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Power versus Person
Spring is here and we are already into the time for weed and feed fertilizers. With all the rain we have had, the yard is demanding to be mown several times a week.   Right now, I am using the non-power push mower twice, then switching to the gas slurping, fume spewing, lung choking power mower every third cut.   Whatever type of grass you have, be sure not to cut it too close!  I made that mistake for years and was rewarded with a great crop of weeds.....

My neighbors and my allergies love me using the super quiet, low dust manual push mower.  I only use the gas gulping, fume spewing mower every third mow.

A New England tradition: finding a way to get rid of leaves.  I ran over the pile of leaves several times with our little mulching lawn mower.  (Watch for rocks and sticks!)	What is left is a much smaller pile of tiny pieces of leaves.  You still have to sweep this mess up, but it takes about 1/3 the number of bags to contain it.

After using the power mower as a leaf mulcher, be sure to clean the filter.  I was shocked to discover just how much....stuff....was jammed into the ole Murray's filter. 

There is usually a single screw holding the air filter cover in place.  Gently tap the filter on something soft like the mower tire.  A soft bristle paint brush is another way to gently clean between the folds of filter paper.  Hold the filter up to the light and if you see even one pin hole, get a new filter.  One new filter can save you from having to buy one new lawn mower. 

All that brown stuff you see is from the filter! 

Trimming those sidewalks

 Nana was back trying to kill me with work.  She "hinted" that the sidewalks really could use a bit of trimming.  What she did not realize, I think, is that the walks have not been trimmed in YEARS even before we bought the house.  

There is no way I can do this by hand.  Tried about two years ago and had to give up after about 10 feet of trimming.  The grass is about 5 to 6 inches thick and overruns the sidewalk by at least that amount. 

I turned to the Mantis.  This little two stroke engine powered unit is both an edger and a small tiller.  I used it last fall when I needed to re-seed a fairly large area of part of the back yard.  Because it is two stroke (two cycle) is requires that you carefully mix the right oil to the right amount of gasoline (actually, petrol).  

To make sure I did not screw up this mixture thing, I bought a separate gas "can" and make sure it is far out of reach of the usual gas for the lawn mover.  It would not do to put the wrong gas into any of these machines. 

The Mantis ripped right through the grass, leaving a pretty nice edge that only required a bit of hand trimming.  Here is the really cool part.  My neighbors yard service crew came by while Nana was killing me.  The owner of the service sent two of his crew over to pick up all the trimmings and haul them off.   He probably saved my life. 

Captain Bill was right ....again.
I took Captain Bill's suggestion and switched to Scott's multiple step method.  Late last year I put on a thin application of fertilizer just before the first snow...when was that....August?  At any rate, I fertilized the yard in late fall for the first time in my life.   For some reason, I never believed that it would do any good.  As soon as the ice melted in Spring, I was out there again with Scott's step one. Since then I have not had a chance to apply step two, the weed and feed fertilizer.  The results, as you can see for yourself have been pretty good.  What you cannot appreciate is that this section of the backyard was an absolute mess last year.  We had more electrical work done a couple of years ago, so these guys had to dig a trench from the end of the house to the garage.  Even though they were careful, the grass never did recover.  I think it looks better than it ever has.  A neighbor is trying out a fairly new natural fertilizer made from chicken dung.  He says it does not smell.  Will let you know how that turns out. 

Can you walk and crank at the same time?
As you can see from the above picture, our grass is looking pretty good.  About two weeks after I took that picture, it was time to apply the weed and feed step of the Scott's plan.  I have a little hand spreader that I bought years ago to apply grass seed.  It can also be used to spread fertilizer.  There is an adjustment on the handle that allows you to set the amount of whatever you are spreading  according to the instructions provided with the seed or fertilizer.

Since our yard is so small and I am so cheap.....I decided to use this hand held device to apply the weed and feed.  Following the instructions on the fertilizer package, I hosed down the yard to make sure all the grass was wet.  What is it about standing there with a hose in your hand, sending billion year old water onto your yard....?    It probably should not be so satisfying.

The hand spreader was filled with weed and feed, which is a little hard to do when you are wearing the equivalent of a space suit to protect yourself from the weed part of weed and feed.  Now, I pride myself on my ability to do two things at once.  Remember patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time?  I can do that....sort of.   Using the hand cranked, hand held spreader requires that you squeeze the trigger with one hand to start the fertilizer flowing to the actual spreader part which works because you crank a handle with your other hand.  And of course, you also have to walk. 

If you can get all these body parts working correctly, the fertilizer flows onto the yard in an even fashion in the correct dose.  Not getting all those body parts working in concert results in an uneven application and/or the incorrect dose.  I managed to do both.  The picture above shows brown patches dispersed about my back yard.  They represent areas where I applied way too much weed and feed.  

When I first discovered the damage about a day later, my first thought was that I am in serious need of some Occupational Therapy.  I should be able to walk and crank at the same time.  Thinking back, I now realize that there were big lumps in the fertilizer when it came out of the bag.  This is normal, but infuriating, since you are not suppose to get this stuff on bare skin.  What I should have done is to bounce the bag (unopened) on the ground to break up the lumps first, then made sure that any remaining lumps were gone in the hand held spreader.  

Fortunately, we have had rain almost every day since I tried to destroy our yard, so the damage is less visible each passing day.  Now I am thinking about getting one of those Rubber Maid outdoor storage sheds so I can keep my new push drop spreader out of the rain. 

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