As old man winter starts to blow what will hopefully be his last breath this weekend I can look out my window at my yard and see the first mowing coming soon. Perhaps I should have already done the first mowing. Our unkempt clumps of grass are reminders of the upcoming work to be done in the season ahead. From my perspective the mowing isn’t work, I actually enjoy it. I hookup my MP3 player and mow away. Before I can get started on the lawn there is some prep work that needs done to my mowers.
1) General Cleanup. My mowers have been resting in the garage all winter covered in some of the dust of last summer. I cleaned them off a little bit before putting it in the garage but I could do a much more thorough job. I need to turn it over on it’s side and wash off the bottom with the hose. I read where you can spray the bottom with vegetable oil to keep the grass clippings from sticking.
2) Change the oil. I probably should have done this in the fall but like so many people do I just never got around to it.
3) Cleanup and sharpen the blades. It’s better for your grass to have sharp blades to cut the grass. That way the blade isn’t ripping the grass apart and leaving uneven edges that turn brown in your yard. Disconnect the spark plug, empty the gas and turn the mower on it’s side. Then remove the blade and take a file to sharpen the edges evenly on both sides. You may want to consider a replacing it with a mulching blade if you haven’t already.
4) Check the spark plugs and clean or replace as necessary.
5) Check your lawn for sticks, stones and other things that need picked up. While your mower may chew them up fine they could hurtled dangerously toward unsuspecting bystanders. It’s a good guess that anything that causes a loud thunk under your mower probably wasn’t good for the blade so be careful!
Do you have any lawnmower tips to add to the one’s above?
Dave,
No lawn mower tips, we aren’t handy over here…but if we get that snow that is forecast it will cover the grass for a few days, which will give you some lawn mower prep time;-)
Gail
We are to get snow here also. I was looking at the small patch of grass we have and thinking it was looking more clumpy than carpety. I have a new electric lawnmower that has been used to cut the liriope and can’t wait to try it out on the lawn. It even has a bag, my old one didn’t, to get those sticks and pinecones, on this first pass through. I have sprayed WD 40 on the mower blades in the past, also on the old reel mower, to keep it moving better. That one is hard for me to push on the sloping lawn and cuts lower than I would like. We didn’t mow much at all last year due to the drought, one bonus of that badness.
Frances at Faire Garden
We have so much sand in our soil down here in GA that we have to replace the mower blades on both the riding and push mowers each spring! The sand grinds them down like sandpaper! With our mild winter weather, we have the mowers out year round for mulching leaves that blow in from the woods…