Troy-Bilt Triple Blade Lawn Edger TB554 Review

Have you ever wondered how to keep your grass from spreading in to your planting beds?  It takes a bit of diligence along with the proper tool. I'm kind of a stickler for keeping a clear delineation between the grass edge and whatever plants frame my beds. Just like mowing the lawn regularly is required for healthy grass, edging the grass is a repetitive gardening task required for clean edges. Edge every time you mow and you will keep the grass out of your planting beds.

Routine gardening maintenance, like mowing and edging, is repeated often during the growing season and can become mundane. For these tasks, reliable tools save time and get the job with better efficiency. I'd rather spend my time planting and creating than mowing and edging the lawn.

I discovered a long time ago that a walk-behind edger provides the cleanest edge. I've owned several of them over the years, each made by various manufacturers.


As a member of the Troy-Bilt Saturday6 Team, they provide me with Troy-Bilt equipment of my choice each year. I get to keep it. I also test and review it. Sweet! One of the products I chose this year is the Troy-Bilt Triple Blade Lawn Edger TB554.

I wanted this edger because it had all the features I look for in a walk-behind edger:
•Self-sharpening, heavy duty 9" triple-edge blade
•6-position edging depth up to 2 1/4"
•3-position adjustable bevel for easy edging along walks and flower beds
•Curb wheel included
•Premium 7" front and 8" rear steel ball-bearing wheels
•158cc/5.0 ft-lbs* gross torque Briggs & Stratton 500 Series engine
•*ft-lbs gross torque per SAE J1940 as rated by engine manufacturer @ 3060 rpm
•2-year limited warranty

Additional features I especially appreciate about this edger:
•Easy start: the pull start is easy enough for me to pull and it cranks the motor with the first or second pull.
•Manageability: It is lightweight and easily maneuvers through the grass.
•No tilt: It has excellent balance when going around curving borders.
•Reliability: this edger contributes to efficiency in the garden and saves me time.

It is also particularly useful for shaping the circular ground cover of Asiatic jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum) in the back garden.

I love the triple-edge blade! It is sharp, powerful and precise.

I don't need the feature for changing the angle of the blade for my sandy soil and St. Augustine grass, but it could be beneficial for clay soils.

In the front garden, the edger shears off the Asiatic jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum) ground cover and keeps it from growing over the drive way.

I highly recommend this edger**. It has been a great complement to my Troy-Bilt lawn mower for keeping what's left of the lawn in the back garden tidy.

What tool do you use to keep your lawn from spreading in to the planting beds?


**Reviews, recommendations or opinions expressed by me regarding Troy-Bilt® products are my own. I am being compensated for my partnership with Troy-Bilt® as one of the Saturday6 team members. This post is in conjunction with that partnership. The Troy-Bilt® product I've reviewed has been provided to me free of charge.

TB350 XP Lawn Mower Review and Giveaway

Trying to dodge a looming rainstorm the Saturday6 team hurriedly chugged up the steep hill to The Lodge. We had spent most of the afternoon inside the MTD headquarter's building learning from the gracious employee team and engineers about their products and their standard of business practices.

What stood out to me the most that May day in Cleveland, Ohio was hearing the history of MTD products and its owners. MTD is a worldwide leader of outdoor power equipment that has built the family-owned business on values like stewardship, integrity, and hard work. I like that.

The covered pavilion adjacent to The Lodge was set up with various home lawn equipment that we were all invited to play with, errr ... I mean test-out to our hearts' content. My thought was to try what I knew I would use back at home. A hand held weed trimmer was on my mind to help me keep all the asiatic jasmine in check. That was fun. Have I ever mentioned how much I like power tools?

Then I saw this beauty. Oh, it rained on me while I mowed the green, green grass of that Ohio hill. But somehow I managed not to melt away.

And that's the story of how I came to be the owner of my very own powerful and efficient TB350 XP Troy-Bilt mower. It arrived to Hoe and Shovel in a box.

Keep reading and you'll find out how you can enter to win one for yourself. Now that's exciting!

Mr. Meems assembled it with just a few handy tools and ... look at that... he's reading the instructions. Honestly, I don't know what he used because I was busy unloading bales of pine straw out of my truck and keeping up with a 5yo. But I know it didn't take him long.

And then he was on his way getting the job done. He's so cute when he mows! He likes 'my' mower.

As much lawn as I've removed over the years a nice patch of it remains in the back yard for the family to play. And, oh my, does that St. Augustine grass grow like a weed in the summertime!

It makes me think of a carpet of green on mowing day. (I took these photos in August). A nice spread of lawn is soothing to the eyes don't you think!

And just for you... a personal demonstration of the good work this machine can do.

Or for a direct link to the You Tube Video:

http://youtu.be/bRaqNmtHOnA

And now for the exciting part. You can enter to **win a mower just like mine!

TO ENTER
1. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment in the *comments* section of this post telling me something about your lawn and why you'd like a new mower.

RULES
One entry per person.

Update Note: If you enter as "anonymous or a name that does not link back to a website I cannot properly enter you in the contest." Please leave a name with your anonymous comment or a valid email address within your comment in order to enter the contest. If you have any questions or problems entering email me at hoe and shovel garden at gmail dot com. Thank you. Meems

Each contestant must have a street address (no P.O. Boxes) in the continuous 48 states.
Contest over November 28, 2011 at 12:01 EST

Winner will be announced November 30!

Have fun and good luck, dear Readers.

Disclosure: My reviews and/or recommendations are always my own thoughts. I am being compensated for my partnership with Troy-Bilt as one of the Saturday6 team members. This post is in conjunction with that partnership.
** Troy-Bilt provided this product as part of my membership.

The Chipper Shredder that Troy-Bilt

Initially when the over-sized truck pulled up in the front of the house it caused me to question just how large was the machinery being delivered.

A couple of months prior Troy-Bilt made a generous offer that I could pick out anything from their catalog for under $1,000 if I would agree to use it and write a review on my blog.

They only asked that I let my readers know if I was pleased or not pleased. That sounded fair enough. It didn't take long to decide what Hoe and Shovel could put to good use right away. At the time the driveway and walkways were daily covered with fallen oak leaves like a thick brown carpet.

By the time that pretty red (a bonus in my mind)machine showed up on my doorstep we were more than ready to give it a good whirl. Leaves were bagged and ready to be shredded. Limbs were trimmed from the trees and a rather nice sized pile was set to be chipped.
Mr. Meems even got involved in the action with the promise of all that power flowing through all that torque eating up tree limbs. He read the manual, filled it with gas and oil and cranked her right up. No problem. As we got used to feeding the limbs through the designated shoot we added a bag of leaves to the back hopper to mix the two ingredients for our final outcome. No problem. The hopper made quick order of each bag of leaves shredding them into fine particles of yummy mulch in no time flat.

I cannot tell you how long I've wanted a leaf shredder in order to make better use of the wonderful leaves that fall freely each spring as new growth arrives on the oak trees. Oak leaves are my main source of mulch often placed right into the beds prior to composting.
But what if they could be shredded into fine particles, easily spread, and subsequently broken down into the soil for all the micro-organisms to grow! A finer mulching product would be so beneficial for tender new spring plants and favorite hardy shrubs alike. What could me more perfect to use as mulch for the veggie garden!

Oh, the sight, the smell, the feel of wheelbarrows full of that luscious mixture of oak branches and shredded brown leaves. It is like gold! All I could think when we were piling it up was ... "this is a very beautiful thing." Very exciting stuff.
We put our new red Troy-Bilt Chipper Shredder CS4325 through a rigorous first workout and it met the challenge. It exceeded my expectations actually. I can honestly say I am more than happy with the efficiency of its performance. It is simple enough for me to use all by myself as it transports easily on its 10" x 4" tires and cranks very smoothly.
What a great feeling to put those tree limbs back into the cycle of life in the garden rather than pile them up for the trash man. I know my plants are as happy as me about those gloriously fine chips and shreds of organic materials protecting their roots.