posted on Jun, 1 2013 @ 11:08 PM
I have a difficult, and very costly dilemma. I live on a 5 ½ acre lot, but I only cut about ½ acre of it regularly. The area that extends beyond the
living area around my house is extremely difficult to maintain. I live 6 miles out on a dirt road in the middle of the country. No professional lawn
company will agree to provide me with mowing service. They say in the time it takes to get their equipment to my property they could have mowed 3
other lawns. Even when I offered to pay double, they claim it is cost prohibitive. I go through 2 power mowers a year and that isn’t including the
shop time. It is too uneven for a riding mower, a bush mower works but I can’t get one out here on a regular basis.
I bought a little Scotts 14” turf reel mower for cutting the grass at a rental property that has a front yard ½ the size of a postage stamp. It was
the only thing that made sense when the power mower had bitten the dust and the Code people where giving me grief about the grass. I made an amazing
discovery. It worked great on the small lot. It is easy to transport, just throw it in the trunk, no gas fumes to deal with while driving or while
using it. Plus it does the job in the amount of time it normally took me to lug the power mower out of the trunk, and to get it started.
Earlier today I had a sudden, brief lapse into insanity. It has rained for over a week. My yard that I hadn’t mowed in 3 weeks was beginning to look
threatening. My power mower had made it’s last trip to the repair shop and I was having a horrible tug of war with deciding what to buy for tackling
my ongoing money pit of a yard. I even tried just letting it go back to nature, but after a year I was drowning in kudzu and it was starting to wrap
me in a depressive blue funk. So after dropping another ridiculously huge amount of money, I had it cleared. With the rain it sprung to life with what
started out as a beautiful green carpet but is fast becoming a burgeoning green nightmare of a monster. So maybe that is what planted the insane idea
of taking my little David of a mower out into that vast jungle. And I was stunned! It worked! Of course it wasn’t a cake walk, but I think if I had
a larger, heavier push mower, I may actually be able to manage my lawn with the push mower!
I need one that is not as hesitant with the grass that grows in little clumps and is very thin. Of course I have large areas of weeds of every variety
that grows in South Florida, and anywhere else on our planet, it seems. My yard is a perfect test field for the push mower. I have almost every green
growing thing, almost every type of soil and out here in rural south Florida, temperatures that run from searing inferno to ice crystals on my pond.
So what do you think? Is this really doable or have I really completely lost my mind. If even remotely doable, what would be the best reel mower to
even attempt this massive feat? I love walking, being outdoors in the woods and God knows I need the exercise. I don’t plan to do it all at one
time and I have a couple of young ones that come over on Saturdays that I keep busy, so I have a couple extra pair of arms and legs.
Can we do it?