When we bought our first house, I was amazed at how much lawn equipment we were going to need. There are so many things you take for granted, but realize you'll need. For example, we didn't even have a water hose when we first purchased. So, slowly, through the seasons we started to stock up on the lawn equipment that turned out to be a necessity, more so than filling up the 2nd living room with furniture.
As I mentioned before, our first purchase was a hose and one of those hose reels to eliminate the tangled mess that can easily occur. Since it was late fall when we first moved in, we had tons of leaves all over our lawn and sidewalks. So, the next thing we looked into was a gas leaf blower. We had some friends that have a gas powered one and we really liked theirs. We didn't want to deal with the mess of cords, so we looked at the gas hand held and backpack leaf blowers. The backpack ones were obviously more than we needed, so we went with a hand held version. We did consider a weed eater that converts into a leaf blower, to get more bang for our buck, but since the store was out of them and we needed one right away, our decision was made for us.
Don't make the same mistake we did as winter approached. We knew we would need a solution for snow removal and were deciding between a gas and electric snow blower in about November. Unfortunately, winter hit really early that year and we got tons of snow in late November and early December. By the time we were ready to purchase a snow thrower, so was everyone else and the stores were sold out. So, we ended up shoveling and borrowing the neighbors until they came back in stock. Learn from our mistake and buy your lawn equipment before you need it!
After winter ended, we knew grass cutting season would be here all too soon. Not wanting to make the same mistake as we had in winter, we got a jump start on our research. For us, a push lawn mower was all we needed, but we still had fun looking at the zero turn and commercial riding lawn mowers. We chose a good brand with solid reviews, so we are confident in the quality of the lawn mower engine. Like anything else, just be sure to do lots of research before you buy.
It was also time to start buying things like weed eaters, edgers, and a hedge trimmer. The weed eater was easy for us and it eliminated the need for an edger, at least at first. We were able to borrow clippers from neighbors and family until we saved up enough and made our decision on either a gas, electric, or cordless hedge trimmer.
We still need to make many more purchases, but this was about all we could do in our first year of home ownership. It's just amazing how much you take for granted and don't realize you need as a new homeowner.
