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on Monday, October 1, 2018
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Is Bagging or Mulching Right for You?
While the rest of the world is obsessing over pumpkin spice lattes, we’re obsessing over all of the beautiful fall colors we find in our backyards, along our highways, country roads and coastlines this time of year. But with so much beauty there also comes a lot of clean up – leaf clean up. Depending on the size of your property, this could take a while and who wants to spend their weekend knee-deep in piles of leaves? We talked to our experts about their favorite fall implements and attachments for homeowners with riding lawn mowers.
BAGGERS
Formally known as Material Collection Systems, baggers are almost mandatory for those homeowners surrounded by trees. Baggers come in handy year-round but they really make a difference in the fall for fast leaf clean up.
Additionally, if you’re in the middle of rehabbing your yard, you’ll want to make sure you do not disperse any weed seeds or dead grass clippings back into your lawn. Using a bagger is the easiest way to prevent this.
MULCH KITS
Mulching your leaves is another way of getting rid of leaves by grinding them up and leaving small bits to decay over winter. Mulching works best when there are fewer leaves, so you’ll want to do it more often than bagging. Depending on the type of leaves, you may need to run them over more than once and our experts say to make sure the leaves are dry first.
Mulching kits are available for most John Deere mowing decks. They will turn your mower deck into a leaf-eating machine.
LIGHT KITS
We love the summer days because it stays light out longer, but we can’t deny what happens in the fall. Losing daylight means losing time after work or on the weekends to get your yard chores done. Adding a light kit to your lawn mower is an easy solution to being able to keep working on your normal schedule.
BLOWERS & SHREDDER VACUUMS
As a supported brand of John Deere, STIHL offers a number of handheld products that can come in handy year-around, especially in the fall. Quickly blow all your leaves onto a tarp or into the woods with a handheld or backpack blower. You can also use a shredder vacuum to suck up the piles of leaves around your yard, cutting down on the time it can take to put the piles into lawn bags to be hauled off on garbage day.
We’ve named our favorite fall implements and attachments for riding lawn mowers. Now, it’s up to you to decide which method works best for you. Remember to think about how big your yard is, how many trees you have and the overall health of your lawn. If you’re trying to get rid of weed seeds, you may want to go with a bagger. If you don’t have too many leaves, a mulch kit might be best. You might also want to pick up a few rakes for the kids. Wink, wink.
For other tips and advice, feel free to call us or stop by any location near you in Michigan.