For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
User avatar
By Flintstone
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907012
Which one?

Just finishing a garden rebuild and Mrs F insists on keeping a patch of grass (40 sq metres :roll: ) and I'm buggered if I'm taking up useful shed space keeping a conventional mower. I also can't be rrsed doing the mowing.

No point spending a fortune on a patch that size so Husqvarna and Stihl are out of the running. Any ideas?
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907020
You're missing an important bit of psychology.

I mow the lawn every couple of weeks, which enables me to say to Mrs TC that as I look after over 90% of the garden area, I don't have to do any of the rest of it.

I call that a win....
T6Harvard, Dusty_B liked this
By Cole Burner
#1907022
My mower installation man told me that Gardena are owned by Husqvarna, and under the plastic cover are exactly the same. I bought one - it says Gardena on the outside but the label on the inside says Husqvarna. You may find (any) robot mower will not quite do right to the edge of the lawn - depending on your layout - installing the guide wire is a bit of a pain but worth getting right.

Mine does a nice job and watching it trimming away while sipping a G&T is most relaxing! I change the (3) blades about once a month, cost a quid or so, takes five minutes. They don't like frost so you have to put them away in the winter.

All things considered - best thing since sliced bread!!
User avatar
By Rob P
#1907031
PeteSpencer wrote:They make lovely kebabs


How does that impact on their grass cutting function?

Rob P
User avatar
By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907038
Rob P wrote:
PeteSpencer wrote:They make lovely kebabs


How does that impact on their grass cutting function?

Rob P


Eny fule kno that end of grass growing season fattened goats make excellent souvlakia.

Renew em each year......... :wink:
T6Harvard liked this
User avatar
By bogopper
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907046
We have grass that needed cutting with a ride on mower 3 times a week. I got bored and wanted to fly away more so started looking at robo-mowers.

Being a Yorkshireman I won’t pay for a Husqwhatsit so went for a Worx. Biggest version for 65x45m grass. Cost £1000 from Amazon.

Works much better than expected although don’t believe any AI cleaverness. It’s like owning a stupid puppy that never learns!

Second year of ownership. We have had him going for at least 6 weeks now. Late morning after the damp has dried until sunset. Soon I think it will need to be on 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep on top of the growth.

It uses a standard removable battery from their power tool range. The cut width is about 12” and uses 3 small razorblade thingies. They lasted a year and it was £10 for 30. It mows for about 2-3 hours then trundles back to charge itself for about 30 mins… then goes off again. It gets stuck when damp or stupidly jams somewhere it’s been fine previously? 2-3 times a week i’d say it gets stuck. I’ve seen the expensive ones do this too…

Overall We’d recommend it especially over the much higher cost of the others. B&Q have a small version for £400!

YMMV

Mark
StratoTramp liked this
By Paultheparaglider
#1907048
Flintstone wrote: I'm buggered if I'm taking up useful shed space keeping a conventional mower.


You are looking at this the wrong way. You have the perfect opportunity to get either

a) a bigger shed, or, better still

b) an extra shed.

A man can never have enough sheds.

In case you go for b) above, then you can stick the new shed on the existing patch of grass. This will save the need to buy a mower in the first place.

PS. You can get a lot of "stuff" in a 40 sq m shed.
Flyin'Dutch', T6Harvard, MikeB and 2 others liked this
User avatar
By lobstaboy
#1907050
Paultheparaglider wrote:
Flintstone wrote: I'm buggered if I'm taking up useful shed space keeping a conventional mower.


You are looking at this the wrong way....

A man can never have enough sheds.
.


Absolutely right were it not for the fact that Mrs F is the boss of the garden, as is clear from @Flintstone 's OP

I think this is a cry for help ;)
Flyin'Dutch' liked this
User avatar
By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907055
We downsized from nearly an acre of lawn and three sheds, a greenhouse and a logstore to one shed and a cold frame principally because the grass cutting was taking half a day and a ride-on was no good as the chief gardner-wife-slavedriver insisted on dotting the grass with shrubs and low fruit trees.

Took me half a day to cut: The crunch came when I found myself needing a 20 min break halfway through the afternoon.............

Now we have a real grass patch of 5 x 2 metres for the tortoises and a cheapo electric Bosch mower which hangs on the wall of the shed. Total time from opening and re-closing shed door 7 minutes.

The third iteration of the trusty Hayter Harrier went to no 1 son.

A grand seems like a lot of dosh for a robot mower. :roll:
User avatar
By bogopper
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907080
PeteSpencer wrote:A grand seems like a lot of dosh for a robot mower. :roll:


All the others started 3-4 times more expensive
User avatar
By Flintstone
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907085
It would be a poor trade to keep a conventional lawnmower with the assumption Mrs F would do the rest. She hates gardening, I've only ever seen her do it once in 35 years, and part of the rebuild was to minimise the digging and weeding by building raised beds, laying lots of gravel and putting down weed mat and bark chippings. Having to strim the edges will be bad enough so no, no mower other than a robot.

I don't mind a bit of hoe work (stop it) but the plan is to do as little as possible. The greenhouse will be good for chillies, aubergines, cucamelons and the like and I don't mind being in there as it's always warm and dry.

A new shed? I just built one and the second, actually a barbecue shack/trailer store/place for hanging venison, will be started this week. A proper blokey affair using 10' railway sleepers for the uprights and lots of crinkly tin because that's like wot Mrs F grew up with in Oz.

A Husqvarna that identitfies as a Gardena model sounds worth a look at. I think cutomising it to look like a tortoise would be a wheeze.
By Colonel Panic
#1907086
My local outfit sells both Husqvarna and Stihl mowers, and pushed me solidly towards the former on reliability grounds. Incredibly expensive for what they are (the one I bought in Feb costs almost the same as my 42" Husq ride on !!!), but whilst the jury is still out, initial impressions are favourable.

We have just returned from 5 days away, and Mowgli performed perfectly throughout 8)

Image
User avatar
By Jim Jones
#1907114
Colonel Panic wrote:My local outfit sells both Husqvarna and Stihl mowers, and pushed me solidly towards the former on reliability grounds. Incredibly expensive for what they are (the one I bought in Feb costs almost the same as my 42" Husq ride on !!!), but whilst the jury is still out, initial impressions are favourable.

We have just returned from 5 days away, and Mowgli performed perfectly throughout 8)

Image



Clearly sending signals via Skynet to his robot masters.
User avatar
By Sooty25
#1907126
Flintstone wrote:Which one?

Just finishing a garden rebuild and Mrs F insists on keeping a patch of grass (40 sq metres :roll: ) and I'm buggered if I'm taking up useful shed space keeping a conventional mower. I also can't be rrsed doing the mowing.

No point spending a fortune on a patch that size so Husqvarna and Stihl are out of the running. Any ideas?


Astroturf it.
PeteSpencer liked this