against the whims of machinery. Be sure you know how to replace them, when necessary and have an extra one around. Making sure you have clean, uncontaminated gas is next. Water in gas can kill a spark plug and foul a carburetor. This you want to avoid like a plague.

Both these small checkups can save a lot of grief. But what saves more is having an automatic ignition system, lol. Imagine using a pull cord to start your car! My advice here is to either get a battery powered electrical engine or an electronic ignition for true relaxation over starters. Both are available and while neither is particularly “Macho”, both are pretty daggone satisfying.

Ever wondered what that is? Allow me to shed some light…

A lawn tractor grader is a device used on the front or rear of a lawn tractor which is used to either move and spread topsoil or to skim the top of existing lawns in order to spread soil, amendments or other products requiring a universal application. They can also be used to skim grass OFF a lawn, when, for example, one decides to reseed or resod.  Their primary use is almost always  in grading out soil, in a sort of installation phase, for a lawn or garden, at least in strict terms of garden applications.  They can also grade any other thing needing grading, such as gravel driveways and the likes. Let us not forget either their Winter roles as snow-moving equipment! These units sure beat the heck out of using a shovel.

These are most handy units for any lawn and garden over an acre and even for some of marginally less size. As mentioned elsewhere, these devices are generally interchangeable with other attachments for a tractor as well. Grading, including removal, combines two uses for the same attachment, as does the finishing aspect and perhaps even the lugging in of the aforementioned amendments of soil product.  I love me a grader unit.  Lawn tractor graders are an underutilized tool that allows a homeowner the luxury of considering changing vast areas of his lawn into beds, or the equally-rewarding task of changing beds into lawn.  These units do the work of many men in a short time.

Discount lawn mower parts are not exactly an exact science. There are some clearinghouses where discounted parts are found for almost anything motor-driven. It take some serious searching at Craig list or eBay for such items, but the results can pay off. Needless to say, for items that are cheaper, I recommend walking or driving to your local dealer for the parts you seek, yet, for those out of range, some research can save some money beyond doubt. Its not like discount lawn mower parts grow on trees; but as I say, bargains can indeed be found with some work.

Knowing your part number is huge. Obviously, knowing the brand is as huge, but the number is like a Holy Grail in shortening a search. Most parts are easily accessed via the part number online or at a warehouse. That is the currency of modern inventory control.

Another gold mine can be a place that recycles motors and small engines. These are often referred to as “junkyards”, simply put, and some are far better than others. Lawn mower repair facilities, shops and the like can often have parts lying around they won’t mind selling at all. Providing they don’t have an urgent need for the part, the lure of cash or immediate payment looks large in the motivations of all these places. They can easily reorder the part and have it available for work later, if not necessary immediately.

Cordless electric lawn mowers are the new wave in our energy- and environmentally-friendly times.  They have imminently practical applications for lawns no larger than, say, 1/3 of an acre or less.  Larger lawns might be too stressful on the battery capacities, which are the basis behind the technological improvements allowing them now. Having said that, recharging batteries take hours not days so even larger lawns can be mowed with these new and less polluting, quieter appliances.

Indeed, the noise reduction aspects might just be as important as anything.  There are any number of levels of sound in a metallic machine, from the high whines of inter working metal pistons and rings, to the exhaust sounds emitted during the running.  This bears mentioning, especially inasmuch as hearing loss is an issue with professionals.  Much of that, needless to say, is due to the vast number of gas-powered mechanical implements used in lawn mowing, from weed eaters and mechanical edgers, to the actual mowers themselves.

Needless to say, spent gasoline emissions are non existent as well. Cordless electric lawn mowers offer a 100% reduction in spent gasoline emissions, decidedly less noxious to the environment and certainly healthier for the practitioner who leans into the exhaust constantly, clearing blades or removing clippings from containers.

Cordless electric lawn mowers, to my mind, represent a huge step towards smarter and more socially conscious gardening. This may be a step in progress similar to the introduction of aluminum engines and even hybrid cars to automobiles. It should allow us to keep what were verging on a dinosaur:  our gorgeous green lawn, with all the weather-impacting and oxygenating properties of it.