Whether you’ve got a large property you own as personal land, or you’re in charge of a commercial plot, knowing the right lawn mower to use can save you a lot of time and money.
Up to a certain size, a push mower may be best because they are easy to handle. But once the lawn you’re in charge of gets to a certain size, you need a bigger machine just to maximize your time and effort.
There are a lot of options out there on the market. So how do you decide what you choose?
Any experienced lawn care professional knows that there are 3 machines to choose from. These are as follows:
- Riding Mower
- Lawn Tractor
- Garden Tractor
Let’s take a look at which option is best for which circumstance:
Riding Mowers
These are the most compact of the three options we are discussing in this article. Most of us are familiar with riding mowers even if we’ve never owned or used one.
Riding mowers are ideal for medium and large residential lawns. Here are there most popular features:
- They cover more ground than push mowers.
- They have a tight turning radius that’s handy for mowing around trees, shrubbery, and other lawn features.
- They only require a moderate amount of storage space.
The power, agility, and compact design of a riding lawn mower also lends itself to the maintenance tasks of more ornate landscapes. Hills are easier to climb on these vehicles than pushing a traditional mower against gravity. Curved landscaping features, like a circular fountain or a meandering walkway, can be easily manicured with most riding mowers.
Because these machines are designed to have a small turning radius, their blades are at the center of the underside of the vehicle. This arrangement is called a mid-mounted cutting deck.
Lawn Tractors
These machines are about the same size as a riding mower, but a bit less agile. They offer the same ease in covering a lot of ground with a powerful motor, but don’t do as well in smaller turfs with multiple obstacles.
Lawn tractors are often used on golf courses and commercial lots that don’t have a lot of trees or complicated perimeters. They use a front-mounted cutting deck, meaning the machine’s blades are positioned at the front end of the underside of the vehicle.
Both lawn tractors and riding mowers can be found with additional accessories to assist with broad tasks like seasonal cleaning.
Garden Tractors
As the name indicates, garden tractors are designed to tackle more than just turf grass. As the most powerful of these 3 options, garden tractors are best suited for more heavy-duty projects rather than the detailed landscaping you can accomplish with a riding mower. The engine itself has a higher horsepower, making it a good choice for big jobs.
Garden tractors can be used for hauling, tilling, seeding, seasonal cleaning, and other tasks, depending on the style and accessories you choose. These guys are built the same way lawn tractors are, but they’re designed for more heavy-duty landscaping.
These machines will require more fuel and more storage space than the other two, but they’re the ideal workhorse for bulkier tasks that are not as detail-oriented as ornamental landscaping.
Even if you just have a large tract of lawn to mow, garden tractors are your friend. They typically have a larger mowing deck, meaning that they cut a wider stretch of grass.
Final Thoughts
All 3 vehicles work well for basic lawn care maintenance, but there is a significant difference in the power of the machine, the accessories, and the pricing. If you’d rather leave all the work to the professionals, visit our Landscaping service page to find out how our lawn care experts can keep your yard beautiful.
