It is not necessary to buy all the equipment you need for your lawn and garden. In many cases, renting can be a practical option.

Many homeowners have several small engines in the garage or tool shed on equipment like a lawnmower or string trimmer. Some may also have a garden tiller, a hedge trimmer, a lawn edger or a chainsaw. Most of these small engines have an air filter.

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.

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.

Pruning shears are an important tool for most homeowners and grounds maintenance professionals. They are useful for trimming trees and shrubs and for harvesting fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Although manufacturers are doing their part to reduce corrosion of lawn and garden equipment, how well you maintain your tools will determine their useful life.

Using a simple, inexpensive vacuum breaker on your hose bibbs can help prevent contaminating your water supply.