The establishment and subsequent care of the lawn require the use of a variety of tools. Choose them carefully, because they are used most often in the garden. Under no circumstances should you save on their quality. Higher-end tools are better refined by designers and made of modern materials. This will make your job easier and will last longer.
How to choose the right tools for the size and type of lawn?
When choosing tools for setting up and maintaining a lawn, you should, first of all, be guided by its size and your own capabilities (physical and financial). Generally speaking, small gardens usually use hand tools, medium-sized ones - manual and electric ones, and large gardens - combustion engines.
If you are unable to choose the tools yourself, it is better to ask a qualified seller for advice. It will certainly help to adjust their size and weight to our needs and capabilities. It is worth remembering that too heavy or too small rakes, shovels, or mowers will make work difficult and prolonged.
Digging, leveling, and organizing tools
A spade with an oval or triangular pointed end and the so-called American pitchfork will be useful not only when setting up a garden and lawn. They will be used to perform much care works for the next years. For this reason, it is worth adapting them to the type of soil right away. Heavy and wet soils require tools with a strong and properly profiled structure. More delicate tools are suitable for light soils. When buying a spade, it is worth paying attention to the handle (it is good when it is ergonomically profiled and made of stainless steel, not wood) and the width of the plate. We choose a narrow plate girder for small gardens and light soils. Wide - for medium and large.
A combustion engine-powered tiller will help to establish a lawn in a large area. It loosens the soil to a depth of 25 cm and a width of 30 to 60 cm. But not only. All kinds of electric or combustion tillers and cultivators are also used to mix organic fertilizers (compost, manure) and mineral fertilizers with the parent soil.
Different sizes of hoes, hoes, and claws make it possible to break up clods of the earth. A rigid steel rake is also useful for leveling the dug soil, and removing plant debris and small stones.
In subsequent lawn care, a fan rake is used to remove fallen leaves, rake grass clippings or moss and felt. They can have steel wire or plastic teeth, rigid or flexible. It is worth choosing the rake carefully, paying attention to the weight and quality of the materials from which it is made. The use of light plastic ones will prevent us from getting too tired while working, while the ergonomically shaped handle will protect our spine from excessive overload.
Garden robots have become a hit in recent years. Equipped with a combustion engine and several attachments, they perform a variety of tasks: loosening the soil, aerating and scarifying the lawn, removing moss, trimming lawn edges, cleaning cracks in paved surfaces, etc.
Tools for destroying and removing weeds
When preparing the ground for a small lawn, it is often enough to remove the weeds with a rake. In large gardens, chemical plant protection products and a sprayer are needed to get rid of them. For herbicides, i.e. herbicides, it is worth booking a separate manual pressure sprayer with a lance on the boom and a special herbicide cover on the nozzle. An ordinary sprayer with a tiny tank and a short nozzle is unlikely to work. The capacity of the sprayer is matched to the size of the lawn (2 l, 5 l, 8 l).
In subsequent lawn care, the removal of individual weeds can be carried out manually. The simplest tool is a long and sharp knife. In stores, you will find a large selection of cutters with a blade made of high-quality steel and with a longer or shorter handles. Weed pullers are also produced with a special mechanism for deep catching and removing perennial weeds and with a long handle, thanks to which we will avoid bending down during work.
Tools for sowing grass seeds and fertilizing
The most convenient to use are seed drills on wheels, in the shape of a trolley. Depending on the type, they can have a capacity of up to 20 kg and a working width of up to 50 cm. They provide the most even spreading because they have adjustable holes through which grass seeds or granulated mineral fertilizer are thrown onto the lawn. There are also battery-powered, button-operated hand drills. They have a large spreading field, from 0.5 m to 2.5 m.
Rolling and leveling tools
The purchase of a roller with a handle and a set of hoops with spikes is recommended for every garden with a lawn. Those who think that a shaft is a useless tool are wrong. For the first time, the dug and leveled ground are rolled out so that the soil settles properly before sowing grass seeds or spreading turf from a roll. Re-rolling is carried out immediately after sowing or spreading the lawn because the seeds/turf patches must necessarily be integrated with the moistened substrate. And then, after each winter, it is recommended to roll the lawn every year, because the frost causes the turf to rise up and tear off the turf from the ground. So it is necessary to press it to the ground.
In stores, you can buy special rollers with a handle, into which water or sand is poured, thanks to which they become sufficiently heavy (from 70 to 100 kg). After compacting the ground and sowing seeds, special hoops with spikes are mounted on the roller. A puncture of the soil causes aeration, i.e. aeration of the soil. Thanks to it, air penetrates the roots of the grass.
Mowing tools
Mowers are selected according to the size and type of lawn. It has been calculated that about 20 mowings are performed in one growing season. Manual drum mowers are used to mow the smallest lawns (up to 50 m²). These types of mowers have a cutting width of up to 30 cm, an uncomplicated structure, and a low price. They are ecological. Mowing is done with them twice a week, but it is not a problem due to the short time of work (only a few minutes).
Lawns with an area of ​​50-500 m² are most often mowed with electric mowers with a cutting width of 30-40 cm. They are light and maneuverable tools. Traditional models use an electric cable for power, which makes the work a bit more difficult. Modern models are battery-powered. For this reason, they are easier to use and become popular. An alternative for owners of medium-sized lawns is robotic mowers. Their operation requires burying a special low-voltage electric wire on the edges of the lawn, marking the field of operation of the device. These mowers are powered by a solar battery or a battery.
Lawns with an area of ​​more than 500 m² are most conveniently mowed with mowers with a combustion engine. The power of the device (from 3.5 HP to 5.5 HP) and the width of the mowing field (up to 55 cm) are matched to the size and type of the lawn. Other important parameters when choosing a petrol mower are durable housing (preferably made of aluminum or lightweight plastic), strong bearings and wheel drive, wheel width, and size, the direction of grass discharge (rear, side), type and the number of blades, type of starter, bin.
In this group, we will find mowers for special tasks. The cushion mower is helpful on uneven terrain and with obstacles (trees). There are no wheels, but it floats above the surface of the lawn due to the strong air flow generated by the turbine. Two-stroke mowers were adapted for mowing sloping terrain.
The petrol tractor makes it easy to care for the largest lawns. When you sit on a comfortable seat, driving a device equipped with an engine with a power of several HP and a wheel drive is not as burdensome as operating the mower on foot. Cutting the grass around the trees, along the foundation of the fence and terrace, or in the ditch next to the property is possible using a trimmer or a mechanical scythe.
Trimmers are equipped with a low-power engine (up to 1.1 HP), electric or combustion engine. The cutting element is the line. The scythes have combustion engines with a power of more than 1.1 HP. The cutting elements are a fishing line or a special cutting disc. For trimming lawn edges, the cordless grass shears with built-in chargers come in handy. It is worth buying a telescopic and rotating handle with the function of turning the device on and off.
Aeration, scarification, and sandblasting tools
Vertical cutting of the sod to a depth of 3 to 7 cm, i.e. scarification, strengthens and develops grassroots. It is carried out with a sharp rake, scarifier, or scarifier. The first two tools are suitable for small lawns because they require the input of human muscle strength. The scarifier, on the other hand, is an electrically or diesel-powered device that facilitates this type of operation on medium and large lawns.
The aeration procedure consists in making vertical holes in the lawn that supply air to the roots of the grass. For surface aeration, i.e. shallow aeration of the lawn surface (usually of the decorative type) to a depth of 3 cm, hand tools are used, most often sharp forks, shoe covers with spikes, or a roller with spiked rings. For deep aeration, with a minimum depth of 8 cm, usually performed on recreational and sports lawns, mechanical equipment is used - electric or combustion aerators.
Immediately after scarification and aeration, sandblasting is ordered. It is needed to fill holes and cuts with light and permeable soil, and thus consolidate the aeration of the substrate. Using a seeder, it is easier to cover the surface of the lawn with a thin and even layer of sand.
