Posted: 6/5/2017 8:11:17 PM EDT
| Just bought a house and moved out of the city, I have 2 acres to mow and usually mow in he morning and grass is somewhat wet. I mow maybe every 7-10 days or so and grass is pretty long. Im tired of raking grass by hand. I have a 52" zero turn and the bagger cost around 900-1000. The sweeper being around 300ish. Just wondering if anyone has tried both and prefer one over the other. Is the sweeper worth the savings? I don't have too many leaves so I'm not worried about them, just want it for the grass. |
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Interested as well. Our lawn is 1/2 the size of yours, but I don't bag and the WU is getting tired of us and the dogs tracking grass clippings into the house.
I know out at the trap club I belong to the grounds guy uses a sweeper - but he spends a lot of time fixing it. We just authorized a DR yard vac for him. We'll see how that does at 6x the cost of a sweeper. |
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Mow more often in the spring and during wet weeks were grass grows more. No need to waste all that money. I also slow it down in the low spots on my lawn where water settles and grass grows thicker.
I mow every 7 days and hit whatever clumps there are with a backpack blower. Husqvarna fwiw. Leaving the clippings creates thatch which helps retain moisture in the soil to help grass through dry spells |
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I have 1.3 acres and a 50" mower, the bagger was $650... it was horrible. If grass is even slightly wet the bagger would plug up. If i didnt drive painfully slow, the bagger would plug up. If the grass was too long, the bagger would plug up.
I returned the bagger and bought a 52" sweeper It picks up everything no problem. Small sticks, grass, leaves, etc. As fast as i can drive... in fact it does better the faster i go. I love it. Worth every penny |
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I mow just before sunset.Â
If it's really tall, like 9", bag the top 3" and mow and mulch the last few inches. You might want to give the lawn a day between the two cuttings. Clumping isn't ideal, but happens; thatch is 90% from already healthy grass that's run its course naturally, not from mowing. |
it was 80 yesterday and almost died. So glad it's back in the 60s and high wind
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I have a backpack Stihl blower (the biggest at the time 3 or so years ago) and just blow the clumps apart when I am forced to cut that many days apart. I don't wait that long to cut regularly. |
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I thought about a blower and I myself am a big fan of stihl so wouldn't mind adding to the collection but all I see myself doing is blowing it into piles and doing the same thing I was doing raking, just less work |
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Scythe + Hay Fork
Cut, pile, and collect the whole yard faster than you can rake it, all with less effort and it won't matter how tall or wet your grass is  How to Scythe + STOP Weeding, Watering and Fertilizing |
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I have 1.3 acres and a 50" mower, the bagger was $650... it was horrible. If grass is even slightly wet the bagger would plug up. If i didnt drive painfully slow, the bagger would plug up. If the grass was too long, the bagger would plug up. I returned the bagger and bought a 52" sweeper It picks up everything no problem. Small sticks, grass, leaves, etc. As fast as i can drive... in fact it does better the faster i go. I love it. Worth every penny |
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Bagging 2 acres? You better have an easy place to dump it because you're going to have clipping up to your ass.
Put it this way, me bagging an acre that is cut 1.5" turns into about 8 large black plastic lawn bags. Go with the mulch and perhaps bag in just areas around the house where you want to minimize clippings. |
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And then it stinks up your shed if it's still in the brush when you park it... Kharn Quoted:
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This has been my experience as well. It picks up dog poop like a boss. Kharn |
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I have a sweeper that works well, but here's what I did this year - I raised the deck of my mower as high as it will go. The manual says that produces a 5 inch tall cut, whether it is or not, I don't care, I have very few clippings and haven't come close to cleaning them up this year.
One good feature of a large lawn is the scale effect. The grass can be left long and look great as long it doesn't obviously need to be cut. I'm over the whole thing, next place I live will have almost no mowing and even less landscaping except for Nature's. |