
If you have a riding mower, you may want to invest in a canvas cover for extra cold weather protection. It is also beneficial to disengage the blade on the riding mower and drive it around the lawn several times to circulate fluids and moving parts. Start mowers and allow them to run for several minutes until the engine warms up. Keep plenty of two cycle fuel mixed for engine protection and easy starting. Do not drain gas from this equipment but keep filled so you can start them and warm them up once a week. The riding mower, push mower, tillers, leaf blowers, and weed trimmers and vacuums need to be started and run for a few minutes every week during the winter. Their fragrance in winter is sweeter than honeysuckles of spring. They are definitely an investment in beauty, foliage, and fragrance especially in the season of winter. We have one on the edge of the garden that is 15 years old. You can purchase them at nurseries and they come in two- and three-gallon containers. The Jasmine can be trimmed and shaped in all seasons and tolerates all kinds of weather extremes. It has fragrance from bright yellow flowers in late January and bonus blooms all during the year. It is a combo of hedge, ornamental, floral, fragrance, and color from the dead of winter to the Dog Day heat of summer. The Carolina Jasmine is the perennial that produces in all four seasons of the year.
