When planning your spring lawn care, it is important to know what needs to be done and what the best equipment is for the task. Using pre-emergent herbicides, aerating the lawn, and applying fertilizer are all key tasks for preparing the lawn for the remainder of the growing season. Once those tasks are done, mowing and edging will help you stay on top of the grass growth that quickly happens as the weather warms. For each of these tasks, having the right tool makes each job relatively easy.
1. Aerators
To prevent soil compaction in a Texas lawn, perform lawn aeration between March 15th and May 1st every year. This lets water and nutrients reach grass roots, and it decreases thatch build-up.
Core aerators remove regularly spaced plugs of soil from the lawn. They are the best type of equipment to use for aerating. Another common aerator, spike aerators, will put holes in the soil for water and nutrients, but only makes soil compaction worse in the long run.
You can buy or rent core aerators that are stand-alone pieces of equipment or ones that work as tractor-mounted attachments. Aerators that we carry here at Richardson Saw include Toro, Billy Goat, and Ryan aerators. Some are walk-behind, some are stand-on riding, and some are tractor mounted. These powerful, reliable aerators create deep, clean holes in the lawn. On some models, you can even adjust the hole spacing.
2. Edgers
Edgers are a tool that helps you keep the edges of the lawn neat by cutting along sidewalks, gardens, driveways, and more. While not absolutely necessary for spring lawn care, using an edger from the very beginning of the lawn mowing season will help give lawns a professional finish.
Many types of grass grow and spread very quickly. If you have a Bermudagrass lawn, for example, the grass can creep into gardens or cover the edges of sidewalks, paths, and driveways. Edging keeps this spread under control. It’s also a fairly easy way to increase the curb appeal of your spring lawn.
Here at Richardson Saw, we carry high-quality edgers from Echo, RedMax, Shindaiwa, and STIHL. We’re sure you’ll find one that fits your lawn care needs in our wide selection of battery-powered, gasoline-powered, and multi-tool edgers.
3. Lawn Mowers
Lawn mowing is the single most important thing you can do for your lawn, and it’s the lawn care task that you’ll do most often. You’ll want to start mowing once the grass begins growing. Make sure you follow the 1/3 rule (never cut more than 1/3 of the total height of the grass) and that you’re cutting at the recommended height for your specific type of grass.
The type of mower that’ll be best for your year-round lawn care varies depending on your needs. If you maintain a large lawn or multiple lawns, then a riding mower will make that job much easier. For smaller yards and yards with lots of obstacles in them, a walk-behind mower is often the better choice. And if you have a very small yard, a battery-powered mower can be an easy-to-maintain, environmentally-friendly choice.
Richardson Saw & Lawnmower carries a wide range of top-quality lawnmowers for homeowners and professionals. Our Honda, eXmark, Scag, and Toro mowers deliver the most reliable performance and high-quality grass cutting that you could ask for.
4. Sprayers
It’s best to do the first application of lawn fertilizers a few days after core aeration. This will allow the fertilizers to easily reach grass roots. Try to choose a lawn fertilizer with slow-release nitrogen, to spread-out the nutrients available over a longer period of time. Fertilizers are available in dry forms, which you can apply with a spreader, or liquid forms that you can apply with a sprayer. Sprayers can also be used for herbicides and are good for spot-application in specific parts of the lawn.
Available sprayers range from small hand-held sprayers that hold less than half a gallon, to large back-pack sprayers powered by a gasoline motor. We carry small, portable sprayers as well as larger backpack models from Echo and STIHL.
For professionals maintaining residential lawns and large commercial properties, we also carry Z-Turf sprayers/spreaders. Depending on the model, the capacity ranges from 175- to 320-pound granular fertilizer capacity. The capacity for liquid fertilizer ranges from 20 to 60 gallons, again depending on the model.
5. Spreaders
You can use spreaders for applying dry fertilizers and herbicides, as well as for seeding a new lawn. The earliest herbicides applied to lawns are pre-emergents, which prevent weed seeds from growing. Pre-emergents should be applied around March 15, or before the soil temperatures are consistently over 55 degrees Fahrenheit. If you are planning to reseed the lawn this spring or summer, do not apply pre-emergent herbicides as they will prevent new grass seed from germinating.
Richardson Saw offers a range of spreaders for home and professional use. In addition to the commercial Z-Turf sprayers/spreaders, we also carry smaller, more economically priced hopper-style spreaders from Echo and Shindaiwa. These broadcast spreaders make it easy to evenly spread dry fertilizer, herbicide, or pesticides over the lawn. You can also use them when spreading seed on a new lawn or when patching an existing lawn.
Whatever tools you need for spring lawn care, you can find them at Richardson Saw & Lawnmower. We’ll be happy to answer any questions about which tools are the best fit for your lawn projects and help you find the equipment you need to get your lawn ready for spring.
