The message
from "H Ryder" contains these words:

Hello, haven't posted here for ages (owing to new baby )
we think we may have to move so I'm intending to buy somewhere with a big
garden but have been getting cold feet about the maintenance - by large I
probably mean medium sized - i.e. at least 100 feet long, preferable more
like 200 or more, and at least 50 feet wide - however we have been looking
at places bigger. My main concern is how you mow something that size? long
term I'd be looking at having woodland areas (as I think that these are
lower maintenance but are they?) but how would I go about mowing the garden
until I'd got the lower maintenance bits established? All I ever done is
pushed a plug in flymo type around once a week - what do people with bigger
gardens do? Where do you put the cuttings? Roughly how long does it take -
it is possible to manage a bigger garden without a gardener if you are on
your own? Does anyone have any suggestions about low maintenance ideas? (I
hate hard landscape) I am very keen (probably manage up to an hour a day in
garden, sometimes with children "helping", sometimes alone) (Hubby
completely uninterested ). Any advice would be much appreciated

The size you're looking at is between a quarter and half acre. That
size of garden is easily manageable in seven hours a week by a keen
ablebodied person, without outside help. You'll probably want a
petrol-driven mower rather than your electric flymo, and you can dispose
of all the grass cuttings in a compost heap.

How long you spend mowing a biggish lawn is one of those "how long is a
piece of string" questions; depends on you, your machine, and what you
want from the lawn.

I have rather more than a quarter acre of grass and my neighbour has
rather less. We're both using petrol mowers, mine has to be pushed and
his is self-driven. He's elderly, unfit and a perfectionist; I'm not.
Our grass is playspace for an energetic dog; his is a showpiece which is
seldom stepped on. Every week he spends many hours slowly mowing his
lawn immaculately to keep it at striped bowling green perfection;
"all-over short grass", no stripes, takes me an hour.

Janet.