Once your lawn passes about half an acre, a walk-behind spreader becomes a workout. A tow-behind spreader for riding mower use hooks to the rear of a lawn tractor or zero-turn and lays down an 8 to 12 foot swath of seed, fertilizer, lime, salt, or ice melt on every pass. We spent weeks comparing … Read more
The best handheld lawn spreader for most small yards is the Scotts Whirl hand-crank unit, because it covers up to 1500 square feet per fill, throws product evenly, and stores in a corner of the garage instead of taking up a wheelbarrow’s worth of space. If your lawn runs past that, the mini broadcast spreaders … Read more
If your lawn runs past an acre, a shovel and a pair of aerator shoes stop making sense somewhere around the third weekend of work. That is the point where a tow behind plug aerator earns its place in the shed, because a machine pulled behind your tractor or zero-turn can open thousands of holes … Read more
If your lawn is under roughly 3,000 square feet, a manual core aerator is not a compromise. It is the right tool, and at that size it is arguably the only sensible one. I spent a full season testing hand plug aerators against the powered machines, and the honest truth is that on a small … Read more
If your lawn bakes hard after rain and the grass thins out along the path to the back door, you are probably dealing with compacted clay. The short answer is yes, you can use a spike aerator on clay soil, but only when the ground is moist and not saturated, and only as a second … Read more
Thatch is the layer of dead grass, roots, and debris that builds up between your lawn and its soil. Once it passes about half an inch, it stops being a cosmetic problem and starts acting like a blanket that blocks water, air, and nutrients from reaching the root zone. That is the exact condition I … Read more
Most string trimmers stall long before they reach the top of a weed stand. You push into four feet of ragweed, the head loads up with clippings, the motor bogs, and the fresh-cut grass wraps around the spool like a tourniquet. That failure has almost nothing to do with brand and everything to do with … Read more
A large yard is not a big lawn. It is a property where the mowing stops, and everything along the fence lines, ditch banks, wooded borders, driveway verges and creek edges still needs cutting. Picking the best battery string trimmers for large yards comes down to two numbers nobody puts on the box: how wide … Read more
The best gas string trimmer for thick brush is a straight-shaft machine with at least 30cc of displacement, high-torque reduction gearing, and a head that accepts 0.105-inch line. Engine size alone does not decide the job: line diameter, gear ratio and head type decide whether the machine keeps cutting speed or stalls in woody stems. … Read more
If you have ever watched a parent set a full-size weed eater down halfway up the lawn and rub their lower back, you already know why the best string trimmers for seniors are a category of their own. A standard 10 to 20 pound gas trimmer asks you to twist, hunch and pull a starter … Read more