Lawnmowers: Picks of the crop for your garden and budget

Could this be your first EV? Streak over up to three acres with zero emissions with the Ego Z6 ZT4201E-L, from €4690.

It's out there waving at you. The grass is back, and it’s time to put manners on those lost acres of weeds and rye. These are our top tips for finding a great mower. There are some great machines on offer this season, whether you seek a corded, petrol or battery-juiced model.

SIZING UP

The more ground you have to cover, the more walking, hauling and/or driving you are going to do. The widths of the blades will determine just how many “passes” you have to make to complete the job. When it comes to general sizing, an extra small lawn would be regarded as anything under around 100sq m.

A small lawn would reach up to 300sq m, and 300sq m to 600sq m is a medium lawn; 60sq m or more and most manufacturers regard your garden as large. You can roughly pace out metres or use Google Maps to set a distance around your lawn. Find the measure-distance tool on the map showing your grounds, and mark and read off the area in square metres. This is a very useful hack for an oddly shaped garden, and when buying a cordless battery mower where you want a machine that will cover the lawn in one charge.

Include the litre capacity of any grass box with the mower as part of the reckoning, as the smaller the box, the more times you’ll be heaving it to the compost heap. A mulching feature is a real plus as you can dispense with the box or bag when it suits you. With battery mowers, the increasing weight of the collector will steadily reduce the range of the battery.

Battery and electric corded mowers are considerably lighter than petrol models and offer a push-button start as standard — a plus for anyone with physical challenges.

Making the cut: The Flymo Turbo Lite is just 5.1kg with 1500w moving quality, long-lasting blades, and offers a dual-lever handle for ambidextrous use. It’s ideal for a small garden, just find room in the shed to hang it directly on the wall. Ensure the 10m cord length will suit; €69, woodies.ie.

Could this be your first EV? Streak over up to three acres with zero emissions with the Ego Z6 ZT4201E-L, from €4690.

For ride-on mowers, top names include Husqvarna, Stihl, Cobra, and Honda. Fancy a battery ride-on? The Ego Z6 ZT4201E-L comes in at €4690 with independent brushless motors, Bluetooth connectivity, sharp, precision (zero) turns, it can cut up to three acres at 8pmh with an extended battery set.

DECK DECISIONS

Both very small and small lawns are fine with widths ranging from 30cm to 43cm. With an easy-to-care-for postage stamp, you could probably manage a simple push-cylinder mower for an eco-friendly muscle workout. For medium lawns, you might go up to 48cm, and large lawns demand 50cm-56cm in blade width to make an outing with the mower less demanding.

If you have sharp corners and trees scattered around your garden, a shorter blade width will offer more manoeuvrability over a gigantic ride-on machine that you will be forced to back up regularly and leave you reach for a strimmer in sweating exasperation. For sizes over the 500sq m mark, you should consider a self-propelled mower, especially where there is any gradient and banks to deal with. At 2,000 sq m or half an acre, it’s hard to argue with the logic of petrol, and ride-on machines, but homeowners like a seat for much smaller gardens.

Making the cut: Go for top branding and performance with the new Husqvarna LC 353iVX which offers variable drive speeds, an intuitive keypad, simple height adjustment and easy manoeuvring. Ideal for a medium-sized lawn up to 800sq m with its 53cm deck. Battery and charger (you choose the voltage from the range) are not included; €906, Husqvarna.com. If you are shopping for any petrol mower, look out for the quality of a Briggs and Stratton (B&S) or a Honda engine if you’re not familiar with the branding of the machine itself.

POWER POINTS

For smaller gardens, a corded electric mower or small battery model makes sense. The range of a battery machine will be given in square metres, so you can just find a machine to suit this bracket. If you have say small trees and shrubs planted out around your garden, a cordless battery mower won’t leave you in knots or ever slice through a vulnerable cable.

For medium and larger gardens, don’t jump straight to petrol. The latest advances in battery types can match a fume-belching, roaring ICE for everything bar a shaggy, undulating orchard up into the acres. A top tip: If your terrain is larger than a tennis court, bumpy, and steep, choose an ICE machine with what is termed an overhead cam or overhead valve engine, to pump oil through the machine while you work. Horsepower (hp) will range from 14hp-18hp for most domestic machines. Engine capacity is given in cc or cm3, and the higher the number, the less the motor will have to turn at full speed to maintain cutting performance.

The Bosch Advanced Rotak (corded and battery), from €318.

The enduring prejudice against battery mowers held by determined motorheads is largely misplaced. Like EVs, ranges are improving and prices falling.

Battery mowers with idiot-proof push-start are wonderfully light, robust, and reliable, and have zero emissions at the point of use. Because they are so much quieter than ICE machines, the experience of cutting the grass is far more pastoral and pleasant with fewer maintenance issues. The downside of going cordless is inevitable battery degradation.

Talk to your supplier regarding what to expect and examine those recharge times. With a larger garden two batteries or sets of batteries will get the job finished without a frustrating interruption. Higher voltages of 40V to 60V offer greater power for larger gardens, and you can choose a battery size to match your garden size. Some brands offer machines with a platform-compatible battery to other battery-fed DIY and garden power tools. Very handy if you decide to increase your arsenal to a leaf blower, hedge trimmer and cordless strimmer in the same make.

Making the cut: For some traditionalists, nothing does it like a petrol mower and clutch control. Well cared for, you could get decades out of a top ICE machine. For polite stripes and the golden name of Honda, my pick is the 54cm aluminium deck of the HRD536 QXE Rear Roller, €1,795, robertkee.ie. For a larger corded machine, check out the new Advanced Rotak family of machines with quiet running, 1700w-1800w of welly, 41cm plus decks, and Rotak’s signature grass combs for super neat edges. From €318, various suppliers.

MULCHING

Mulching involves cutting the grass into small pieces and expelling it back over the ground as you cut. It’s not as neat as collection if you like a striped bowling green, but it’s much better for the grass and wildlife, fertilising the ground for small invertebrates to thrive, and holding moisture to the earth during the hot summer months. Mulching takes away the misery of emptying the collector.

Look out for versatile four-in-one models of mower with four settings, including mulching front and/or side with an optional collector. This brings us to cylinders and rotatory styles.

If you have a garden that’s flat as a pancake without a stone or divot, you can have that neatly scissored look of a cricket pitch with the pleasing stripes many gardeners long for. Cylinders offer super short, velvety finishes even when cutting in the rain (not ideal for the birds or beasties in your garden) but wonderfully formal if that’s your taste. Shaggy grass and hilly going — stick with the toughness of a rotary action blade.

A manual Husqvarna HiCut 64, €155.

Making the cut: Husqvarna has also responded to the demand for a good old push mower to deal with longer grass, with its HiCut 64. It features an adjustable cutting height of up to 56mm and can be used with a collector. Perfect for wildlife-style lawns that are not cut frequently; €155, Husqvarna.com. Stihl is celebrated for the comfort and performance of its machines.

The deck of the RM 448 (petrol) is suited to up to 1,200sq m. The mono-comfort handlebar increases access to the grass catcher box making emptying the grass less cumbersome; €630 (optional mulching kit), dermotcasey.com.