which mower????

[the goode life]

Fellow gardeners......I'm looking to buy a new mower and petrol strimmer on line for about £400 in total. I realise that you always only get what you pay for and my budget is not too high. I am looking for a self propelled mower which will also mulch, with about a 20'' cut. My lawn is best described as a meadow on a hill, about the size of 2 tennis courts and needs a fairly robust mower to deal with the really rough bits. I realise that anything with a Honda engine is the best choice but this is out of my budget as I also need a petrol strimmer.
Any advise on brands to consider or to steer clear of would be most appreciated.
Please hurry my grass is getting v long  :o.

[the goode life]

[Melbourne12]

We just bought one of these at the beginning of May, from B&Q  www.diy.com .

Toro Multicycler ADS Transmission Petrol Rotary Mower

EAN: 9310317206370

Now £341.49 Was £391.49

At bank holiday weekend they were giving another 10% off, so it was less than £310, but it doesn't look as though that's available online.

It's brilliant.  Very solidly built, which is good since we bought it to use, not look at.  Does a perfectly good job on the front lawn as well as the rough ground of the apiary.  Handles fold with a simple quick release for transport and storage.  Guaranteed easy start (which it has indeed done so far).  Will collect the clippings or mulch them at the shift of a lever.  And best of all, it has a sliding handle that acts as a throttle.  So you grasp the handle and start to walk.  It automatically adjusts its pace to yours.  Simples!

Even if you have to pay £341 for it, that still leaves enough for a Ryobi strimmer, which would be my budget make of choice.  Our Ryobi cost around £70 and has performed better than I dared hope.  We can't afford a Stihl or one of the posh makes, but this does pretty well anything except heavy brambles.  It's ideal around the raised beds on the lottie.

[chriscross1966]

I've got a ryobi petrol-engined (2-stroke) strimmer and although it has its issues (I need to adjust the tickover up a bit adn I've a feeling there's some other carb settings messed up a bit but it runs fine when it's cutting) it's decently made and I find that it's easy to use. It came with three heads, a standard bump-feed that I find will do most things, a "Pro-cut" head that uses short thicker stiffer strings which will rip through anything that isn't actually wood pretty much and a metal brushcutting blade that made short work of brambles (and indeed everything else it touched) when I was clearing my plot. THe other useful thign about it is there are interchangeable heads (known as Expand-it) which allow you to bolt on things like a lightweight cultivator (useful for seedbeds IMHO but not anything more) and a small hover mower (will report as soon as I get a chance to use it) plus a rather dangerous cross between a chainsaw and a lollipop that is used for tree pruning, there's other things like hedge cutters, a garden blower, an extension pole and a border edger that i have no plans to acquire.....

There's one here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150349634550&_rdc=1 that is basically the same as mine but with the more modern rotochoke....

chrisc