What mower should we buy for our large lawn?

My wife and I, in our late fifties and not gardeners, have suddenly inherited the maintenance of a large garden the main problem being the 1,000 m2 of grass. About 75% is made up of 3 largish and 2 small areas of rough, bumpy and often winding lawn, the remaining 25% I would describe as even rougher orchard grass. With a 41cm push mower (petrol, rotary), mowing takes about a tiring 3hrs. My question is what kind (type, blade width even make and model if you want) of mower should we buy to reduce the time and effort involved?

I've come across mulching mowers and wonder if they would provide part of the answer though I'm concerned about damp grass (we live in the Scottish Highlands so waiting for bone dry grass is hardly an option), and my wife about the possibility of trailing mulched grass into the house.

We're complete beginners and would welcome any help we can get.

Many thanks

 

get an etesia pro ... best mower in my honest opinion, and the one favoured by many pro landscapers .... self propelled and will pick up grass even in heavy rain

they are expensive new, but wait 3-4 weeks and buy a used bargain off ebay ... if it's too far to collect, get a man with a van to deliver (we had a 1940's vintage bicycle for my daughter delivered from wales to cambridge for £50)

send it in for a full service, and have a new blade fitted ... will cost you approx £100

but bear in mind, a new one can cost nearly £1500+ ... you can pick up a good used one on ebay for under £300 in a few weeks time

 

Thanks Dim. They sounds really good but living on the NE tip of Scotland, getting anything here is always difficult and expensive. Plus I'd rather buy something that could be serviced locally and their nearest service agent is a seven hour drive away. But I'll keep my eye on eBay and see what crops up. What size of blade would you suggest for our garden? 53 cm?

 

your garden is 1000 sq meters (1/4 acre) ... a larger blade will be nice, but not necessary as it will take a few minutes extra to mow, but make sure thatyou buy a self propelled mower

another good mower to look at is the old Hayter 56 or 48 pro mowers (not the new ones, as there have been many complaints) .... not as good as the Etesia (in my opinion), but does ok in wetter grass and gives stripes which the etesia does not

massport is also good ..... many mowers use the same engines such as Briggs and Stratton/honda/kawasaki, so most/all mower service centres will have the spares and the knowlege to service them

if you have many curves in your garden, a larger mower may be difficult to manouever

if there are few curves, consider a sit on mower? .... but be careful as some that have grass catchers/boxers do not work well in the wet

as for basic servicing, it's actually dead easy .... change the plug every few months (costs under £4) .... drain and change the oil on a regular basis (30hrs of mowing), oil all the joints, sharpen and balance the blade once a season, and replace the airfilter on a regular basis (or wash it)

in winter, drain the oil and petrol ...

if the machine smokes, change the carburetter diaphram (costs approx £12) and takes 10 minutes to sort

any other maintenance is a bit more complex and may need professional servicing

if you are looking at new, here is a good site that will be you an idea on prices:
Lawnmowers from Lawnmowers Direct ? Cylinder Mowers, Rotary Mowers

 

Thanks Dim. A sit-on mower wouldn't work because of the inaccessibility of some areas of lawn.

Our local garden centre are agents for Hayter, John Deere and Mountford (currently we're using a 24 year old Hayter 41) and I was looking at Hayter's R53 as a possibility but as you say turning a larger machine is more difficult. But what are your thoughts on mulching, even a dedicated mulcher. Do they cope with damp grass and is there a danger of mulched grass being walked into the house? I was interested in John Deere's Mulcher which has front caster wheels for manouverability.

 

Mike, I'm not really a fan of mulching all the time if I can help it (perhaps once or twice in the season is OK for me) .... but I'm no expert and am sure others will comment favourabily

however, as far as muching is concerned, it will save you time emptying the grass box

there are mowers which have a mulching function aswell as normal cutting/collecting, that will give you the option to either mulch, or to pick the grass cuttings up

 

this snippet from another forum in the USA as regards mulching wet grass:

snip:
I've NEVER found ANY mower that would mulch wet
grass. An accumulation of wet grass under the deck
prevents it from happening and bogs the mower down
eventually choking it out. It just isn't good. I've
used Snappers, with a Ninja blade, Ariens, Toro,
Lawn Boy with mulching blades, Gator blades, etc...
and ALL...the same result with wet grass. Don't mean
to be so negative with your topic, but....it's just
my experience when trying to mulch wet grass.

------------------------------------

don't know how true it is, but research properly before spending

 

Thanks. That's helpful. Have you anything to add regarding choice of mower based on the roughness/bumpyness our lawns especially the orchard areas?

 

This mower looks like a good compromise, a mulcher that allows optional bagging (for wetter grass maybe) and castor wheels for easy turning. John Deere JS63VC Petrol 4 Wheeled Rotary Lawn Mower.

 

like I said earlier, and based on my own experience, the Etesia Pro would be my 1st choice of mower, as it can pick up grass that is wet and is self propelled ... and gets good reviews by landscapers

as far as the bumpiness, raise the mower height in those areas, and it should be fine

if you intend buying new, ask the garden centre / lawnmower supplier for a demo on a few mowers and see which one does best for you ... you could also hire a mower for a day to try it out before comitting

here are the specs of the etesia pro 46 (there are larger models available) ... for a few extra pounds, you can buy the mulching kit/attachment aswell
Lawnmowers PRO 46 PHTB | Etesia mower

 

Thanks Dim for all your help!!

 

pleasure and good luck!

 

Hi Mike,

You are definitely going to want to stick with a petrol powered lawn mower and I think you have two basic options.

1) Get a self-propelled mower that takes the strain may shave some time off
2) Get a lawn tractor / ride-on mower to really speed things up

I think you will want to get a mower that can both mulch, so you need to feed it less, and also collect so you aren't building up too much thatch and organic matter on the lawn but most of the decent petrol mowers will do this and certainly all the tractors and ride-ons will.

Best of luck - Jack.

 

have been on the look for a mower for myself lately and have been looking on ebay these have around the same HP as etesia pro and dont carry the high price.

20" Petrol Lawnmower Self Propelled Mower Stripe Mulch | eBay

BMC Petrol Mower Self Propelled 5.5HP BIG20 Wolf Engine | eBay