Lets talk lawn mowers.

[MikeJhn]

Just mow a path through and that is a bamboo grove on the left, about 0.25A a murmur of Starlings roost in it every night during the season.

 

[leisurefix]

A strimmer. Buy / borrow one. Once the seeds are spread, even 'flattened' grass can be cut with patience (if it's not too large an area.)

Thanks for the suggestions. Mowing the paths I'm good at. I do have a petrol strimmer, but it (or perhaps I) is not good when the grasses fall matted to the ground, it is often wet as well by the time I do it in the autumn, maybe I leave it too long?. There is not a lot of land, so a tractor would be too big. Best I have found so far is long reach hedge trimming attachment & a rake. Was looking, or hoping for some ingenious solution.

 

[flying haggis]

get someone else to do it?..............

 

[SamG340]

Opp's that should have been clover, but climate change gave us the mildest winter in a decade.

Our winter was especially mild

 

[SamG340]

Thanks for the suggestions. Mowing the paths I'm good at. I do have a petrol strimmer, but it (or perhaps I) is not good when the grasses fall matted to the ground, it is often wet as well by the time I do it in the autumn, maybe I leave it too long?. There is not a lot of land, so a tractor would be too big. Best I have found so far is long reach hedge trimming attachment & a rake. Was looking, or hoping for some ingenious solution.

Rough field / rough cut mower

 

[dickm]

Wheeled strimmer. But don't get the Hayter one from some time in the 1990s with that ******** Tecumseh engine. Local community council has one and I reckon I've probably spent at least as much time trying to fettle that ******* engine as it has spent strimming.

 

[leisurefix]

get someone else to do it?..............

My wife did suggest getting an oiled topless bloke with a scythe!!!

 

[artie]

What opinions do you lot have about blades.

Bar v swing tip.

I'm leaning towards swing tip, but it does limit choice somewhat.

 

[Tris]

Used to find swing top useful when freelancing, never knew what might be lurking in someone's lawn so it was a bit more forgiving. Unless you've got some seriously uneven ground a straight blade should be fine. If you want a roller on it I'd look at Kaaz or the lawnflight mentioned earlier. Honda are good but I find the drive speed very slow. Hayter often struggle to fill the bag properly as the rear roller is a large diameter

 

[Tris]

Thanks for the suggestions. Mowing the paths I'm good at. I do have a petrol strimmer, but it (or perhaps I) is not good when the grasses fall matted to the ground, it is often wet as well by the time I do it in the autumn, maybe I leave it too long?. There is not a lot of land, so a tractor would be too big. Best I have found so far is long reach hedge trimming attachment & a rake. Was looking, or hoping for some ingenious solution.

It should be possible to hire a walk behind flail mower that will tackle that fairly easily, go steadily and watch for which way the grass is lying and you should get a good finish.
Alternatively strim or scythe in late August before it gets totally flattened, leave it to dry like hay and gather it up, most of the seeds will fall off the stems on this process and be left for wildlife

 

[flying haggis]

Used to find swing top useful when freelancing, never knew what might be lurking in someone's lawn so it was a bit more forgiving. Unless you've got some seriously uneven ground a straight blade should be fine. If you want a roller on it I'd look at Kaaz or the lawnflight mentioned earlier. Honda are good but I find the drive speed very slow. Hayter often struggle to fill the bag properly as the rear roller is a large diameter

the lawnflite I referred to above is the higher speed version so it travels across the ground quicker than the previous version (hence why I upgraded). As for the grass pickup if the grass is longer simply take a smaller "bite" ie don't use the full 21 in width just take half width slices. the second "pass" tidies up the remains of the first. That is quicker than having to stop and unclog the chute. The mower also has a blade brake so when you let go of the levers the drive and blade stop but the engine keeps running so you don't have to keep restarting.
As an aside to all this, years ago I had a summer job cutting grass with a contracting firm. One of the mowers they had (and my favourite) was an Australian make called Morrison with a single 36 in blade made of half inch thick steel. I took the corner off a cast iron manhole cover that was standing proud in some long grass and the mower didnt flinch!! It was also used on one job we tackled when the grass was over 6ft high and it coped albeit a bit slowly.

 

[pe2dave]

Thanks for the suggestions. Mowing the paths I'm good at. I do have a petrol strimmer, but it (or perhaps I) is not good when the grasses fall matted to the ground, it is often wet as well by the time I do it in the autumn, maybe I leave it too long?. There is not a lot of land, so a tractor would be too big. Best I have found so far is long reach hedge trimming attachment & a rake. Was looking, or hoping for some ingenious solution.

Stihl petrol strimmer at the luxury end.
(v.old) solution. Petrol driven, 3' wide "hedge trimmer" style blades at the front. Used to cut really tall grass on a scout camp site. Little could stop it. Lethal though. No idea what it was called.

 

[MikeJhn]

Probably an Alan Scythe, lots of reconditioned ones on e-bay.

 

[pe2dave]

Probably an Alan Scythe, lots of reconditioned ones on e-bay.

View attachment 138344

That's it. Lethal but oh so effective.
(More likely to be v.rusty/ blunt and still working That looks like a labour of love.

 

[MikeJhn]

Picture came from e-bay and on for an offer of £200.00

 

[Tris]

Or buy one of these unless you enjoy tinkering with old machinery

https://www.tracmaster.co.uk/products/bcs-615-crusader-power-scythe

 

[pe2dave]

Unsubtle price different @Tris !

 

[SamG340]

They're £50 a day to hire

 

[pe2dave]

They're £50 a day to hire

That sounds like (an expensive) solution,

 

[SamG340]

That sounds like (an expensive) solution,

Cheaper than £3,000 on a brand new one

£50 hire. Say he needs to hire one twice a year = £100, 30 years of hire would cost the same as buying a brand-new one.

Plus you've got to factor in maintenance cost, time and effort working on it, break downs, storage .. ect.

Obviously the cheapest way is to buy one second hand and do your own maintenance !