Lawn tractors are generally tiny tractors intended for farm work up to 2 acres. There are a number of attachments to the tractor, which can reduce your manual work quite considerably. This could help you employ your available time effectively in keeping up your garden in trim condition all year round. Lawn tractors are flexible items of kit. They can do a large amount of roles like cutting, ploughing, lawn rolling, lamp post hole digging, and masses of other roles that need to be done around the farm or home.

These roles are made possible thru their power take off shaft. This makes lawn tractors one of the gardener’s very best buddies.

Purchasing a lawn tractor is much like buying a car. The cost of a used model is much less even if there is little more wear than being driven out from the show room floor.

Consider the tractor you are buying extremely conscientiously. It is usually recommended that you try the tractor for yourself and get an idea about the time needed in attaching and detaching the various accessories. Test-drive the tractor, and try to get a feel of getting out and in of tractor. Just taking it for a test spin, doesn’t mean you have to get it there and then. Resist the pressure, and consider your options carefully.

The basic model available is a Bolen 762F76, and the John Deere Spin-Steer SST-16 is available, albeit at a higher price bracket. The Poulan Pro PK185H42ST is in between these two in both price and quality.

Remember this is just the cost of tractor alone without accessories. Accessories can include lots of different pieces. Just to begin with you can have a cover, a grass collection bag, large and small carts, and much, much more, all of which can add to the price, making it even more important to get a superb price at the start. If you are going to use your tractor solely for lawn cropping, and you have a little farm of one or two acres, you could have a glance at the stand-behind mower rather than going for a full on lawn tractor. All the same, look around and in this economy you need to be able to find some real bargains if you look around.

Weldon Duffy reveals more on Used John Deere Tractor that you can find at the John Deere Tractors site.

Seems you can’t avoid the smell of freshly cut grass each spring. And it’s like that’s the alert to begin your summer long battle against nature using your mower, your spreader, plus a raft of lawn care chemicals as your weapons of choice.

Or not. I mean if you want to ditch the bags of poison and get your grass off the performance enhancing drugs you can. Employing more sustainable tactics and products that will still enable you to have a near perfect lawn, that’s the talk of the neighborhood yet earth friendly as well.

Organic lawn care starts with planting grass likely to do well in your locale. It also means you have to water wisely, feed in a way that works with your soil, and mow more frequently among other things. Let’s briefly cover what’s involved.

Going Native When it Comes To The Grass You Plant

Grasses local to your area are more apt to thrive without a regular dose of pesticides. Because they are better able to fend off pests on their own without chemical assistance. For that reason you want to plant warm season grasses if you live in the south, cool season varieties up north and go with transitional strains if you live somewhere in the middle.

Feeding Your Lawn the Organic Way

After picking an appropriate grass strain you want to attend to your plant’s macro and micro nutritional needs. Spreading compost is a no brainer. Compost teas are another approach. While things like blood meal, liquid fish fertilizer, and various seaweed fertilizers can help fill in the gaps.

Your soil’s pH tells you what kind of fine tuning you need to do. You want a reading of slightly acidic or between 6.5 and 7. If the reading is to either extreme it will be harder for the grass to take in the needed nutrients. To offset the extremes you’d spread limestone for a too acidic reading or sulfur if it’s too alkaline.

Turf Truth: American’s take their lawns seriously. As a result about 40 million acres of this country is covered by grass. Or an amount of acreage roughly the size of the state of Washington.

Be Smart When Watering

Grass that has a strong root system doesn’t need to be watered as often. Which is good since too much rain or watering can leach out vital nutrients needed for healthy growth. Yet as you know it’s best, if you have to water, to do so in the morning. That way diseases won’t gain a foot hold plus the least amount of water will be lost to evaporation.

Why Mow More Frequently

By mowing more often you’ll be able to trim less of the blade off each time. This too encourages a healthy root system. Which in turn means you’ll have to water less. It’s also smart to mulch the grass. By doing so you’re creating a nitrogen rich mulch. Providing 35-50% of the nitrogen your lawn needs to look it’s best shade of green.

Taking an Organic Approach to Weeds

As you know having a lush stand of grass doesn’t leave much room for weeds. If need be an application of corn gluten can be made to deter weed seed germination. Just so you know this isn’t like spreading a chemical. It can take maybe three years to get 90% control. But corn gluten is a good, earth friendly alternative.

As you can see those five tricks are all that involved. And if you’re devoting more time to your lawn and enjoying it less maybe it’s time to switch gears. Rethinking your approach to lawn care and giving some organic approaches a fair shot. It’s not only better for the environment, it may be a more sustainable approach in the long run to a greener healthier lawn.

And for anyone interested in finding out more about electric lawn mowers to eliminating moles, a visit to leading lawn care site MowerMania.com might help. There you’ll find reviews of riding lawn mowers, zero turn mowers as well as other helpful tips and advice.

As you probably know there’s not a lot to growing grass. Or so it would seem. But that’s not so say it’s super simple either. Or that you justy need to pick up a bag of grass seed, scatter it about and then sit back as a well manicured lawn sprouts up.

No, ideally you want a grass strain that anymore demands little to no watering and thrives when summer temperatures climb into the brutal range each afternoon. That and ease of maintenance and length of time to become established all need to considered before choosing a specific variety for your lawn. Keeping in mind there is no perfect turf grass.

To help with that here’s a brief rundown on the five warm season grasses felt to be worthy of consideration. That list would include Zoysia, St. Augustine, Bahia, Centipede, and Bermuda – in no particular order. Each has it’s own pluses and minuses.

One fast growing variety that grows thick enough to ward off weeds is St Augustine. But the list of drawbacks with this one is rather lengthy. Not good for high traffic. Not all that drought resistant. Doesn’t like being cold. Can only be started from plugs or sod. Requires lots of water to maintain it’s good looks. All of which would make it rather high maintenance. But a good choice if that’s not a problem.

Bahia grass might be the ticket if you want to establish a drought resistant lawn from seed. It’s a coarse textured blades ward off insects and disease. Fans of this variety point out it pretty much survives on rain water alone and can hold on nearly indefinitely in a dormant state when things get too dry. Those who aren’t fans are quick to point out it doesn’t do well in shady applications. Also mowing it can be a challenge that compares well to mowing wire. Probably not that bad but you get the idea.

Gray-green Centipede grass is a slow growing turf variety that is naturally drought tolerant. Grown best in full sun it has about average tolerance for shade and acidic soil. Centipede can be started from seed or put down as sod. It withstands cold temps and need less mowing than others on the list. A drawback to keep in mind is it doesn’t do well in heavy traffic situations.

Now given its poor tolerance of shade Bermuda grass needs full sun to shine. Still it’s a widely grown warm-season turf-grass. Being an aggressive and invasive by nature you’ll also find common Bermuda can easily take over nearby flower beds. But it is drought and cold tolerant and free of most major disease issues.

Zoysia is one of the most cold-hardy grasses going. It grows slower than Bermuda and has an average tolerance of shade. A thick and dense grass it naturally wards off weeds. Usually established by plugs or sprigs it takes a while to take hold. It’s biggest drawback if how often it needs to be mowed plus it should be de-thatched regularly too.

Growing grass is easy if you pick the right variety for your local climate, know your budget, understand what traits your need, and take your commitment level to maintenance into consideration. These five varieties are the most common ones planted and offer you your best bets when it comes to warm season grasses.

Are you puzzled by questions on zoysia grass seed, need help to control lawn grubs that are tearing up your yard, or are you in the market for a new mower? Then a visit to MowerMania.com might be just what you need. Because you will likely find the advice you’re looking for to produce a healthy and vibrant carpet of green week after week all season long.

Question: I want golf course lush. So how much and how frequently should I water my grass?

Good question. Sounds innocent enough too, doesn’t it? But it’s one with many nuances in the answer. Which is why someone who understands grass would answer “It all depends.” Here’s why.

The rule of thumb you see most often shared is to water an inch a week. But what happens is that rules of thumb are all too son taken to be iron clad rules by some. Chiseled in stone as it were and to be adhered to at all costs.

Yet the answer to how much and often to water your grass is really dependent on a variety of factors. Simply spouting a rule of thumb and being done with it won’t cut it for that reason.

For starters, even though obvious, I do need to point out one needs to know how often it rains before giving a reply.

A related point is it’s best to water only when you have to. Is your grass looking rather limp? Stressed? Are your foot steps clearly seen> All suggest your grass isn’t springing back like it should. If so it’s not a stretch to say you should be watering.

Watering also comes down to the type of grass we’re talking about. Some varieties will need more – other less.

The height you are cutting at comes into play too. Generally the longer you leave your grass the less often you’re going to have to water. While leaving the clippings to break down is another source of moisture that can help keep your grass looking decent in between waterings.

What’s the state of your lawns root system? Hopefully it’s deep into the soil. If not, deep watering will encourage that. As opposed to just a light watering which encourages shallow root growth that is scorched off during a prolonged dry period. Yet over watering is no more beneficial. As water soaking beyond the root zone doesn’t help your grass much if at all.

Grass Truth: The height of the blade dictates the depth of the root. The longer the blade the deeper the root.

It can’t hurt to let the top part of your root zone dry out. Doing so results in shallow rooted weeds dying off. Ot prevent disease from taking hold. Plus weed seeds find it harder to germinate.

Another thing to take into consideration is the type of soil you’re dealing with. Clay soils hold water longer than a sandy loam is apt to. There is no one size fits all here. Everyone’s yard will have different water holding properties. You want to water to the point the top three to four inches of soil are wet.

Finally you’re got flow rate. Or putting water down so fast it runs off. That doesn’t help.

You see? There’s more to this than mindlessly muttering the one inch a week rule over and over like some magic chant. These think abouts, when thought about and applied, can produce a greener, thicker stand of grass with less water in your yard too.

About the Author: Dewey “Jeep” Capasso contributes articles covering topics ranging from the best riding lawn mowers, offering insightful zero turn mower reviews or dealing with weeds and yard pests to the popular lawn care site, MowerMania.com.