Hi,

I am French (living in France, about 75 miles north of Paris). I came to
realise that cylinder mowers did a much better job when it came to cutting
the lawn.

The trouble is that on my side of the Channel, garden stores rarely sell
cylinder mowers (when they do, these mowers are too small for what I need).

I was wondering if anybody could tell me what acreage we are talking about
when one wants to use a cylinder mower (not a ride-on mower, my garden is
not big enough for that - roughly 1500 sq meters).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,

Xavier

On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 21:35:13 +0200, "xavier"
wrote:

Hi,

I am French (living in France, about 75 miles north of Paris). I came to
realise that cylinder mowers did a much better job when it came to cutting
the lawn.

The trouble is that on my side of the Channel, garden stores rarely sell
cylinder mowers (when they do, these mowers are too small for what I need).

I was wondering if anybody could tell me what acreage we are talking about
when one wants to use a cylinder mower (not a ride-on mower, my garden is
not big enough for that - roughly 1500 sq meters).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,

Xavier

Are you looking in the right places? Good cylinder mowers are rarely
found in the usual DIY and gardening outlets here as in France. You
need to find true garden machinery dealers who deal with professional
gardeners, sports grounds and commercial grounds care people. There is
no limit on size. Typical domestic machines start from around 40cms
and go up to about 90cm. Commercial machines are more ruggedly built,
and priced accordingly from about 60cm to 1 metre, then there are
large machines with multiple cutting units. For your purpose look at
something like Atco http://www.atco.co.uk/ for a reasonable quality
domestic machine. The Atco Balmoral at 41cm or 53cm would do a good
job for you (We have been using one here for some years - and they do
last a long while in domestic service). This is just one manufacturer
- there are several more.

Rod

Weed my email address to reply
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

Rod wrote:
For your purpose look at
something like Atco http://www.atco.co.uk/ for a reasonable quality
domestic machine.
Or for something truly expensive:
http://www.dennisuk.com/home.html
http://www.allett.co.uk/allett.htm
http://www.ransomesjacobsen.com/bran...nd_mowers.html

Thank you lads for your answers.

Most mowers manufacturers and dealers don't have cylinder mowers, that's why
I thought I'd post my message on a uk newsgroup and ask experts.

Actually, after I graduated, a friend of mine gave me a book about Britain
and some of its clichés (the milkman, orange marmelade, Marmite, Bryl cream,
etc.) and there was a page about British lawns, where it said you could only
achieve that green carpet by trimming it with a Royal Enfield cylinder mower
(from memory, it could have been another manufacturer).

Hence my question about the acreage and the size of the mower for domestic
use. I had a look at ebay.co.uk, and found out that quite a lot of people
are selling their mowers, both rotary and cylinder machines. When I flicked
through the offer on the same subject at ebay.fr, there was not a single
cylinder mower to bid on!

Best regards,

Xavier

"Robert E A Harvey" a écrit dans le message de
...
Rod wrote:
For your purpose look at
something like Atco http://www.atco.co.uk/ for a reasonable quality
domestic machine.
Or for something truly expensive:
http://www.dennisuk.com/home.html
http://www.allett.co.uk/allett.htm
http://www.ransomesjacobsen.com/bran...nd_mowers.html

xavier wrote:
a page about British lawns,
where it said you could only achieve that green carpet by trimming it
with a Royal Enfield cylinder mower (from memory, it could have been
another manufacturer).

The tale is told of an american visitor asking the groundsman at an Oxford
college how the beautiful lawn was achieved.
"you need to roll it four times a year, spike it with a hollow tine aerator
in the spring, seed immediately wherever you take out a weed, and cut it
properly"
"what do you mean properly?" asked the American.
" a really sharp mower set to 3/8 of an inch"
"how often?"
" twice per week...."
"is that all?"
"...for 350 years."

In article , Robert E A
Harvey writes

The tale is told of an american visitor asking the groundsman at an Oxford
college how the beautiful lawn was achieved.
"you need to roll it four times a year, spike it with a hollow tine aerator
in the spring, seed immediately wherever you take out a weed, and cut it
properly"
"what do you mean properly?" asked the American.
" a really sharp mower set to 3/8 of an inch"
"how often?"
" twice per week...."
"is that all?"
"...for 350 years."

Except, of course, that the lawn mower was invented only about 150 years
ago, and before that, mowing was done with scythes ... and just try
doing that to a length of 3/8th inch!

personally, I like the scene in 'Asterix and the Britons' where a roman
officer tries to charge across an english lawn ..


--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 17:59:56 +0100, Kay Easton
wrote:

before that, mowing was done with scythes ... and just try
doing that to a length of 3/8th inch!

I knew a guy who could do just that - well near enough ;-) He was an
old Dalesman by the name of Cecil (pronounced seesil for those not
familiar with that lovely part of the world) We used to get him to
trim off the ryegrass stalks that didn't get cut by the cylinder mower
on one or two of poorer lawns where I was working at that time. He was
of that age group of Dales farmers who grew up cutting hay with
scythes, alongside Irishmen who came over for haytime. In his late 70s
when I knew him he was tall and straight - every time you looked he
was filling his pipe or sharpening the scythe, but when you looked
behind him he was cutting quicker and cleaner than the lads in their
20s.

Rod

Weed my email address to reply
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 22:25:38 +0100, "Robert E A Harvey"
wrote:

for something truly expensive:
http://www.dennisuk.com/home.html
http://www.allett.co.uk/allett.htm
http://www.ransomesjacobsen.com/bran...nd_mowers.html


If you buy one of these, your grandchildren will leave it to their
children ;-) They are used on the best sports turf and best lawns in
the world.

Rod

Weed my email address to reply
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 08:48:05 +0200, "xavier" said:

] Thank you lads for your answers.
]
] Most mowers manufacturers and dealers don't have cylinder mowers, that's why
] I thought I'd post my message on a uk newsgroup and ask experts.
]
[snip]

Xavier,

Although it's not the same thing, why not look at a rotary mower with a roller?
If it's the striped finish you are after...

Both Countax and Mountfield (Westwood) -- well, the same thing now, really --
are actually available in France. A quick call to Countax in the UK will put
you in touch with a dealer with you.

I got one last year from "Machines Agricoles du Merlereau," I'm very happy
with it.

-E


--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies

Kay Easton wrote:
Except, of course, that the lawn mower was invented only about 150
years ago, and before that, mowing was done with scythes ... and just
try doing that to a length of 3/8th inch!
It's true. Although the head gardener at Belton House once told me it was
done with handshears, the same sort they used for sheep. Other country
houses used the sheep.

personally, I like the scene in 'Asterix and the Britons' where a
roman officer tries to charge across an english lawn ..
I love the English versions, the gags with the names. I've never forgotten
Marcus Ginandtonicus.