Your lawn can make or break your home’s curb appeal.
It is one of the first things people see long before they set foot inside your house.
The good news is that lawn care is not as difficult or as tedious as you might think.
All you need is the best tool to remove grass.
Before we get to them, let us take a closer look at the benefits of a well-maintained lawn.
Benefits of Proper Lawn Care
If your yard looks neglected and has rogue patches of weeds everywhere, it can undo all your hard work in maintaining the rest of your property.
Your guests would not enjoy their stay, and potential buyers would be discouraged from making an offer.
A healthy lawn comes with a long list of benefits, such as:
Increases the Value of Your Property
If you want to sell your house and are looking for ways to enhance its overall appeal, your lawn is one of the best places to start.
Studies suggest that properties with upgraded landscapes can fetch a 15 percent higher price in the real estate market.
This translates to a 100 percent to 200 percent return on your investment in lawn care.
Enhances Your Home’s Curb Appeal
Aside from helping you get more value for your property, a healthy lawn enhances the curb appeal of your home.
House hunters who just happen to pass by would be drawn inside, giving you more opportunities to sell.
If you have an online listing, your property would look much better and have a higher chance of attracting potential buyers.
Improves Air Quality
Beyond the practical advantages, maintaining your yard is good for the environment.
Healthy grass is known to absorb greenhouse gases and convert them into oxygen.
The blades can also act as a filter and trap fine air particles like smoke and dust so that they don’t get inside your house.
Makes the Soil Healthier
Healthy grass offers an ideal environment for earthworms, grubs, microbes, and other organisms necessary for a balanced ecosystem.
What’s more, grass clippings and decaying grassroots can feed the topsoil and make it healthier.
Helps Prevent Soil Erosion
If your property is on sloped terrain, healthy grass can keep the soil in place and prevent erosion.
It also reduces water runoff by allowing the water to drain faster.
In return, this will help keep your yard dry, making it conducive to foot traffic.
Best Tool To Remove Grass
Now that we have established the importance of a healthy lawn, it is time to move on to the important question.
What is the best tool to remove grass and keep your lawn healthy and even?
Here are some of the most effective lawn care equipment every homeowner should have in their garage:
Lawn Mower
The lawn mower is perhaps the most important tool when it comes to lawn care.
It allows you to remove grass at a much faster rate and with more consistent quality.
Lawn mowers come in many shapes and sizes to match different properties.
Here are the most common ones:
Ride-On Mowers
The ride-on mower is the best option for homeowners with large lawns to maintain.
With this, you can make easy work of even the biggest and most neglected yards.
While it comes with a higher price tag, it offers much more efficiency and convenience than walk-along mowers.
There are three major types of ride-on mowers:
Lawn Tractors
The lawn tractor is arguably the most popular type of ride-on mower.
Its front-mounted engine typically ranges from 18 to 25 hp, while the deck width usually ranges from 42 inches to 54 inches.
Zero-Turn Mowers
In the past, zero-turn mowers were the crown jewel of lawn mowers.
It is operated from the front seat using lap bars, which control the rear wheels.
This configuration offers superior maneuverability, allowing you to make sharp turns, pivot, and cut tightly against edges.
Zero-turn mower engines usually range between 12 and 25 hp, while deck width ranges from 32 inches to 60 inches.
Rear Engine Ride-On Mower
As its name implies, the engine in this type of ride-on mower is at the rear, beneath the driver’s seat.
It usually has a 10 or 11 hp capacity, ideal for moderate-sized yards.
Walk Mowers
With a walk mower, the user walks behind the equipment during operation instead of riding on it.
It is suited for grass trimming on smaller yards.
There are many types of walk mowers, and they come in a wide range of price, quality, and features.
Cylinder Mower
Also known as a reel mower, it has cylindrical blades at the front rotating vertically and slicing the grass against a stationary blade.
Its cutting process is similar to how scissors work.
The cylinder mower is ideal for soft grass and lawns that have not become overgrown.
Rotary Mower
The rotary mower is the most common type of walk-along mower.
It has a single blade rotating horizontally at high speeds, cutting all grass that comes into contact.
It works best on medium to long grass.
Push Mower
The push mower requires the user to manually push it across the lawn as the motor turns the blades.
It is affordable and effective, making it a popular choice among homeowners on a budget.
Self-Propelled Mower
A self-propelled mower has a transmission that drives the equipment forward.
It is a bit more complex than the push mower, but it makes the job easier and quicker.
Hover Mower
The hover mower creates a cushion of air between the machine and the ground.
This process reduces friction significantly, making it easy to guide across the lawn.
Lawn Mower Power Source
Aside from coming in many different forms, lawn mowers also use various power sources: manual, electric, gas, and battery.
Gas-powered tools are generally more powerful, while electric and battery-powered units offer quiet performance.
String Trimmers
Not all lawns are created equal. Some have sloped terrains, while others have bumpy spots.
These hard-to-reach areas are difficult to manage with lawn mowers alone.
Under these conditions, the grass trimmer is the ideal tool.
The grass trimmer or weed wacker consists of a long, thin shaft with a cutting head on one end and a handle on the other.
It uses a string instead of blades to remove grass.
The string is attached to the trimmer head, which rotates quickly when operated.
The rapidly rotating string makes contact with the grass and cuts it down.
There are two main types of string trimmers: electric and gas-powered.
Gas-Powered String Trimmers
Gas-powered string trimmers are cordless and run on a combination of gas and oil.
They are among the most powerful string trimmers and are generally considered best for large lawns.
Some models feature a two-cycle engine, while others use the four-cycle type.
The four-cycle engine is easier to start, runs smoother, and generates less noise.
However, it is noticeably heavier, making it more difficult to handle when trimming grass in larger yards.
Electric String Trimmers
Electric trimmers can either be corded or battery-powered. Both are lightweight and are easy to handle.
The problem is, they are not as powerful as gas-powered trimmers.
For this reason, they are ideal for small to mid-sized yards that you can trim in an hour or less.
When choosing between the two types, it is important to note that the corded model may need an extension cord to reach all corners of your yard.
Another thing to keep in mind is that some models feature a rotatable head.
You can use these models as an edger, depending on the position of the cutting head.
Straight vs. Curved Shaft String Trimmer
Aside from the power source, another way to classify string trimmers is with the shaft style, which can either be straight or curved.
Each style has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
The straight shaft string trimmer often provides better balance and a longer reach.
It works great for trimming under bushes, fences, and hedges.
The curved shaft is lighter and easier to maneuver, ideal for trimming around sharp edges and flower beds.
Lawn Edgers
At first glance, the lawn edger looks very similar to the string trimmer.
However, a closer inspection will reveal that the edger uses metal blades, whereas the trimmer uses string.
In addition, the blades on the edger are vertical to the ground, while the string on the trimmer is horizontal.
In terms of application, the lawn edger basically does the same thing: removing grass.
The difference is that it works best when it comes to keeping the edges of your yard neat and clean, hence the name.
If you want to create sharp lines along a path, a walkway, or around the garden bed, this is the best tool to use.
Like string trimmers, lawn edgers can also be gas-powered or electric.
If you have a good-sized yard with lots of ground to cover, you should consider a gas-powered unit.
Grass Shears
After mowing your lawn, your yard will look almost perfect.
However, some stubborn patches of uncut grass will remain in hard-to-reach areas.
If your trimmer or edger can’t get to them either, you need a more delicate tool: a pair of grass shears.
Grass shears will succeed where all the other tools fail, allowing you to have a perfectly manicured lawn that will be the envy of the neighborhood.
Final Thoughts
If you are like most homeowners, lawn care is one of the many activities you dread doing.
However, when you come to think of it, it is also one of the most rewarding.
With the right tools, cutting grass is easier and might even be an enjoyable experience for you.