I have a small back lawn, it's very uneven. I'm thinking of buying a flymo hover but have heard reports of the motors burning out quickly. Are they any good?
They probably will do If you try and cut long or wet grass or buying a mower that isn't suitable for your size of garden. I could imagine that overloading the grass box, if it has one, will also put extra strain on the mower. Having said all that I only use a petrol Flymo
I've had two flymos, the first one lasted ten years, the current one is two years old. It's the one where the cable winds into the lid of the grass box which is handy. I do think they are a bit under-powered. They are fine if you don't want stripes, although you can achieve a partial effect by finishing with an "up and down" cut, but they a hard to keep in a completely straight line. What I like about them is that I've three paver circles around small beds which I've made level with the grass so I can run the machine over them. It's the same with the path on the right. I'm going to lay pavers along the long border this year so it will completely illiminate the need for "edging." I couldn't do it with the Ransoms cylinder mower I had before. The "imperfections" are the result of "squirrel activity." I can cut this lawn in "minutes."
Flymo's have had a terrible name for a while now, anything older than 10 years is fine but anything modern has very low grade build quality and really should be kept well away from damp lawns. Its also advisable to never let your lawn get to long if using a flymo just to avoid any extra strain on the motor. The one thing to always bear in mind when using any hover mower is that it WILL generate Moss & Thatch because of the principles it uses to hover on a cusion of air...... this cusion of air pushes the grass cuttings to the inner depths of your lawn where it then tries to strangle and kill off your fresh, lush green grass by stripping away any moisture before it has a chance to hit the soil. See www.jungle-busters.co.uk for great deals on Lawn Scarifiers!!!
I have an electric scarifier and I "scarify mine to death" a couple of weeks after applying a liquid feed weed and mosskill. I find the granular ones burn parts of the grass regardless of how careful I am with it. As for moss, well, I had a line of it along the main border last year which I could never cure in several successive years. So last year I just cut out it out and replaced it with a single run of good three good quality turves. Within weeks "you couldn't see the join" and it hasn't reappeared this year... so far,
