Mowing a very overgrown lawn

[lalalonglegs]

I've bought a flat with a lovely but very uncared for communal garden. It's a shame to let it just turn into jungle so I have offered to mow the lawn - I'm guessing I will need to hire a mower as it is too long for a normal hover thing. Can a rotary mower deal with grass that is probably approaching a foot high?

i would use a strimmer tbh on long grass like that. get it chopped down a good whack and then the next cut can be down with a normal mower.

done with a normal mower.

It's quite a large garden - won't that be a lot of raking?

it would be tbh. you could hire a big lawnmower but it might just flatten the grass as you push it along and not actually cut it. could you ask for the other residents to join in with the raking if you strim?

It can be done with a regular mower. We regularly leave our garden go to meadow and then mow paths through it. The wheels on our mower are powered which helps.

Oh, that's useful to know. Thanks.

A normal mower might deal with it if it is a biggish sort of mower, and you set it on a high cutting level (so it won't be cutting quite so much in the first go). Make sure you do it when the grass is a dry as possible too. Lucky residents that you've offered to cut it - maybe you will ignite the gardening bug in someone else too, and the garden will become a social meeting point.

Remembering years ago when parents bought house with jungle, DF contacted council to deal with it - no idea what it cost, but he didn't have to buy expensive equipment or suffer exhaustion clearing grass for hours on end - I'd phone for an estimate, then inform other tenants of the cost, hoping they offer to share.

Ha ha - the idea of Lambeth sending a gardener round to mow the lawn, am weeping with laughter .