I use a petrol mower and wouldn't want to use a mains electric one on a large garden. Dragging the cable around is a pain. I only have limited experience of battery as my neighour had a Gtech and I used to cut her grass for her. It was fine with dry grass, or short damp grass, but it simply couldn't cope with longer grass when it was wet. That was about 5 years ago so things may have improved.
Interested to see a picture of the garden and size When we had our mountfield,there was a large area of grass,side border, and only one area not grass in it
I have got used to mowing here with electric, just moving the extension roll from one side to the other. The way both the price and supply problems are going,very glad to have the woman powered qualcast as well. I might be running up and down the garden with it to keep warm! Neighbour with the battery model,said he could cut the verge. I don't like the idea of trailing an electric cable on a public footpath. To date,he's not cut it once in 11 years!
Interested to see a picture of the garden and size When we had our mountfield,there was a large area of grass,side border, and only one area not grass in it
I have got used to mowing here with electric, just moving the extension roll from one side to the other. The way both the price and supply problems are going,very glad to have the woman powered qualcast as well. I might be running up and down the garden with it to keep warm! Neighbour with the battery model,said he could cut the verge. I don't like the idea of trailing an electric cable on a public footpath. To date,he's not cut it once in 11 years!
As you mentioned verges. I always found "edging" a bore and it was easy for a border to "creep."
So over ten years ago I dug a small trench along the length of the border, with a straight edge against the lawn stuck in three inches of hardcore, then some fine mix concrete and laid block pavers up to and level with the edge of the lawn. The concrete slopes away to the border.
This a day or so after I laid them. They "quietened down" after a few weeks, these days no one notices them.
Believe me, they are easy to lay, you don't have to be a "bricky," just use damp concrete mix so you can adjust the levels as you go along and the bricks will stay weher you put them.. It'll draw moisture from the atmosdhere overnight to set hard.
I did the front and back gardens in less than a day. I pointed them all up the following day.
I did it for the three features too.
I also have a crazy York stone path the other side which too is level with the lawn. I can run down the join with a strimmer to get a nice "edge."
Mowing the lawn takes very little time this way.
Now I just run my Flymo over the bricks and the path.
Our lawn area is just shy of 300 square metres (30m x 10m approx) which I would class as medium. Our last lawn was a similar size and, when we moved there, I kept using the 10 year old electric mower I'd had for our small town garden. It gave up the ghost within 6 months. Replaced it with a further 2 electric ones (I think they were the largest model of Flymos) - they both only lasted just over a year.
So - 25 years ago I bit the bullet and upgraded to a pedestrian self-propelled Honda rotary petrol mower. Very, very reliable and up to the job. The first one lasted 20 years and the 'new' one is now 5 years old. Quite an expensive initial outlay (about £600 I think) but considerably cheaper than replacing machines every 12 - 18 months.
I know a couple of folks who've gone over to battery lawnmowers. They both regret it. They have small to medium sized gardens and they've both found that, unless they're mowing in absolutely optimum conditions (ie already short, bone-dry grass) the battery life (despite what it says in the blurb) is inadequate to cut their grass in one hit.
They've both had to shell out for a second battery and be organised about ensuring both batteries are fully charged (which, incidentally, takes a while....) before they cut the grass.
Edited to add: I've looked briefly at robotic lawnmowers in the past and decided they were just too expensive to buy and install. As @Allotment Boy said you need external power for a charging station and guide wires installed around the perimeter. Maybe when I can no longer manhandle the Honda....
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
We have three medium to large lawns, and have been using a Mountfield petrol mower for years without any problems. It has a Honda engine, which OH rates as very good and very reliable. We have been looking to buy a replacement as this one is getting very elderly, he has identified another Mountfield with a Honda engine, but it seems to be out of stock everywhere, and he isn’t happy to buy a Briggs and Stratton engine version.
Doghouse, the "verges" aren't in our garden or on our land, they're past our garden,and the path outside our property,so we can't "edge" them, they belong to the village, local authority only cut every couple of weeks
Doghouse, the "verges" aren't in our garden or on our land, they're past our garden,and the path outside our property,so we can't "edge" them, they belong to the village, local authority only cut every couple of weeks
You might be lucky that they do that.
Covid has reduced the amount of such work by some local councils. Some of our roundabouts are sponored by local businesses, as they have their signs on them. But the roundabouts aren't always maintained properly, so it's a poor reflection on the firms that pay for the sponsorship.
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https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/comment/2318347#Comment_2318347
As has already been pointed out, battery technology has improved a lot recently so do not place too much emphasis on opinions on older threads.
When we had our mountfield,there was a large area of grass,side border, and only one area not grass in it
So - 25 years ago I bit the bullet and upgraded to a pedestrian self-propelled Honda rotary petrol mower. Very, very reliable and up to the job. The first one lasted 20 years and the 'new' one is now 5 years old. Quite an expensive initial outlay (about £600 I think) but considerably cheaper than replacing machines every 12 - 18 months.
I know a couple of folks who've gone over to battery lawnmowers. They both regret it. They have small to medium sized gardens and they've both found that, unless they're mowing in absolutely optimum conditions (ie already short, bone-dry grass) the battery life (despite what it says in the blurb) is inadequate to cut their grass in one hit.
They've both had to shell out for a second battery and be organised about ensuring both batteries are fully charged (which, incidentally, takes a while....) before they cut the grass.
Edited to add: I've looked briefly at robotic lawnmowers in the past and decided they were just too expensive to buy and install. As @Allotment Boy said you need external power for a charging station and guide wires installed around the perimeter. Maybe when I can no longer manhandle the Honda....