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Prepping Your Tools for Their End of Season Rest

Prepping Your Tools for Their End of Season RestOne of the best things you can do at the end of this year’s gardening season is to spend an hour or two prepping your tools for their winter rest. You just might save yourself many hours of frustration next season, not to mention some real money.

Your Mantis Tiller

Here’s a quick checklist of the most important preventative maintenance tips for your tiller:

1. Empty the fuel tank and run the tiller until all the fuel in the lines and carburetor is used. This will prevent gas from gumming up the works, and will ensure that your tiller will start quickly and easily next season. Learn how ethanol can damage your tiller engine.

2. Clean the tines and coat them with a light covering of rust-preventing oil. A light application of WD-40 is easy to apply and will keep your tiller tines and axles in good working order. You can also coat the handles and fender to prevent rust.

3. Tighten the nuts and bolts on the handles.

4. Check your air filter and replace it, if necessary.

5. Remove the spark plug and add about a teaspoon of oil into the spark plug port. Then gently pull the starter cord two or three times. A minimal amount of oil may spatter out of the spark plug port, however, the majority of the oil will coat the interior of your engine.

Prepping Your Tools for Their End of Season Rest

Hand Tools

1. Clean the metal parts of all your hand tools, and coat them with a thin coating of WD-40 or similar rust-preventing oil.

2. Clean the handles of hand tools; if they’re made of wood, a light coating of linseed oil will help to keep them from drying out. And, they’ll look nicer, too.

Water Hoses

1. Remove all water from hoses. This is especially important if you store your hoses outside where they might freeze and crack.

2. Now is a good time to check to see if you need to replace any of the hose washers; this can save you some precious time in the spring.

Pots and Planters

1. Remove old plants and soil from pots and planters, especially if they will be stored outside where they might freeze and crack.

2. Soak pots and planters in warm water and scrub the inside surfaces with a plastic bristle brush to remove any fertilizer build-up. (Avoid using wire brushes, as these can scratch the surface.) Clean planters will be much better for next spring’s plantings.

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Border Edger Attachment
Border Edger Attachment cuts neat edges around areas where the walkways and beds meet the lawn. $49.95 value. FREE when you purchase a Mantis Tiller now! Ships FREE with Tiller.
(Border Edger offer not applicable to tiller models 3550, 3558, XP, 7234-12-43, 7250-00-03, SU or reconditioned models.)

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California Prop 65 Information

www.p65warnings.ca.gov

This warning pertains to the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 commonly referred to as Proposition 65 which requires warnings about chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more than thirty years this law has required businesses selling products in the State of California that may expose persons to chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm to provide special warnings. The Proposition 65 regulations have recently changed and effective August 30, 2018, new requirements apply to the content and location of certain Proposition 65 warnings. In response to these changes, Schiller Grounds Care, Inc. is providing the warning you see on the product web page you viewed prior to linking to this explanation. The company has the same warning on the product associated with that product web page. The regulatory agency in the State of California responsible for Proposition 65 has made additional information about Proposition 65 available on its web page: https://oehha.ca.gov/propostion-65.

The company is also party to a 1995 consent decree entered into together with many other manufacturers of covered products (as defined in the consent decree) and for those products the company has, in addition to the warning referred to above, also included the Proposition 65 warning mandated by the consent decree in the owner’s/operator’s manual for the covered product.

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Wishing you the best this gardening season,
The Schiller Grounds Care Team

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Free Shipping
Buy direct from Mantis and get FREE standard shipping on Mantis Tillers shipped to the US 48 states.

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Free Border Edger Attachment ($49.95 value)
Border Edger Attachment cuts neat edges around areas where the walkways and beds meet the lawn.
FREE with purchase of Mantis Tiller 7920, 7924 or 7940 models. Border Edger ships FREE with eligible tiller purchase.
(Border Edger offer not applicable to 3550, 3558 or XP models)

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