2025 Lawn Care

[CloverKnollFarms]

Well I finally got my first mow in. 3 acres to start... Have another 2 to go with the trail mower.

Applied Barricade back in March, as well as a general purpose fertilizer. In the next couple weeks I'll get the Trimec 992 down.

Fuel prices are down, so it only cost $30 to fill the mower

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Sprayed the pear trees today for fire blight with Ferti-lome... my FlowZone Typhoon 3.0 backpack sprayer is one of the best purchases I've ever made. Uses every drop of mix and has a very powerful pump to reach the top of the trees. Now to clean some siding with it.

 

[wolc123]

My dad, who turned 86 this year, was having a tough time getting on and off of his zero turn mower. He had a Husqvarna MZ-454, that was about 5 years old. It’s started giving him some mechanical trouble this year, and the mower wouldn’t engage.

The dealer is right across the road, and said it would likely need a new clutch ($500). Naturally, this happened right when their lawn needed cutting twice a week.

I was reluctant to get another Husqvarna, online reviews are not so hot. The dealer also carries Gravely. I looked at those, but he gave us a deal on a “commercial duty” Husqvarna Z-454, that was tough to refuse.

No complaints from me, after (3) cuttings of their 4 acre lawn. The first one (playing catchup after not mowing for 10 days prior) was a little rough and used lots of gas. It’s been way better since then, now that I’ve got it back under control.

Fuel usage on this one, with a Kawasaki engine, is the same or better that his prior one with a Kohler engine and it is considerably smoother operating. The only thing I don’t like about it is the rollbar.

Ive got that folded down, but it hooked onto a branch and pulled it down against my ear, on my last cut. That hurt for a while but no blood. Their lawn is flat as a pancake, so no need for a rollbar. I think I’ll take the damn thing off and maybe see if I can mount it onto my Farmall Cub tractor. I’d don’t need a rollbar on that either, but would sort of like to have a sun/rain canopy on it and a rollbar works good for mounting one of those on.

 

[Gem99ultra]

I once had 'Husqvarna' running through my veins. After their announcemt last year about stopping the production of small engine equipment, I'm pretty much moving away from them. On the upside, I have not heard nor read a single comment since about their production change.

As an aside, I thought about going with Stihl, then bought a little prunning saw, thier MT194 10" saw, $400. It's so hard to crank it, almost ripped my arm off from pulling so hard, the second session with it for 20 minutes the first time, I gave it away. I figure a disjointed shoulder would cost more than $400. Besides, with the gift to a gorilla-built young man, I made a friend forever. One can't have too many friends...

Not to distract from your roll bar delima, I think you'll find the same inconvenience on every brand. I know I also have the same aggrevation with my Kubota ZTR. BUT - they're there for a real good reason. I fully understand why every time I mow the steep banks around my ponds. Roll bar up and seat belt on. One front wheel in the air is normal, but that is a warning that flip-over is possible. My fix, after getting my first lesson, is to raise the bar when mowing steep banks, and drop it when mowing under low hanging tree limbs. I hope you do find a better solution; I'll be watching for it.