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The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Old May 16th 2018, 11:03 am
  #31  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Originally Posted by tom169
I have a bunch of sidewalks around the property that I like to blow all the crap off, especially after mowing. It just makes the job look neat and finished.
I have a garden blower/sucker shredder; blow 'em into a big pile, flick the switch and shred them into the large attached basket, then dump that straight in the compost bin.
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Old May 16th 2018, 11:39 am
  #32  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Originally Posted by BuckinghamshireBoy
I have a garden blower/sucker shredder; blow 'em into a big pile, flick the switch and shred them into the large attached basket, then dump that straight in the compost bin.
Me too, which is good for leaves, but through the season I am mainly blowing mulched grass back onto the yard.
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Old May 16th 2018, 5:13 pm
  #33  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Originally Posted by Boomhauer
Gas hobs? Those are common over here in the US. Except for rental properties.
None of our rental properties, or any I've visited, were electric hobs. All gas. Maybe rental condos are more likely to be electric?
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Old May 16th 2018, 5:29 pm
  #34  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Originally Posted by GeoffM
None of our rental properties, or any I've visited, were electric hobs. All gas. Maybe rental condos are more likely to be electric?
Guess it depends on the city/town you live in. All my life we have been renters and never had an electric stove. The house we purchased is electric and I absolutely hated it. Since gas lines were already installed on the property (our grill is hooked up to the main gas line), we converted to a gas stove and I'm a far happier.
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Old May 16th 2018, 8:12 pm
  #35  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Originally Posted by GeoffM
None of our rental properties, or any I've visited, were electric hobs. All gas. Maybe rental condos are more likely to be electric?
Probably depends on region. In So. California I noticed natural gas was more common, where when I lived in Wisconsin there seemed to be a preference for electric.

Electric is preferred in BC, most rentals don't even have gas lines since everything is electric.

Last edited by scrubbedexpat091; May 16th 2018 at 8:14 pm.
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Old May 16th 2018, 9:17 pm
  #36  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

The only lawn we have here that needs mowing is the 1/2 acre enclosed garden and our smallish front lawn. The rest of the acreage is taken care of by livestock, we started leasing our extra land to our neighbour for his cows and are now in the process of getting our own herd of mini Highland cows.

We do have a ride on mower but lately its used for yard cleanup more than mowing, I prefer my walk behind mower as it gives a nicer finish. Cuttings either go on the compost pile or over the fence to the cows, ducks and chickens.
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Old May 16th 2018, 9:55 pm
  #37  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

We have ducks and chickens; Silkies, Polish, Pekin, White Crested, Cayhuga. We had mini goats when wife lived in People's Republic of Boulder.
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Old May 17th 2018, 12:42 am
  #38  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Originally Posted by Giantaxe
One of the advantages of living in a very urban area is that there's no grass to cut... of course, there are other disturbances to wake you like crazy people and, once in a while, gun shots.
One of the advantages of living in a rural area pf FL is that there's no grass to cut, just thick bladed stuff pretending to be grass and lots of jungle like stuff... of course, there are other disturbances to wake you like crazy country people and, most weekends, gun shots.

I have more gardening gadgets than I've ever possessed in the past - fairly hefty ride-on mower, 20" chainsaw and two 14", two gas brush cutters (weed whackers) and one lightweight cordless electric brush cutter that is about as much use as a fart in a colinder, my little 18v Makita blower, that is part of my work tooling, gets abused for clearing the driveway (and blowing out the truck when I get fed up with inch deep aluminium swarf clogging up the floor...)
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Old May 17th 2018, 11:23 am
  #39  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Originally Posted by ddsrph
If you have more than a half acre I recommend s zero turn. When we moved to our new location I bought a Hustler zero turn with a 18-20 hp Kohler engine. They take some getting used to but once mastered cutting the 1 acre yard is a breeze and the wife has learned how to use it and does the grass cutting now in about 30 minutes.
Teach me how to train my wife to cut the lawn...
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Old May 17th 2018, 11:39 am
  #40  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

For some reason, my Multi-quote function doesn't work. I just spent 20 minutes trying to multi-quote several posts that mention how much the posters adore their leaf blowers.

Anyway, you know who you are, leaf blower lovers, and I have to sadly shake my head at the fact that you all have gone over to the dark side. (Interestingly, most seem to be men, if one can be sure of such a thing on a forum like this...)
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Old May 17th 2018, 2:19 pm
  #41  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Many years ago we had a Flymo discussion and it was discovered, deep in the bowels of the Internet, some statements by Flymo UK that "American grass is different" and was far more difficult to cut than UK grass. Flymo units sent to the USA did not perform well.

Here it is, from an email from Flymo to an expat:

The type of lawn grass in the USA differs greatly from that of the lawn grass in the UK, consequently an electric hover doesn’t perform in the same way or give the same quality of cut. This knowledge was gained from contact with a consumer who had bought a Flymo hover lawnmower with a 240v motor in the UK, and then took it to the USA. He did have a 3 phase outlet which supplied 240v, he tried the machine a few times but found it would not cut as well as he had seen in the UK. He contacted us and luckily we had an experimental 120v motor which we sent to him. After fitting the new motor he found the machine would still not perform as it had in this country.
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Old May 17th 2018, 2:35 pm
  #42  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Originally Posted by penguinsix
Many years ago we had a Flymo discussion and it was discovered, deep in the bowels of the Internet, some statements by Flymo UK that "American grass is different" and was far more difficult to cut than UK grass. Flymo units sent to the USA did not perform well.

Here it is, from an email from Flymo to an expat:
Apparently there is a difference, because of the relative climates. Also, American lawns tend to be much larger than those in the UK, at least in your bog-standard lower-middle-class suburban areas. Certainly our yard (which isn't huge by American standards) on our quarter-acre slice of suburbia is a lot larger than the ones I grew up with.

Maybe we should all just get goats, let them eat the grass so we can sit and get shitfaced on the deck instead of having to faff with lawnmowers at all
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Old May 17th 2018, 3:18 pm
  #43  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Different climates need different grasses. Grass in Britain tends to stay green all year, but in some parts of the US it looks dead for most of the summer (and in others it just dies) and goes green again when it cools back down. My lawn is slowly being taken over by some wild grasses that grow much faster and less consistent than the rest.
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Old May 17th 2018, 3:45 pm
  #44  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Originally Posted by anotherlimey
Teach me how to train my wife to cut the lawn...
It was not easy. If you have never used a zero turn mover it is wise to start out in a large open area. But after a short time it becomes so easy and fast to mow you will never want to use anything else.
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Old May 17th 2018, 3:56 pm
  #45  
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Default Re: The American Way of Doing Things - Lawnmowers

Originally Posted by Anian
Different climates need different grasses. Grass in Britain tends to stay green all year, but in some parts of the US it looks dead for most of the summer (and in others it just dies) and goes green again when it cools back down. My lawn is slowly being taken over by some wild grasses that grow much faster and less consistent than the rest.
Our grass goes brown and dormant over winter but greens up again in the spring and summer.

We bought a John Deere ride-on mower about 12 years ago. It's been very reliable. I put a new carburetor on it last year as the old one was gummed up after winter. A new one was easier than trying to clean the old one.
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