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

HVL,

I thought it was better to leave the grass slightly long when the weather is dry so it doesn't dry out and go brown (or require litres and litres of water on it every day).

That is what my dad told me, of course he may have just been using that as an excuse to cut it less often

ooh, good point. I forgot to mention watering. One of the reasons English lawns are as good as they are with (relatively) little effort is that they get p**sed on from a great height so often.

It's true you should mow often, but I did forget to mention that you should water a lawn thoroughly as well - even if it's rained recently.

Of course, all this assumes you *want* a lawn that looks like a bowling green. If all you want is a patch of green stuff, you don't need to follow this advice so closely, but then again if that's all you want you might as well just put down some astroturf...

H.
Just off to mow my lawn. (really, I am.)

Still no mention of the difference between cylinder and rotary mowers. This, I would suggest, is the most significant difference between types of mowers and must be addressed in such an entry.

Hover mowers derive their lift from a fan above the cutting blade not from the blade its self. They are in effect small hovercrafts and are highly manoeuvrable as they can be move sideways as well as forwards and can be swung in arcs etc. They cut as effectively as any small rotary mower. I dont think you can say "they don't work particularly well" with justifying that statement or running the risk of being sued!

When using an electric mower you should start at the side of the lawn nearest the power outlet and work towards the other side to avoid the risk of running over the cable.

SK

It's horses for courses, I think. We used to have a hover mower and a rotary one... the hover was much easier to manouevre and better at longer grass, particularly the first cuts of the spring. Once we'd got it down to a suitable length, the rotary did give a much better finish.

Sir Kitt beat me to it (again) the first division between mowers I'd make is cylinder or rotary.

If people want striped lawns they want a cylinder mower with the rollers (as mentioned earlier in PR convo), if they merely want to cut the grass the simpler rotary mower does the job. You'll never get a rotary mower giving lasting stripes because of the way it cuts them, bending the grass blades every which way as it scythes through them.

Personally I finish the lawn edges with a strimmer.

Pimms

On from Post 23: "However, they don't work particularly well."

I think that's a bit ripe. If you've got a lawn more suited to bobsleigh than cricket, then the hover is a lot less bovver. You just stand at the crest and swing it across the embankment in an arc.

Although there may be validity in an argument that that may not be a "lawn" that you're mowing.

DMT

Good comments, thanks everybody. Oh, and you can't start a petrol mower by spinning the blade because you need to first pressurise it and then pull the ripcord to start an internal combustion sequence. Could someone please fill me in on the physical difference between cylinder and rotary mowers?

I believe what is meant by cylinder mower is what I would call a reel mower. It's the kind that has a series of spiral blades that move against a bed knife. the rotation of the mower is about a horizontal axis perpendicular to the direction of movement of the mower. A rotary mower is one in which the blades rotate about a verticle axis; this type will cut no matter what the direction of movement (hence the ability to swing a flymo on the end of a rope to trim steep highway embankments.)

If I'm wrong about the identity of cylinder mowers and reel mowers than I haven't got a clue what a cylinder mower is. Unless it's what we call a hammer blade mower . . .

Hammer Blade Mower?

I knew I shouldn't have mentioned that. You don't see them very often any more and they're definitely not for home use. Sometimes I see them being towed by a tractor cutting the course grass along highways. They're basically an axle with dozens of usually T-shaped blades connected to it with chains. The axle spins at a ridiculous rate, the blades snap to the end of the chains and thrash the he** out of anything that gets in their way. They aren't neat but you can mow through anything, they're easy to maintain, and they're fast! again, horizontal axis of rotation, perpendicular to direction of travel. I don't know whether you really need to mention them.

sorry, "course" should be "coarse"

Cylinder mowers are as per the excellent description above. You can get electric or petrol ones, or you can get unpowered ones that you just push along and the act of pushing powers the blades via a system of gears. My grandmother maintains two tiny lawns to the standard of a bowling green using a manual cylinder mower which she regularly dismantles and oils...

Rotary mowers can be hover-type or they can be wheeled.

Cylinder mowers achieve the "stripe" finish because they cut blade-on-blade in the manner of scissors and always in the same direction, plus they're often fitted with quite a heavy roller.

Rotary mowers cut like a scythe and in all directions, but *can* do stripes, if they're fitted with rollers (mine can, anyway), but they're not the long lasting nap-of-a-snooker-table like ones you can get with a cylinder.

Hope that helps...

H.

Yes, very much. It may be a couple of days before i get round to updating it, though.

Here's a link for those of you who are really, really, really into your lawns: http://www.wctaturf.com/

and lest you think that it is only appropriate to a limited geographical area, it's actually for grass growing from sea level to very high altitudes and from high rainfall areas to near desert. Of course, there's probably much more here than the average homeowner needs.

> Hover mowers derive their lift from a fan above
> the cutting blade not from the blade its self.

Are you sure about this

I've used (and serviced ) quite a few hover-mowers that have all derived their lift courtesy of the blade

Perhaps as there is much debate on the best direction/pattern/sequence, etc of mowing you could structure it a bit differently to explain what kind of results each mower gets and the best means of achieving those results. It would basically contain all the same information, but organize it in a way that would make the best use of that information.

For instance you could organize it by lawn type (since that would be the most relevant information to a reader, someone with a small lawn won't have much use for tips about maintaining acreage) and go on to suggest which kinds of machines and what methods would produce what kinds of results.

A bit of intro before the first section could outlay the focus of your entry, then the sections could address large, average, and small lawns, and whether a rider, rotary, cylinder or hover mower would achieve the best results. Or you could go the other way around and break it up by types of mowers and tell which lawns they work best on and how to achieve the best results. On reflection this is somewhat how you have it laid out now, only it combines the equipment and method sections a little more fluidly.

As for content, you may want to include a word about wearing boots or long trousers when mowing as the rapidly spinning blades are likely to send debris hiding in the grass flying.

As it stands it seems to be potentially a fantastic article with lots of information... it just doesn't seem to be thorough enough yet.

And, of course, feel free to disregard any of this as you see fit

Yes add something about protective footwear / trousers when using a mower. I have heard anecdotes about quite nasty accidents when something like a bit of stone is thrown out at speed by a fast spinning blade.

Safety first!

Pimms

I have to agree, Pimms. I could tell anecdotes about quite nasty accidents when something like a bit of stone is thrown out at speed by a fast spinning blade. I kept my teeth. That was probably due to the tree.

eh? This sounds like a quite extreme mowing incident , or possibly something else entirely

Pimms

In a nutshell: golf ball lurking; ejected by deck of Toro 325-D (driven by me); ricochet off the knotted roots of a poplar; ricochet off my upper lip (dead centre). I first saw it after it hit me. Boots and pants wouldn't have helped me. Also, never try to change the front right tire of a Toro 325-D in the field without first removing the deck. But that's another annecdote. (I kept my hand.)