Equipment

The industrial revolution has come to horticulture: The people who brought you agribusiness have mechanized lawn and garden care. Here’s a selection of equipment to help weekend gardeners get out of the yard and onto the golf course more quickly.

Blowers. Heir apparent to the push broom is the backpack blower. This device consists of a small gasoline engine spinning a fan which blasts a 225-mph wind through a hand-held nozzle. It was pressed into service for street-cleaning chores during last year’s drought on the West Coast, where residents observed that it was a bit quieter than a 747 takeoff. The blower can be used to clean flower beds, sweep walks, rake leaves, and clean out gutters. Of course, it doesn’t pick up trash, it just chases it around. To really clean up, you must gather and bag the debris (manually or with a vacuum mower – more on this later) or blow it across the property line. Echo’s PB-202 sells for just under $200.

Trimmers and testers. Since their introduction a few years ago, string trimmers have bid fair to replace shears and edgers. The cutting work is done by one or two short nylon cords whirling at the end of a long handle. You can use a trimmer for edging and touch-up mowing around trees and flower beds where a mower won’t reach. Steel blades (be careful) replace the string for heavier work like weed cutting. Most of the trimmers on the market are electrically powered, with prices as low as $40, plus $20 or so for extension cords. Gasoline-powered models, offering greater portability and longer motor life, start at around $150.

A trimmer is of no use if you can’t get plants to grow in the first place. If your thumb refuses to green, if you instinctively over-water the succulents and un-der-mulch the rosebushes, if you think your dirt is too alkaline but would rather not taste it to check, then try farming scientifically with electronic instruments. Gadgets that measure light levels, moisture, and pH cost under $20 at most garden-supply stores. To give your ornamentals and vegetables exactly enough water, use a drip irrigation system. The idea, developed at Texas A&M, is to water the plants constantly but slowly. Run-off is nearly eliminated, making this the method of choice when water is scarce.

Mowers. When it comes to cutting grass, mowers are pretty much all alike. Three manufacturers – Briggs & Strat-ton, Kohler, and Tecumseh – supply the engines on almost all brands of mower, and a blade is basically a blade. Since mowers can’t be marketed on the basis of superior engine reliability or neatness of swath, manufacturers have set their engineers to simplifying operation and broadening the range of tasks the mowers perform. As a result, the consumer is offered mowers that propel themselves, carry him, bag, vacuum, and mulch.

This year’s buzz word is mulch, and it has created something of a controversy in the usually placid lawn equipment industry. A mulching mower looks like a regular rotary mower without the discharge chute. The blade and underside of the machine are aerodynamically designed so that clippings move from the periphery of the cutting circle inward, being recut many times before reaching the center, where they are blown back into the soil. There they decompose, fertilizing the lawn and saving the operator the trouble of dealing with clippings.

Apologists claim that it’s good to mulch the lawn at every mowing, so a mulcher is the only mower you need. Not so, say many lawn equipment dealers. In a survey conducted by the trade magazine Home and Garden Supply Merchandiser, they argue that too much mulching chokes the lawn by causing a buildup of thatch, or undecomposed plant material. Dense thatch keeps the grass roots from breathing, and is a good place for fungus to grow, which leads to sick grass. Furthermore, tall or wet grass will gum up a mulcher. Mulcher manufacturers reply that thatch comes from grass stem and root material, not blades, and besides, 86.1 percent of the consumers surveyed would rather not rake or bag clippings. (One wonders about the remaining 13.9 percent.) If you want to hedge your bet on mulching, you can get a bagging mower that converts to mulching operation.

When shopping for a bagging mower, consider high-vacuum models like Snapper or Toro. They have cutting chambers designed to suck up every loose object they pass over, so they can be used for cleaning up leaves and small twigs. Snapper offers an attachment which grinds leaves in the cutting chamber, so they can be packed more densely, letting you stop less often to empty the bag. For those who hate to stop at all, Snapper and International Harvester make riding mowers with four-bushel grass catchers. If you’re looking for a walk-behind mower, consider one that carries the bag under the handle instead of on the side; it’s more maneuverable and easier to control when full.

Tractors. For the gentleperson farmer, a small tractor is the only way to go. International Harvester’s Cub Lo-boy carries a rotary mower and can pull a wagon, lawn roller, aerator, sweeper, rake, vacuum bagger, plow, cultivator, seeder or landscaping blade. It will plow snow, split firewood, and pick up golf balls.

A tractor and a dozen attachments may be more rolling stock than you care to own; in that case, a power tiller will cultivate enough yard to take your family through the farmers’ strike free from pellagra. Gasoline-powered models start at around $250, electrics $ 140. But keep the old hand implements sharp – you’ll need ’em come the next Arab oil embargo.