First Garden - Lawnmower advice
 

Hi,

I've just bought a house & am faced with my first garden (which is
great) and buying my first lawnmower (which is not).

I was looking at this offer in Argos,
A Flymo Easimo Rotary Mower and Flymo mini trim for £59.99
but I haven't got a clue about lawnmowers and I've no idea if this is
a good deal or not. Please help!

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...Lawnmowers.htm

First Garden - Lawnmower advice
 

"greg" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

I've just bought a house & am faced with my first garden (which is
great) and buying my first lawnmower (which is not).

I was looking at this offer in Argos,
A Flymo Easimo Rotary Mower and Flymo mini trim for £59.99
but I haven't got a clue about lawnmowers and I've no idea if this is
a good deal or not. Please help!

Depends on how large the lawn is, this machine only cuts 32cm (just over a
foot) wide, how wide is your lawn? It has wheels not a roller, it wont give
a stripe effect. It is electric so needs power cable (lets not get into that
again) how far is the lawn from a socket? It probably won't do well on wet
grass, how flexible are you on when to mow?

Only you can answer if it meets your needs. Yes it will cut grass, and may
be perfect for your use, but remember you do get what you pay for. My old
mum used to mow a massive lawn with a 22 inch electric Flymo and was very
happy with electric machines, but she was retired and had all the time in
the world to do it.

Having said all that I have heard of petrol heads who go out and buy great
big macho ride on machines for lawns so small that there is not even space
to turn it round, and were happy just playing with it.

Mike

First Garden - Lawnmower advice
 

"greg" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,

I've just bought a house & am faced with my first garden (which is
great) and buying my first lawnmower (which is not).

I was looking at this offer in Argos,
A Flymo Easimo Rotary Mower and Flymo mini trim for £59.99
but I haven't got a clue about lawnmowers and I've no idea if this is
a good deal or not. Please help!

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...Lawnmowers.htm

It will depend on lots of things such as storage for keeping it (electric
hover mowers tend to be lighter therefore easier to stow hanging) whether
you will have plenty of mowing opportunities, therefore can wait for dry
weather, petrol is better for wet.
how big the grass area is, and who will be using it.
But if your question is whether Argos is a good deal then I am afraid I have
no idea, I paid only £99 for a petrol mower last year which I thought very
cheap but its just as good as the Honda it replaced!

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea

First Garden - Lawnmower advice
 

On 18 Apr 2007 00:58:10 -0700, greg wrote:

I've just bought a house & am faced with my first garden (which is
great) and buying my first lawnmower (which is not).

I was looking at this offer in Argos,
A Flymo Easimo Rotary Mower and Flymo mini trim for £59.99
but I haven't got a clue about lawnmowers and I've no idea if this is
a good deal or not. Please help!

How much lawn have you got 10 acres, 1, a large hankerchief? Is it flat,
is the grass nice "lawn grass" or more like a meadow?

Do you need a trimmer for going around trees growing the the lawn? My
experience of an electric trimmer was not nice, anything more than three
blades of grass cause it to stop. But then I'm used to a medium petrol
strimmer that'll deal with nettles and thick stemmed grass not a few
whimpy blades. If you only have lawn edging requirements a pair of decent
quality ordinary shears will do, produce a better edge, be easier to use
and be useful for other things (any hedges?).

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

First Garden - Lawnmower advice
 

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...

I paid only £99 for a petrol mower last year which I thought very
cheap but its just as good as the Honda it replaced!

That will put the cat amongst the pigeons :-)

Mike

First Garden - Lawnmower advice
 

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.com...
On 18 Apr 2007 00:58:10 -0700, greg wrote:

I've just bought a house & am faced with my first garden (which is
great) and buying my first lawnmower (which is not).

I was looking at this offer in Argos,
A Flymo Easimo Rotary Mower and Flymo mini trim for £59.99
but I haven't got a clue about lawnmowers and I've no idea if this is
a good deal or not. Please help!

How much lawn have you got 10 acres, 1, a large hankerchief? Is it flat,
is the grass nice "lawn grass" or more like a meadow?

Do you need a trimmer for going around trees growing the the lawn?

Spot on questions, which need to be answered before any recommendations can
be given.

First Garden - Lawnmower advice
 

"greg" wrote in message
ups.com...
I was looking at this offer in Argos,
A Flymo Easimo Rotary Mower and Flymo mini trim for £59.99
but I haven't got a clue about lawnmowers and I've no idea if this is
a good deal or not. Please help!

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...Lawnmowers.htm


Personally I prefer petrol mowers as I find it a pain moving the cable
around on an electric. I would only consider electric for a lawn without
obstructions like trees or chairs or winding flower beds. That way nothing
for the cable to snag on. If you go electric make sure to fit an RCD. Dont
just feed the wire in through a window and plug it in to any old socket.

Whatever size garden you have, go for a mower with a large collection bag
which can actually be filled by the mower. If you are lazy like me and don't
cut it regularly in the growing season, you may find that most of the work
isn't the actual mowing. It's stopping to remove the collection bag and take
it to the compost. In the past I've had a mower with a small ineffective
grass collector - it was a pain - sometimes I couldn't even cut one strip
before I had to stop the mower, remove the bag, empty it, put the bag back
on, pull start the mower again.

Mowers with narrow wheels, rather than full width rollers, CAN still produce
stripes but the latter do a better job. If you aren't careful the small
wheels can "fall off the edge" of the lawn which drops the mower down on
that side - possibly taking a chunk out of the edge. That doesn't happen
with mower that had a wide roller.

If you know anyone with an old Suffolk Punch cylinder mower they don't want
that might be a good buy second hand. They can be £400 new and only £50-£100
second hand. Ideally you want one that's been professionally serviced
recently and the blades resharpened and reset. They cut a good lawn well but
need more maintenance, oil changes and the like. They are less suitable for
rough lawns.

Few mowers cut right up to verticals (eg walls, fences, trees). Go for a
strimmer that has a head that can be turned over to do edging. Ideally one
that's easy to feed new cutting wire. It frequently brakes and a new length
has to be fed out. You want to be able to do that without having to unplug
the strimmer. Tip. Take care when strimming near trees and shrubs. It's
sometimes possible to cut a neat ring of bark off the tree. Do that all the
way round and it's good bye tree.

First Garden - Lawnmower advice
 

Thanks,

That's a great help.
Fortunately it rained all weekend so we've not had a chance to try it
out yet.
The lawn is flat (in a lumpy kind of way) in the front & slopes
downhill in the back.
lots of moss and dandilions...