How much time do you spend mowing?

My boys used to mow, but alas they grew up and moved out lol. Could never talk my daughter into doing it. My husband did it for a while but he didn't really enjoy it. I did it before the boys were old enough and after they moved out. My dh retired and I think he feel guilty if I do it (I still work full time) so he hired a gardening company. They mow and weed eat. It takes 2-3 guys about 30 minutes. We have 1/3 acre and its terraced so that means taking the mower up and down stairs which is a real pain. We really don't have much grass anymore.
Linda

I live with someone else who does the mowing on their own yard. The yard isn't really mine so I don't count it. My gardening is through containers...so I put other for my response...

We have about an acre with lawn. We have a riding mower and it takes 3-4 hours for my FIL to do it. Takes my husband about 45 minutes to do it, but then he acts like Jeff Gordon with the throttle. We have a lot of trees so it takes me about a 2 days because I like going in and around the trees with the push mower first. I don't have to worry about ducking branches that way.

Used to take 3 hours to mow our 1/3 acre with a push mower (human powered).

I finally through in the mulch bag last summer and now pay a guy to do it.

He rakes, mows, edges in the time it used to take me to mow 1/2 the lawn! A very good deal in my book. :)

Well, we've got about an acre or so and it ususally takes me 1 to 1.5 hours to mow, unless I'm feeling racy. (My kids used to call me Mario (Andretti)) But I didn't know we were counting weed whacking in that! That's 2 more hrs at least if I did it all at one shot, which I can't 'cause my arms would fall off. Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it. I love to mow, but DH broke my rider Saturday. Come to think of it, everytime he gets on that thing he either breaks it or runs over a plant he shouldn't. Once it gets fixed again he is BANNED I tell you, BANNED from the mower!!

LOL, guardians, I don' t blame you! (you don't think he does it on purpose so he won't have to mow???)

We have no grass, just woods. And weeds. And honeysuckle. Why won't the deer just eat the honeysuckle and leave our flowers and hostas alone?!

Don: loved your poesy. "coup de grass" -- classic! LOL

Jeremy

What is a brush hog?

Grass? You mean that brown stuff out there? I'd LOVE to have to worry about mowing the lawn. RAIN!! PLEASE!!

The previous owner had the front lawn like a putting green, and their 3 kids were not allowed on it ! Now, 33 years later, the only lawn is in the back for the kids (our Shelties) to romp on and that only takes 20 minutes or so to mow, 15 minutes more when it gets weed-whacked. I'm looking for a mower like yours Podster, but all I see now are made in China. Lee Valley Tools has a nice one made in Sweden, though a bit more costly. Lawns add a great accent to landscaping and I would not want to be without one, even if it was only a patch or two.

I voted one hour -- it takes another half hour to edge the beds.

This was a $2.00 garage sale find. Bad thing is we have pine cones and sweet gum balls that will bring it to a stop with a punch to the solar plexus. To do it correctly, I rake first. Tough to use but I love the quiet.

We used to have a zero radius mower that had a 6 foot deck, It was an older industrial mower and it made short work of our 2 acres. Our new mower has just a 48 inch deck and it really takes about the same amount of time because it's more maneuverable

I have very little grass in the front yard. My neighbor does it for me for free, and it takes him about 10 minutes. Someday, I'll rip out the grass and xeriscape, but that's far into the future.

podster, I used to have one of those human-powered mowers (I called it self-propelled, LOL). I took it to get it sharpened and it never worked again--I think they replaced the blades backwards...I sold it at a yard sale when I moved here where there's no grass. But I liked using it! Mowed 1/2 acre with it!

This is it...other than some edging, which I assume you meant by "mowing" chore. If you cut off (hehe) the edging part of the time...then 10 minutes!!

This message was edited Jul 16, 2007 6:13 PM

My Hubby mowes the grass. Thank Goodness ;)

After rebuilding our house, it was accidentaly gutted, the yard has become a mess of dry barren clay with chunks of cement and rocks. It does have some weeds though that the gardener weed wacks. I like to call him the next day and tell him, "The lawn looks great!" It takes him about 20min. to do the whole thing.

You're house was accidentally gutted?? Did you have a fire? Oh, my!

- We bought our 1st house! 1908 craftsman bungalow! Prices were crazy so we bought the third generation drug house in a decent neighborhood. Nothing a little bleach wouldn't fix. Two weeks after closing escrow we hired a handyman to fix a leak in the bedroom before we moved in. At 3:00 on a saturday afternoon I opened the front door to go in and start bleaching....the house was gone. I'll never forget it. The lathe and plaster, the antique tile in the kitchen and bathroom along with cabinets, sinks, antique bath tub. Walls were gone including the sub floors! I had to walk on floor joists! I opened the door and could see straight out the back of the house to the backyard where there was a pile of debris almost as high as the house! I looked down and could see the dirt the house was built on. I called the handyman : "For $65,000 we'll put it back nice. Insulate everything." I went from hysterically picking bits of tile out of the pile, to going to the ER thinking I was having a heart attack. Basically, I had to be medicated. Now, part of the rebuilding is DG and the garden to defy the odds!

Oh, how horrible! What did you do--have him put in jail, sue him? You poor thing!

We started out, in the front yard, with a nasty, straggley, brownish "lawn". One of the first things I did on my garden was to hand dig that grass up. That was in 1990. I now have roses, lavender, thyme, etc. but I am Still weeding up clumps of that grass!

I am just wondering how he got "gut the house" from "fix a leak in the bedroom." Was there a language problem? Good grief, what a nightmare. You should tell your story on one of those remodeling shows, LOL.

We had an old garage demolished and they didn't do quite as thorough a job as your plumber did!

He didn't have anything to sue for. We moved in with my Mom - "Hi Mom! I'm back and look - I brought a man (fiancee) and two cats!" Since even the floors were gone, I couln't remember exactly where the walls were. Called an architect out of the phone book and asked him to show me where to put a wall. I could build a wall, how hard could it be? He is such a sweet man, a true angel, he brought in his contractor to work with us. His contractor got us to a point where we could qualify for a loan and continue from there. We really have been surrounded by angels. Now we're married and in this beautiful house. Now it's the yards turn with all the same trials and tribulations other gardeners have. We have beautiful surprises too! - a peacock moved into our yard last week! We've got lots of dirt but the neighbors have got nothing like our peacock!

That's not an "accidental gutting" - that's major vandalism! I hope he had to pay for someone else to put it all back!

Oops, while I was typing that you answered. I'm sorry he got off so easily, but I'm extremely happy that the next guy you called was an angel and took care of you. :-)

This message was edited Jul 16, 2007 7:21 PM

Cool--wonder where the peacock came from? Maybe God sent him to beautify the yard until the flowers get going!

I voted other... we have a good size lawn, but I spend zero time mowing - hubby does it!! :)

Don't want to burst your bubble about the peacock, BUT I lived for about a year (leased) in an area that was INFESTED with them (about 30 in a gated area that was by Lake Austin in Austin, Texas. They (at least the ones in Westlake) come onto your patios and leave piles of excrement that look like pools (emphasis on WET) left by a giant chicken. We thought at first they were beautiful, but then learned our lesson. Everyone but one old man hated them.

No lawn and loving it! I have crushed rock on the pathways and on the "lawn" area for my dog, then everything else is garden beds. There was a lawn here when I first moved in, and after having to carry the lawnmower down my very steep front yard hill in order to mow the backyard (and then carry it back up again afterwards) I decided the lawn had to go. Honestly it probably would have gone anyway, too much of a water hog!

It takes me about four hours to mow and use the weed-eater (2hrs in front and 2hrs in back). Sometimes I do the front one day, and the back the next.

What a horror story, digatunnel!

DH mows the lawn. I think it takes him less than 15 minutes. We have a 13,000 sq. ft. lot and most of it is not grass.

I mow my acre, I mow the church's 1/2 acre, and I mow another acre plus. Mine takes about 1-1/2 hr. The church takes about an hr.and the one down town takes 2-1/2 hrs, If I hurry right along. But then I use a rider. At 70 + I don't think I could make it with podster's push reel type.
So thanks but no thanks podster. :) LOL

I hear ya! I'm thinking riding mower at late 50's all ready.

DH mows the lawn but it takes him a few days because he has a bad back and can only do a little bit at a time. By the time he's done it's time to start again. I'm trying to introduce groundcovers, at least on the hills! but he feels it's manly to mow.

xxx, Carrie

I have about 2 hours of regular mowing, but mow the roadside quite a ways and ocassionly some along some fence rows.

Lawn is a dirty word in these parts. We have a water shortage (especially this year with the drought) and lawns are so bad for the environment, they're discouraged. There's grass out there, sure, and I let it grow and look all meadowy and pretty in the spring and then whack it all down (took the guy two hours flat) to the ground for the summer.

We groom somewhere around 8 acres. We actually own a little over 5 acres, but we groom from shelter belt to shelter belt. (It would look strange to stop at the property lines).

It used to take DH and I all day with two riding mowers to mow it all. This year DH bought a larger mower, and he can mow it all himself in about 7 hours. I'm loving it, because that frees me up to work in the gardens, then I just go around with the weed eater and finish up the trimming.

Even though I'm all about conserving water and growing more plants and less lawn, I find myself incredibly jealous of everyone that has to spend more than a couple of hours mowing. Oh, to have that much space !