Would this be ridiculously boujee?

[Lawncare]

So I have recently moved into a rental property that has a small back garden - all lawn. I'm not planning to stay for longer than a year or so, thus I don't feel there's much point to me putting up a shed etc as I'm guessing it would be difficult to move later. I'm thinking the grass will shortly be needing cut and I'm wondering if my best option is maybe one of the wee robot lawn mowers? I'm a lone parent with a toddler so the less time I have to spend doing grown up jobs the better, although I do love gardening I can get ds involved with.

I'm thinking space wise it would be much easier to store than a standard lawn mower as the only paved area is a narrow path and a little patch of cement used up by the bins, but I could fit a robot with cover at the side of that.

Would this be stupidly OTT. I'm not on a big budget by any means but could easily pay one off across a couple of months to avoid using savings. Or is it just a silly expense and is there a better suggestion?

A lawn rake.

I hate lawns, but you might look into mowing service and weigh up the costs/convenience.

I don’t know. With a toddler I would worry. They are bloody scary things!

Ask landlord for a mower or you're getting an alpaca.

I don’t lift it! I just strim regularly.

I don't think I would ever run it around him or when he's going to be playing outside. The rest of the time it would be kept out of the way. I imagine that's probably safer in our case than a traditional lawn mower or strimmer as he'd most likely be in the garden with me while I use them which is it's own set of challenges. Or left unattended in the house. What makes you say they are scary?

Haha I would need very little persuading to invest in a small goat instead not going to lie!

I saw a one at work in my neighbour’s front garden. I can’t offer any opinion on its merits but I thought it was extremely cool.

This is definitely the best plan all round.

This is how i end up as the goat lady. Its going to end up being the gateway I just know it!

If you can't get a goat you could always invite this guy round.

What goats?

Look for a gardener who has a grass cutting round. You don’t want someone who has fancy leaflets and spends a lot on advertising though, you want the one who fills their rounds up by word of mouth as they’ll be a lot cheaper. If it’s only a small garden it’ll be fairly cheap every couple of weeks.

Why don’t yoh just pay someone? Hire a gardener to do it. Once a fortnight during the summer, once every three weeks in spring and autumn, not at all in winter. Much less hassle.

I just don’t like them. As a gardener few homes I work on have them. They are supposed to sense things and stop. Some do. Some don’t!

It ran over one of my hand forks once and my god was that destroyed! I saw it coming and thought better of trying to stop it. So I ran for cover whilst it chewed up and ejected the fork 😵 You would not want that going over a foot.

I didn't want one that needed a perimeter wire, or an outdoor electrical socket for the charging base, or a complicated app. Mine - you just pop the battery in, put it on the lawn and turn it on. Off it goes, using its camera to detect where to mow instead of wires. If it has difficulty detecting the edges I just stick an old flowerpot there when it's mowing, so it can see the border more clearly. Afterwards I take the battery out and recharge inside in the small re-charger. It doesn't have a 'base' as such.

So I bit the bullet and got one just like this and I'm obsessed. I could literally sit and watch it trundling about the lawn for hours. It did a great job on first cut and I'm delighted that it's one less job I have on my plate! Thanks all for the suggestions!

Is it weird that I find it strangely adorable as it's pottering about? It's like having a pet without having an actual pet? Just me?

I like watching ours too, v relaxing, along with hearing the quiet munching sounds it makes!

However just a heads up, I've never met a dog that accepted it... When we looked after a dog for a month we had to switch it off as he barked continuously when it was on. Never got used to it! The cat doesn't care though !

Which one did you purchase ?

Same as this one, it was on offer online. It's done a great job and is pretty compact for storing.

An electric strimmer would be much cheaper and could live in an indoor cupboard very easily (mine lives under the stairs). If you do it regularly the bits that are cut won't be that long. Or buy a cheap garden rake as well - that can live outside as it won't get stolen.

I would love one of these but cannot seem to find it for the £200. Any pointers please?

I got it on sale but the offer seems to have ended from a quick Google. Maybe check again during the bank hol or maybe at the end of summer it'll be reduced? A few garden things I've been looking at that were on sale are now back to full price again with the nicer weather coming in so I'm going to check them again at the end of the season and hope they come back around!

We have one and the dog is fine with it. It’s a very small dog and the mower does sense him if he’s lying on the grass asleep and does not run him over. I love it.