Mowing the Lawn (how much, garden, moving)

[Maineah]

I started mowing today. It's hard to believe that four weeks ago that same lawn was under three 3 feet of snow!
I didn't have to mow the whole lawn,just about 1/4 of it. We have a good sized lawn area we keep mowed. It takes us about 1 1/2 hours to mow with two riding mowers. Alone it takes a little over three hours. I will start mowing it twice a week in about a month right up until October.
We have four mowers one of which is dead. We have a 60" finish mower for the PTO on the New Holland TC 33D tractor, A John Deere 316 garden tractor with a 50 inch deck (the dead one), a John Deere LT 180 riding mower with a 48" deck and a Honda 22 inch self propelled walk behind mower with a new engine.
The 316 John Deere is a 1986 and the engine finally went on it last fall. I'm not sure if I'll repower it or try to find a newer lawn tractor. The JD LT 180 is no where near as well built as the JD 316 but it's 18 years newer so I guess I'll keep it. I can't say I love mowing though the lawn does look nice when it's done!

How much mowing do you do? What kind of mower do you have?

[island mermaid]

Wow Maineah, that's a lot of lawn and a lot of horsepower to cover it!

I used to like mowing, tell me... are you the type that needs to have perfect lines? Do you do special designs? Diagonal? How much do you all love the smell of a freshly cut lawn? Oh, how I miss that smell!

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Fort Lauderdale mermaid

Wow Maineah, that's a lot of lawn and a lot of horsepower to cover it!

I used to like mowing, tell me... are you the type that needs to have perfect lines? Do you do special designs? Diagonal? How much do you all love the smell of a freshly cut lawn? Oh, how I miss that smell!

Naw I'm not into anything fancy. I do mow different directions just to keep the pattern from being imbedded in the lawn. I don't fertilize, de-thatch, bag clippings, or any of that stuff. if I let it get too long and I get a lot of clipped grass all over the place I have a tow behind sweeper I use to pick up the clippings though I rarely have to use it. I like to mow on windy days so the clippings blow across the street! I do like the smell of a freshly mowed lawn!

[island mermaid]

No lawn here in the concrete jungle. Got plenty of sand out my back door though. Just doesn't smell as good as fresh cut grass.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Fort Lauderdale mermaid

No lawn here in the concrete jungle. Got plenty of sand out my back door though. Just doesn't smell as good as fresh cut grass.

How's the weather down there?

[elston]

It is my aim and intention to have no more lawn than I can do with an electric lawn mower I used in California to mow my patio lawn that was barely more than 12x 14.
That requires lots and lots of ground cover, gardens and mulch!!!! We are doing it out back...more of a challenge for the front yard.

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by Maineah

I started mowing today. It's hard to believe that four weeks ago that same lawn was under three 3 feet of snow!

I am with ya on that. It didn't take long to get into the spring summer thing. We pretty much spent every waking moment outside this past week.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by elston

It is my aim and intention to have no more lawn than I can do with an electric lawn mower I used in California to mow my patio lawn that was barely more than 12x 14.
That requires lots and lots of ground cover, gardens and mulch!!!! We are doing it out back...more of a challenge for the front yard.

I often wish I could mow mine with an electric mower!
I saw this mower on the net that this guy built that was a hybrid rig. It was cool. He had a small gas motor that charged a bank of batteries for the electric drive motor. He had it rigged to a radio control like they use for flying model planes. He sat on a chair and mowed the lawn without moving an inch. I want one!

[forest beekeeper]

Wow, that is impressive!

We have no lawn.

[Nor'Eastah]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

We have no lawn.

Egads, I wish I had no lawn! I have a half-acre of just lawn to mow! I hired the kid next door to do ours today. Funny - we are down here in RI and haven't had any snow for over 2 months now - but my lawn down here and yours up in Maine both need mowing at the same time!

We have 3 mowers, 2 of which need servicing. The rider is a Craftsman with a Kohler engine; does a very nice job. The 2 self-propelled's are another Craftsman and a Toro. People sneer at Craftsman; but it was the Toro that quit on me after 3 uses. One of my clients has a zero-turn professional machine that makes short work of any lawn. Was thinking of contracting with him to mow this year; thought the better of it after paying the neighbor kid $35 today. Looks like I'd better get the Toro fixed and the rider serviced, or I'll be paying as much for lawn mowing as I did for heating oil over the winter!