Which type of weed eater is right for your yard and garden

Which type of weed eater is right for your yard and garden

When you want a pretty, lush green yard, you almost always need to deal with various types of weeds. It’s almost unavoidable, because weed seed can be blown into your yard from miles away. Weeds can also be quite tough and resilient, and it can take many years to get them under control in a newly started yard. Now you can use chemicals and other harsh products to kill these weeds, but they’re dangerous to you, your family, your pets, and the environment too. So, many people elect to avoid those chemicals and deal with weeds the old fashioned way instead.

Even if you have very few weeds in your yard and garden though, a weed eater is a handy tool to have in your garden shed because it provides other functionality too. One of the best things you can use a weedeater for - besides cutting down weeds - is edging. Weed eaters are handy to trim the grass along the edge of your sidewalk, driveway, patio, and garden beds too. Weed eaters can clip grass that the lawnmower can’t reach too, such as that growing right against the house, or up close to your favorite apple tree.

There are a couple of different types of weed eaters you can buy, and there are also a wide variety of motor sizes and power settings too. These days weed eaters even come with different types of attachments and heads too, so you can select a weed eater that’s just right for your particular yard and garden needs.

Gas weed eaters are the most common type you’ll find, and these are usually considered more powerful as well. These weed eaters have a small engine on them which requires gasoline in order to operate. The extra power of these weed eaters is beneficial for some, particularly if you have a large number of tough weeds in your lawn or garden. Some people don’t like having to buy and store gasoline though, and with today’s gas prices being so high this may not be an ideal choice.

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Garden Tip...

There are two simple methods of treatment that Cactuses should receive, namely: First, keep the soil about them constantly dry, and keep them in a warm place. Secondly, the soil should be of a poor quality, mixed with a little brick dust, and they should never be allowed too much pot room. If either of these two points are observed in the treatment of Cactuses, there will be no difficulty in keeping them in a flourishing condition all the time.
~ James Sheehan
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Electric weed eaters use the electricity from your home to run. Generally you need a long heavy duty extension cord so that you’re able to reach all areas of your yard and garden with this type of weed eater, and that can be a big drawback for someone with a very large lawn area to maintain. Electric weed eaters often tend to be less powerful than gas versions too, and this can be frustrating when you have very tough weeds to keep under control.

String heads are the most commonly seen type of head on a weed eater. These use thick plastic cord to actually cut the weeds. The cord is usually arranged in a coiled format inside the head, and the cord is extended out gradually as needed.

When you’re using a weed eater which has a cord or string style head, there is usually a button on the bottom which acts as a feed. When the cord breaks and becomes too short to cut the weeds, you simply tap the weed eater against the ground and more cord is extended. Depending on the type of weed eater you have though, this does not always work as well as it should. And a problem commonly seen with this type of weed eater head is that the cord becomes tangled or stuck inside, so the head must be removed and the problem fixed before you can continue with your trimming.

Another type of weed eater head which is starting to become more popular uses plastic blades. These are like small serrated knife blades made of thick, durable plastic. These blades often last much longer than the plastic cord does, because they don’t break nearly as easily. Often the blades have a shorter cutting perimeter than the plastic does though, and this can take some getting used to if you’ve always used cord style cutting heads instead. Some people don’t like the blades because of their shortness, and in some weed eater models the blades can pop off during operation, which means you must stop what you’re doing and reattach them.

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Garden Tip...

If a new lawn of any extent is to be made, it should first be plowed deep, and if uneven and hilly, grade it to a level surface. The surface should have a heavy dressing of manure, which should be lightly plowed under, and then the surface should be dragged several times until fine, and then rolled with a heavy roller. The seed may now be sown, after which it should be rolled again. The spring is the best time to do this work, although if the fall be dry, it will answer nearly as well to do it at that time. The dryer the ground in preparing it for the seed, and for the sowing of the same, the better.
~ James Sheehan
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If you’ve never used a weed eater before, your best course of action is to try one or more before actually choosing the type you’ll buy. Consider borrowing one from a friend or family member, or simply rent one from a small equipment rental facility. Then do a bit of research online into the different types of machines and their head attachments, see with other users have to say about each, and make your decision from there.