Looking for help choosing a reel mower.

I have a difficult, and very costly dilemma. I live on a 5 ½ acre lot, but I only cut about ½ acre of it regularly. The area that extends beyond the living area around my house is extremely difficult to maintain. I live 6 miles out on a dirt road in the middle of the country. No professional lawn company will agree to provide me with mowing service. They say in the time it takes to get their equipment to my property they could have mowed 3 other lawns. Even when I offered to pay double, they claim it is cost prohibitive. I go through 2 power mowers a year and that isn’t including the shop time. It is too uneven for a riding mower, a bush mower works but I can’t get one out here on a regular basis.

I bought a little Scotts 14” turf reel mower for cutting the grass at a rental property that has a front yard ½ the size of a postage stamp. It was the only thing that made sense when the power mower had bitten the dust and the Code people where giving me grief about the grass. I made an amazing discovery. It worked great on the small lot. It is easy to transport, just throw it in the trunk, no gas fumes to deal with while driving or while using it. Plus it does the job in the amount of time it normally took me to lug the power mower out of the trunk, and to get it started.

Earlier today I had a sudden, brief lapse into insanity. It has rained for over a week. My yard that I hadn’t mowed in 3 weeks was beginning to look threatening. My power mower had made it’s last trip to the repair shop and I was having a horrible tug of war with deciding what to buy for tackling my ongoing money pit of a yard. I even tried just letting it go back to nature, but after a year I was drowning in kudzu and it was starting to wrap me in a depressive blue funk. So after dropping another ridiculously huge amount of money, I had it cleared. With the rain it sprung to life with what started out as a beautiful green carpet but is fast becoming a burgeoning green nightmare of a monster. So maybe that is what planted the insane idea of taking my little David of a mower out into that vast jungle. And I was stunned! It worked! Of course it wasn’t a cake walk, but I think if I had a larger, heavier push mower, I may actually be able to manage my lawn with the push mower!

I need one that is not as hesitant with the grass that grows in little clumps and is very thin. Of course I have large areas of weeds of every variety that grows in South Florida, and anywhere else on our planet, it seems. My yard is a perfect test field for the push mower. I have almost every green growing thing, almost every type of soil and out here in rural south Florida, temperatures that run from searing inferno to ice crystals on my pond.

So what do you think? Is this really doable or have I really completely lost my mind. If even remotely doable, what would be the best reel mower to even attempt this massive feat? I love walking, being outdoors in the woods and God knows I need the exercise. I don’t plan to do it all at one time and I have a couple of young ones that come over on Saturdays that I keep busy, so I have a couple extra pair of arms and legs.

Can we do it?

Hell yes!

As long as you're up for the exercise or can supply enough pizza to keep the visiting teenagers interested. Just do a 20 minute stint every day it's not raining. It'll keep done.

Or get a goat or something.

I know what you mean about the 'postage stamp' yard. I had one and I loved my reel mower. No fumes, no worry about gas or oil, just sharpened it in the springtime. Took all of ten minutes to do the front yard and ten more to do the back

I just had a thought; sent your post to the Scott's people, they make probably the best reel mower in the business. Maybe they'll donate one to you if you agree to be in an ad or something!

And don't think you have to do the whole yard. Leaving parts undone (creatively) can work well. Buy a bunch of wildflower seeds and get them going on the perimeter of the lot or way in the back, whatever works.

reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn


2 gas mowers a year on 1/2 acre………… WTF…….



You may like your reel mower, but making the claim that you are going through that many power mowers to back it up is a bit much.

I am the person that the neighbors come to to fix mower problems, and even my most mechanically un-inclined neighbors can keep a push mower going for more than a few years.

My worst neighbors may destroy a push/riding mower every two or three years, but they are the worst. They usually die from bent crank or ran without oil.

The rest of the mowers that mow the yards around here are a lot older than that. Usually about 10 years or older. There is one old lady that has a snapper that is 40 years old. It has been mowing the same 2 acre lot for it’s entire life. It finally required an engine replacement about a year ago.

The mower I use to mow about 6 acre is about 14 years old. I overhauled the engine two years ago. Still going strong.

This is very simple.

1. Ask yourself why you want to have so much grass to mow?
2. Admit that it is worthless.
3. Mow an area which is a normal size for a home and forget about the rest. Let it become part of nature again.

reply to post by signalfire


I love that idea! Now I just have to start working on a design that works. I will have to be very clever with the wildflowers because I do have a goat and she only eats that which I don't want eaten. Used to have 3 goats and even they didn't make a noticeable difference in the yard. No, I didn't eat them. They are living across the street a ways and are very healthy and happy. 3 were just took more time and work than I had, so I sent them to a good home.

I think people would be surprised at the ease and how inexpensive it is to mow with a reel mower. Mowers are not an area were technology has been of great benefit. If people were more aware of them, I think many would be take a step backwards and mowing the old fashion way.

Thanks for the tip.

When did ATS become a yard and home improvement center?

Originally posted by Phage
When did ATS become a yard and home improvement center?

Since it dawned on someone that they could use it as a place to bash those evil polluting gas mowers.

well there are certainly mowers out there that will do the job, how much do you want to spend.

if your just wanting to knock it down then try a DR brush mower will chew up most anything.
if you want to cut it and have it turn into a lawn, then you will have to work on it. if you keep it mowed down over time it will become more manageable and you can go to a less expensive type rider.

and you cant get a good lawn mower at home depot or lowes for what you are doing. all of those are for lawns that are already established. they are not built the same as the ones you get from the dealers. they are a do it yourselfer type.

your need a lawn tractor, with a bush hog or one with a bush deck. you know the ones underneath

john dreer, snapper, cub cadet, and dr are about the best

and why do you want to kill your self pushing a reel mower

reply to post by Phage


Last week.

reply to post by SeriousIndividual

I didn't get the memo!

Ok...so. what's the best way to deal with weeds. I used to use Roundup but since I found out it was invented by Monsanto I don't want to do that because I'm afraid it's going to cause my yard to mutate into man eating plants.

Dixie Chopper - runs like a sonofabitch & forever.

www.dixiechopper.com...

Get a riding mower.....Mow most of the unlevel stuff with the carriage raised all the way up and lower it in the close yard. If you don't mow it once a year, little trees and shrubs will start coming up. I use my heavy duty weed eater to mow the outer parts of my lawn now and just mow a little section with a lawnmower. I get a lot of wildflowers coming up now

As far as unwanted plants growing in an unmowed area, just adjust the fertilizers and PH with natural things.

This is entirely up to you to share, but I'm curious, what is the coordinates of your property so I can see what you're dealing with? You can send them in a PM to me if you feel better doing that.

Originally posted by Phage
Ok...so. what's the best way to deal with weeds. I used to use Roundup but since I found out it was invented by Monsanto I don't want to do that because I'm afraid it's going to cause my yard to mutate into man eating plants.

Speaking of…. I just got 2.5gallon of 41% glyphosate concentrate today.
Have a batches of poison ivy across the place that is going to be getting a hurting.

If you buy it in consumer quantity/strength, you will pay as much for a gallon of ready to use, as you would pay for a gallon of farm use concentrate that will make 100 gallons of spraying mix.

2.4.D also works great for broad leaf if you don't want to kill the grass.

reply to post by Mr Tranny

2.4.D also works great for broad leaf if you don't want to kill the grass.

I like it for dealing with weedy shrubbery (the kind that turns into trees if you let it). Cut the bush off as close to the ground as possible (sawzall) and paint the stump with full strength 2.4.D.

Works really well most of the time. They seldom come back from that kind of abuse.

reply to post by Phage


Roundup was not invented by Monsanto. They purchased the rights to it from 3M, who had developed it as a growth regulator, but found it unsatisfactory because it tended to kill the plants...regulated them to death. (a horrible business decision in hindsight).

The chemical that is Roundup is glyphosate. It kills plants by inhibiting amino acid production. It only effects plant cells, not animal cells. When the chemical comes in contact with any organic substrate, it will quickly degrade to CO2 and H20. Its a VERY "safe" chemical. Safe for you, and safe for the environment. Roundup has a much higher LD50 than table salt, you could probably safely drink it, although I would obviously not recommend that.

Glyphosate is now off-patent, and is formulated by many manufacturers into many products. Monsanto makes a boatload selling Roundup though, because of the predominance of RoundupReady row crops. These crops are genetically resistant to glyphosate. Roundup use has drastically reduced the costs of production.

If you choose to kill vegetation with glyphosate, without giving money to Monsanto (lol)...simply look at the label, where the chemical information about a product is federally required in the USA. These products will have names like "vegetation killer". They are considered non-selective herbicides for non-woody plants.

There's many ways to control weeds, chemical control is only one option. The most common control method is mechanical control(mowing). Frequent mowing will eliminate probably 95% of the weed species present in your area.

2 cents from an agronomist.

reply to post by starcraft

yeah. I know.

But far be it from me to discourage pedantry. One of may favorite pastimes.
Thanks!

Will it make my yard eat me?

I have a 100 x 100 foot lot that I have been using a Scotts reel mower on for 4 yrs now and love it. Works great and even have the bagger that came with it. It is a workout especially my yard because its kinda wavy. And you can mow at 600 am without waking the house or the neighborhood. Hell the wife even likes it, get a workout and get the lawn cut at the same time.

reply to post by Phage


A better chemical for killing freshly cut stumps is dicamba. A common Ready To Use product at the garden center is called Tordon.

2,4-D works great on broadleaf weeds in turf, but should be used with care. Ive seen many yards damaged by improper herbicide usage. (wrong time of year, used during high heat, or on drought stressed turf.)

Reel mowers work great and are great exercise. Physiologically, its also the best way to cleanly sever grass blades, as it's a scissor action, where the bedknife meets the cutting edge of the reel. Golf course putting greens are cut with reel mowers. Reel mowers were originally developed by the carpeting industry, to trim the upper surface of carpets and rugs.

Reel mowers give the best cut at a much lower mowing height than a powered rotary mower. In fact, they'll cut very poorly as the height approaches 2". Unfortunately, for this reason alone, I do not recommend reel mowers for most home lawns. They cut too short. A lawn consistently mowed with a reel mower, tends to be very weedy over time. There's exceptions of course, with proper management.