Siloam Proud

B rothers Jordan and Aaron Netzel love a well-manicured lawn. The two brothers, who live in Siloam Springs, love it so much that their enjoyment of keeping short, neatly-trimmed, healthy grass has turned into a hobby over the last five years and has resulted in the cre- ation of their own YouTube page, a social media presence in the lawn-care community and more than 115 videos of their work to watch. "I've always been into golf," said Aar- on Netzel, 33, who's a cabinet salesman for Mid-America Cabinets in Gentry. "(Jordan's) somewhat of a golfer. I guess we've always been kind of in love with that look and short grass. We always would be chipping in the yard at our parents' house. I made a little chipping green once upon a time. I had a 90-yard chipping green I practiced on. I always wanted something in the yard, so that's what started it — cutting it so short we could play golf in our own yard." You might know Jordan Netzel, 31, by his day job — an optometrist at Rob- erts-Philpott Eye Associates in Siloam Springs. But on YouTube, he is known as the "Right Tool" and Aaron Netzel is the "Left Tool." And since the fall of 2018, they've become known together in the online lawn-care community as "The Lawn Tools." The Right Tool and Left Tool desig- nation comes from their official logo, which is on every platform The Lawn Tools post on. Their projects can be found on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The Lawn Tools also have their own YouTube channel, where in less than two years they've posted more than 115 videos and have accumulated a following of more than 8,200 sub- scribers. Since posting their first video in November of 2018, their combined views have topped more than 1.6 mil- lion according to the counter on The Lawn Tools' YouTube page. A 'reel' beginning It all began in the summer of 2016 with the brothers living in a pair of neighboring duplexes and trying to figure out the best way to care for the lawns, including a shared area of grass between the two buildings. "They didn't put a fence down the middle of our two duplexes and we shared a yard," Jordan Netzel said. "I guess I suggested getting a mower. We'll get one mower and share it." Aaron Netzel liked that idea but with a twist. He wanted to get a manual reel mower. "One of those old-school mowers with no motors," Aaron Netzel said. "I just wanted to cut it shorter." The brothers enjoyed the cut of the manual reel mower more so than that of a rotary mower, but they quickly learned that the manual reels had their own problems. "As the grass started growing like crazy, if you get behind at all with the manual reel mower, it got really tough," Jordan Netzel said. "You would have to stay on top of it. So if you got behind at all, go on vacation, come back, you would have to mow it three to four times to get it cut back down." Jordan Netzel quickly got tired of the extra work that the manual reel was causing, so he decided to upgrade. He went on to Craig'slist and found a homeowner's Tru-Cut H-20 "That made it a lot easier than cutting it (with a manual reel)," Jordan Netzel said. "It's not as stressful for the grass and you can actually cut it a lot shorter than if you're pulling it and tearing it with a rotary mower." Late in the winter of 2019, Jordan Netzel upgraded to a Toro GreensMas- ter 1000 mower that he uses today, but he admits the days of the manual reel and the results it gave on his lawn con- vinced him this was the way he wanted to go. "The first manual reel mower starts a slippery slope, because once you get one of those, I feel like you can't go back," Jordan Netzel said. "It just doesn't cut the same when you go to a rotary. You get hooked on the way it cuts." 'The Lawn Tools' Somewhere along the way, the Netzel brothers decided it might be fun to play with their yard — and film it. "It was the fall of 2018," Jordan Netzel said, "and I wasn't mowing anything." That summer, he had just moved into his newly built house, which in- cluded a freshly sodded yard. "I think I thought my lawn was nicer than it was at the time," he said. Jordan Netzel thought it would be neat to start a YouTube channel about the care of his lawn. "There are a lot of other people do- ing it on YouTube," he said. "It feels more like social media than a TV show. It used to be only a handful of people had YouTube channels. Now its al- most like, just because of the number of people that are doing it, there's a smaller barrier to entry. You can film it on your phone and everybody had a good quality camera on their phone. … There were a handful of other peo- ple doing it, and I just thought, 'Well, I can do that.' So I just started thinking about it more and decided to post." The first video by The Lawn Tools — "Planting Bulbs/Work in the fall - Enjoy in the spring" was posted to YouTube on Nov. 4, 2018, and was more than 9 minutes long. "That's a terrible time to start a You- Tube channel," Jordan Netzel said with a laugh. The first video received around 500 views, but the second, "JackHammer - Rock in my yard," which was released on Nov. 16, 2018, had more than 7,600 views. "There's a pretty good community — a lawn care community on YouTube," Jordan Netzel said. "That's where you start. Somehow you post a couple of videos and a handful of people find you and YouTube starts suggesting you to people who are really into lawn care. There's a few hundred people that are really into it and watch all of the chan- nels and all the videos and really like having conversations back and forth. … There are a handful of people who are just really way too into grass, they'll watch anything (related to) grass. That's how you get started." Since the first post, The Lawn Tools have posted about all kinds of projects, with some of the most popular being on the topic of sand leveling the yard. Two posts in the fall of 2019 received more than 14,000 views apiece, and another, "Leveling Yard BEFORE Sod" posted this past April had more than 20,000 views. But the most watched video — and it's not even close — has been "Top Dressing and Leveling with Sand for Flat Lawn," which went completely viral with more than 1.1 million views. The Lawn Tools' videos range in top- ics on just about anything including planting flowers, killing weeds, reviews of lawnmowers, fertilizer, leveling, Christmas lights, winter projects and so much more. They've also gotten sponsors from a fertilizer company called Lawnstar, who have provided free liquid fertilizer and liquid iron, which provide content for videos. They've also received three lawnmowers to review and make vid- eos with. 'LT Turf' series In May of 2019, Jordan Netzel got a call from Connor Ward, another lawn enthusiast on YouTube who has more than 63,400 subscribers. Ward asked him when The Lawn Tools were going to travel out to Utah and make a video on his lawn. "We thought that was pretty huge that this bigger YouTuber wanted us to come out," Jordan Netzel said. While they were in Utah, lawn lovers, Jeremy Of the Greener Lawn and Brett Goodyear of Brett's Grasscapades, who both live in the Salt Lake City area, also wanted The Lawn Tools to come do a video on their yard. Goodyear also started a YouTube channel around the same time. "It's kind of a thing in the lawn care community," Aaron Netzel said. "You go to somebody's house and you mow their lawn for them, and then you just kind of do videos together. It's fun." And so began what turned into The Lawn Tools' series called "LT Turf," where instead of filming at their own houses, they go to other people's hous- es and make videos of their lawns and mowers. Posting videos with other lawn care enthusiasts on YouTube has helped expand the reach of The Lawn Tools. Their videos may be seen by someone visiting an established YouTuber's page, and then they subsequently start following The Lawn Tools. That's when The Lawn Tools have seen their biggest jump in subscribers. The Lawn Tools' travels have taken them to Fort Smith, John Ware of LawnForum.com "That's where I learned when I first started," zel, regarding the website. of people who know grass than you could give advice and tips." Jordan Netzel's in-laws Tampa, Fla., area and lawn enthusiast in Hane, aka The Lawn Netzel filmed an LT isode there. Hane has subscribers to his YouTube "That was big," Jordan "We go down there and all his followers big bump (in subscribers) Jordan Netzel said in subscribers came of a sand leveling video ing and Leveling with Lawn" — that just "took writing, the video has 1.1 million views. "I had 20 tons of yard to level it," he just took off for whatever it up Friday noon. day to see on my analytics 1,000 views per hour. tifications like crazy. views after a week. … doing really well." The Lawn Tools had season two of the year, including a trip park, home of the Northwest Naturals baseball team, delayed by the covid-19 "I had talked to their Jordan Netzel said. open back up we'll do one. They'll show for it." Jordan Netzel also the tennis courts University of Arkansas. to do the same one UA sports facilities, W. Reynolds Razorback Baum-Walker Stadium. Siloam Springs Proud 6C n Wednesday, June 24, 2020 Siloam Springs Grass is greener with Netzel brothers growing in popularity By Graham Thomas Staff Writer n gthomas@nwadg.com Photo courtesy of The Lawn Tools Crop circles? Nah, The Lawn Tools are just having fun with design on the yard. Brothers Jordan Netzel (le) and Aaron Netzel have their own YouTube channel called "e had more than 1.6 million views on their site.

• Cover