Lawn Stuff

I love my lawn. I love the lifelong journey of figuring out exactly what I need to do to maintain a lawn worthy of Augusta (where they play The Masters). I’m a do-it-yourselfer and a total cheapskate, so I try like heck to limit chemicals and limit the amount of tools I use.

Tip 1:  Get a cheap, refurbed or rebuilt mower with as few frills as possible

• You can get a basic Toro for about $100 on CraigsList. The world is full of retired mechanics and handy guys that trash-pick mowers from the curbs on trash day and these guys fix the mowers up and sell ’em. Keep the guy’s number handy, because things’ll go wrong, and this handy guy will fix and trouble-shoot whatever you got. Even if you buy a new, cheap mower, it’s not much better than a refurb mower by a guy who knows what he’s doing.

Tip 2:  Sharpen your blades once a month (or every 10-12 mows)

Tip 3:  Clean the mower EVERY TIME (and do not rely on the built in host attachment)

Tip 4:  Don’t use the self-propel. This is all about exercise and speed. I’ll probably change my position on this when I hit my 60s or 70s, but right now (as of writing this I’m 50 going on 51), I’ll opt for the exercise and extra speed.

2024

I like being outside and working in the yard. But, I’ve certainly been out there for hours on end and started to resent my lawn. So I’m going to work on doing amazing lawn-maintenance at maximum speed and efficiency.

Chapter 1:  Lawnficiency