lawn mower questions

[bdog]

Please forgive my ignorance on this. I just purchased a nice home in town with a fancy yard, and lots of landscaping. I have always lived in the country and mowed with a shredder to keep the weeds down or had a push mower for the small patch of grass outside.

This place is on a half acre lot with full sprinkler system, fescue in front, and bermuda in back. It seems like a lot to tackle with a push mower. Will a riding mower do a good job? What about the zero turn radius mowers?

Basically what I am asking is I need to maintain a very nice but large lawn and am not sure what the best tool for the job is. It looks like everyone in the area mows the yard at an angle mowing back and forth instead of around and around. This in itself seems difficult with a rider.

 

[Fordlords]

It depends, more or less on you. Anything out there will cut a half acre of grass easily and fairly quickly. If it's a keep up with the Jones' baseball field crosscut scenario, a good propelled walk behind is the king for that. If you like to sit down and slug it and don't really care about the overhead view of your lawn, get a riding LT or smaller ZTR for your mowing. Riding tractors are still the all around chore-kings, probably the best inital investment when you are in the, "unsure of my exact needs," category

-Fordlords-

 

[Gatorboy]

For a half-acre, I would suggest a 48-inch walk behind mower.

 

[Bird]

The ZTRs are a bit expensive, but oh so fast and easy. Even my little 38" cut Toro ZTR would make short work of a half acre.

 

[pennwalk]

I think that a well maintained push mower does as good or better than anything else. My doctor keeps saying we should walk more and the push mower would force you to do that. Still I have no plans to get off my JD 425. We are bagging leaves now but they say raking is good exercise. Won't be long till we may need the snow blower and shoveling wet snow is really more than I want to do.

Chris