mighty

The mighty have fallen. The reel mower has struck out.
Have I mentioned this experiment with the reel mower? I'm too tired at this point in the day, with the temperatures at 95 F, to even search through previous posts. I think I may have.
I will tell you something about reel mowers. They cut fine grass. They really do. They are used on fancy golf courses because they have this ability. I mean them no disrespect.
Here's what they don't cut:

• dense grass
• thick grass
• tall grass
• any other grass I can't think of right now that isn't fine grass
• weeds
• twigs
• pinecones
• crabgrass

The last weekend for my experiment, I was actually crying some, which no one noticed because I was sweating so hard there was no way to tell. Because it took hours to cut the front, and it took hours to cut the back, and when you turned around to view your progress, it was difficult to tell that you'd cut the grass. The grass was definitely shorter, but all the weeds were definitely still standing. It was so bad, not only did the neighbor on my left start cutting the side of my property adjoining his house, the neighbor on the other side followed suit. The center of my front lawn stood like a defiant mohawk, begging someone to call code enforcement.
Thus we find the true reason a reel mower is unsuitable. During the summer in Georgia, it's pretty much unbearably hot by 9:30 am. You need to be DONE by 9:30 am. You can't be just getting to the back yard by then.
Also, and I can now speak from experience, I've tried the kind of mowing where you look behind you and the tall grass is still standing, versus the mowing where you look back and everything is one height, and I prefer the second kind.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the reel mower now. I'm open to suggestions.

--Laura