Lawncare...it comes with multiple responsibilities that you are not always prepared for which can include routine mowing for maintenance, aerating, fertilizing, seeding, and when fall arrives, the dreaded “leaf management”.
My wife Anita and I moved into our first home in 2018 which was a 3-story townhome in Charlotte, NC. This was a great starter home for us as it came with a lawn that was smaller than the size of our bedroom and lawncare was covered by our HOA.
When we purchased our new home in 2021, it came with a 1-acre lot which is mostly lawn and was VERY different from what we were used to out our townhome. We had 2 Ryobi Brushless push mowers I had acquired over the course of my 2020 COVID-19 TaskRabbit ‘career’ but after about a year of push-mowing the entire lot, we realized that we needed to upgrade.
In May of 2022, we found ourselves push-mowing every weekend and even during the week
as our Ryobi mowers couldn’t keep up as the grass was in full-on bloom. It not that they were bad mowers; they just were not the right equipment for the job and the batteries lifespan was noticeably decreasing with each use. We found ourselves falling behind every week as we just couldn’t keep up with all of the lawn care and maintenance. One day, we made the decision – it was time for an upgrade...
Enter the John Deere S120 tractor!
Even though it was around 6 months ago, it feels like it was yesterday that went out to Home Depot, made the purchase and brought home our new John Deere tractor. Once I got the hang of driving it around and navigating the dips, divots and hills around our property, we found our mowing times decreasing from taking several days to just over an hour as the 22hp engine made it easy to go up our hills and the adjustable 42-inch mower deck covered way more surface area than our push-mowers ever would. When fall arrived and the leaves began coming down, the tractor mulched and blew them with ease in one direction saving us countless hours of raking, blowing and bagging!
Deciding on the Right Tractor
Making the decision to go down the route of purchasing a tractor was easy, the challenge was in which one to pull the trigger on! John Deere produces three 100-series models that have a 42-inch dual-blade mower deck ranging from the S100 to the S130. The S100 comes with a Single-Cylinder 17.5hp engine, a "No-tools oil drain with replaceable filter” and has a price tag of $2,399. The S130 on the other hand has a more powerful V-Twin 22hp engine, a “John Deere Easy Change 30-second oil change system” and comes with a price tag of $2,799. Similar to the S130 model, the S120 also boasts a V-Twin 22hp engine, a “John Deere Easy Change 30-second oil change system” but comes in at a slightly lower price of $2,699 which is likely due to it having slightly narrower rear tires than its S130 counterpart (20x8-8 vs. 20x10-8).
The amount of time that this tractor has saved me in yard mowing and leaf clean-up coupled with being easily maintained, the John Deere S120 tractor truly lives up to the saying that "Nothing Runs like a Deere".