Push mow or ride???

[Memmey]

:) Do you push a lawn mower? do you mow or your significant other? How much do you have to mow? Mulch mow or side toss? How often and what day is mowing day? Do you mow on a diagonal? OK just how green is your grass???LOL:D

[RoseMary]

I don't even like to think about this question:( ! We ride and push--have a push weed-eater. We are supposed to be taking care of (mowing) about 5-7 acres but it usually gets the best of us by July or so. I'm usually not too disappointed when the drought hits and everything turns brown. I just water my flowers then. All the mowed grass is side-tossed. This place still needs so much work on the landscaping that it is really sad. I usually do the ride mowing and hubs does the push, though sometimes we trade. Every year it seems our entire summer is dedicated to mowing the grass:mad: !

[Lisa S]

Good questions! I bought myself a riding lawn mower a few years back. I really gotta kick outta drinking a very cold beer on a very hot day while mowing the lawn.

But then... I felt like I was missing something. Exercise, probably! I got a newer gas, push lawn mower, (my only criteria was that it started every time.) and I'm a much happier camper.

I always start with a plan on how to mow, but usually just end up going in circles and back tracking. Probably the beer... just kidding! No organized diagonals at our house.

We've got about an acre but only 1/3 of that needs mowing. In the summer, our grass is the deepest, softest green. I mulch in the bag and toss the clippings in my compost pile when I'm done.

My favorite time to mow is in the evening while my husband is cooking steaks on the BBQ. Nothing beats the smell of fresh cut grass and steaks! All the neighbor kids decide it's a good time to visit around then. We light the candles in the outdoor chandelier, pull out the marshmallows and everybody's happy.

I am SERIOUSLY missing summer! :p

[Memmey]

fresh cut grass a good bath to remove mowing funk ,b.b.q and torches at dark it doesn't get any better than that, oh yeah it's saturday and you can sleep in and coff ee the next morning walking the yard admiring the flowers That is living!!!

I'm with you on that Lisa!!

[Lisa S]

Coffee outside on the weekend. Wonderful!

[Lynzee]

I don't care how or when it gets done as long as BPG does it and it gets done. :D My job is to supervise and provide the cold beer! :D

[administrator]

OK, as the admin, maybe I'm not supposed to have an opinion, but I love my push reel mower. You know, the ones without an engine. I used to get snide remarks from the neighbors about getting a workout, but after I offer to let them take a few rows with it, they're sold. It's easier to push than my power mower, quiet, never runs out of gas, and beautifully sheers the top of the grass. I do have a tiny 1/5 of an acre yard and I cut once a week with one of the new lightweight mowers.
Rex

[Memmey]

go ahead Rex...LOL

[LisaS144]

We hire it out!

Trust me, getting hubby to agree to it took a long time. He loves his yard but I just couldn't see him continuing to spend so much of his weekend doing it. Now its a pleasure to come home from an early Sat. morning baseball game to a freshly mowed lawn.

Hubby by nature is a (thrifty) do-it-yourselfer but every spring I have to convince him again that it is so worth it.

[RoseMary]

That's the way to go, LisaS! Seriously, I know I sounded a bit grumpy on my post yesterday, but we have so much that we are supposed to take care of that it can get overwhelming. It is not very enjoyable. We sometimes surmise that we only stay because my parents are older and live next door and need someone close.

[Chyna]

About time you came on here with an opinion Rex! :D We have a push mower but dh is notorious about waiting until it is swallowing small animals to go out and mow. Drives me insane and we don't even have all that much grass! He also keeps putting off taking it in and getting it fixed. I would love to get one of those push it yourself old timey mowers and for the amount of lawn I have it would make so much more sense. It is just the funds that are stopping me, you'd think it would be cheaper since there is no engine!:rolleyes:

[Lisa S]

Rosemary,

You didn't sound grumpy! What I didn’t say: I'm pissy about the huge brown spot left over from the pool last summer. You know, the place that my husband PROMISED he would over seed after the pool came down. And the fact that I had to go out in a torrential rainstorm and cut apart the algae filled swamp after a certain someone couldn't be convinced that we should take it down yet. And then lug all the stinky pieces to the front of the property so we could toss them in the trash...

I used to fight with my husband to get him to mow the lawn. I decided that I'd "learn to love" mowing it myself. I actually do love it now. And if he cooks ~ all the better!

[RoseMary]

I would really like to plant one of those 'meadow gardens' that you only have to mow once or twice a year--once, I think. Has anyone on here ever planted out a place like that? I'm thinking I could put in a couple of those:p and then those huge places would be taken care of. I saw in a magazine where a man always planted his front yard in sunflowers so he wouldn't have to mow it. I'm afraid that if I did that, weeds would just grow up among the sunflowers and it would not look good at all.

[Chyna]

I have a plot of sunflowers and the weeds tend not to grow in there because the sunflowers block out the sun. ;) The ones I got are from Gurney's and was from the giant sunflower series. You can pick individual plants if you'd like and best part is that you only have to buy the seed packets once because those huge mammoths produce more than enough for the following year as well as for the birds. I'm changing the make up of it this year and going to make a grass strip to a middle part for my dd to lay on and watch the butterflies/clouds. Should just do it on the part that we haven't reseeded yet and the grass is borderline weed patch, then she could have alot of sunflowers. I think I'll do that. :p

[Memmey]

RM get the forestry people to come and plant trees and then you could sell them and have a cottage (LOL) industry in trees. OH Oh christmas trees!!! :rolleyes: Not helping huh?;)

[Memmey]

I have to push mow my property, it's almost an acre, I don't necessarily like doing it but I want it to be somewhat pretty for me not so much anyone else. I really enjoy sitting on the porch and admiring it when it's done. I'm a one woman mutual admiration society. Oh yes by the way I'm dead Fred when I'm finnished. I mow my front grass on the diagonal to show off..LOL:p :D

[RoseMary]

You have more energy than me, Mem, LOL! Actually I don't want to plant any trees, Mem--we live in a National Forest area--too may trees already! But we did consider a Christmas tree farm at one time. I'm really going to work hard this year to change up some of our landscape--almost anything would be an improvement.

We had an ice storm in 2001 and it did a lot of damage around here--so many big trees had to be cut. I didn't mind cutting the pine but it killed out most of our elm trees, one of them was really beautiful before that storm. Thankfully, our big Water Oaks came through okay--lost a lot of limbs but they have recovered and look good.

[dedavis]

When I was married, we lived in a couple places with big yards. We were eccentric about mowing (with a gas-powered mower). One of our fun things to do was create a maze in the spring by mowing pathways. We'd keep the path mowed and let the grass grow up. My favorite was a big spiral with river rock hidden at the center. Visiting kids loved, and so did our cat. One year, my husband rototilled the circle and planted a spiral of corn, and let pumpkins trail through it. That was fun too.

Now I have a smaller yard, and don't want to be a slave to grass. I'm tearing it up and putting in perennial beds and raised vegetable beds. I'm keeping a few patches of lawn and am interplanting clover, english daises and yarrow. They are more drought-tolerant than grass and I like the texture. There's one place where wild strawberries are growing, and violets. This year I'll be mowing with a push reel mower, which I love to use. I understand that gas mowers are big polluters, so I'll be glad to not have to tinker with the gas engine.

Deb

[RoseMary]

I loved your ideas, Deb. We are definitely looking for ways to mow less. I suggested concrete but hubs didn't seem too keen on it, LOL! The meadow garden is still something that I want to pursue at some point. I think you have to keep the area covered for one season to kill out all the grass. You can use newspaper or plastic. Either way, my mom is going to come out of her house and have a cow:eek: when she sees it! But, I figure she could live with it for a season.

We are wanting to put in some raised beds for vegetables and strawberries, which will take up some space. Time and money are a problem, of course. I still think that I might plant a big patch of sunflowers (like Tanya did) and see if the weeds grow in it or not. I want to enjoy our outdoor area, not dread going out there. Hopefully, this year at least some of it will be different.

[dedavis]

Rosemary, do you have to irrigate to keep your grass alive? That's as much a pain as mowing.

Some of my books have nice pictures of gravel gardens, and I'm going to try that this year. I did a wildflower meadow one time with one of those cans of seeds, with mixed success. There were a lot of weeds, and you have to baby the plants the first year with watering and weeding. I just don't have time for that in the summer. Now I'm using certain wildflowers in areas where I want plants but not much work. They reseed themselves. White california poppies and mountain garland clarkias. I ordered from Larner Seeds--they have all kinds of wildflowers.

I did a lot of research on raised beds before finding a good plan in Sunset magazine. When the snow melts, I'll take a picture.

Deb

[RoseMary]

I'll be interested to see your pics of the raised beds, Deb. My husband is very keen on putting some in.

Yes, there are a lot of weeds in the meadow garden--I think that covering the area for a time with plastic, before you plant, is supposed to help keep weeds from sprouting up as much. No, we don't irrigate--we mow over 5 acres and it would just cost too much (and, we'd have to mow more!) Out in the open, the sun can get so scorching hot that it doesn't matter if you water, anyway. I would have to plant a lot of drougth tolerant plants as well as grasses out there.

I am still ruminating on the whole thing. This year, I may just go for big patches of sunflowers.

[Jilliebean]

We have a riding lawnmower and it's one of my favourite things to do for "me time" in the summer months. Hubs and I have been together since we were teenagers and I remember him being a little eccentric about mowing, too, when his parents were out of town. He'd mow a racetrack into the front lawn and invite his friends over with their mowers for a little race. He'd also mow his nickname into the back lawn. We still hold lawnmower races to this day. Each year we have a Survivor weekend where friends camp out in our backyard and we hold crazy events for bragging rights. It's always a blast.

[Lisa S]

What fun!

[Chyna]

How about rock gardens with native plants? Or are you the one I'm supposed to be donating rocks too? I do like the idea of gravel or some sort of rock but remember that gravel gets hot in the sun and with your summers that could become uncomfortable. :( You could always do garden rooms, one with a maze and grass, another of rock and so forth. maybe make a bocci court, that is one of the problems with gardening...there are too many ideas out there. :D

[dujoan]

I've been thinking of getting one for trimming and the hills that the rider can't do safely--My question is: Does your lawn need to be really level for it to be easy to use? Think it's a great thing to think about as far as the environment goes too!

[Memmey]

I'm not sure, our administrator has one maybe he will post for you.

[gigiG]

Since we don't have fainting goats, horses, cows, or sheep we have to mow about 5 acres. We have a farm tractor, that the hubby uses. It takes about 6 hours, another 1-2 to trim. I am going to need lots of advice from all you "cottage sisters" about some landscaping tips. I had mentioned, I hate bugs, BUT love flowers. With all the acreage, the flowers I planted seem kinda lost, so I need to work on some "focus" areas. I usually put some flowers on my porch to add coloring to the scape....;) Oh- we do push around the backyard pool because we didn't make the gate large enough to fit the tractor. Bright, I'd say :cool: I will post some pics if I can dig some out, and perhaps you expert in the "yard" department can give me some tips! Love to hear about the all the flowers, etc...

[RoseMary]

gigi, I have the same problem. There is just too much yard for me to work with. When I try to plan anything it just seems overwhelming. Like you, I am trying to plan some little flower areas with maybe a small water feature of some sort to make the area stand out.

When I go out and look at the yard it just seems to go on forever with no border at all on two sides until you hit the woods area--the other two bordered by the road and a 3 acre pond. Sometimes it is just overwhelming to look at and I get discourged and just don't do anything except mow.:( There is about 15 acres to look all around you until you get to the woods border--and it takes forever to mow all of it!

[gigiG]

Make sure the mower has a safety feature that will stop the blades if the tractor is upset... very important.

I've been thinking of getting one for trimming and the hills that the rider can't do safely--My question is: Does your lawn need to be really level for it to be easy to use? Think it's a great thing to think about as far as the environment goes too!