If you’ve just made it through a rough winter with more snow than you could shovel away, you’re probably moved close to tears when you see the first blade of grass peek out from the blanket of ice covering your yard. The transition from winter to spring might be gradual depending on where you live, but if your part of the country skips straight from snowy nights to sunny days, you might need to start thinking about how you’re going to take care of your lawn this spring.
In addition to seeding, maintaining and potentially resodding your lawn, you’ll also want to focus on arguably the most important piece of equipment for a verdant front yard: a quality push mower. Whether you have a small, well-manicured patch of grass that needs regular trimming or you own a multi-acre ranch with large swaths of overgrown brush, finding the right lawn mower for your yard care needs will do wonders for how your grass looks. If you’re ready to jumpstart your yard after a long winter, make sure you have the right Husqvarna walk-behind lawn mower for the job.
Pick the right mower for the perfect lawn.Small yards, big power
According to Cornell University, almost 60 percent of the average American home is taken up by the lawn. The house, vegetable garden, walkways and driveway all squeeze into that remaining 40 percent, so if you really want to up a home’s resale value, it pays to keep your lawn nice and green.
However, you don’t have to buy a massive mower to achieve pristine results. In fact, a oush mower like the Husqvarna HD700L combines ease of use, efficiency and several special features into a small but powerful package. Walk-behind mowers can also vary in size depending on your needs – if your yard is on the narrow side, you can get away with a mower that has a 14-inch cutting radius. For larger lawns, the radius of blades on walk-behind models can grow to as large as 54 inches, too.
Many walk-behind mowers come equipped with some form of low-powered self-propulsion. This makes it easier for you to tackle larger projects or move up small inclines.
If your yard is small but contains hills and other contoured features, you might want to stay away from walk-behind mowers – if you try to take one up a hill that’s too steep, you could be setting yourself up for injury and your mower up for serious damage.
“A riding lawn mower helps you cut corners like a Formula-1 driver.”
Ride in style
One drawback of walk-behind mowers is that they can be imprecise. The fixed-wheel design of most models means that they can only make wide turns – if you value a manicured lawn, you might have to make several extra passes to take care of any spots you might have missed.
On the contrary, a riding lawn mower or yard tractor helps you cut corners like a Formula-1 driver. These are great for large, relatively flat yards because they can cover much more ground than walk-behind models. Also, larger than average blade radii of 42 to 48 inches means that you cut more grass on each individual pass, drastically reducing how much time you need to spend on the job. This might seem small, but you’ll be cutting your grass regularly until you sell your home – every 5 or 10 minutes you save from every job could add up.
Riding lawn mowers are also the smart choice for homeowners who are more involved in the lawn care game. You can attach all manner of add-ons to riding mowers to create a whole yard maintenance system. For example, you could add a mulching bag onto the side of the unit to collect clippings that you could then use to fertilize newly planted gardens or shrubs.
Turn on a dime
In some cases, your lawn is neither small nor flat. It could be as big as a farm, or it might actually be one. For lawns that need a mower with equal parts cutting power, comfort and maneuverability, zero-turn-radius mowers are the perfect solution.
Most often used by professional landscapers, these mowers let you perform 180-degree turns so you can line up your lawn with more precision than ever before. The blade radius is comparable to high-end riding mowers, but the articulating front wheels are at their best in unusually shaped yards. Got an oblong water fountain right in the middle of your lawn? Zero-turn-radius mowers can cut an edge right along the bottom, saving you a trip back to the garage for the handheld trimmer.
There are enough lawn mower choices out there that you shouldn’t feel like you need to throw your money at the first one you see. Determine which model would best suit your yard’s particular quirks before pulling the trigger on the lawn mower that will make the job a breeze.