I have several neighbors who hire people to cut their grass, and the hired help use “weed trimmers.” OK, it gets the job done, but in all my years this is the first time I’ve ever noticed it. Is that common? I’ve always imagined weed trimmers as being used for touch up work in hard to get places where weeds are more common to take root. Has this alway been a thing? None of the neighbors have extremely large yards. I’d estimate maybe 20 x 20 yards? Have to admit, though, they get it cut almost down to the dirt!
Funny you should mention this. Last week my back neighbor cut his rather large backyard with a weed eater. It took him almost all day, a bit at a time. I thought this was really strange. But, his yard had not been cut since last year and the grass was pretty high. I figured it might have been harder to do with a mower. Then yesterday, he put up a big above-ground pool.
I used one when I lived in Baltimore (many decades ago), but I lived in a rowhouse and had a very tiny yard, much smaller than your neighbor’s 20x20 yards. I thought my tiny yard was maybe a bit too big to use a weed eater, and definitely wouldn’t want to use one on a yard your neighbor’s size.
It’s also really hard to get an even cut across the yard. The yard in my rowhouse was pretty crappy anyway so I didn’t care. But if someone is paying you to cut their grass, you should definitely use something better.
Was the grass extremely tall, like “wading through the grass” tall? I can see that as a reason to use a weed eater to get it down to a manageable length.
It’s a mixed bag. Two of the neighbors had grass higher than most people let it get, but nothing any decent mower would have problems with. One of neighbors had grass about a ‘normal’ ready to cut height, and his people also used weed trimmers.
For pro gardeners, they tend to have ZTR ride-ons, and weed whackers. But not conventional walk-behind power mowers. Those are for suburban / city amateurs.
For that combination of equipment coupled to a small lawn, and especially if they have a large crew, it can be quicker to have everybody weed-whack the whole thing than drag out the ZTR, make 2 passes across the center, then still have to weed-whack the perimeter and any tight spots, then put away the ZTR.
Yeah that is my thought. They just don’t have the right gear - either they haven’t bothered to invest in a residential walk-behind or they can’t fit it on their trailer. And it’s not worth it for them to try to bring one out.
Also residential walk-behinds are bad if you have lush but long grass. I used one on my lawn for a while and even if I cut it every few days, during the spring it would get clogged every other row and I’d have to turn it over and clean it out to get it going again.
I also wonder if your neighbors said “I don’t want to have to pay you to come back too much so just sheer it down as low as you can go.” That’s best accomplished with a trimmer.
I can’t imagine it looks good tho yikes.
You could always mow the lawn with a scythe.
Death takes a holiday?
Get a goat?
I have a spot in my backyard that I sometimes have to get the weed-eater out to “mow” it. It’s a low spot that stays wet longer than the rest of the yard. Rather than pushing the mower through the wet grass and making a muddy mess I just bust out the weed whacker for that part of the yard.
actually my aunt cheats she has a set up where you can attach your weed eater to a base and make it a lawn mower …but yeah you can mow a lawn with a weed cutter takes a little longer
We’ve had our lake house for several years, and one of our neighbors would make a few quick passes on our lawn with his riding mower. I thanked him many times, and although he refused it I passed a gas station gift card to his wife to help pay for gas.
Then a few years ago he got grumpy over the winter, and when we went up for the first time in the spring the grass hadn’t been mown yet. It was six inches long and very weedy, so I went after it with my weed whacker (rechargeable). I had a small gas mower up there, but since it hadn’t been started for years, of course it wouldn’t start. The neighbor on the other side came over, discussing that other neighbor. I was almost done but he heard my plight, saying I might have to hire a lawn care company to come over occasionally. He came over later and offered to do it, for a price of course, and we couldn’t be happier (he also takes care of snow plowing and the leaves, and even power washed the house).
The weed wacker was going to take me two hours what only takes 20 minutes with a mower, but if that’s all you have…
I only use it on the lawn to get the grass that likes to grow up around the sprinkler head. Mowing is a chore, I can’t imagine doing the whole yard a slower way.
I was once forced to try to clear an entire yard with only a weed whacker (long story, but I had no choice).
Maybe I just had a cheap one, but it definitely was not meant to be run continuously, because about halfway across the yard, the motor in the head overheated and the thing burst into flame.
Considering I was in a yard full of loose dry grass, that was an exciting couple of minutes.
Weed eater is the only way to ‘mow’ our ‘yard’ in the mountains. Very uneven and full of rocks. A lawn mower wouldn’t get 2 feet.
The scythe has already been mentioned, but it is worth repeating: it works fine for long grass. They are not expensive. They make no noise. It is a very mild exercise.
Therefore I guess they are no longer used in the USA.
That would not work with a scythe either, of course. A goat has also been recommended, I concur.
I have one of these, it’s a good quality Black and Decker weed whacker, (which auto feeds the line!), that comes with a plastic, 4 wheel carriage thingy, that the cutter sits into, ensuring the cut is even.
It’s brilliant, cutting a lawn with a freehand weed whacker was never doable for me. Always came out raggedy looking. But with this setup it’s a snap.
Bonus, no need to fetch another tool to edge or trim, it pops in and out of the carriage easily. It’s not a case of going back to trim certain spots, it’s all done easily every time as one task, one tool!
It’s better to cut your grass with a sharp blade rather than trimmer line. Trimmer line tears the grass rather than cutting it. Torn grass tips turn dead and ugly. The same thing happens with a dull lawn mower blade, so keep it it sharp. Sharpening once per season will be enough for the average homeowner. You can get a round grindstone that attaches to your cordless drill. Keeping the blade balanced is important, and blade balancers are cheap.
A scythe was a tool to cut grass (wheat, barley, hay …) before it became associated with death. And i think the scythe represented “good death”, death in the autumn of life., death harvesting souls for God.
It’s only in modern times, when we are removed from the land (and don’t use hand tools) that it’s come to have primary associations with death, i think.
My grass isn’t lush enough to deserve a scythe. I also haven’t mown it yet this season, and it’s going to seed in places. I think I’ll just see how it goes.
I haven’t paid a lot of attention, but I suspect they’re using blade attachments as opposed to a trimmer line.