For lawns too big for the Yard Butler that still need plug-style aeration, this Craftsman Lawn Aerator will do the trick.  Several readers commented that lawn moisture conditions had to be just right for their other aerators to work — the pics on Sears.com show a more open design of the coring points on this aerator, which should allow the plugs to fall out more easily, wet or dry.

The tool has garnered all positive reviews on Sears.com — it retails for $180.

Lawn Aerator [Craftsman]
Lawn Aerator [Sears]

If you’ve got a yard with lots of “trash” trees or big old trees that drop lots of branches, you may not need an ark-sized chipper that costs a bundle.  For as little as $175 you can get one of these garden-gnome-sized McCulloch electric shredders. It’ll handle the stuff not worth cutting up, and the rest goes on the woodpile for the winter. It’s not a beast, but it might be the right tool for the job — and maybe it won’t bring back unpleasant memories of that scene from Fargo.

Electric Shredders [McCulloch]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

If a full drum aerator is overkill for your yard, or if you have lots of time on your hands, consider aerating your yard by hand foot with the Yard Butler Core Aerator.  You might be asking, “If I’m going to go the cheap route, why not just use a pitchfork?”  Well, many people claim that core, or plug, turf aeration is superior to spike (read: pitchfork) aeration because more air can get to the roots — which is, after all, the point of aeration.

Core aeration of an entire yard with this tool might be so slow as to be useless, but you could aerate the trouble spots with it, and that might be all you need.  If you have standing water in certain areas or packed high-traffic areas, core aeration should help — and with street pricing at $22, this tool might be the least expensive way to do that.

Yard Butler Core Aerator [Lewis Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

I traded in my gas-powered leaf muncher for this Toro garden vacuum last year, and I couldn’t be happier with its performance — what I’m not happy about is that I didn’t get it for $50 at Home Depot. The Toro Rake and Vacuum, a 3-in-1 blower, vacuum, and leaf mulcher, easily moves debris and wet leaves, with two speed settings and a top air speed of 210 MPH. You can attach the vacuum, blower, and leaf-bag attachments without any tools, and it comes with a two-year warranty.

Rake and Vac [Toro]
Rake and Vac [Home Depot]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Some people will tell you that real DIY maintenance of a gravel drive is impossible, even with a lawn tractor or ATV and a grader attachment — they’ll tell you the only real solution is a full-size tractor or grader. However, lots of Toolmongers will tell you differently. I’ve heard about or seen rigs made of I-beams, box springs, and welded monstrosities, pulled behind every kind of contraption commonly seen in a yard, field, or worksite. This patented Driveway Groomer, designed to be pulled by a truck with a trailer hitch, seems as good as any.

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No, you’re not lost on an arts and crafts blog. These polyacrylamide polymer crystals can absorb 400 times their weight in water, swelling up to a jelly-like consistency and looking like watery ice, and photo pool member Poekie knows how to capture the beauty of that process. But these crystals can also save your lawn and your pocketbook.

Those of you with lawns, especially if you’re in the southwest, are probably dreading the summer water bills — or you’ve abandoned your yard to the summer scorch and the fire ants. These polymer crystals’ll catch and hold the water that hits your yard, slowly releasing the water as everything dries out.

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This bad-ass combination rake/hoe, commonly called a McLeod tool, is designed to fight wildfires, but you can also garden with it.  The tines are made for raking fire lines, the sharp hoe edge cuts sod or branches, and the head can also be used to tamp and compact. Whether you’re a firefighter or a weekend gardener, you can appreciate the tool’s versatility.

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If you’ve got a lush green lawn, you most likely want to keep it that way — which means no parking on the lawn or driving across it.  Now Soil Retention Systems makes Drivable Grass, a flexible concrete pad that’s used in place of concrete or asphalt driving surfaces. Raised concrete tiles provide a solid surface for driving and parking, and grass grows between the tiles, with the roots protected.

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With spring at hand and summer just around the corner, soon you’ll be hauling the hose all all over the yard. In my experience, the worst part of dealing with a garden hose is reeling it back in, so this No-Crank hose reel definitely appeals to me. After you’re done with the hose, just pull the lever on the No-Crank — and a motor powered by house water pressure reels it back in.

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Pitchforks work great for moving hay or threatening monsters, but they have limited use in turning up and aerating soil — the design just doesn’t give you a lot of leverage. If your soil’s too packed, plants have a harder time growing, and if you rely on a tiller, it can mix your built-up compost and topsoil with the lower soil too much. If you want a low-tech solution, look into a broadfork or U-bar.

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DR’s new Versa Pro Z-Mower covers a lot of ground, literally. You can mow at a top speed of 13 MPH and take hills with a twenty degree incline. I wish I had this when I was growing up; the General Lee would’ve had nothing on my hill-jumping prowess. Then again, DR didn’t design it for kids under the age of sixteen who’re pining for their first car — else they would’ve included an air horn on this fast and maneuverable mower.

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Spring has sprung, for better or for worse, and with spring comes tedious weeding. Gardeners go into battle armed with herbicides and pronged implements, or they engage in hand-to-weed combat. But why should you literally stoop so low as to pull them up, when you can burn them out of existence? With the Weed Dragon you can implement a scorched earth policy against unwanted plants.

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Besides its relatively recent recall, Black & Decker’s old CMM1000 lawn mower was a pretty good buy, and a pretty durable piece of gear. What you see above is its successor, the CMM1200. A quick glance shows a few updates, including a simpler height adjustment system. And it continues to offer some of the older mower’s benefits, like a folding push arm — it’ll fit in most car trunks when folded — and a comfy and handy start lever.

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This weekend I watched part of DIY’s Project Treehouse, which covered the construction of a treehouse from start to finish. During the show, they used a piece of hardware that caught my interest: the Garnier Limb (GL). Michael Garnier operates a treehouse bed and breakfast in Oregon, and he designed the Garnier Limb — a piece of hardware that can be threaded into a tree — to be a mounting point in the construction of tree structures.

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Black & Decker issued a recall on its CMM1000 24V cordless electric lawn mower about two years ago — not a recent recall, but it’s still in effect. Last summer, I found one of these mowers on the side of the road with a sign on it that said ‘Free’. After taking it home, I couldn’t get it to work and figured that’s why it was on the side of the road. While searching for a user’s manual on B&D’s website, I came across this recall. I called up Black & Decker, and sure enough, my model was covered.

The recall involves mowers labeled TYPE 1 through TYPE 4. If you have a TYPE 5 mower you’re already in the clear. According to Black & Decker, “an electrical component can overheat, damaging the lawnmower, and it poses a possibility of a fire hazard. If your mower is included, STOP USING IT IMMEDIATELY and call 1-866-229-5570.” You can call them anytime between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, to arrange for a free repair.

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I’ve always liked the easy lines of the Burgon and Ball tools, especially of knives like their classic pruning knife. Though my attempts at gardening usually begin and end with kicking the occasional dandy-lion over, I still like the blades.

Burgon and Ball have been making hand tools in Sheffield, England for longer than the US has been a country — with that kind of time to work at it, we aren’t surprised they have a good looking product. These folding pruning knives feature blades that are about 3-1/2″ long and a thick, heavy handle for large, gloved hands to work with.

They aren’t the newest thing on the block, but that’s not really the point. Solid craftsmanship and old-school lines are the name of the game, and they’ve got that down.

Street pricing starts at around $55.

Classic Pruning Knife [Burgon and Ball]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

We have no wish to harm our friends of the feather, and neither do the business owners who deploy these spike strips to deter birds from roosting in signs and overhangs. They’re just trying to keep their business from turning into Fort Pigeon, where random organic ordinance often comes into play. But the problem is this: in some cases, the birds aren’t put off at all.

We’ve seen all kinds of methods for scaring off birds, from these spike strips to sirens blaring scary bird sounds. Is this actually a good way to go about de-birding your entry ways, or are “Bird Bombings” just going to happen at storefronts no matter what anyone does? Let us know what you think in comments.

Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]