Four questions about your garden. We’ll narrow the range down to the machines that genuinely fit — and tell you honestly if none of them do.
Question 1 of 4
Prefer to read it through?
The same decisions, explained properly.
1. Lawn size
This decides more than anything else. Pace out the length and width in metres and multiply — a rough figure is fine, and it is better to go one size up than one size down.
Small
Up to 500m²
A terraced or semi-detached garden. Roughly 20m × 25m or less.
See small-lawn mowers →Medium
500 – 1,000m²
A typical detached family garden with borders and a few trees.
See medium-lawn mowers →Large
1,000 – 2,000m²
A big garden or small paddock, often split into separate zones.
See large-lawn mowers →Extra large
2,000m² and up
Grounds, estates and schools. Commercial-grade machines.
See XL mowers →2. Slope
The specification people most often get wrong. Slope is quoted as a percentage, not degrees — 25% rises 25cm over a metre. Above about 35% you are into a bank you would think twice about pushing a mower up. Get this wrong and the machine strands itself every week. Read the slopes guide.
3. Boundary wire or wire-free
Both work well; they fail in different gardens. Wire is cheaper and unaffected by tree cover, but installation is an afternoon’s work. Wire-free sets up in under an hour and lets you redraw zones any time, but it needs a reasonably open view of the sky. Compare them properly.