Lawn Care Lore For Do-It-Yourselfers

Some of us have decided that life is too short to spend any time behind a lawnmower. Others decide that the real reason we have a mate is so that we can offer him or her the opportunity to get out in the fresh air and sunshine…to mow. Children can be the recipients of that very same opportunity, which will build character through hard work. Alternatively, a healthy lawn - especially a well-watered one in late August - provides an opportunity to keep the Nutley economy humming by employing a gardening service to keep it in top trim.

But for those of us who personally oversee our property's greenbelt maintenance, earlier this month, CNN's Money website put together a four-point tip sheet that caught my eye: it rounded up some of the best common sense lawn care ideas I've seen in one place. The author (Josh Garskot who wrote in @Money), claims that DIY lawn care keeps him handy and youthful. Although I could argue that a tall lemonade on the verandah might serve just as well, here's a shortened version of what he came up with:

• Edge twice. That is, turn the edger sideways to make a vertical slice, then do the regular horizontal trim (CNN even has a tip for precutting trimmer strings and keeping them at hand by attaching them with Velcro tape - but that's a little too far into the weeds for me).
• Let the pros fertilize. Seen as just too complicated to handle, CNN's expert threw in the towel when it comes to trying to figure out those charts on the back of the bags. Recommendation: hire pros to fertilize (and aerate once a year). I concur.
• Forget bagging clippings. Downside: since you probably remember the fact that you should never cut more than a third of the height of the grass, you have to mow often enough to follow through on that. Upsides: the clippings will be short enough that you can just let them recycle back into the soil. And your property will look great all the time!
• Say goodbye to stale gas. Particularly after a long layoff, old gas can mean real arm-wrenching trouble getting a stubborn motor started. A few drops of fuel stabilizer is enough to keep mower and trimmer carburetors ungummed (and the air free of the bad language that can otherwise result).

Lawns can be a real property value enhancer when they're well maintained -- but the opposite when allowed to reach meadow length. And while we're on the subject, I hope you will always feel free to contact me whenever you'd like to tap into my store of home maintenance referrals and ideas for keeping your Nutley property at the top of the market.