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Why some people mow a lawn better than others

pudding.cool

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Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#131

Post by pmontra »

gavinray wrote: post #9

Semi-related: Worked as a landscaper during my youth, one of my first jobs I used to think that the line patterns mowed into grass were a purely aesthetic thing. It turns out, the lines are mowed in a rotation to prevent wearing out the grass and causing damage. First you mow length-wise, then width-wise, then diagonally, finally diagonally in the opposite direction, before cycling through again. Useless information…

How often did you mow the same grass to have to care about the direction of the previous mow?

I mow my garden between one to two weeks, according to the time of the year and sometimes I stop in June, if it stops raining like in 2022 and this year.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#132

Post by girvo »

sealthedeal wrote: post #41
paradox460 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus mowing a lawn is meditative Copying another comment I made earlier When I was laid off a couple months ago, the first thing I did was go out and mow my lawn. One hour of simple, clean labor, with clear progress, goals, and solitude. It helped me stay out of a bad mental frame, and when I finished I went inside and sent out a few hundred applications Over the next several weeks, I spent a lot of time that wasn't…

There is something beautiful about getting hands dirty with actual dirt/earth. Its such a REAL feeling.

Gardening is my stress reliever for this reason.

Though going to war with pests is… less stress relieving sometimes.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#133

Post by adregan »

jannyfer wrote: post #56
adregan wrote: post #4

I have a small yard and I'm not optimizing for the fewest moves, I'm optimizing for both the longest continuous lines (because I think they look nicest) and the shortest distance to carry the clippings at the end. I have a different definition of optimal to this game.

Or be like me and just mulch the clippings (yes it looks uglier that way - and yes I think of mowing the lawn as a chore)

I'd love to, but I keep/cut my grass on the longer side and my dog was eating so much of the clippings (and then throwing it up) when I mulched that I chose to compost far away from where she could get it.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#135

Post by floren »

b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #39
collingreen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the point is the wheel lines and to vary where the wheels go by changing the pattern each time you mow so you don't, for example, always drive exactly down the fence and cause a rut or mulch buildup or missed area. I dont think it was "don't hurt the grass while you cut it" or "mow it four times in one sitting".

How often are you people mowing your lawn that that's even a concern? It's like this is "surburbs: the problem: the comment section"

You can do things correctly, with thought and attention even if they seem unimportant, or you can be a feckless dipshit. This applies to most things in life.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#136

Post by eek2121 »

Definitely a regional problem. Also, why are you folks wholesale signing up for text message notifications? If you didn't, ask yourself how they got your number? If you use a site that actually requires a number, give them a Google Voice number.

However, here in the U.S. my iPhone immediately tosses these messages into spam. The same with Google Voice. I've not given out my actual phone number to anyone, and if someone requires it, I give them the GV number. If they don't accept that number they don't get my business (I think that has happened like three times in the past decade).

General rule of thumb: ignore random messages, calls, and emails. If you have doubts/worries, look up the official number for the company/service and call that.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#137

Post by pmontra »

adregan wrote: post #4

I have a small yard and I'm not optimizing for the fewest moves, I'm optimizing for both the longest continuous lines (because I think they look nicest) and the shortest distance to carry the clippings at the end. I have a different definition of optimal to this game.

I optimize for the longest continuous lines because it takes less time and effort to mow in that way.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#138

Post by sgerenser »

BHSPitMonkey wrote: post #113
vel0city wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 100F time is already the late afternoon/early evening. Am I supposed to mow in the dark when its 98F? Or should I wait until 1 AM to mow? I'm sure my neighbors will love it. At least with the extreme heat the grass doesn't grow quite as fast.

There's always sunrise

Yeah sunrise, when the lawn is soaking wet with dew.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#139

Post by b112 »

locusofself wrote: post #125
inigyou wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once had an electric lawnmower with a cord on it. Swaps one inconvenience for another. You don't have to recharge it, but you have to keep the cord out of the way.

I've had both. I'd rather have battery operated, especially if you have a big yard. Having an extra backup battery is a good idea as well.

Time to get a Personalized Pico Pal(tm), your own Power Pal in orbit, solar power microwaved to your mower, from now on it's batteries included, thanks to Blazbro!

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#140

Post by toss1 »

cortesoft wrote: post #3

This is a very different problem than actual efficiency when mowing a lawn or vacuuming a rub. Turning takes more work and time, and you miss a part of the 'square' when you are turning (the arc of the curve is not a straight line). In addition, vacuums especially have an area at the edge of the machine that is not cleaned as well, which is why you want a bit of overlap in your lines. Plus, when mowing a lawn, you of…

Exactly this!

They should say more clearly up front what is the definition of efficiency.

If they want people to think of a particular metaphor, but there are critical differences, those differences must be clarified up front. It seems the person designing the game/test has never really mowed actual lawns (at least lawns s/he actually cared about).

I took the approach of efficiency meaning minimizing turns to save time.

Instead their definition of efficiency is fewest moves. Their "optimum" has many more turns than many other paths, so would be far more inefficient use of time (and apparently nevermind that path also lacks the necessary overlap to do a good job of actually mowing a lawn).

It was also unclear up front that the squares with rocks/features could not be mowed into, but this is unrealistic, as you need to mow around the feature edges not merely the square nearest them.

Overall, it is a less-than-good choice of metaphor for the test, and with the poor explanation of what "efficient" means by his measure, it is not the slightest bit surprising many got different results, "sub-optimal" by the page's standard.

It seems the test itself is so sub-optimal so the results are meaningless — ench test-taker's goals were likely significantly different from the goals the test-maker assumed.

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