Mowing the yard....Yuck

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phideaux

Old fashioned
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
19,538
Location
West Ky
What do yall use to cut the grass ?

I , for one, hate mowing with a passion,
On the other hand , my lovely bride, loves to mow.

That's cool...for me.

But I only use a Gravely HD60 Zero Turn that hauls butt, and gets things done in a hurry.

Together , we mow approx 10 acres , (way too much),
She has her own John Deere X500 48" for the hills,
Zero turn don't like hills,

Right now we are Mowing every Thursday, what with all the rain.

I wish I could pay someone to do my part..
IMG_3098.jpg

zt-hd-web.jpg


Jim
 
I have 5 acres, minus gardens, house, shop, camper, I probably mow almost 4. I use mowing. a Kubota BX 1860 with a 5' belly mower. Spent all day Saturday mowing. I've got other stuff that needs doing, like hoeing the weeds in my garden, but it is what it is. I may end up leaving about 1.5 acres to grow up and just bush hog a time or two this summer.
 
I spend about 40 minutes mowing, high density residential subdivision, under 1/4 acre. Stock photo, my mower is dirty and covered with grass clippings.

Don't like mowing, but it's the price of having a place to do with what you please.
honda-self-propelled-lawn-mowers-hrr216vka-64_1000.jpg
 
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We have concrete for a yard....I have to sweep leaves and fight off the evil stinging red carpenter ants...And take a machete to the jungle when it climbs over the fence line....



In our place in Michigan...we have about one acre that is open surrounding the house that is going to have to be mowed this august when we go back. So im already looking for a rider with a detachable deck so we can use it for a smaller tractor.
Im seriously thinking of getting goats and a sheep or two just to keep the grass and weeds down. Less work and food on the table in the fall.
 
I may end up leaving about 1.5 acres to grow up and just bush hog a time or two this summer.


Yes , we have decided to let some of ours grow up and cut back on the mowing,

I'm like Hashbrown, You work your tail off , and guess what... a few days ...and it starts all over...
I hate every minute of it also.

Nothing productive about it.


Just MHO


Jim
 
1/2 acre here and we use a Toro 4200
mower toro 4200.jpg
zero point turn and use sometimes a self propelled Toro 24" for smaller areas or garden work. We tend to poison around the fence lines and use a 62cc MTM backpack brush cutter with a swivel head we purchased and installed a metal head on it. It is a beast and we purchased it with the metal head for $235 and goes through anything. It is a Chinese knock off a Stihl.

Here is what it looks like -

mower mtm brush cutter 62cc.jpg


We do both our own yard and paid gardening jobs for bike velodromes and others properties on occasions.
 
Zero turn don't like hills,
Some ZTR's don't like hills. Mine climbs them like a goat.

If your ZTR doesn't like hills (because if you go sideways, it slides down or if you go straight up, it likes to lift the front end off the ground), change your approach to hit it at a 45° angle. At that angle, you won't slide down and at the same time, it's not straight up so the front of your mower won't lift up.
 
Mowing grass is the biggest waste of time and energy ever! I use a Skag Turf Tiger and Commercial Toro hydro walk behind with a sulky and hate every minute of it! We have the worst yard ever I mostly mow rocks....

I miss rocks.

We still use riding mower that is almost 20 yr old,it works fine. And our push one for tight spots.
 
Some ZTR's don't like hills. Mine climbs them like a goat.

If your ZTR doesn't like hills (because if you go sideways, it slides down or if you go straight up, it likes to lift the front end off the ground), change your approach to hit it at a 45° angle. At that angle, you won't slide down and at the same time, it's not straight up so the front of your mower won't lift up.
Mine is 24 HP Kawasaki.. climbs up hill like a goat , and at 45 deg goingup...no problem,

It's going downhill, steep, that the slide starts..:eek:


Jim
 
Some ZTR's don't like hills. Mine climbs them like a goat.

If your ZTR doesn't like hills (because if you go sideways, it slides down or if you go straight up, it likes to lift the front end off the ground), change your approach to hit it at a 45° angle. At that angle, you won't slide down and at the same time, it's not straight up so the front of your mower won't lift up.

Hi Zoom, nice to see you here. :thumbs:
 
We have 3 acres total minus trees,a few buildings and about 1/4 acre pond. All I have right now is a Simplicity 44" cut,18 HP Broadmoor lawn tractor. It takes about 3 hours to mow. I'd love to get a 50-60" Zero turn.at least a 44" anyway. We use to have a Craftsman 46" cut tractor too and between me and my wife both mowing it only took about 1 1/2 hours,but the hydro-drive went out of it and I haven't had the money to get another 1.
 
My 23 year old son, the eagle scout, cut my yard with his push mower & weedeater.
I loan him money & he works it off cutting my yard (at least I get a return).
 
If I could have my way, I wouldn't mow any grass. We had 1/4 of a block when I was a kid, and I did more than my share of mowing that, around trees, garden, and flowers. I have lots of raised beds in my own yard and have little to mow. Many things do not grow well here unless you heavily amend the soil, and that includes grass. The areas when I have amended really are the best part of my yard, but they are not planted in grass. When grass wouldn't grow in areas, I built raised beds and added amended soil and planted herbs and flowers. That was when the grass finally tried to grow there.
 
What do yall use to cut the grass ?

I , for one, hate mowing with a passion,


Jim
I never tried mowing with a passion.

I got a Sears riding mower with the house that does a good job. I just picked up the wife a 21" walk behind 36V Stihl thatseems pretty good. I'll reserve final judgement till we have used it a bit. The old gas mower doesn't want to start when it is hot and when you refill it you have to wait till it cools down and that tends to irritate her. Otherwise she likes mowing so a new electric cordless appears to be the answer.
 
Never used Ironite but don't have an iron issue in my lawn.

To green up my lawn, I use Urea (46-0-0 fertilizer). Apply just before it rains or it'll evaporate. After a good rain, it's absorbed into the soil. You can mow the next time it's dry enough to mow.

Dang. Just looked up Ironite. Doesn't look like very nice stuff.
From this article: https://www.gardenguides.com/132267-effectiveness-ironite-fertilizer.html
"Several studies of Ironite fertilizer found that it contains heavy metals, such as arsenic, lead and mercury in sufficient quantities to label it hazardous waste, based on standards set by the federal government,"

"Ironite isn't the only synthetic fertilizer that may contain heavy metals or industrial waste."

Also looked up pricing. Stuff is really expensive. Unless you have a known iron deficiency in your soil, I'd look at urea or 19-19-19 fertilizer.
A 30# bag of Ironite is $50 I don't see the sq/ft coverage. For that same $50, you can get about 250# of urea which is enough to do a couple acres of lawn. For crops, you only use 10-20# per acre.
 
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