Stop Mowing The Lawn !

[Zurdo]

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programme...et-it-grow

Everyone around here gives their lawn a No1 with the catcher...and tosses the clippings in the park, around trees. My lawn is always thick, never use a catcher, I wait until it's a struggle to give it a trim. Maybe I should wait longer....

There is all sorts of things in my lawn, and it's interesting to see them come and go...come and go. Only thing I have a mission on is Cape Daisies, they will spread if you let them. I need new Crocs - the Onehunga Weed goes right through them.

[Magoo]

my wife does an outstanding job of mowing the lawns.

[ObeWan]

Many, many moons ago (too many) I got an after school/weekend part time job working at the local golf club. I would have been about 16-17yrs.
I remember to this day what the old greenkeeper fella said to me:
“if you want a decent lawn don’t mow it too often, and lift your mower up a couple of notches”.
I still follow that advice to this day.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

That clippings round the tree thing is a trap too. The heat and the acid build up stunts if not kills trees, better to mulch with compost or bark. The clippings are fine in thin layers in the compost or mulched back into the lawn, and you are right the cut needs to be higher and less frequent in these dry weeks. When my step father in law arrived one Christmas to spend a month with us he took over mowing. We had a big lawn, a little handmower, and he delighted in going out every few days and taking another inch off. He was amazed how fast a Taupo lawn grew v his tiny Cambridge UK one did and wouldn't hear of doing it any other way. I can see him now in my head, long shorts, skinny white legs, socks with sandals, and the knotted hankie on his bald head, pushing that thing up and down in the midday heat.

Englishmen! All mad as hatters...

---

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programme...et-it-grow

Everyone around here gives their lawn a No1 with the catcher...and tosses the clippings in the park, around trees. My lawn is always thick, never use a catcher, I wait until it's a struggle to give it a trim. Maybe I should wait longer....

There is all sorts of things in my lawn, and it's interesting to see them come and go...come and go. Only thing I have a mission on is Cape Daisies, they will spread if you let them. I need new Crocs - the Onehunga Weed goes right through them.

I remembering reading how a well kept lawn is a symbol of Western consumerism, and the writer was dead right. Only the wealthy have them, the land for most is too valuable to waste not growing food...
We could benefit from a similar attitude, we'd all be better fed, happier, and healthier! 

[Magoo]

i find a well kept lawn to be aesthetically appealing.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I find a meadow of wildflowers even more aesthetically appealing, and a well ordered vegie garden or orchard equally so. I'm not anti lawn, I just wish we had smaller ones set in more usefully developed areas.

But of course, that sort of thing is a lot more work than grass and a mowing contract.

[Magoo]

i like what the lawn does for my outdoor space
no good have awesome indoor/outdoor flow if outdoors is a jungle
my lawns go right up to the edges of our raised vege gardens and provide a cool, comfortable surface to play on
for animals and humans.

---

easy for me to say tho.
i hate mowing lawns.
i told my young wife 28 years ago that i could hear the grass screaming.
so she mows the lawns.
also theres the matter of the mower.
i cannot get them to start. i fucken hate them. i get apoplectic.

when we lived in napier i went ballistic trying to get the effing thing going.
i gave it a good kicking because i couldnt find the axe. then set fire to it, and threw the smouldering carcass off the tutaekuri bridge later that night on my way to work.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

This is where a hand mower comes into its own. Those things just need oiling, occasional sharpening and a whole lot of puff...

[ObeWan]

Got rid of my petrol mower years ago.
Selfpropelled, Rechargeable mower and two batteries.
Lighter, easier, starts everytime, no petrol stored at home.
Helps the old knees too.

[jackford]

Sold the 4stroke Mulcher mower on FB some 4 years back, retained Line Trimmer, where we are now takes 5 mins with the trimmer.
 Can't see us purchasing a mower ever as a townhouse beckons.

[Zurdo]

I've got a couple of corded electric mowers, they are great, quiet and powerful. I gave them to my daughter when her electric one died, she can't use a petrol mower because of her wrists. People keep giving me their old mowers...still 4 in the shed.

[Magoo]

they dont burn well

[Zurdo]

Some people don't understand - it's how I make my living. Had a guy in yesterday who couldn't start his chain saw...and showed me how it wouldn't start. I said ''For fucks sake, get out of the way...this is how you do it.'' Away it goes, sweet as. It's not the lawnmower, it's the nut behind the handle.

[Olive]

Some people don't understand - it's how I make my living. Had a guy in yesterday who couldn't start his chain saw...and showed me how it wouldn't start. I said ''For fucks sake, get out of the way...this is how you do it.'' Away it goes, sweet as. It's not the lawnmower, it's the nut behind the handle.

I'm surprised you still have customers if that's your attitude.   What happened to basic civility?

[Zurdo]

It's a man's world - you obviously don't get it.

[Wildfern]

i like what the lawn does for my outdoor space
no good have awesome indoor/outdoor flow if outdoors is a jungle
my lawns go right up to the edges of our raised vege gardens and provide a cool, comfortable surface to play on
for animals and humans.

---

easy for me to say tho.
i hate mowing lawns.
i told my young wife 28 years ago that i could hear the grass screaming.
so she mows the lawns.
also theres the matter of the mower.
i cannot get them to start. i fucken hate them. i get apoplectic.

when we lived in napier i went ballistic trying to get the effing thing going.
i gave it a good kicking because i couldnt find the axe. then set fire to it, and threw the smouldering carcass off the tutaekuri bridge later that night on my way to work.

[Wainuiguy]

i like what the lawn does for my outdoor space
no good have awesome indoor/outdoor flow if outdoors is a jungle
my lawns go right up to the edges of our raised vege gardens and provide a cool, comfortable surface to play on
for animals and humans.

---

easy for me to say tho.
i hate mowing lawns.
i told my young wife 28 years ago that i could hear the grass screaming.
so she mows the lawns.
also theres the matter of the mower.
i cannot get them to start. i fucken hate them. i get apoplectic.

when we lived in napier i went ballistic trying to get the effing thing going.
i gave it a good kicking because i couldnt find the axe. then set fire to it, and threw the smouldering carcass off the tutaekuri bridge later that night on my way to work.

I have a 16 year old Victa 2 stroke - starts first time every time and always has.

[piroska]

And I thought this would be an article on groundcovers instead of grass.
Grass became a fashion for the rich you know only they could afford the hordes with scissors tending to it.
Wiki: Lawns became popular with the aristocracy in northern Europe from the Middle Ages onward. In medieval Europe, open expanses of low grasses became valued among the aristocracy because they allowed those inside an enclosed fence or castle to view those approaching.

If we don't need to feed animals or have a use for the clippings, then a groundcover is better.
For instance:

https://nomow.co.nz/

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Some of the thymes are perfect, and very beautiful. Mine currently has burgundy tips that look like miniature roses. And the scent...

[Kenj]

What about the parsley sage and rosemary?