AIBU to want a lawnmower that I can actually use?

[Gisla]

Not some kind of industrial petrol strimmer which terrifies our small children, requires goggles for safety and needs to be strapped to you because it's so heavy?

Not a massive pull start mower which is so heavy it requires two people to lift it out of the shed?

Perhaps, if I had a lawn mower that was easier to use, I wouldn't have to wait for the stars to align correctly; for it not to be raining, dh to be at home, not busy and "in the mood" to cut the grass. There would also be much less nagging, because I could just do it myself. Seems a no brainer to me.

YANBU It's called a gardener unless your lawn is small enough for a manual or shears.

just buy a cheap flymo - they are piss easy to use

Totally with you :)

This is why I am still using an ancient electric one held together with wire and sticky tape. Every year we go to buy a new one and it ends with us coming home with nothing - as DH is desperate to get an all singing/dancing petrol jobby. I remind him that actually it's me that cuts the ruddy grass so I want a 'plug and go'. We come home not talking :) :) :)

Wish we could have a gardener

This is exactly the problem I'm having cate, he wants (and has) toys to play with, I just want to cut the grass!

How big is your garden? If it's small then how about a simple push along rotary mower? No electric cables and it works when the lawn is damp.

I bought a rechargeable electric one last year - it folds up and stores nicely in the shed and I can wang it around one handed from shed to van to car and back again.

It was on offer at less than £100. Blooming marvellous.

Note: I also own a petrol one that I can just about get into the van if necessary - and it needs careful swearing at coaxing to get it going in the spring.

YABU have you been to b&q lately?

This takes me back to my childhood days, when my dad had a huge petrol monster that only he could start (with a leather belt for some strange reason), and that not too often. When he wasn't looking one day my mother sneaked out and bought a little hand mower. Every day, weather permitting, she'd go and tackle a bit more of the lawn so it didn't end up too high for a mower to work at all. We did try a flymo at one time but it kind of bounced over the top and left ragged patches, and clogged up when it was damp. The monster included a roller so it made lovely professional-looking stripes - when he could actually get it to do anything at all other than snort and cough. Noisy bugger it was too.

Upside was mother got ever so fit pushing the little mower. She couldn't be doing with electrical gadgets. Some kindly soul bought her an electric kettle once. She absent-mindedly put it on the hob, with predictable results.

That does sound like an ordeal!

I too once wished for a lawn mower I could use. Then we got a super light one that's fab. Now mowing the lawn is just another job that only I do.

Be careful what you wish for!

Get a gardener. Costs me £10/fortnight to have my grass cut and the edges strimmed, he brings his own mower and strimmer, and tidies up afterwards. Takes him less than an hour, and I'm more than happy to pay someone else to do it!

Artificial lawn! Best thing we have ever done, looks amazing year round and we use our garden every single day. No lawnmower here!

I love my lawnmower and mowing the lawn. I use the mower to chop up weeds and straw for mulches - i even mow the leaves around our way and from other people's lawns for leafmould. Best garden task going.