Types of Lawn Mowers
This is one of the most important points of all the choices of a mower. The size one chooses will depend on the size of the lawn. For very small lawns, of course, a hand-propelled side-wheel or cylinder mower is all that is required, but for larger areas a powered mower (electric or petrol) is almost a necessity. For lawns of moderate size a mower with a cutting cylinder 12 or 14in. in width will be sufficient.
Hand propelled Mowers: Having decided on the size of mower, then the type to be used should be considered. Any mower that is over 12 in. is usually powered, while the ones below these sizes will be hand propelled ones. lf a hand propelled mower is decided on, it is a question of whether to have a side wheel or a roller model.
With a mower with side-wheels, cutting right up to the edges is not possible, but such models are cheaper. These are better able to cut and control creeping weeds without a front roller since they will not have been flattened even more before the cutting blades get to them. A better appearance is given to the lawn with the roller models and the edges can be mowed at the same time.
Powered Mowers: Of the powered mowers, the battery- models are certainly the ones with the most appeal. They are simple to use, relatively noiseless, trouble free and easy to maintain. One must of course, obtain a machine with sufficient capacity (in terms of mowing time in between the charging) to cut all the grass at one go and your local dealer will give you all the details you need in this respect.
The petrol engine mowers, too, are, of course extremely reliable nowadays but for women at least they are not such an attractive proposition and there is certainly more to go wrong than with the battery models. Main powered electric mowers surfer the disadvantage of the trailing cable, which is always liable to get in the way and can get cut if one is careless. Also, its radius of action is necessarily circumscribed. Such machines can also be run off a generator which gives them more freedom of action, but they still lack the convenience of other types.
For obtaining the best possible finish, the choice would be a cylinder-type mower every time, but for adaptability the popular rotary-type mower, with its ability to cut both short and long grass always stands to win. With this type of machine the cutting blades, which revolve at very high speed, are set in the horizontal plane.
They also finely cut the grass up and although many are now provided with grass catchers, they are not really needed, provided the grass is cut frequently. These machines also are less expensive than their cylinder-model equivalents; they are good at cutting `bents` and some weeds which are not touched by cylinder mowers.
The most recently introduced type is the once that is being used very successfully by the `hovercraft` or aircushion principle. These are extremely easy to handle for they will change direction at the slightest touch and they are particularly useful for cutting steep slopes and other difficult areas which are out of bounds to more conventional machines.