Landscape evaluation observations were taken on new plants from Ball FloraPlant in 2009. Here is the completed report from LSU AgCenter work at the Hammond Research Station.

Oil is the lifeblood of any engine. Neglecting your oil can be a costly mistake.

Some companies now offer landscape bedshapers designed specifically to lay out and maintain landscape beds. These machines are generally heavier, more powerful and more versatile than turf edgers.

Species and variety recommendation for field grown specialty cut flowers in the South.

Most small, hand-carried lawn and garden tools use 2-stroke engines and most larger machines such as lawn and garden tractors use 4-stroke engines. The reason for this has to do with the weight ratio of the engines.

You may be able to improve the performance of your compact utility tractor by ballasting the tractor properly.

When you buy a bag of fertilizer or granular pesticide to spread on your lawn, it will usually have a label on the back of the bag with settings for several common fertilizer spreaders. Do you know where those settings come from, how they were developed or how reliable they are?

Rotary spreaders offer the advantages of wide, fast coverage and forgiving patterns, but they are not well suited to working along turf edges. Some spreaders offer a pattern cut-off mechanism to address this problem.

Some rotary spreaders can deliver a reasonably uniform distribution pattern with some products, but not with others, and some homeowner rotary spreaders don’t deliver a good pattern with any product.

One of the most important things you can do to maintain your small engines and tractors is to service the oil and fuel filters as needed.