Help.... me.... mow....

[razzleccentric]

Do you have a yard? How big is your yard? Do you have a lawnmower? What KIND of lawnmower??

We have 0.85 acre, it's mostly flat with few obstacles and just some little slopes at the ditch in front and the creek that cuts our side yard in half. We lean towards a riding mower since A) omgwtfoutside and B) omgwtfoutsideinsummertime, but they are so very, very expensive. I fear excessive maintenance.

How to do other geeks/nerds out there cope with lawnmowing???

(And no, hiring somebody else to do it isn't an option right now either...)

Comments

[magnacarta13.livejournal.com]

You could always buy a sheep... :running away:

[wbahner.livejournal.com]

How to do other geeks/nerds out there cope with lawnmowing???

I have the wife do it.... ;)

[razzle.livejournal.com]

With what? Push? Self-propelled? Riding???

[wbahner.livejournal.com]

A self-propelled, I believe.

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Can't help, I have .45 an acre and we have a landscaping service, because I am lazy.

Sorry.

[altamaha.livejournal.com]

Lawn service. Our yard is probably about half an acre and flat as a pancake but even that is annoying when it's 100percent humidity and 95 degrees. As if Florida weren't annoying enough.

*you might be surprised at how affordable some services are (then again, many felons are employed in mow n'blow services). We use a guy who lives down the street. They charge 75 bucks a month. Worth every penny.

But if that isn't feasible, then a riding lawnmower FTW. After age 35, a push mower sucketh mightily.

mower

[gypsy1969.livejournal.com]

We have 3/4 of an acre, but luckily our house sits on part, a stream is on part of it, and a "forest" in part. The part we must mow is still kind of large. We have a "squirrelcage" and an electric mulching mower. I use the bag with the mower and compost the clippings. My husband just mulches the clippings. I don't have the strength for the cage mower but I like the electric one. We are not real good about mowing though and a couple of neighbors have taken it upon themselves to mow when they thought it was too long. They even mowed over our trees. I haven't decided if I'm pissed or not.

[witchymystral.livejournal.com]

you could get one of the auto mowers that look like the Roomba. I cant remember their name.

We have a neighbor kid cut ours. He charges $40 a month to cut the lawn and trim everything up 2-3 times a month.

Of course, if you want to be "green" and get some *gasp* exercise, you can get an old fashioned rolling cutter mower that is powered simply by your pushing and pulling.

Then again, dandelions make great salad! ;)

[witchymystral.livejournal.com]

http://www.automower.com/
http://www.ecomowers.com/eco_mowers_reel_push_environmental_s/24.htm?gclid=CN2XmqL36pICFQQtswodiktP4A
http://www.lawnmowerguide.com/

of course...for quality and service, you cant beat a John Deere.

[altamaha.livejournal.com]

My neighbors get a real chuckle out of seeing me huff and puff and push my rotary lawn mower around the yard. I don't know what it's like where you are but in my part of Florida, we don't have so much a lawn as an unruly square plot of land full of weeds and stickers that LOOKS like a lawn when it's mowed. All that dadgum rotary mower does is flatten the weeds temporarily.

[witchymystral.livejournal.com]

Im in New Port Richey and the house we bought we built in '73 so our lawn is actually the old fashioned grass that is soft, not the think carpet of St Augustine blades.

We have the neighbor kid do it. Our hand-me-down mower blew up the first summer we were here and this kid came by when he saw our grass was long...been doing it for 3 years now. Its so cute...he has built a lil biz over the years and has some really nice equipment, better than I can afford, and you cant beat $40 a month! LOL

[razzle.livejournal.com]

As I was saying to someone else, I don't mind weeds as long as they're green... and FRIENDLY.

Every time I've walked outside barefoot since leaving FLA I've thanked the high heavens that there are no sandspurs up here, amen.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I boggle at the yard sizes some of you folks have. Our yard is massive for the area at half an acre, which is part of why it's going to grow condos on it. A quarter acre is big here, somewhere between a tenth and a fifth is more typical.

I wouldn't grow lawn on anything I didn't need to be lawn for socializing and the dogs, I'd revert it to wildflowers, vegetable garden, shrubbery, and fruit or native trees. I don't want to use water for anything I can't eat or don't immediately need or find deeply beautiful. If I had to have a lawn, I'd get a ride-on mower, but I'd resent every minute of it.

[razzle.livejournal.com]

We're on a "double" lot here, so we have a big front yard, a huge side yard, and a far more modest backyard. A creek cuts the back & side yards in half; there are many trees around the house and a bit of wild area in the back. I'm all for planting more trees out front, maybe having a garden on the side area someday (not this year).

I'm also all for xeriscaping. I won't water grass. If the weeds overtake it and they're green, they're fine with me. Right now we have tons of violets and dandelions. :)

[doorinward.livejournal.com]

We have a slightly-better-than-the-cheapest option by craftsman and a Black and Decker trimmer (I would get a better brand now if I could--HATE IT). Ken and I have an agreement that lawn=his job.

I would guess we have less than a full acre, but no idea how big technically.

[herbmcsidhe.livejournal.com]

Yard...

Well, the property is a close to 2.25 acres, the grassed portion is probably a bit over an acre, other than the house, the remainder is lightly forested.

We've three mowers: one of which is self propelled, one is slam-your-body-to-pieces-trying-to-make-it move, the third is a broken down riding mower that I acquired in a "previously owned" capacit and which does not currently work.

As I've no idea how old it is, but knowing that at a minimum it needs about $300 worth of repairs (rusted through mower deck, needs all four tires replaced, a new battery and some minor welding work), it's probably going to go on Craig's list or Freecyle as a freebie to someone who has more time and money than I do to repair it, and I'll pick up a reconditioned one for around $500.

[razzle.livejournal.com]

Excellent. We're going over to look at some reconditioned riding mowers this afternoon. We'd prefer a rider, but the prices for new ones are... scary.