Lawn Mowing is Wasted Time - Any Ideas?

I generally begrudge the time wasted in mowing a big lawn. It's dead time, unproductive time, hours of my life frittered away while important things remain undone. At my homestead, I only mow a small area for aesthetics, and the larger back meadow (monthly) for fire control and to collect greens for my composters.

But: I face a dilema. I have been "volunteered" to keep a family property mowed. I can't really say no. It takes a solid 5 hours with a big mower. We'll have a landscaping company on standby for when I can't come, but that costs a lot.

I really wish I had one of the big "roomba" mowers that would drive itself on the wide open meadow areas, but that's not financially practical.

What could I possibly do to turn this into productive time?

I spend little enough time mowing (ten hours per year?) that I really enjoy it. If I didn't, I'd listen to audio books and podcasts while I worked.

Five hours!? You have my respect. Don't you love when you get volun-told?

I agree with Chris, I like to listen to something while I'm out in my lawn mowing flow. I usually find some long-form historical content and it helps pass the time.

Is there a possibility to let the grass grow long enough to harvest/bag it for your own uses?

Maybe spy some spots for some guerilla gardening of some local pollinator plants?

I use my cut grass for livestock feed.

Decide the lawn needs to be "naturally reseeded" and let it go to seed before you mow? If the lawn isn't in an HOA or other controlled space, that may work as a reason to NOT do it until it gets high, or at least limit the time between mowings? Or, do the same thing around the "bare" patches.... ?

The "golf course" lawn is non-negotiable. It it were my property I would manage it very differently.

The audio book idea has merit, if I can arrange it to work with the hearing protection that is mandatory.

Music might be an option, if my playlist allows me to get my voice back in shape or learn lyrics to new songs.

The rebel in me wants to take along a big bag of white (dutch) clover seed and spread it over the whole damn place*. I'm the only one who would know what happened. Productive payback!

*while I am sitting on the mower!

Mowing at my place is not at all what I consider a waste of time.  I probably spend twice as long to mow as it would be because I bag the clippings.  Those get dumped into my chicken runs, to their delight.  They in turn make it into compost for me.  I also add lots of grass clippings to my compost bins.  I don't think I've ever heard anyone say they had too much compost, and I'm certain I'll never get to that point.  I plan on adding several more bins this year.  I add layers of grass clippings to my garden beds as mulch and to compost in place.  Every time I turn a compost bin that has wood chips in it, I had more grass.  The extra greens help speed the composting process of the wood chips so they don't take as long to break down.  All those grass clippings can be an asset.  If they spray it, disregard everything I typed previously.  If they spray, I would give them two choices.  Stop spraying, or find someone else to mow.  Sprayed grass isn't good for anything I know of.

I also despise mowing. I have a big 6-horse weed eater on wheels. I let the grass get high, as much as knee high in some parts and then scalp it to the ground so it doesn't come back for a while. Often, I rake it up and mulch or compost it, sometimes I leave it to mulch in place. When violets, clover, plantain, henbit, even dandelions are in bloom I mow around them in order to let them spread seed.  

When we had our homestead we mowed the pasture every so often to keep the mesquite trees at bay, other wise it would have been a mesquite tree pasture.

I have lived in at least one city where folks would be fined for not mowing their yards.

Same for folks in an HOA.

Here is my lawn that we never mow:







https://permies.com/t/142667/Wildflower-Meadow

You could switch to scythe mowing. You'll almost certainly spend even more time mowing, but at least it will double as a workout!

Trace Oswald wrote:Mowing at my place is not at all what I consider a waste of time.  I probably spend twice as long to mow as it would be because I bag the clippings.  Those get dumped into my chicken runs, to their delight.  They in turn make it into compost for me.  I also add lots of grass clippings to my compost bins.  I don't think I've ever heard anyone say they had too much compost, and I'm certain I'll never get to that point.  I plan on adding several more bins this year.  I add layers of grass clippings to my garden beds as mulch and to compost in place.  Every time I turn a compost bin that has wood chips in it, I had more grass.  The extra greens help speed the composting process of the wood chips so they don't take as long to break down.  All those grass clippings can be an asset.  If they spray it, disregard everything I typed previously.  If they spray, I would give them two choices.  Stop spraying, or find someone else to mow.  Sprayed grass isn't good for anything I know of.

I could not have put it better. I do the above and also use as cover material on humanure piles. Using it for these things has turned my attitude around about mowing. I also divide the mowing into 2 or 3 sections and give a nice break in between. It has become enjoyable.

The only thing I would add is that the original post sounds like it is a place you have to go to and then mow. Unless it was hayed, it would not be practical to get the material back to another location to use it.

Cheap earbuds fit under earmuff hearing protection. Not great acoustics, but fine for books and podcasts.

I used to drive a tractor ten hours a DAY before the invention of a Walkman. I know your pain.

Ted Rowdy wrote:You could switch to scythe mowing. You'll almost certainly spend even more time mowing, but at least it will double as a workout!

LOL! Good Lord, it's like 4 acres of lawn. That's not a job, it's a career! But yeah I would be ripped, in a weirdly lopsided way.

Are you getting paid in any way for this? If not in cash, could you work out some kind of bartering scheme, a quid pro quo for your time on the machine?

In such a scenario, I would be looking to turn this time into some way to better my knowledge and/or skills, via audiobooks/presentations/podcasts as mentioned above (--oh, how many of the Permies Podcasts you could probably get through in one season!).

I would also bring a notepad and pen in a back pocket, and use mowing time for structured thinking time: addressing problems I wanted to solve, and generating ideas for stuff to do.

I have also used garbage time to try to memorize stuff. (I had flash cards next to the monogramming machine I worked for one of my college jobs, for example.) I might try to do that type of thing on the mower too--great poems and such.    

Rachel Lindsay wrote:Are you getting paid in any way for this? If not in cash, could you work out some kind of bartering scheme, a quid pro quo for your time on the machine?  

To be perfectly clear, this is a family obligation to step up (I'm the only sibling close by; if not me, who?). But definitely this is not an abusive situation in any way. I can ask for costs expended, perhaps a bit more. To be honest, in the long term, I will likely benefit to some degree when this property changes hands.

So when I b*tch about this obligation, I need to recognize that a lot of folks would love to have this "problem." The thing is, I chafe at the dead time. How much productive time do I have to spend mowing lawns like a robot? I have started to recognize a new currency -- "time" and "attention" and "health" and "purpose" and "community" and "growth." Tempus fugit.

Rachel Lindsay wrote:I have also used garbage time to try to memorize stuff. (I had flash cards next to the monogramming machine I worked for one of my college jobs, for example.) I might try to do that type of thing on the mower too--great poems and such.    

Yes! Brilliant. I was thinking that as well.

I used to be able to recite Tennyson's "Ulysses" on demand. As a 20-something it was cool to speak but not personally relevant. Maybe it's time to give those rusty old dendrites a prod.

can you bag and bring home the grass clippings?

Lawn mowing is harvest time for us

We just finished another round of mowing with the bagger and green mulched the tomatoes and beans before todays rain.
By the time we mow again something else will need the mulch.

Sickled areas around trees and plants mostly stay as mulch where they were cut but we have two fairly large areas that we scythe while things are growing fast for stemier mulch in the paths that breaks down to eventually toss up on the bed as more mulch.

This spring has been almost non stop mowing and sickling and scything and all is considered food for the plants and trees.

When it begins to get drier if we want to mow we don't use the bagger and just let it fall in place.

All of that grass and clover and comfrey and many other green things are our gardens main input for fertilizer.

Seems like there could be some negotiating space for making the job more productive for you?

Judith Browning wrote:can you bag and bring home the grass clippings? Lawn mowing is harvest time for us

... Seems like there could be some negotiating space for making the job more productive for you?

Yes, good point. I have considered "sweet spots" where this would be worthwhile. A few out-of-sight spots near the fenceline could be mowed occasionally and the tallish cut grass gathered quickly by hand.

The negotiating space is in progress. The standard is moving from "golf course perfection" to "does it look tidy from the road?" As long as the neighbours' tongues don't cluck ("oh, they've let the place go, the kids are so lazy and selfish") I can sell it. This is good -- if I can spend an occasional hour here and there at full forward speed to level out the grass bits that have grown higher, and then do a full mow maybe twice a month, I can live with that. I guess that's the only good aspect of this drought -- the grass in the wide open areas is starting to go dormant.

Many years ago when I was too busy to mow I would open the gate and allow the horses to mow for me.  The garden was fenced so no problem there and in the late summer and fall the apple trees provided a sweet treat for them.  And as a bonus they would apply their own fertilizer !!  I think that was the part that wife #1 didn't like, I mean really go figure ?

Peace