Grass mowing time.

[Idaho45guy]

Seems this time of year it is impossible to keep up with the grass. I work 12 hour shifts, so can't mow until my days off. I can't believe how fast the grass grows! I'll mow my quarter acre lot with the push mower in about 2-3 hours. 3-4 days later, it needs it again. And if it happens to be rainy and windy on my couple of days off and I can't mow, then I'm screwed. Had a couple of sunny days in the 70's this week and when I left for work tonight, I noticed the grass in my yard was nearly a foot tall. Amazing!

When I lived in Iowa, I rented a house in the country on 5 acres of grass. I only had a pushmower and worked 10-hour days at the Maytag plant. I would come home and mow until dark for a couple of hours, then would do it again the next night. By the time in three days that I was done, the section I started on would need mowed again. It was crazy. The landlord had a really nice John Deere riding mower that he kept on the property but wouldn't let me use. He hated the grass getting tall and finally started mowing it and charged me higher rent.

[Elroy]

You should probably contract a teen ,or young adult to mow on a loose schedule for you.A fit male could knock a quarter acre out in very little time.Find one you trust,and let him use your mower,and weed eater,and tell him keep it mowed,and you will pay him accordingly.

[Gregorious]

You should probably contract a teen ,or young adult to mow on a loose schedule for you.A fit male could knock a quarter acre out in very little time.Find one you trust,and let him use your mower,and weed eater,and tell him keep it mowed,and you will pay him accordingly.

There are literally no kids, teens that cut grass anymore. The lawn services have sewn up the customers.

The kids today get more money from allowances and have no incentive to have the side jobs that we had. Unless you pay them $100.00 an hour.

Additionally, to my utter amazement, gasoline powered equipment is now looked upon as some sort of death machine, out to maim any and all foolish enough to mess with it. Forget the fact that many of us on this forum started cutting grass with a push reel mower around age 8 and ran farm tractors and hay baling equipment pre-teen.

Sad what we have lost as a society.

[Elroy]

Yea,You are probably right Gregorious. When I was a teen the boys all put up hay because most folks still square bailed..There are a lot of heavy set young people these days as well. I remember only a few heavy kids growing up,and they were probably like that because of genitics .I was in school with two brothers that were normal height,but probably around 300 lbs in highschool,and there Dad was the same way..Them boys waddled from side to side when they walked,but they were always first when we chose teams for kick ball because when they kicked the ball it was over the fence.LOL

[wildwilly501]

Whats the going rate now.Around here the Lawn Services were charging a dollar a minute.That was a couple years ago.Knew a guy that got a little more because he didn't use a zero turn

[RU shooter]

Sorta in the same boat as you 1/4 acre and working a lot , yeah this time of year the grass is growing like mad. I was hoping the inch of snow we had yesterday would kill it all ! The local lawn care companies around here charge about 40 bucks to cut weed whack edge the walks and blow off the clippings . I try to get it cut myself once a week at least the front yard anyways but when I fall behind I pony up the 40 and tell them to drop that deck till dirt flys . Told my wife we need one of those "las Vegas" yards we see on tv no grass and all sand and rock !

[Three44s]

Put up a netting fence and turn loose some “ball bearing mowers” ..... Sheep!

Three44s

[NyFirefighter357]

I have an acre , over the last 47 years I've mowed with push mowers, cheap garden tractors 36" mower, higher end garden tractors 48" mower & now an old 48" commercial walk behind. The walk behind mows well and pretty fast at about an hour. I use mulching blades but also a basket to pick up in the back yard to limit the grass being brought into the house or pool. Last years fall clean up was very easy as I just blew the leaves out of the flower beds and away from obstacles, mowed twice with the mulching blades & everything disappeared into the lawn to become fertilizer. I got it for free in good working condition and added a few tweaks. It was first used by a landscaper who sold it to his & my friend who used it for his acre until his hours increase so much his wife hired a landscaper. He gave it to me as I've helped them out several times and he didn't need it anymore. The new commercial machines have baffles around the blades to "trap the grass and allow the mulching blades to chop it very fine. I cut up an old Brinkman smoker that had the bottom rotted out and happened to be the right diameter for the baffles. After welding them in place I made a removable plate to block the chute. This time of year when the grass grows faster than I can mow, I remove the plate and allow the grass to discharge. This prevents those grass clumps as it disperses the grass abut 6-8ft. If I'm really feeling ambiguous I'll mow it a second time with the plate on and the clippings disappear. Because of the mulching blades even using the catcher for the entire yard isn't that bad as the grass gets chopped so fine it only need to be dumped about 6 times.

It's the edge trimming that gets me! I know a guy that had a commercial landscape company who would spray growth regulator where the lawn needed trimming, this kept his trimming down to 3 times a year but he also applied it 3 times a year. It's not cheap at $80 for 8oz but at a mixing rate of .5-1.5oz a gal water I could make 2 gals 3 times a year & that would be worth not having to trim often.

I was getting $25-$30 a lawn 30+ years ago here as a kid. Kids don't mow any more for several reasons. First they are lazy but also people don't want the liability & they want someone with liability insurance, also here as in many places you need a license to mow lawns. Average lawn is $50 a week to cut/trim here.

My mower is a Scag Clone with a 14hp Kawasaki engine, I need to get new belts and they should last me a very long time. I sharpen my own blades, do my own maintenance and repairs. I can't complain as I won't have $100 total in the mower. I do miss the tractor to pull my lawn cart.

This is before I cleaned it up, right after I got it.


This was my lawn yesterday.

[dragon813gt]

I absolutely hate mowing grass. I hate it just as much as shoveling snow. The South West looks very appealing since I would have do neither, elevation dependent. I honestly can’t believe people plant grass in the Phoenix area. Creating work for no reason

The weather here has been all over the place. I’ve only had to mow twice. Once it decides to stay warm I will have to cut it weekly. As much as I want a bigger area for my kids to play in. A postage stamp yard doesn’t take long to mow. Especially when a lot of it is a garden.

[lightman]

My Wife and I quit mowing ours a few years ago. She would ride the mower and I would do the weed eating, edging and what not. It would take us about an hour and it was another thing that we could do together. But when she got to where it was hard on her we started hiring it done.

[ascast]

I got 6 inches of snow Friday night. I suggest a Ferris mower, cost more but have higher resale. They are over built.

[Three44s]

I live in an arid region and like the fire break in the summer and no mud tracked into the house during the spring and fall. To me turf is less work than a lot of shrubs and flowers.

We cut our grass conventionally with a Hydrostatic Husky 46” and if we needed more mower we would get a zero turn. The clippings are staged to go in the garden each fall. It works and when it does not we will figure it out accordingly.

My wife drags home Scott’s Turf pro and it gives us the best turf I have worked with. Mow it once a week thus far. Hotter weather may cause us to up our game, but time will tell.

She started the Scotts fertilizer last year and the difference is night and day as the turf just gets stronger as time goes by. This season the lawn jumped when the fertilizer hit it as it has real momentum.

Three44s

[375supermag]

Hi...
I havemowed my yard a couple of times this spring so far.
The weather has been terrible as usual...too much rain, cool and windy. Not really normal for southcentral Pennsylvania.
We had sub freezing temperatures yesterday with snow flurries.
Once the weather warms up to normal averages, I be will be mowing once a week at least. My Cub Cadet gets a pretty good work out every spring and summer.

My son and I have been working at clearing some of my woodlot(about 1/4 acre) this spring. Lot of brush and junk trees to burn if I can get a day without windy conditions. We will need to figure out a way to get rid of some stumps later this year, either drill and burn or grind them. We'll see what method I decide to use.

[rockrat]

Mowed twice so far. Wife has a 42" deck on hers and I have a 54" on my little bigger JD. Did have a 60" on my old 420. Both of us mowing takes about 40 min as we have about an acre (not counting pasture)and lots of trees to go around. No zero turn mower, but 4 wheel steer.

Have a 4 ft. rotary mower for my Massey I use in the pasture. Just got the mower repaired as I burnt out the slip clutches and it was a pain to take apart as its probably 55 years old. Noticed mower yoke is bent a bit so might have to pull off the u-joint and heat up the yoke and straighten it as can't put the retaining clip in on the bearing cap. Did loctite it though. Used it yesterday and so far works OK.

[Gofaaast]

Been dry here so I just mowed the lateral field and a couple clover patches. Rain coming next week so the buffalo and bluestem will get a drink and need mowed in another week. I enjoy mowing especially when we have had rain and it’s not dusty. It’s dry most of the time though.

[Mk42gunner]

Mom has two lots in town and she was paying the neighbors' grandkids $25 to mow and weedeat whenever it needed it. Since she went in the nursing home; I have been cutting it this year with a small push mower in about 45 minutes, an hour if I use the weedeater.

At home in the country I spent a lot of labor to get my yard to where I can use a rider for just about everything. What I dislike is using about a gallon of gas every time I mow, I have a perfectly good Woods L59-K17 under a non running Kubota L175 and a good replacement tractor to put it under. It just needs time and good weather for me to mount it.

When I used the first Kubota it seemed like I mowed all year on less than ten gallons of diesel.

I have way to many projects, most of them important, and not enough time.

Robert

[Biggin]

I absolutely hate mowing grass. I hate it just as much as shoveling snow. The South West looks very appealing since I would have do neither, elevation dependent. I honestly can’t believe people plant grass in the Phoenix area. Creating work for no reason

The weather here has been all over the place. I’ve only had to mow twice. Once it decides to stay warm I will have to cut it weekly. As much as I want a bigger area for my kids to play in. A postage stamp yard doesn’t take long to mow. Especially when a lot of it is a garden.

I pray for hot dry summers so the grass will die and won't have to be mowed! Lol!

[Biggin]

PS if I didn't live in town I'd probably have goats.