Lawn-mowing heuristic

[teddysnips]

I can't work out the best way to cut our lawn. It surrounds the house on three sides, so that adjacent to the house the edges are nice and straight. However, around the outside it follows a higgledy-piggledgy line. In plan, I suppose it is roughly the shape of the letter U. I've tried various heuristics to get the most efficient way to mow - from simply starting at an outside corner and working in, to breaking it up into sectors. It occurred to me that there may be some rule of thumb that would give me a satisfactory solution.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Edward

[Huge]

I've thought about this a great deal while thundering round on my ride-on and I've come to the conclusion that the problem is an NP one;

at least, the topological equivalent.

Perhaps I'd be better off listening to my MP3 player while mowing, instead?

[The Natural Philosopher]

You dont want to solve it.Pondering the issue is the only thing that relieves the tedium of doing it.

[Owain]

Teenager in need of pocket money on a piecework rate?

Owain

[Tim Lamb]

In message , [e-mail] writes

You are supposed to cut in different directions to avoid long pressed down stems. This advice probably predated the advent of rotary mowers:-)

With an agricultural background, I always mow a headland first. As all the ground has to be covered, the only opportunity for improved efficiency is to minimise the number of turns. Diagonal work appears to achieve this on my particular lawn. However, using a lawn tractor, the turning circle is such that *land* work reduces the headland needed. Basically, after the first trip, you return parallel: missing a strip and then work inside/outside until you need to start afresh.

regards

[nightjar]

Convert it to a combination of hard surfaces and planting beds. Lawns require far too much maintenance to be included in any garden, unless you have a stately home and an army of gardeners.

Colin Bignell

[Mary Fisher]

"nightjar .me.uk>"

Or poultry or sheep - they make excellent mowers and give a very constant, even trim.

Mary

[teddysnips]

Thanks for all your thoughts.

I've just come indoors and think I've a working method. Break the area up into quadrilaterals, which I can then mow on each side in a decreasing spiral shape (I have a 21" rotary - ooer, missus). Any headlands or odd shapes left over can be dealt with at the end (or at the beginning, Tim, if that makes you happier ;=AC} I agree that thinking about it is the only thing that relieves the tedium at all, especially as it's not quite a big enough area to justify a sit-on jobbie. We already have plenty of hard surfaces, and enough beds to keep SWMBO happy. Livestock is just not us, I'm afraid - a Wheaten terrier is quite enough.

Edward

[Lobster]

Well that's two words I never thought I'd see adjacent to one another... David

[<me9]

And a supply of manure.

[The Medway Handyman]

Could it be a Googlewhack?

Nah. 465 hits :-(

[Owain]

nightjar Convert it to a combination of hard surfaces and planting beds. Lawns

Or a tractor mower for the parkland look.

Owain

[The Natural Philosopher]

I can tell you that lawns are a LOT less work than flower beds...

With a suitable sized mower..its a couple of hours every fortnight.

For a large acreage. Beds can be a couple of hours a DAY.If they are big enough.

[Frank Erskine]

Natural Philosopher?

:-)

[Doki]

Sheep weed for you too.

[Roger]

The message from Owain contains these words:

In theory at least I am in favour of green concrete for low maintenance gardens. :-) However I don't have any significant areas of concrete and even the hard standing is largely grassed over.

I cut I suppose about one third of an acre but because of the odd shapes and many parcels I am sure I actually cut at least twice that area IYSWIM.

Anyone with time to waste who wants to see what I have to cut can put Marley, England into Google Earth and follow the red dot labelled Marley in the top left hand corner of the pane.

[Andy Hall]

They shat as well.

[Andy Hall]

Seven golf clubs?

Surely that's more than you can cover with your Qualcast in an afternoon? :-)

[Roger]

The message from Andy Hall contains these words:

I can't tell whether that is intended as a joke or you really did fetch up at a different Marley.

For the avoidance of doubt 53.865, 1.884 should get you to approximately the same location.

[nightjar]

I didn't suggest flower beds, but planting beds. Nothing in my garden, apart from the small piece of lawn, needs more than a bit of a tidy up every month or so. There is one area of bamboo, which only needs to be kept from spreading, and the other planting areas use large architectural plants, with infills of bushes and an overall ground cover of ivy.

Colin Bignell