Now that most of your landscape chores are finished for the year, it is time to winterize lawn equipment that you have before putting it away until your garden bounces back to life in spring. This will help them last for many years and be more efficient.
Clean and Maintain Your Lawn Mower and Other Power Equipment
Gasoline will start to go bad if it is not used within a few weeks, so you want to make sure that you either remove all of the gasoline from your power equipment or add a fuel stabilizer. Remove and replace the spark plug and oil. Check the filters to see if they need to be changed at this time. If you are not sure whether it is time, you can usually find the manual online if you do not have it handy.
Carefully take the blades off your mower and edger and sharpen them. Replace the string on your weed eater. Take a moment and thoroughly clean off all grass clippings and other debris to help ward off rust.
Clean and Sharpen All Tools
Your hand pruners and other garden tools can also use some care as you put them to rest for the year. Clean off any substances on the blades like plant clippings or sap. Look over all surfaces and make sure there are no broken parts in need of repair. Use a sharpening stone to hone the edges. Oil the metal parts to ward off rust.
Do you do any additional steps when you winterize lawn equipment at the end of the year?
Image by pegwinn under a Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License
