I second what Tomplum said and will also add that the SR has grease zerks on the rear wheels. My father owns the Recycler and I own the SR4. He uses the mower on a few lawns a week and has had trouble with the drive system drying up. If you are only using this for your lawn then I wouldn't figure this would be a problem...at least not for a few years. With the SR it should never be a problem as long as you grease the wheels once a season. I went through this same debate last year and am very happy I went with the SR4. Good luck with your decision :-) Josh

I have used compost for mulch too. It was very effective. In addition to what ken said, I'd add that compost can be used in a number of ways. When building a new bed, it makes a great soil amendment. In this case, you mix it (as much as you can get your hands on) into the native soil with a tiller or a spade. In existing beds, it makes a wonderful "top dressing". You sprinkle or spread 1/2 to 1 inch of compost right over the soil surface (over old mulch too, if you like) of the bed to within an inch or so of the plant crowns. This is like a vitamin tonic to your soil. Expect fabulous results! It is the best thing you can add to planting holes of new plants. Just dig a couple of scoops of compost into the soil as you set out plants. They'll like it! Mulches don't have to be wood products. Pinestraw and chopped leaves are great mulches. This is why so many of us mulch in the fall: that's when free mulch is all over the place. If you use leaves, pick them up with your bagged lawnmower. The mower will chop them as you pick them up. One caution: don't use leaves from an extremely weedy area. They'll be full of weed seeds. If you use them, compost them before spreading them onto your beds. (Guess how I know this? ....:) I am often asked if I take my old mulch up each year before adding new. NO. Over the course of the year the mulch begins to compost into the soil. This process speeds up considerably if that mulch gets stirred around alot by the gardener. Everywhere it touches the soil it begins to break down. So, each fall, I lay several inches of fresh mulch right over the top of the old mulch, which has now become or is well on the way to becoming compost. Simple! :)

Hollingsworth suggests that in a field situation slugs encountering caffeine are more likely to move to other non-treated plants. In the meantime Louise Simms and Dr Michael Wilson of the University of Aberdeen have investigated caffeine on the basis that it is an Âenvironmentally acceptable alternative to metaldehyde and methiocarb (Simms and Wilson, 2002). Caffeine, a natural product, is classified by the US Food and Drug administration as a GRAS (generally recognised as safe). Simms and Wilson presented new data suggesting that caffeine may be a less effective molluscicide than previously thought [due to the sheer amount needed for treatment at the ag scale and resultant effect on receiving waters -D]. In addition, the product was shown to be toxic to three earthworm species at low doses and some phytotoxicity was observed on the plants. [emphases added] Boy, it would sure be nice to know on which plants somebody upthread sprays coffee, so we can avoid phytotoxicity. Don't want dead plants, ya know. Suuuure would be nice... Dan

For some of us the mulch is to conserve winter moisture, not because of freezing or thawing. When I put in the garlic, I water, then put on about 4 inches of pine straw. This winter has been unusually wet, with snow cover on the garlic beds from November through part of February. The snow cover has been gone for almost a month now, and the mulched beds are still nicely damp and the garlic coming up through the mulch. Catherine