Arrghhhh!!!! After trying to get my head round what is going to be the most appropriate ‘mower’ for the job, I am still no further forward in my thinking, or at least in acquiring one. The trouble we face is that at the moment we have 3 different areas that need managing: the top paddock which is rough with lots of thistles; the bottom paddock which is grass/meadow which is now well past cutting with any lawn mower; and the lawn/grass which is next to the house and will soon be too late to mow.
Some people are saying one thing, some, something else. It is not all conflicting, just confusing. Whilst we have three different areas to cut currently, this will change over the short, medium and long-term, so we would like to buy something now that can ultimately do all 3 and last for a while.
Soooo, our thinking at the moment is possibly to get a compact tractor, with a mid-mounted mulching deck for the grass and fix a topper to the rear PTO (power take off – it is just too sad that I now know what this is!) to manage the meadow/paddoc. The hard part now is finding one! A new one is out of our budget, so we will be scouring the country for a used one. Going with this option also means we can add hydraulic lift and tip trailers for the logs from the coppicing, and just about any other tractor machinery! If I could choose it would a Kubota 
Phew, who thought buying a lawn mower could be so difficult!
Tags: Compact Tractor, Coppicing, Kubota, Land Management, Mulching, Ride on Garden Tractor Mower, Short Rotation Coppice
Categories: Garden Improvements, Living the Country Life