Petrol Lawn Mower

[Kimbo]

I am thinking of investing in a new lawn mower (petrol) as my poor standard electric one really cant cope with the horrible grass I have. All the land where my house is was once meadows. Also my garden isnt flat and I have humps and bumps all over (some from where trees used to be and some from tree roots).

Does any one have any good advice on which model is best - I have a medium sized (grass not too bad area) soon to become a much smaller sized area when I get my polytunnel and a large area with grass in between my raised beds (this grass is the really tufty, difficult stuff. I have dug out a trench around the raised beds so that the grass doesnt grow right up to the sides. I need to keep the grass short and away from the raised beds as much as possible to help keep the slugs away.

I am looking to spend around £150.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[Stacey Steve]

There are lots of "cheaper" types of petrol rotary mowers about, I bought mine from Homebase on one of their 10% days and as it was this sort of time of year when I got it, it was on sale as well.

Basically I looked around and bought this one as it has a Briggs & Stratton engine, which is a good reliable engine, the rest of the mower is really much of a muchness.

A friend though did buy one with an ABS (type of plastic) deck as opposed to a metal deck and the wheels sheered of within weeks. Ended up taking it back and paid to upgrade to metal.

The other thing to bear in mind is, do you want to push the thing around because for very little extra you can get a self propelled mower.

[beetie]

Sound advice from Stacey Steve.

I bought a new mower last year and the main thing I looked for was a Briggs and Stratton motor as they were recommended as lasting years.

I bought the cheapest B & S mower, a Flymo, we're pleased with it. It's started first time every time without much attention.

Hope that's useful!