Walk-behind weed eater
I debated for a long time over buying a walk-behind weed eater. I wondered if spending the money was worth it. Would even work the way I needed it to? My yard got so overgrown that my options boiled down to three things:
- Spend way too much money on a riding lawn mower that would only be useful for certain parts of the yard
- Hiring a lawn service to come and attempt to fix things for me
- Buying this walk-behind weed eater and putting in the work myself.
I chose option #3 and it was definitely the right one.
Table of contents
5 reasons every homestead needs a walk-behind weed eater.
Update: It’s been 9 months and I am still absolutely in love with this weed eater (a.k.a trimmer mower). I’ve even convinced a few friends to get one and they’re equally obsessed! You know the folks that love old cars and are always out shining the hood, wiping the tires, etc.? That’s me with my walk behind string trimmer.
You’ll work smarter, not harder, with a walk-behind weed eater
This walk-behind weed eater works until it can’t anymore, and it takes everything down with it in the process. I read reviews that mentioned being careful when getting too close to fruit trees. They said the weed-eater will pull the whole tree down with it and they weren’t lying!
Thankfully, that hasn’t happened, but I have pulled down some serious sized pokeweed. I was taken aback at how easily it tore the large stalks to shreds.
Amazing carbon material for compost
Another huge perk of having a walk-behind weed eater in my case was producing carbon material for my compost bin. We often have an abundance of nitrogen-rich material, but not enough carbon.
The weed-eater lays all the tall grass/weeds down on the ground without chopping it all up into little pieces. I weed-eat a large area, rake up multiple piles of the greenery, and let the piles sit for a day or two.
Once it all has turned to brown and died, I add them to my compost pile.
Free bedding/food
I’l. also rake up the newly slashed grass and weeds and throw them in the chicken lot! Alternatively, you can put the dried grass/weeds in the hen house to get mixed in with all that nitrogen-rich chicken poop. The result will be a great compost mixture! The chickens also loved the easy pickin’.
Easy to maneuver, a great size
The walk-behind weed-eater super easier to maneuver and small enough to get between fences and fruit trees, something I couldn’t do with a riding mower. The walk-behind weed eater is far cheaper than a riding lawnmower and I even bought it off of Amazon and had it shipped to my house. Win-win.
Gas, setup and maintenance
- The gas has lasted a long time. With a lawnmower, I always refill the tank at least twice when mowing our whole lawn.
- Setup was super easy. After taking the weed-eater out of the bag, I attached the handle and filled up the oil tank with the oil they provided. The instruction booklet was extremely detailed and put everything into lamens terms.
- I feel confident I’ll be able to perform any future maintenance thanks to the user’s manual/instruction booklet. It’s also very easy to change the heavy-duty trimmer line.
Let’s summarize my love of a walk-behind weed eater!
After the headache of trying to find the right push mower, I’ve never been happier about spending the amount of money I did on a walk-behind weed trimmer. I’m also learning that they’re more common than I thought they were.
If your yard is completely out of control and you don’t want to pay a lawn service company to come help, take the leap and invest in a walk-behind-weed eater.
