March 23rd, 2023 by Sarah Miles

Did you know that mowing the lawn regularly is as important for the well-being of your grass as it is for its neat appearance of it? Keeping grass at the right height allows rain and sunlight to reach the roots so it’s essential for healthy growth.

Choosing the best lawnmower for your garden is all about balancing the specific requirements of your lawn with ease of use and, of course, budget. To help you do that, here is our guide to domestic lawnmowers and what you should be looking out for.

Before we go into the different criteria, it’s useful to introduce you to some lawnmower terms and features:

Rotary: a cutting machine that has a single blade that rotates like a propellor.

Cylinder: a cutting machine that features a cylinder mounted with multiple blades and cuts against a single fixed blade.

Hover: hovers slightly above the grass and cuts with a rotary blade.

Electric: connects to mains electricity using a cable.

Cordless: uses a rechargeable battery and has no cable.

Petrol: runs on petrol.

Self-propelled: propels itself forward, requiring less force from the user.

Cutting width: the measurement of the span of the cutting blade.

Cutting height: the height(s) that the mower will cut the grass too.

Grass collection box: the box mounted to the mower that collects the grass as you cut it

Rear roller: flattens designated sections as you mow to create a striped pattern.

Mulching facility: mulches the cut grass into small particles as you mow.

The best lawnmower for your lawn

Aspects such as the size and shape of your lawn and the nature of your grass will determine which lawnmower will give you the best results:

Size

Obviously, if you have a large lawn, you will need a mower that’s up to the task but that’s going to be easy to handle, whereas a small lawn may not require something that’s quite so robust.

Small
A small lawn (up to 100m2) can easily be cut with an electric or cordless mower. Hover mowers are usually cheaper than other types as they are less robust but should be fine for a small garden. A petrol mower would be excessive.

Medium
For a medium lawn (100-250m2) you could use an electric, cordless, or petrol mower. These vary in price in this order so if budget is limited and the garden isn’t too big for a cable to be inconvenient, you may want to go for an electric model. If you prefer the convenience of not having a cable, go for cordless.

Large
For large lawns (250m2+), a petrol mower is more powerful and faster so would be the most efficient. You’re also not restricted by cables. Bear in mind though that they do need servicing and you’ll need to top the oil up periodically. Consider the safety aspects of storing petrol. To make life easier and speed up the cutting, choose a model with a large cutting width.

Grass Type

The nature of your grass will also suit different mowers:

Well-manicured lawns
Lawns that are kept short, with fine grass, and flat, even surfaces are best suited to a cylinder lawnmower which will achieve a high-end finish though may not be up to the challenge of rougher lawns. If you want your lawn to appear striped, choose one with a rear roller.

Rough, uneven lawns
Lawns with courser grass types that are not completely even are better tackled with a rotary mower, which is more versatile and able to manage a variety of surfaces. They will achieve a good result, even if the grass has been allowed to grow quite long in between cuts (though the advice is to not take more than a third of the length in one cut). Look for models with a range of cutting heights and, where necessary, take it down in a couple of separate mows to avoid shocking it. Hover mowers can also be effectively used on uneven lawns, due to the way they hover above the surface, but they may not cope with coarse grass. Petrol mowers can cope well with very rough grass types.

Shaped lawns
If your lawn has some non-angular shapes around features like borders and patios, a hover mower can glide around these shapes more easily than other types.

Ease and convenience

Obviously, cutting the lawn is a task that will require doing regularly over the growing period in spring and summer so a lawnmower that makes the job as quick and easy as possible may be something you’re willing to pay a bit more for:

Ease of use
If you’d rather get the lawn cut without breaking too much of a sweat, a self-propelling mower really does a lot of the work for you. All you need to do is steer it.

Cutting disposal
A lawnmower with a cutting collection box will do exactly as the name suggests; collect the cuttings so you don’t need to sweep it all up when you’ve finished. The larger the box, the less frequently you’ll need to stop to empty it.

Mulching
A mulching function is useful if you don’t have the means to easily dispose of the cuttings or you want to reap the benefits of applying mulched grass to the lawn (it will put nutrients back into the soil).