I suppose it also matters where you live. Down here (Gulf Coast Texas; more accurately, South Texas) lawn grass doesn't stop growing at all some years. Never goes dormant. Temps are never high enough in the summer to slow it either. I was already familiar with St. Augustine and Bermuda from having lived in North Texas (they spread above ground and below ground; very aggressive) . . up there you got a break from about Thanksgiving to Easter. And, then again, in late June through September because the temps rise so high. You still had need of machinery to keep it clean (this is the city, not the country), but you could lay off on occasion.
But not here. There's a reason all the old western cattle drives started from this place, and it is the sea of grasses that make up some of the giant ranches out of town. There is one divided into about four separate parcels: and on one of them they work the cattle a couple of times a year into one of several pastures . . each of which is more than 6,000-acres and isn't even a tenth of that ONE section.
Kingdom of grass is more like it.
I go through at least 2-gls month on the various equipment, and it is all of it from twelve to twenty-plus years old. Helps, enormously, to have an excellent tech. I can do my own work, but . . some guys have the magic touch.
You Yanks with that fescue or bluegrass or whatever have a short enough season. I've seen some very pretty lawns up there when I travel. And I can see that it may be a lot of work. And mowing a pain. Here, we do a soil test (Ag Ext Svc) to try to get the dirt healthy, and closely follow a regimen that doesn't allow too much fertilizer or water. Too hard, and way too expensive to have to start over after a drought (by which we're plagued some years). I know that's half the battle right there: good practice.
The other is in carving the lawn to a shape and size that eliminates having to EVER pull the mower backwards. Trimming a few trees to let light through. Going with perennial groundcovers elsewhere. Never letting the grass close to trees. Filling, grading to eliminate machinery problems or drainage. Good planning, in other words. I tend to do a little more each year on these older houses I've had.
Planning and practice that is a lot of work . . at first. And cash. But pays off every year afterwards. While I'd like to someday have an electric (no-cord) that could cut my lawn (15,000 s/f), that machine doesn't yet exist. A push reel mower is a laugh. Won't work. Same for the other equipment.
I cut mine as it needs it. Might be three/four days, might be six/seven. It grows as it will. By staying on top of it mowing is fast & easy since the layout and equipment are all up to par.
The alternatives to a lawn are nearly always more expensive, more work, and might take a decade to really establish. I've seen some nice ones . . and they have someone "on" them twice weekly. Paid help. And then one has to deal with the critters that tall grasses, etc, can sometimes bring close to the house. Best ones I've seen still have lawn grass a fair distance out from the foundation plantings to avoid this.
But you probably don't live in a place where in about early March
every vet's office and sporting goods store has a sign out about stocking up on rattlesnake venom.
And, that snake boots are 15% off for a limited time. . .
(We also, locally, have 15-varieties of mosquitoes. There is no season for them . . just add rain).
There's good gas powered equipment out there for sale to the knowledgeable buyer. Can be re-engined or whatever. Worked for me to get commercial or near-commercial grade equipment this way. Those cheap box store mowers would make
anyone swear off mowing.
Good site:
www.lawnsite.com for commercial service operators. A sub-forum for homeowners.
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