Mowing Down: The best options

As promised, for the last week of National Lawn Care month, here’s the scoop on lawn mowers.

I have about eight mowing machines at work that range from your common gasoline-powered 21-inch rotary push mower to high speed machines that are 7 to 8 feet wide and can cut dozens of acres in a day. While I don’t do any commercial mowing, I do use residential and commercial equipment for reliability and ease of use.

Though I admittedly own more mowers than most people, I’m under the same type of buying pressure—I need the best bang for the buck.

For the smallest of properties, there are three options: there’s the self-propelled, push type reel mower that has made a remarkable comeback in recent years; there are electric mowers; and there are battery-operated mowers.

The reel mowers give a very fine cut when they are properly maintained. And they give you a great workout. These push mowers can be found for as little as $100, but are also sold for up to several hundreds of dollars. The cheap ones are, well, cheap.

For optimal results with this type of mower, the lawn needs to be dry and not too long. Push mowers need a certain amount of maintenance and you’ll need to make sure there’s a shop around that has the equipment to sharpen or grind a reel blade system. Other than that, this is probably the most green mower you can get, unless you’re into goats.

We have a neighbor who has an electric mower. Every week or two, Jim drags out the extension cord, brings the mower out of the shed and in twenty minutes he’s got his 400 square feet of heaven cut. The electric machines tend to be quiet and efficient, but wet grass or tall grass can easily bog them down. The thought of cutting through the extension cord doesn’t exactly thrill me either, but for a small lawn—and with a bit of caution—these machines could be your salvation.

Battery-operated mowers are out there, but they do have their issues. Again, they are intended only for small lawns, and while seen as being “green machines,” sooner or later their batteries need to be replaced and the old ones can become an environmental issue. They are also heavy and not as easy to maneuver as the corded electrics.

For the gasoline-powered push mowers, both manual and self-propelled, I have a definite bias for John Deere and Honda. These tend to be two of the more expensive brands, but I’ve found them to be reliable, easy to start—even after years of use—and always give a good cut as long as you maintain the blades. John Deere has several price levels and the less expensive models don’t seem to fare as well as the more costly ones. We have one Honda that is now in its fifth year and aside from replacing wheels and blades, it has never required repairs. On the other hand, a Honda that we bought last year has been in the shop three times for the same speed control issues. But each time our dealer has repaired it under warranty and gotten it back to us fairly quickly.

I haven’t been a fan of the Craftsman brand from Sears and in previous years I’ve strongly recommended against them. Reviews of this brand in years past have also been lackluster, but last year we bought a Craftsman 21-inch bagging mower and it runs like a dream. Again, there are various price levels of the Craftsman line, but we paid around $200 for this mower and so far it’s been a champ. Craftsman has also scored pretty well in independent testing in the past couple of years as well.

The latest rage among mowers are called “ZTs,” or zero turn mowers. These are mowers you sit on with the mowing deck either underneath or in front of you. For the zero turns, speed is usually controlled by foot pedals and turning is accomplished with handle or stick controls. The advantage of these machines is that they are fast and adapt well to landscapes with lots of trees or beds that require frequent turning.

There’s a bit of a learning curve in picking up the nuances of controlling a “ZT” and the premium cost really can’t be justified if you have a rectangular lawn with no obstacles. And because they turn on such small radii, you can easily chew up turf and create ruts while turning.

Nonetheless, my 13-year-old, who has a small mowing business, has been begging for one. It ain’t gonna happen.

Last, but by no means least, are the riding mowers or garden tractors. We have a 17-horsepower John Deere LX277 which we bought used and is now 7 years old. I think we’re putting it out to pasture this year and we’ve been doing weeks and weeks of research on a replacement. After exhaustive comparisons, we narrowed down the field to Cub Cadet and John Deere brands. The Cub Cadet line seemed, well, OK. The features are good and the prices compared lower to similar Deere units, but the quality, build and reliability of the Deere line just can’t be matched.

The John Deere 100 series is the company’s inexpensive bottom-of-the-line mower, but it still gets good reviews. We took a long look at the 300 series and liked the idea of upgrading from our current 17-horsepower to a 22-horsepower (both Kawasaki engines) model. The 300 line also has a model that allows for four-wheel steering, which is helpful for going around beds and trees. In the end though, it’s looking more and more like we’ll go for the Deere X500. This model seems to be better designed to handle slopes and hills and can probably take care of our fall leaf mulching. Also on the plus side, the 25-horsepower Kawasaki engine it has a 4-year, 500-hour warranty.

Need help buying a mower? Consumer Reports has a great section on mowers including ratings and best buy recommendations. And you’ll never guess what their top rated riding mowers are. Here’s a hint, they’re green.

Time to mow. Keep growing.

Andrew Messinger has been a professional horticulturist for more than 30 years. He divides his time between homes and gardens in Southampton, Westchester and the Catskills. E-mail him at: Andrew@hamptongardener.com. The Hampton Gardener is a registered trademark.