h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: How to Mow the Lawn - A1023544
Author: Hussassan (Human) and Faizhar (Tok'ra) , Bounty Hunter, Jedi girl's Boyfriend, Keeper of Animé, Insanity, and Nintendo GameCube - U200779

ok so what about electric mowers, hand mowers, hover mowers, cylinda mowers, rotary mowers.

Then what about cutting in parrallel lines to produce a stripe effect. If you cut in sprial pattern with an electric mower you run the risk of mowing over the cable.

good start, but more work needed I feel.

This is pretty comprehensive for those with a large acreage and a petrol mower, but I think you could do with giving some advice for those with smaller lawns. As Sir Kitt suggests, you could explain the safety aspects of electric mowers, compare the advantages of cylinder versus rotaries, and you might explore the advantages of a roller for stripes.

How about strimmers for doing around the edges?

Why do you need to collect the cuttings if you have an expulsion mower? Can you not leave them on the lawn? Mind you, I do that with my rotary hover, and my lawn is pretty ropey - maybe that's why.

What's there is good, though - I think this could be the basis of a really comprehensive entry.

Never leave the cut grass on the lawn.

Don't mow in a spiral - it looks terrible unless it's done perfectly and you end up spinning on the spot even if you do it right.

For best results, mow round the edge in one long run to form a border in which to maneuvre. Empty the bag/box, then begin somewhere in the middle with a single run in one direction in as straight a line as you can manage. Turn the mower 180 degrees and overlapping as little as possible go back and do another one. Voila, two stripes (assuming you're using an even vaguely useful mower, i.e. not a cheap hover). If you've left it a long time, or your lawn is really big, you might need to empty the box/bag again already. In any case, make sure you empty it often - you don't want cut grass left on the lawn.

Now continue in that direction until you reach the edge. Return to your first stripe (the one in the middle) and work outwards again in the opposite direction.

Remember which direction you did the stripes. If you did them North/South, then next time you should do them East/West.

Remember also which direction you did the initial border. If this time you did it clockwise, next time do it anticlockwise.

Never leave cut grass on the lawn. I'm going on about this because it rots down a bit and forms a haven for weeds, fungi and other undesirables, as well as looking bad.

Don't put grass cuttings in a compost heap - they take a long time to rot and they're not very high in nutrients. A few are OK, but if you put ALL your grass on your heap, they'll overwhelm the other stuff (unless you keep cows or pigs or something...)

Edges are best done with manual clippers - strimmers, in my experience, make more mess than they're worth.

Do the edges *first*, and put the clippings on the grass where the mower will pick them up into the grass box.

I think about this too much, don't I?

H.

<< I think about this too much, don't I? >>

Far be it from me to concur

However, I will say this: Never say never

We don't all live in the arctic circle with postage stamp-sized/shaped gardens so, for some, the prospect of collecting lawn clippings is enough to stop them being clipped in the 1st place

Mulcher mowers are *designed* to reduce the clippings to a state where they are beneficial - they retain moisture, feed the soil and save time

For some 14 years I owned 25 acres ( 10+ hectares) in the northern coastal part of N.S.W. -- a bush block which I attempted to keep as natural as I could . However there was one longish area from the road to just below the house -- about one and a half acres , that I mowed to keep down the fire hazard, to provide a grazing area for the kangaroos. and to leave an open space for the grandchildren to play in.

I used a 50 cm rotary mower that provided wind-rows of cut grass , easily raked to provide mulch for my trees.

I could never make a good pattern , alas .

Just before I regretfully sold the place , I had thought of buying a ride-on , as the slope of the ground, though steep , was not dangerous.

I was put off by what happened to a neighbour, one of the many *alternate life stylers * who lived along our ridge road.
Like many of the dwellers there , he grew his own weed , and was perpetually stoned. This is NOT a condition in which to control a ride -on mower over some rough paddocks

He managed to tip it over , slice open a thigh , just missing the femoral artery , and losing a portion of his * masculinity *

I stuck to the trusty and efficient push-along rotary

Possibly you did not wish to know this

The 1994 (Football) World Cup was a great one for Lawnmowing... each of the many (16?) stadia used was mown in its own distinctive pattern - there were circles, diagonal stripes, zigzags, some with the centre circle or penalty box pickaed out in a contrasting pattern - you could tell where the match was being played just by looking at the grass.

It was something of a mowing epoch - previously, all you ever got was horizontal stripes.

I have no idea what Hover mowers are, and am ignorant of the difference between rotary and cylinder mowers. When I say move in a spiral, I don't mean a strictly one, just a shape that if you keep following the path of, you'll eventually end up in the centre. That should probably go in a footnote.

a hover mower (a common brand name is Flymow) is a mower with no wheels which derives lift from its rotary blade. I must agree that never leaving the clippings is a sweeping generalization. mulching mowers are also divided into two types: ones that bag and ones that leave the clippings behind (also known as recirculating). Did someone mention the term reelmower? The stripes people notice on playing fields and golf courses are generally produced with reelmowers as they leave a much more distinctly contrasting set of stripes than rotary mowers. This is a function of the rollers at the front and back of each reel which push the grass blades into something of a horizontal orientation. With each pass of the mower the blades of grass are made to point in the direction of travel. By going back and forth the blades point in opposite directions and so give conrasting shades of green depending on whether the observer is looking at the sides of the blades of grass or the ends.

I do this for a living. 140 acres.

Glad it is you and not I -- 140 acres -- whooofff !
Of course my meagre amount of grass ( in contrast to yours ) was rough stuff -- not soft lawn grass at all .
But it sure fed a lot of trees and through mulching changed a hard lumpy clay soil to something much more desirable over the 14 years I was mowing there
A neighbour lent me his * Beast * as he called it -- a large home-made cylinder mower -- self - propelling with handles like a wheelbarrow .
Nice gesture on his part , but indeed it was like controlling a buffalo ! He had it returned -- with thanks .
Best mower I had was a guest horse which had been injured when chased by dogs through a barbed wire fence and which the owner left to recuperate on my property.
Eat like a horse , they say !
I see the truth of the phrase . I would wake at midnight or even later to hear it still chomping away near the house . It liked company
Of course it paid its rent in fertiliser
.

There are also 'mulching' mowers which don't collect the clippings or expell them out the side - instead they go 'round and 'round inside the mower until they're finely chopped and then deposited on the lawn for fertilizing effect.

I alternate between mulching and bagging (since my push mower has both options). And my lawn looks pretty nice - except for my never-ending struggle to fight crabgrass and dandelions.

"they go 'round and 'round inside the mower
until they're finely chopped and then deposited on the lawn for fertilizing effect."

That's what I was meaning by "recirculating".

Ah, I'll go get my pants then.

Stoopid trans-oceanic language problems...

Just keep scrolling pretend you didn't see it.

Hazz.

this posting is just to get the entry back to where someone else might notice it.

Hang in there...


- X

On a safety tip, I think it's worth advising users of electric mowers to use a circuit breaker between the mower's plug and the socket - one of these babies will immediately cut the power off if you run over the electric cable, thereby neatly saving you from electrocution in the process.

Is it possible to accidentally start a petrol mower (I was thinking in particular of hover movers) by spinning the blade?

The more often you mow, the finer the grass will grow, so mow often and mow close...

H.

This entry is definitely coming along

I don't think it is entirely fair to say that hover mowers don't work particularly well! While this may be true for large, flat lawns where you may want stripes or something, it is certainly not true for gardens that are steeply sloping or have lots of levels. Here you need something that is light and manoeuvrable so you don't struggle to push up the slope or lift between levels.

Actually the need for a hover mower applies to the gardener as much as the garden - hovers are a lot easier to lift and push around for people that aren't terribly strong or fit. You can get fancy ones now that suck up the cuttings as you go so you don't need to rake afterwards.

Also, they tend to be relatively inexpensive.

As with most things it is horses for courses