Has anyone ever used a manual reel-type push mower with St. Augustine Grass? Does it work? I'd kinda like to start mowing my grass early before work, but I don't want the neighbors throwing things at me when I wake them up with my gasoline-powered mower. I used a manual reel-type mower on my Grandmother's lawn as a kid, but she lived in Arkansas, and had much thinner grass than I do. (I might buy an electric, but no battery-powered mower lasts long enough to finish my lawn, and I don't really want to drag a cord around.)
It depends on how thick your carpet grass is. My front yard is so thick a 6.75 HP bogs down but back yard I think a manual could work. If it words it will still be a workout and will probably need to be ran over twice to look good.
I would think that using a reel-type mower on St. Augustine would be quite impossible. I, too, have a 6.75 hp mower and it barely works on some parts of my yard.
Having done the cord thing back in the day I can assert that it is not that bad. Especially if the mower has one of those "flip handles". I don't use one anymore though - my lawn is way too big.* *As an aside - I curse my corded weewhacker every time I have to use it. Three freeking extension cords! Argh!
If noise is the only problem you could always put on a custom muffler. I am being serious, there is no way a little engine like that has to be so loud.
My wife wants to get a reel mower, though I don't know why. Well, supposedly so she could occassionally mow, and she's afraid of the motorized mower. But, I know she's not really going to mow, so why should I make my life harder? I'm very skeptical of it working on St. Augustine.
We had one when we had a small duplex in the montrose area. The yard was small and I had to use the mower twice a week in the summer or the grass would get too thick and I would have to borrow someone's real mower.
You have to mow frequently with reel mowers. Once the grass/weeds get too high, the mower just ends up pushing them over and doesn't cut. My mother had one for a while. She lost interest in using it very quickly.
I used one for a few years when I had a smaller yard. We had St. Augustine in the front and Bermuda in the back. It does OK on the St. Augustine, if you don't let it get too thick (I'm in Austin, so it's not quite as thick as in Houston). It just doesn't cut every blade. It actually leaves about 5% of the blades uncut. It does even worse on Bermuda.
For the next 4.5 hours Woot has a battery powered mower on sale for tree hunded warning: if you use that mower people might think you're from the future
