The spring mower service: an hour that decides the whole lawn season

The first mow of the year tells you everything about how the mower was stored. The machine that sat over winter with stale fuel and a dull blade bogs down, tears the grass and spends May in a repair shop - while an hour of spring service makes the same machine boring and reliable for a whole season.

The tune-up, in order

Fuel first. Old petrol is the number one spring failure: fuel left in the tank over winter gums the carburettor. Drain or run out last season's fuel (petrol storage has real rules - never indoors, and only in approved cans), fill fresh, and use fuel stabiliser if the machine will sit again. Oil: four-stroke engines get an oil change per season or per the manual's hours; check the level on the dipstick every few fills. Air filter: foam or paper, dusty after a season - wash foam, replace paper; it costs little and a choked filter mimics every other engine problem. Spark plug: a new one each spring is cheap insurance on a petrol mower. Blade: the piece that actually decides your lawn's looks - a dull blade tears rather than cuts, leaving ragged silver-tipped grass that dries out and invites disease. Remove, sharpen, and balance the blade (or swap to the spare while one is sharpened); disconnect the spark plug lead first so the engine cannot turn over while hands are near the blade.

The cutting rule that matters more than the machine

Turf guidance across every gardening authority converges on one rule: never remove more than about a third of the grass height in one cut. Scalping the lawn weakens the roots, invites moss and weeds, and browns the yard exactly when you want it green - and the higher summer cut shades the soil, which slows the evaporation that thins a lawn in hot weeks. Mow dry grass where possible - wet cuts tear and clump - and sweep the lawn of stones and sticks first, for the lawn's sake and the blade's.

Battery and corded mowers

The same spring hour applies minus the fuel: charge and inspect the battery (store batteries cool and partly charged over winter, per the manual), check the cable and plug on corded machines, and sharpen the blade - electric mowers cut cleanly when sharp and tear exactly like petrol ones when not. Corded machines get an RCD/residual-current plug in damp gardens as a matter of course. And whatever the power source, the routine still earns its slot in the spring home reset, alongside the year's first gutter check.

Close the season the same way: run the fuel out or add stabiliser before the machine goes to the shed, wipe the deck clean of clippings, and the spring hour gets shorter every year. The mower and the barbecue then wake up together each summer - both inspected, both boring - and the yard looks after itself, all the way into the autumn wind-down.