Hey M! My thoughts on the matter would run to the purpose of your question. What's best - for YOU - depends on what your purpose is. Are you more concerned with the look of your lawn, the ease and efficiency of doing the job, the long term costs, or the exercise/work out of doing your yard. There are a lot of factors to consider. From your description of your yard, I'm supposing you're dealing with an acre (or more) of yard. (I have no idea of what's typical, in the Land of Oz, but here, in the US, the average home lot runs from 1/6th to 1/2 acre. Plus, you describe it as being multi-level. THAT would be a LOT of "work", to do manually, pushing a manual mower around, up and down. And hand "verging" (which is what I'm assuming you're talking about, with you "whipper snipper", a thing with a rotating cord that can cut grass and small twigs, under fences and around the edges of your lawn, etc. NOT trim bushes and shrubbery.) there's not really manual "tool" for doing THAT job. Unless you want to get down on your knees with a pair of hedge trimmer clippers. All of which WOULD BE good exercise, but take quite some time to do, with such a large yard as you suggest you have. So, if you're not doing the job as an excuse for getting the exercise, you're going to want some "power" machines. But you actually have 3 options, here. You have, of course, the electric and petrol options. But, if cost is also a factor, you might want to consider hiring a yard crew (maybe a needy and/or ambitious neighborhood secondary school boy) to do the job for you. When you factor in the cost of buying and maintaining the equipment, fuel costs, storage, time savings, etc., it might be cost effective to have a lawn care person or company come in and do the job for you. That way, you don't have to concern yourself with choosing equipment, buying/storing petrol, what equipment you need, where to store it, or allocating time to do the job, etc. The person/company will have all the necessary equipment, take care of the maintenance, fuel and insurance costs, haul it away when the job is done (as well as all the "trimmings"), and can even do the job if and when you're NOT available to do it (such as during a vacation, etc.) It might be MORE expensive, in the long run (if, say, none of the equipment you brought ever broke down or needed replacement), but it would definitely be less expensive, in the short run. (Plus, you'd build up a relationship with them, which might be handy IF you ever decide to make any changes in your landscaping!) But IF you decide that you want to own the equipment, AND do the job, yourself, you need to consider the job to be done, and the capabilities and convenience of the machines to DO the job you NEED them to do for you. Petrol powered machines have been around a long time, and have proven themselves capable of doing most any job involved, in yardwork. Internal combustion engines are a proven technology, that generally have a long endurance/lifespan, with minimal care. The BAD aspects of such machines are that they are noisy, need fuel storage (which means storing petrol in/around your home), and generally, are larger (thus necessitating more storage space). Plus emit noxious fumes (many of them incorporate 2-stoke engines). As well as contribute to "global warming". Electric machines, on the other hand, are much quieter, and don't require the storage of fuel, or emit greenhouse gasses, and are, generally, smaller, to store. But, the BAD of such machines is that they need 4,623 extension cords (for LARGE jobs, which can be cut [which MIGHT cause electrocution] or entangled), or, if battery powered, may not have the capacity to do the job in one event. Plus, batteries are notorious for needing semi-constant replacement (which CAN BE quite expensive), as well as needing "charging" stations. There are a lot of factors to be considered, M. There is NO one perfect "answer", for ALL circumstances.
deviant_slice Forum Posts (2,252)
RE: Current Thoughts (Cont)~~
Eh? There's me been playing with sharp stuff.Off to me room to hide under the pillow.