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Taking care of your yard and garden is nothing but a pleasure. Let’s be fair, though. Who wants to splurge on all those great but oh-so-costly large gardening tools? In this guide, you’ll learn how to get the most out of basic and affordable small gardening tools.
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Hire Professionals With Tools
If you feel that you need the power of large gardening tools but don’t want to spend $2,000 or more for a full set, you can simply hire a lawn and garden care professional for a national average of $129 ($48-$211) per hour. Hiring a pro will set you free from all the fuss with tool maintenance, storage, and, moreover, the work itself! For example, you can hire a backpack leaf blower operator only a few times in the fall and cut the maintenance and fuel costs. The same goes for heavy lawnmowers for large yards, hedge trimmers, and chainsaws for tree pruning. It’s always cheaper to hire someone if you don’t need to use a tool more often than average yard chores require.
Make the Most Out of Your Lawnmower
Every US household has at least one lawnmower. The fact is that almost any model can not only trim down the grass quickly but also mulch the fallen leaves every fall! This lets you save up and avoid getting an extra tool for mulching. If your lawnmower has a clipping collector, you can also use it to gather the fallen leaves, which sets you free from buying a leaf blower or vacuum.
Go Manual and DIY
If you have a relatively small average yard, you can accomplish a variety of projects using only the conventional manual tools and, of course, your hands! In fact, anything but lawn mowing can be done with these tools! Here are a few examples:
- Hedge trimmers = manual secateurs;
- Chainsaw = manual saw;
- Leaf blower = rakes;
- Mulcher = compost pile (very slow, but also effective);
- Weedeater = manual weeder.
Why Not Rake?
Manual raking hasn’t become outdated yet! With all those ergonomic rakes and proper techniques, you can quickly gather all the fallen leaves or prepare the soil for planting. Don’t underestimate this tool!
Craft a Grass Seeder
If you have a small or medium yard, you can get by without a grass seed! What you need is any plastic food container and a hot knife to make small holes in the bottom for the seeds to get through. Voilà! You have a perfect manual grass seeder that takes as much space as a plastic berry container can take.
Have a Gardening Day Party
Asking your kids, friends, and relatives to help you in the yard can be quite burdensome for everyone. Fortunately, there’s a way to make the process fun! Turn it into a gardening day party with music, beverages, competitions, and quizzes. It will not only make you all closer but also help you do all the important stuff around the yard faster and with fewer large tools involved.
Let It Go Wild
One of the biggest landscaping trends of the last few years is minimal trimming! The style allows you to let the trees, shrubs, and ornamentals grow without too much shaping. Just do the necessary trimming and let nature do the rest! Less trimming means that you can get by with the most affordable small tools, such as:
- Pruning shears;
- Trimming scissors;
- Secateurs with elongated handles.
Think Well
Your brain is the greatest and largest tool of all time! Look around and seek opportunities to get by without the help of costly tools, and you will be surprised by the number of effective options. You have the Internet, so always compare the pricing for tools and consider your needs realistically to avoid overpaying for stuff you don’t actually need.
