What worries me is what are all you old folk going to do for exercise?
Have you not been following? We have just acquired a nine month old Airedale!
Can you tell us more?
Eric, our mower, has a complete blind spot when it comes to dandelion stalks - he ignores them entirely, so the lawn is beautifully mown, bar a forest of stalks. I love dandelions but it looks a bit strange at this time of year. I’m sure other people’s mowers have their quirks too…
Just wondering if they have dog poo avoidance too
I am a big fan (possibly the only fan?) of Alexa. I have just been reading the manual for the grass cutting robot I have ordered. Apparently it links to Alexa.
I am looking forward to the moment when I can sit on the balcony, with a glass of wine and say “Alexa, mow the lawn”
Please please spare a thought for the environment. Wildlife is under threat everywhere. At least try No Mow May, to give a chance for wildflowers to bloom and feed bees. In addition many robot mowers maim or kill hedgehogs, and their babies, destroy the nests of ground nesting birds, kill slowworms, field mice, etc. Given the current situation for insect life the systematic destruction of wild flowers over large areas seems, let’s say, regrettable. Bloodbath as robot grass cutters mow down wildlife
I find this a very strange reaction. I will be doing no more than mowing where we already mow, so the wildlife has not been there on our formal lawns for the last 18 years. At this time of the year with all the rain/sun weather our lawns need mowing twice a week. We are getting to the stage in our lives where we have better things to do than mow.
We have 2 hectares of land. A good hectare of it is given to “no mow at any time of the year” - we just have paths cut through grasses that are chest height and they are so high they are a sanctuary for deer, apart from all the other wildlife. The hedgehogs by the way are in the pampas grass.
I tend to agree. Modern robots have active bumpers, radar, and cameras to detect stuff like that. On the other hand, when I trundle round on my sit on mower I might not see hedgehogs, slowworms or birds nests
There are some with a self-emptying basket, which will offload the cuttings at one or more preprogrammed locations around the garden.
Me too ! Spent all weekend pouring over various models, with similar questions - I have slopes, trees, creeping juniper, molehills , and probably more importantly, about 5000 m2 of “grassy” area to cut.
Sorry to have misjudged you. I was misled by your admiration of your neighbours’ “beautifully smooth swards”.
I want to know where you all get your robotic lawns from.
I think there’s room for both - I would love to have nice lawns in front of our gite and the house where we have rose borders. But then we have a HUGE bramble patch where the rabbits live and the lawn come to an abrupt halt and turns into the wildest of fields, which, as I said above, has a few windy paths cut through it. Rona, our new Airedale teenager thinks it’s wonderful and will suddenly rush into the long grass and disappear and then re-emerge further down the path. OH used to mow it with a farm tractor and industrial mower but it all became too much like hard work and he sold the tractor - best thing he did, just to let the field go wild.
That suggestion shows a lack of understanding of the issues that many of us who maintain large gardens face. May is the month where we must mow. If I did not mow during May I would end up with an unmanageable mess that would never recover before the autumn. Mowing between Easter and the end of May needs doing every four or five days as it’s the time of year when the grass grows most. I should have cut my four day old grass last Thursday before going away for a long weekend. I didn’t because I though I would do it on Thursday. It grew so much over the weekend yesterday was a battle with my most powerful lawnmower. I will be doing more this afternoon and probably tomorrow as well. I have a commitment next weekend so I will start again on Monday. I enjoy keeping my garden tidy but I have to keep on top of it. No Mow May is No Thank You.
I’m also suspicious of the idea that stooping mowing will make a significant difference to the number of flowers around. The grass I cut out will be covered by daisies tomorrow. The dandelions won’t be too far away. The neighbouring fields are yellow with flowers, animals rarely eat yellow flowers. My garden has wisteria, roses, strawberries and other shrubs and things in full bloom. My neighbour’s garden has many (times) more. I’m sure No Mow May has its place in certain areas but here it would do more environmental harm than good.
Mainly Fulham and other Daily mail influenced areas.
I’ll just refer you to the Royal Horticultural Society. Lawns / RHS Advice. I have a lot of grass too, and can’t see the point of growing something to throw it away. I’ve taken to scything and making hay for my friend’s sheep, but I understand that not be the easiest solution. My village zones the land it manages and has 3 cutting regimes, favouring less cutting wherever feasible.
As I said, you don’t understand. I just walked over the grass I cut yesterday to fill two watering cans from the water butt so that I can water my strawberry plants this evening. The daisies are back, that’s less than 24 hours after the lawn was cut. In some urban deserts perhaps not cutting the grass for a month is helpful but here in SW France it would cause a lot of inconvenience and make no difference whatsoever.
Throw it away? I don’t throw any of the grass away, it lies where it is cut.
I seem to have accidentally deleted my earlier post. Shows my level of computer skills! I’ve repeated it here
Ok, so I ordered one from the Mammotion web page (€50 discount). Instant confirmation saying it was coming from Germany via DHL. My heart sank because I have had problems with them. However, it arrived via La Poste.6 days after order.
Yesterday was a nightmare, The very small amount of assembly was easy until the manual said insert the safety lock key in the rear slot. I could find no slots anywhere. With the help from their (very slow) help chatline I discovered the safety key was already installed in a slot concealed in the STOP button.
I followed the rest of the easy instructions but when I went to “start mapping” I was told to update firmware. This kept failing. I factory reset, reinstalled the software but nothing would work. I eventually gave up and retired. Browsing through some you tube videos in the evening, an Australian guy made an offhand comment “make sure you are using a 2.3 Ghz router because it does not work with a 5Ghz router”. Lightbulb moment, changed networksto 2,4 (Livebox) and went out again this morning.
Within an hour I had updated the firmware, mapped my area (the manual guidance controls take some getting used to) and it is now chuntering away mowing my lawn. I get the impression that it is very well constructed, contains some amazing technology but the application to control it takes a lot of learning to understand everything.
So far, very happy