Field Mowing Pattern - Side Discharge

[BubbaLouie]

So, when you're cutting a field/yard/other..... many times the field isn't square with straight sides, so you have to curve in/out along the edges to dodge aggressive branches.

Question.... do you FOLLOW that pattern throughout the cut so the field has wavering lines all the way through or, do you "waste" a round or two so you can cut the rounded part off to square up the line so you then leave the field looking nicer?

I'll admit, I'll spend the extra time to straighten out the edges. I figure I don't mind cutting (I enjoy it) and it really doesn't take that much more effort to change the cut pattern to give it a nicer look.

Maybe I can throw my mother under the bus?? As a teenager when I was cutting the back yard, (with a push mower), I once looked at it as having different sections. There was the section between the garden and the brick retaining wall, another section that was the hill, a large back flat section that could be split into two areas for ease of cut.

I took each section and simply pointed the clippings to the outside and made smaller & smaller turns creating a bit of a spiral appearance. I went to the next section and did same, then the next section.

When I was done, the yard had a bit of an appearance of those "crazy glasses" where you have that spiral into infinity.

My mother got home and went ballistic on me. To the point she said she wanted me to go BACK out there and recut the entire yard to ostensibly "erase" those circles and replace them with more straight lines.

I don't recall that actually happening but she really got bent out of shape over nothing on that, after all, a week later it will need cut again and I can fix it then!

So now, I figure if I'm going to spend three hours cutting a field, I may as well spend those three hours cutting in a fashion that at least makes it more pleasing to look at rather than a hodge-podge of cutting. Therefore, I square up the sides and generally try to make nice clean straight lines (with a flexwing, verses finish)

Who else is willing to admit to their being OCD enough to do that??!!

Same here. I mow the odd ball edges first so I can then make continuous straight lines or circles with the discharge facing outward so that the mower deck doesn't handle the same grass more than once.

 

[Gord Baker]

It's not the Space Shuttle. Cut it your way. Straight is good so are phonographic spirals but the corners take a lot of time. Do them first.

 

[MoKelly]

I mowed today. Based on this thread I tried the Zamboni thing. Got within a couple swaths of getting it perfect.

MoKelly

 

[hube2]

I've been reading this just to see what other people do. What I do is a combo of things. As others say it's about having my deck cutting grass most of the time. I have a pattern for my entire lawn and all of its obstacles that allows me to move from one section to the next efficiently. This This overall pattern would be difficult to explain without a diagram, but explaining it would not help anyone since it is unique to my lawn.

Each section also has a pattern. When I can go round and round, at first I do 3point turns at the corners, the when there is enough room to do so I start doing 270s to the right and I do this until it takes me longer to make the 270 than it would to drive the length of the shorter sides, once this happens I just cut two sides until the section is done.

On my one large section I do something like the zamboni thing, but I divide it into 3 sections. This allows me to always have the clippings being blown into an area that has already been mowed after the first pass rather than having them blow onto what hasn't been cut yet.

 

[MoKelly]

Ok. My wife walks into the room.

Says “what are you reading”?

Takes the phone.

Looks at me and says “you are reading how to cut the grass more efficiently”?

Shares her head and walks off.

I have no answer.

MoKelly

 

[GeneV]

Ok. My wife walks into the room.

Says “what are you reading”?

Takes the phone.

Looks at me and says “you are reading how to cut the grass more efficiently”?

Shares her head and walks off.

I have no answer.

MoKelly

You have no answer? Let me help: "I'm just trying to be perfect...for you."

 

[MoKelly]

You have no answer? Let me help: "I'm just trying to be perfect...for you."

I’ll try that next time —- after she makes breakfast!
MoKelly

 

[tshep]

We had a chance to try inside to outside, blowing to inside.
Did a long middle pass, y turned another, y turned, after 4 in the middle we could turn the ends at full speed, had a ball, fighting over who got to drive. Ended up with a fun, elongated oval - rather, a circle with straight middle.
(Machine could always turn within last radius without do-overs.)
I'm gonna' measure and mark with a pair of sticks next time for the starting line.

 

[jonsstihl]

now that does sound like fun. and pretty efficient and you get to finish up by cleaning up the corners.