Why I loathe mowing

I mow because the city says I have to. There is zero joy in it.

I've had ample time to ponder the inefficiency of mowing while making lines in my 5 acres...

What I decided as a solid fix to mowing would be sprinklers...  no not those sprinklers, a high pressure water jet system with fertilizer pellets as the cutting aggregate.  You'd get cut, fertilized, and watered all in one quick button press!

All the neighborhood cats wouldn't have feet, but it's a small price to pay.

My brother and I each had to mow about 1/2 acre (dad divided the area along a fence line).  Push lawn mowers and hand trimming along the fences with a sickle.

Eventually we talked dad into self propelled riding mower. 

 I resurrected an old one buried at the back of our barn, against my dad's wishes but I was handy with engines by the time I was 11 so he relented.   This was the old fashioned type with a little trailer behind it to sit on.

He also bought a used one that was breaking all the time.      We each go $2.00 a week.     By the time we were teenagers we had to work in the tire shop so they had to hire someone to cut the grass.  That cost $50/week.   We was robbed.

I prefer this kind of mowing. 

Give me a tractor, an 8' bush hog, a field, and a pretty day. I can spend hours just tooling around. The smell of fresh grass and fresh air is like aromatherapy. So relaxing. 

I like the tooling around on a tractor while listening to podcast aspects. Unfortunately I discovered that my hay fever appreciates the grass we've got out here much more than what we had out West, and attempts at mowing usually end with a massive sneezefest and itching eyes for several days.

I pay someone .

I'm on a mission to mow less. I think a quote for our house was $40/week, and when I do it it's about an hour, plus I push mow so part of me refusing to pay someone is I get the free exercise.

However, I'm looking to replace large areas of lawn with different things that do not need mowed. Ground cover plants like moss or low growing leafy stuff, mulched areas, trees etc. Part of our issue is the volume of leaves we get in the fall is crazy. So rocks and pavers aren't great as they just become rocks and pavers under dirt and weeds after about 2 years.

I think if you could find some really low maintenance ground cover plants you could market them to millennials and become a millionaire.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Look into micro clover. We've got some in places in a mix with grass and it stays pretty low.

City lot - 45 minutes a week in the summer with a battery mower and trimmer 

Put me in the loathe camp.

If the city rules didn't force me to keep it mowed, it would look like a hay field. Which would not doubt piss off my front neighbor who has a lawn so perfect, that my kids thought it was artificial when we moved in.

If I could, I'd hire some cheap border-hoping laborers to do it, but alas, I'm Canadian.

Mowing sucks, but without access to those nice toxic- waste weed killers, whats the point? it looks like E36 M3 anyway. To me lawns are like so many things today, all feature and no benefit. I keep eyeballing the fake turf as a way out of it but I don't think the city will allow it as it is seen as the same as paving the lot.

In reply to Indy - Guy :

We have 2 acres. We'd need more than a couple goats. And a fence. That's a lot of fence. 
 

the wife used to help me the first few years. We had a pair of craftsman 42" mowers. It would take us 3-4 hours. One person was a minimum 4 hours. In 2008 we bought the worlds fastest mower, a 50" Dixie Chopper.  That went from 4 hours to under 2. The wife flat refuses to even get in the dixie because it doesn't have pedals or a steering wheel. So since 2008 I have been the only Person to mow our yard. Every couple weeks I need to spend an hour trimming as well. 
 

so I already have a faster mower. 

Oh and my allergies that came about as I turned 40 have made it worse. 

Toyman! said:

I prefer this kind of mowing. 

Give me a tractor, an 8' bush hog, a field, and a pretty day. I can spend hours just tooling around. The smell of fresh grass and fresh air is like aromatherapy. So relaxing. 

 

 

Wait another couple of weeks and that's a picture of harvesting instead of mowing.

I have no opinion on this. 

I'm in a minority here, but...

I grew up in suburbia and push mowing made me money for comic books, D&D stuff, Doritos, and soda. (pushing a walk-behind gas mower).

After I had my own house I was pretty proud to maintain the look, but it was more and more of a hassle. 

In our new place, I have almost 2 acres and have landscaped it so that I can get away without weed whacking most of the time. (kids playset, other spots aren't mulched, but that might become an option). Mowed it myself for 5-6 years, then have had my own kids paid to do it (not a lot) and 2 traditional riding mowers haven't held up well. 

Last year, paid a kid a lot more to mow my yard because our mower was broken. 

2021, bought a 54" zero-turn and can do the whole thing in just over an hour. Roughly half the time it used to take, cut the way I want (the kid last year... well, it wasn't his yard, so it was cut, but that's about all). We are using the yard for more outdoor activities and have a good portable volleyball / badminton setup that plays well on the grass.  For an hour or so a week, I can listed to what I want and make the place look nice. Works for me. 

And for what I was paying a year before, the mower is about 4-5 years worth of paying to have it mowed. So, less expensive in the long run. Looking better right away. And I get some sun & a bit of exercise.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

You aren't wrong, that's corn on the other side of the tree line. It's more than a couple of weeks from harvest in this shot, but not by a lot. 

I didnt grow up mowing - my dad didnt enjoy it so he didnt own a mower, just paid somone to do the yard. Still does, actually.

But once I bought my home I needed to mow. Sadly, the week I bought my house my grandfather passed away - he loved his John Deere and when my grandmother offered to give me his I was smitten with the opportunity.

Mowing gives me a once-a-week time, guaranteed, to think of him and how much he enjoyed mowing too. And, as others stated, just zone out a bit, listen to music, not deal with other stuff.

We have a sloped acre. Lots of ledge and very clay like under the grass. Started with a riding mower, then moved to a powered walk behind bacause the ride on would sink in in the spring because the yard takes too long to drain. I now only mow twenty feet out from the house and just the fenced in rear yard for the dogs. I let mother nature do the rest.

I. Hate. Mowing. In my opinion it's one of the stupidest things humans do. It's all the fault of suburban growth after the war and trying to one up neighbors. Such a waste of time.

Our yard is about 100-ish years old. Lot of the grass is old school reseeds itself if it gets too long super thick grass that'll grow 2 inches because of dew. Lots of trees to mow around as well. 
 

I didn't mind it as a kid but you never stopped. With two houses (rural) and a cemetery as soon as you were done you started all over again. It was tedious but at least for those first few years the wife helped. The last 13 though have gotten old. It's not fun. The yard isn't smooth and our Dixie has no suspension so it's rough on the body. Allergies kick my butt and to top it off, I'm a ginger. The last vestige of vampires incarnate. We hate the sun. 
 

yeah. If the wife wasn't making a career change I'd likely would have sold the mower and found someone to pay damn the costs. 

I have just under half an acre. I keep my grass nice. 

Sometimes people define goals too broadly and get overwhelmed.

My yard/outdoor space is aggressively mediocre, when taken as a whole. But my grass if berkeleying perfect. 

I keep it nice as signal to my neighbors. Let’s them know that I have everything in my world so locked down, that dandelions get serious consideration.  

Advan046 said:

volvoclearinghouse said:

We mow about 2 acres, and have another acre of forest with a few paths that get mowed. For me, the biggest concern is ticks, which get on my dogs and kids. I got a decent mower and stay on top of the grass farm, and we've had fewer tick issues. 

City mouse here so you can understand my perspective. I used to just figure I would try to find a grass substitute (some other vegetation for erosion control) or just not mow as much of it if I had a lot of land. Then while at University a fellow student said just what you wrote. He didn't mow the area around the family barn and house because of looks but to keep down pests and insects. I still haven't owned acres of dirt but if I do I would include in my budget planning before purchase the costs to have someone else keep it all cut. 

Yep.  Ticks get bad around here, and also mice and other rodents.  Which then inevitably get into the house.  I'll also take snakes any day over rodents or ticks.  

I did let an acre of the back grow tall this last year, and kept the kids and dogs away from there.  Then in the fall it turned brown, and I whacked it all, let it dry, and stored it for chicken bedding (we have 19 chickens).  So that saved me from doing some regular mowing and from buying hay.  Win-win.  

Mrs. VCH came home with some clover seed and I tossed it around to help create slower-growing/ lower growing cover.  In the 10 years we've lived here we have watered never and fertilized...also never.  The "lawn" is basically whatever stuff that grows and isn't killed by mowing.  

I've also found that having a couple of dozen cars parked outside does a nice job of eliminating mowing for the ~100 square feet of ground each vehicle covers.  

On the subject of mowing, I don't like it anymore because of how small my plot is.

Push mower takes forever, but riders don't turn tight enough, then there are slopes that suck with either and I'm over it. 

Took a 20x40 patch away last year for garden, that might grow to 30x50 or maybe even 50x50 just to have less to mow. I'm slowly wearing the wife down on the idea of replacing the grass with used astroturf, maybe a few more years and a few more mowers piled up will do it. 

At my old house I actually enjoyed it, but, it was so wet that pulling the mower out of the mud because there was no "let it dry" got old and we paid someone $75 twice a month to do it. Bit under 2 acres, hills and trees and always wet. Used to take me a little over an hour on a rider, the yard guy did it in 35 with his zero turn. Worth every penny.

I actually enjoy mowing.  I always grew up wanting to drive and ticked off at the fact that I wasn't 16.  I got into RC cars and I grew up on a farm with lots of tractors which Dad taught me everything about.  Driving a fuel-powered machine that Dad had to lift me up to reach the step was awesome.

I do prefer the larger equipment, but there is something about preening your own lawn that makes me happy.

Having said that, I am also now an adult.  I bought a 0.18 acre property and a nice Husqvarna self-propelled mower.  My only consternation about mowing is that it requires time.  I have a job, and when the lawn needs to be mowed will the weather cooperate?  Do I have time?  Is there some other adulting that needs more of my attention right now?  If I don't mow today, can I carve out the time tomorrow?

One of those Tru-green guys came to my door once and tried to sell their services.  I just asked what color my lawn was.  He said green.  I said that's good enough for me.  I don't want lush green stuff that needs constant attention.  I want the crabgrass, wild strawberries, snowdrops, violets, and dandelions.  I know I can't kill that stuff.  It's green, it doesn't grow fast, and I can neglect the crap out of it.  I have a whole corner of my lawn that is English Ivy.  I mow it just like it was grass.  I like to say my lawn is a 20-footer.

bobzilla said:

In reply to Indy - Guy :

We have 2 acres. We'd need more than a couple goats. And a fence. That's a lot of fence. 
 

the wife used to help me the first few years. We had a pair of craftsman 42" mowers. It would take us 3-4 hours. One person was a minimum 4 hours. In 2008 we bought the worlds fastest mower, a 50" Dixie Chopper.  That went from 4 hours to under 2. The wife flat refuses to even get in the dixie because it doesn't have pedals or a steering wheel. So since 2008 I have been the only Person to mow our yard. Every couple weeks I need to spend an hour trimming as well. 
 

so I already have a faster mower. 

We have a 3 acre lot. End up mowing about 2 of them once the footprint of the house, driveway, landscaping, etc are taken out. I had a 52" Scag walk behind when we first moved in, and it would take me about 4hrs. I switched to a Turf Tiger with 72" deck and it dropped my time to 1hr. If I do the trimming and blowing I can usually still keep it under 2hrs total.

Time is money.

bobzilla said:

The amount of hours of my life I've wasted sitting on a mower, or with a trimmer in my hand..... 

I'm shopping for engines and hating the idea of spending another 60-70 hours sitting on a mower.

I'm sorry to hear that Bob, that sounds rough. Any activity can turn into a PITA if you have to do it too much or you have other things you'd rather be doing. Maybe time to downsize to a condo?