On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:18:20 -0700, Javier wrote:
Next year I will be taking care of the lawn rather than using a local
lawn services, I simply can't afford it any more. Besides my lawn
mower, edge trimmer and leaf blower are there any other tools that I
need in order to keep my lawn healthy? I leave in North Eastern, NJ.

A handcrank whirlybird spreader for a small lawn (1/2 acre), a walk-behind
for larger areas. Spreads seed, lime, fertilizer (get yourself a
soil test, too, so you know what you're doing!).

Ditch the leaf blower unless you're only going to be using it for
cleaning gutters (get some plastic pipe and
fittings and make an extension nozzle that looks something like this:

------------------------------------leafblower
|__ (open end to reach into gutter)


You'll also want to add a bow rake and a leaf rake, and something to work
the beds with... my preferred tools are a good spading fork and a hoe, but
this is also partially dependent on your soil type. A spade for planting.

Rake your leaves and compost them. You can use the lawnmower to shred them
(though it can be kind of tough on your mower engine). If you're going to
buy a gas lawnmower, get a 4 cycle engine, not a 2 cycle (you want separate
gas and oil, and not to have to mix the gas and oil). Again, for a small
lawn, a small electric mower or a push mower may be much more appropriate.

Broom, push or kitchen type. That moves leaves and grass clippings off the
sidewalk and driveway without killing your ears and making the neighbors
loathe you. Don't use water to wash leaves or grass cuttings off
pavement unless you can collect and reuse the water for irrigation.

Find out what your lawngrass is/are and the proper cutting height. Learn
to set the mower to the correct height, and how to sharpen the blade(s).

Appropriate, non-slippery soled shoes, preferably steel toed, if you're
going to be mowing with a power mower, especially on slopes. Tennis shoes,
running shoes, street shoes, sandals, clogs and flip flops are not appropriate
for mowing. Hearing protection for power mowers.

Hand grass clippers.
Decent small pruning shears, bypass type. I prefer Felco, but there are
other good brands. Avoid anvil type.

I prefer a small hatchet for edging to any other tool.

Kay

"Javier" wrote in message
ups.com...
Next year I will be taking care of the lawn rather than using a local
lawn services, I simply can't afford it any more. Besides my lawn
mower, edge trimmer and leaf blower are there any other tools that I
need in order to keep my lawn healthy? I leave in North Eastern, NJ.

Javier


Nix the blower. Use a mulching mower. After edging, use the mower to mulch
the contents and spew back into the yard. Use a push broom to sweep
remainder, and dump in middle of the yard and mow again that spot. Be
carbon gas aware.

Wheelbarrow, pointed shovel, flat end shovel, spading fork, flat end hoe,
triangular pointed end hoe, axe, dethatcher, 3 tine dethatcher, leaf rake,
bow rake, possibly a rock bar. You'll figure it out as you go along.

Maintenance of tools. Good set of files for sharpening the blades. Can of
WD-40. Steel wool pot scrubbing pads. Brass spray nozzle for garden hose
to clean tools with. A good gas can and neck nozzle dispenser with a
separate air inlet. Garage organizer for hanging all the tools.

A chain saw to chase off nosy neighbors. A dog to keep you company when
admiring the yard. Also something to cuss at when you step in something
warm and sticky. A water hose works if caught right away. Both on your
shoe and the mashed pile in the yard.
Dave

"Sheldon" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Aug 26, 8:23?pm, "JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:
"Sheldon" wrote in message

ps.com...





On Aug 26, 6:25?pm, "JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:
"Sheldon" wrote in message

roups.com...

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:
"Javier" wrote:

Next year I will be taking care of the lawn rather than using a
local
lawn services, I simply can't afford it any more. Besides my lawn
mower, edge trimmer and leaf blower are there any other tools
that I
need in order to keep my lawn healthy? I leave in North Eastern,
NJ.

Some good hand weeding tools. And, don't be one of those people who
chases
one leaf around the yard for 3 hours with the blower, thereby
making
your
neighbors want to put a bullet in your head. You could replace the
silly
thing with a good quality push broom.

What makes you think the blower is going to be used for leaves...
this
is about lawns... there's no leaf blowing during the entire grass
growing season... and perhaps the OP has no trees dropping leaves,
or
would prefer a rake, so don't assume. The blower is primarilly used
to blow grass clippings from edging and string trimming... for the
typical surburban lawn that's like a five minute blow job..

Yeah. Five minute job. That explains why, without exception, my
various
neighbors have the stupid things running for a half hour at a time,
just
for
a few grass clippings.

HALF
HOUR
AT
A
TIME

Get a push broom for the wide surfaces, and a whisk brook for edges.
Just
as
fast as a blower.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

May not be so simple to sweep, I sure wouldn't want to sweep my
driveway, that's why I bought the blower.

I string trimmed today, but only my driveway and walks need blowing...
blowing lots of clippings, dirt, and all the pine cones that are
falling now... took me no more then ten minutes, and my driveway is a
doublewide and 150' long. My little Echo blower is small but gets
heavy fast, I don't want to lug it around longer than necessary. I
know I can get some sort of harness but I only use it 2-3 times a
year, that's how often I edge my driveway and walks... I don't bother
blowing the clippings off my lawn, where would I blow ten acres
worth. And I can run my blower as long as I want with no one
complaining, my nearest neighbor is more than 1,000 feet away.but like
I said, that thing gets heavy, I don't think I'd want to carry it
around for a half hour. Your neighbor must be a creep, perhaps he's
running it on purpose because he knows it bothers you. I had a creepy
neighbor behind me where I lived previously. Everytime he'd see us
outside he'd start up one of his many ratty old push mowers and just
leave it run unattended (a lot of times he'd have more than one
running, noisy mufflers too), he had the auto-shutoff rigged or they
were so old they didn't have that. His wife was a creep too, she
would peep out the window to see if we were annoyed... so finally I
got fed up and had a six foot cedar stockade fence installed... first
time he did his lawnmower trick they discovered that the noise echoed
off my fence and was three times louder for them.... they didn't do
that anymore. And they were the ones whose rose of sharon I poisoned
shortly thereafter. Not only did all those zillions of seeds sprout
in my lawn and perennial beds but they would toss their fallen
branches over the fence. The year before I moved that useless old
creep got cancer and died. Ask me if I felt bad.

Did you feel bad? :-)

Actually, there are many leaf blower slobs around here. It seems to be
this
years stylish accessory. My neighbor's is the worst, though, because the
muffler apparently fell off or something, so it sounds like 1000 gas
powered
RC model planes going at once. He thinks it's funny. His wife does not.

Maybe his wife needs to tell him where to shove it.


I think he's one of those people who's so dumb that if you shot him, he'd
laugh because it reminded him of a cartoon he once saw.

Next year I will be taking care of the lawn rather than using a local
lawn services, I simply can't afford it any more. Besides my lawn
mower, edge trimmer and leaf blower are there any other tools that I
need in order to keep my lawn healthy? I leave in North Eastern, NJ.

Maybe a book or two?

The only one I've read cover-to-cover is Paul Tukey's Organic Lawn
Care Manual (
http://www.ppplants.com/resources/or...n_care_manual/ ). Seemed
pretty good (especially the sections on identifying pests and
weeds, and relating them to nutrient deficiencies and the like). I'm
sure there are other books, including how to apply chemical
fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, if you decide to go that
route (applying the wrong thing, at the wrong time of year, or at the
wrong dosage, will be useless or worse).

Javier wrote:
Next year I will be taking care of the lawn rather than using a local
lawn services, I simply can't afford it any more. Besides my lawn
mower, edge trimmer and leaf blower are there any other tools that I
need in order to keep my lawn healthy? I leave in North Eastern, NJ.

If you were using a lawn service why did you invest in all those
tools?

Actually without knowing the size, configuration, and composition of
your lawn, and what level of appearance you consider acceptible, no
one can offer you more than wild speculation... there are lawns and
there are LAWNS. If what you have is like a typical 1/4 acre
surburban lot and don't mind the unevenness and wheel marks left by a
rotary push mower, and don't have much border to edge, and don't much
care about weeds, and have 2-3 hours each week to spare then by all
means do your own lawn. But you still won't save any money. The
typical lawn service on Long Island, NY (where lawns are king) charges
like $30/wk for the lawn I described... you can't purchase, maintain,
and fuel the equipment for $30/wk. Fuel these days costs more than
mere pennies. Even a dinky generic push mower runs like $300 and
costs like $50 to maintain each season, and lucky if it lasts a season
before it doesn't start so good and the wheels fall off. Edgers cost
as much but when not abused last a long time, same with blowers and
string trimmers, but still need maintenance and fuel. Blades need
replacement, mufflers need replacement, oil needs changing, 2 cycle
fuel needs mixing... and fuel can't be saved very long, and even
string trimmer string costs. And all this equipment needs through and
regular cleaning (more time), hasta take at least a half hour to clean
under a push mower, gotta wait till it cools first too. And you need
a place to store it all. And unless you have a half acre or two I'm
not even gonna go into riding mowers and lawn tractors. And mulching
mowers are fine, but you can't have a nice looking lawn if you mulch
every cut... when you mulch you need to know the seeding habits of
every plant composing your lawn including the weeds. I mulch all my
cuts because I have what's known around here as a country lawn,
whatever grows. But I mow ten acres of lawn every week, and my
mulching mower cuts a 7 foot swarth, and still takes me all day just
for the large areas. For the smaller areas and edges I have a smaller
mower (54"), and I have a push mower for small spaces, and a string
trimmer, and a blower, and all kinds of hand tools. Mowing large
areas takes large blocks of time, and even larger blocks of cash to
buy the large equipment. Anything over a half acre you really need a
riding mower, and even the typical Home Depot type garden tractors
fitted with a mower can handle no more than like 2-3 acres.... and
those toy r us thingies will be lucky to last two seasons before they
need replacement... those tiny gasolene air cooled engines just can't
handle all those hours, not even if your ground is level and you don't
weigh much... struggling up a slight grade with a 200 pounder on its
back and
trying to mow at the same time is beyond its ability. Those things
you see lined up in front of the big box hardware emporiums are all
toys.

It doesn't pay for me to maintain my equipment myself, but still I bet
it costs me more for servicing than the average surburbanite pays
their lawn service. I only wish I could find a lawn service, but no
such thing exists around here for the size lawn I have.

Sheldon expounded:

Paragraphs of utter trip snipped

Anyone who spends $50 a year to maintain a lawnmower obviously bought
the wrong mower. And anyone who thinks it makes economic sense to pay
a lawn service to do something that is so easy obviously doesn't have
much sense. Aall you need, a rake, a tarp, a push broom, maybe a
spreader, and a mower. Hardly the onerous expense described by
Shelly.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:18:20 -0700, Javier wrote:

Next year I will be taking care of the lawn rather than using a local
lawn services, I simply can't afford it any more. Besides my lawn
mower, edge trimmer and leaf blower are there any other tools that I
need in order to keep my lawn healthy? I leave in North Eastern, NJ.

Javier


The comments in the thread are interesting, particularly about the
size of typical lawns. I'm in So. Cal, I timed my lawn mowing one
time. From getting off the sofa to back on the sofa, five minutes. I
didn't edge that time.

I use a battery mower, really like it, I have a personal problem with
small gas engines, especially ones that don't start immediately. Just
got a battery string trimmer that I can edge with.

Now I need a battery operated grass puller to get the grass out of the
flower beds.

"Charles" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:18:20 -0700, Javier wrote:

Next year I will be taking care of the lawn rather than using a local
lawn services, I simply can't afford it any more. Besides my lawn
mower, edge trimmer and leaf blower are there any other tools that I
need in order to keep my lawn healthy? I leave in North Eastern, NJ.

Javier


The comments in the thread are interesting, particularly about the
size of typical lawns. I'm in So. Cal, I timed my lawn mowing one
time. From getting off the sofa to back on the sofa, five minutes. I
didn't edge that time.

I use a battery mower, really like it, I have a personal problem with
small gas engines, especially ones that don't start immediately. Just
got a battery string trimmer that I can edge with.

Now I need a battery operated grass puller to get the grass out of the
flower beds.

My best friend while growing up used that term for the resting furniture in
the living room "sofa". My family still calls it a couch.

If it only takes 5 minutes to mow, I'd wonder why even bother having a lawn.
Dave

"readandpostrosie" expounded:


.............................. Aall you need, a rake, a tarp, a push
broom, maybe a
spreader, and a mower. Hardly the onerous expense described by
Shelly.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a


you forgot "willingness".......................lawn service sounds great to
me!

Fine, as long as you're willing to pay. That's the point, Sheldon is
claiming it's more economical to pay someone - around here that'd be
$35 a week or so for lawn mowing, definitely not anything I would want
to spend my money on when it takes me about 45 minutes to mow my whole
yard.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:16:31 -0500, "Dave"
wrote:

"Charles" wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:18:20 -0700, Javier wrote:

Next year I will be taking care of the lawn rather than using a local
lawn services, I simply can't afford it any more. Besides my lawn
mower, edge trimmer and leaf blower are there any other tools that I
need in order to keep my lawn healthy? I leave in North Eastern, NJ.

Javier


The comments in the thread are interesting, particularly about the
size of typical lawns. I'm in So. Cal, I timed my lawn mowing one
time. From getting off the sofa to back on the sofa, five minutes. I
didn't edge that time.

I use a battery mower, really like it, I have a personal problem with
small gas engines, especially ones that don't start immediately. Just
got a battery string trimmer that I can edge with.

Now I need a battery operated grass puller to get the grass out of the
flower beds.

My best friend while growing up used that term for the resting furniture in
the living room "sofa". My family still calls it a couch.

If it only takes 5 minutes to mow, I'd wonder why even bother having a lawn.
Dave


It was there when I got here and is the standard decor for the
neighborhood. I've thought about changing it, but haven't come up
with any ideas that I felt would be better.

Dave wrote:
"Charles" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:18:20 -0700, Javier wrote:

Next year I will be taking care of the lawn rather than using a local
lawn services, I simply can't afford it any more. Besides my lawn
mower, edge trimmer and leaf blower are there any other tools that I
need in order to keep my lawn healthy? I leave in North Eastern, NJ.

Javier

The comments in the thread are interesting, particularly about the
size of typical lawns. I'm in So. Cal, I timed my lawn mowing one
time. From getting off the sofa to back on the sofa, five minutes. I
didn't edge that time.

I use a battery mower, really like it, I have a personal problem with
small gas engines, especially ones that don't start immediately. Just
got a battery string trimmer that I can edge with.

Now I need a battery operated grass puller to get the grass out of the
flower beds.

My best friend while growing up used that term for the resting furniture in
the living room "sofa". My family still calls it a couch.

If it only takes 5 minutes to mow, I'd wonder why even bother having a lawn.
Dave

I have only a 1/3 acre in total but a relatively large amount of green
space, as I'm the exception in this area of fairly new developments in
that less than half of my lot is taken up by the house itself! I use a
riding mower for most of it -- even in such a small area without the
riding mower I would not be able to keep it up at all. I use a
walk-behind for two steeply sloped areas in front of the house (thank
God those bits are small!). I don't worry about spraying and feeding, as
I mulch the clippings from mowing and have clover growing. The only
regular edging I do is along the sidewalks and curb. Those areas would
be overrun with bindweed if I didn't edge them and keep the vines and
runners cut back. Watering is done with hoses and portable sprinklers,
so there is no in-ground irrigation system to maintain. Hedges and beds
are managed with weed suppression and mulching, and only need edging
once or twice a year to subdue encroachment. It takes me about an hour a
week to keep the place looking nice. Routine mower maintenance runs me
about $100.00 annually, including pick up and return by the maintenance
guy (someone probably thinks this is too much, I think it's fine for a
couple of decade-old mowers -- one a rider). It would be much easier to
have someone else come and do it for me, but they would invariably kill
my clover, "feed the grass" with spray-on nonsense, over-mulch, rake up
clippings and waste them in a landfill somewhere, nick the bark on the
trees, raise the level of noise pollution with leaf blowers, overwater,
gouge my bank account and diminish the quality of my time outdoors.

My grandmother used to call the couch a Chesterfield, and the small
couch on the screen porch was a settee.

"Ann" wrote in message
...
Sheldon expounded:

Paragraphs of utter trip snipped

Anyone who spends $50 a year to maintain a lawnmower obviously bought
the wrong mower. And anyone who thinks it makes economic sense to pay
a lawn service to do something that is so easy obviously doesn't have
much sense. Aall you need, a rake, a tarp, a push broom, maybe a
spreader, and a mower. Hardly the onerous expense described by
Shelly.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a


I'll mention your exclusive statement to my ancient neighbor, who uses a
lawn service because she can't walk well any more.

"Anyone" indeed.

"JoeSpareBedroom" expounded:


I'll mention your exclusive statement to my ancient neighbor, who uses a
lawn service because she can't walk well any more.

"Anyone" indeed.

Yea, well, anyone who wasn't looking to be nasty would also realize
that generalizations always exclude special cases. You can go right
ahead and feel superior. For that matter, I mow my elderly neighbor's
yard for her - for free.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

"Ann" wrote in message
...
"JoeSpareBedroom" expounded:


I'll mention your exclusive statement to my ancient neighbor, who uses a
lawn service because she can't walk well any more.

"Anyone" indeed.

Yea, well, anyone who wasn't looking to be nasty would also realize
that generalizations always exclude special cases. You can go right
ahead and feel superior. For that matter, I mow my elderly neighbor's
yard for her - for free.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a


Let's include people who simply don't have the time to do the job right, per
whatever their definition is.

"JoeSpareBedroom" expounded:


Let's include people who simply don't have the time to do the job right, per
whatever their definition is.

Or lets leave it with the original point, which is just as valid - it
isn't all that expensive to do your own lawnwork yourself, especially
if you don't have the money to pay someone else to do it.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************