Question: Lawn Mowing

[sydneyguy]

For someone who's just bought a PPOR (House) and has never ever done any lawn mowing in his entire life......

so, guys, do you use/prefer a reel mower or a petrol one?

I have a smallish lawn, front +backyard = around 200 m2, does reel mower sound like a better option -- cheaper to buy & run? How long would it take to do 200 m2 and how often do you do it?

How long do they usually last? (I wouldnt service it as new only cost 49 bucks)

Thanks in advance.

 

[johnnyb]

For someone who's just bought a PPOR (House) and has never ever done any lawn mowing in his entire life......

so, guys, do you use/prefer a reel mower or a petrol one?

I have a smallish lawn, front +backyard = around 200 m2, does reel mower sound like a better option -- cheaper to buy & run? How long would it take to do 200 m2 and how often do you do it?

How long do they usually last? (I wouldnt service it as new only cost 49 bucks)

Thanks in advance.

By reel mower do you mean one where the blades rotate when you push it. I love those and have had one in the past with a lawn about the size you're looking at.

The only drawback I found was that you really need to keep on top of the job, ie, if the grass gets too long they can really struggle. Depending on the type of grass and the weather you may need to mow once every 1 or 2 weeks in summer to keep it manageable - a bit of a bugger if you go on a long summer holiday. In terms of maintenance you may need to take it to get the blades sharpened every now and then (unless you want to do it yourself).

John.

 

[Simon]

I read an article which favourably compared the cost of a mowing contractor with the cost pa to own and maintain mower and trimmer plus time.

Might be worth looking into.

Or maybe their is a local kid who can do it cheaper? I had a mowing round when I was 14 and did about three lawns a week for pocket money on the side.

I did once rent a house that came with a small lawn and a modern push mower. It was quite easy to use and good exercise. As mentioned above it wasn't too good with long grass and neither was it much good with wet grass. It is not the neatest job but perfectly adequate and took less storage than a Victa mower and catcher.

 

[johnnyb]

Check out http://www.reelmowerguide.com/ for some pros and cons. Gotta love the web sometimes

 

[sydneyguy]

Great! thanks guys for the info!

And Johnny, yeah, I read that page too, but these pages are from US, and they have different type of grass??

Just thought I'd ask some local aussie experience

 

[LynnH]

sydneyguy

Hubby has mowed 'by cheque book' for years now - quicker, easier, and doesn't mess your weekends around!

Cheers
LynnH

 

[sailor]

I'm with LynnH when it comes to IP's, and I put as much under gravel as I can get my hands on. Gravel doesn't need mowing!