{"id":28,"date":"2010-09-26T14:46:03","date_gmt":"2010-09-26T18:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uncityslicker.com\/?p=28"},"modified":"2010-10-17T23:03:12","modified_gmt":"2010-10-18T03:03:12","slug":"i-hate-mowing-the-lawn-part-1-learning-curves-and-decorative-obstacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/uncityslicker.com\/?p=28","title":{"rendered":"I Hate Mowing the Lawn Part 1: Learning Curves and Decorative Obstacles"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I first bought my property, I was faced with the daunting task of mowing 3 plus acres of lawn every week. \u00c2\u00a0At my last house in the suburbs, I had maybe a tenth of an acre to tend, and that still took over an hour a week. \u00c2\u00a0I was not looking forward to my new duties.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The previous owner had a typical riding mower, and had originally offered to sell it to me with the house. \u00c2\u00a0I politely declined because I wanted something with more power and more versatility. \u00c2\u00a0I went with THIS:<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

Mower, Loader, and soon tons of other fun attachments. <\/p><\/div>\n

So, off I went to mow my lawn. \u00c2\u00a0Thanks to the slope, the septic and leech field, and various trees and other obstacles, I clocked in around 6 hours my first time out. \u00c2\u00a0That included time on the tractor, time with the push mower, and weed whacking. \u00c2\u00a0Pretty awful.<\/p>\n

Some of the things that were adding a ton of time to my weekly task were unavoidable. \u00c2\u00a0I wasn’t about to take a 2000 lb. tractor over the top of my septic tank. \u00c2\u00a0At first, I didn’t even want to drive it over my leech field. \u00c2\u00a0I later found a schematic that rated the pipes in my leach field at a 1500 lb. crush. \u00c2\u00a0Comfortably over the weight of each axle of my tractor, even with the front loader and the 60 inch mowing deck fitted.<\/p>\n

I was able to gain even more time by cutting across the slope on the main part of my lawn. \u00c2\u00a0This allowed me to mow the bulk of the lawn in high gear rather than only low or low uphill\/high downhill. \u00c2\u00a0Naturally, you want to avoid situations that put you at risk for rolling the tractor over, so use your head. \u00c2\u00a0I recommend that you use your seatbelt and ROPS at all times when mowing.<\/p>\n

After I got the hang of things using the above tricks, I was down to about 4 hours a week. \u00c2\u00a0Getting better, but still way too much time just to keep the grass down. \u00c2\u00a0This got me thinking more about landscape design, so I set my sights on these:<\/p>\n

\"Too<\/a>

Even though they add character to the lawn, these boulders add time to mowing. <\/p><\/div>\n

Luckily, I got a call from my mom at the end of the summer. \u00c2\u00a0She wanted to know if I would like any Siberian Irises. \u00c2\u00a0She had about 30-40 that she had split and wanted to find a home for. \u00c2\u00a0This got the wheels turning in my head, \u00c2\u00a0and this is what I came up with:<\/p>\n

Materials:<\/h2>\n