Complete newbie with wild overgrown lawns - help!

Having never previously had any gardening experience or knowledge, this year I bought a house with a front and a back garden. When I viewed the house, the previous owner immediately stated that she was "not a gardener", so the lawns weren't pristine before I got to them. Additionally, the house sale was completed in April and for various reasons I didn't move in until July, by which time the lawns had become rather wildly overgrown. Money is tight. For now my priority is just to tidy both gardens up a bit so they don't look such an eyesore in the estate (my neighbours on both sides have beautifully manicured lawns). Can I just take a lawnmower to both lawns repeatedly to try to tame them? If not, what do I do with them? If so, what should I be looking to spend in order to get a decent lawnmower which is up to taming the gardens and then maintaining the lawns? (Or would it be worth paying for a one-off garden tidy-up service before buying a fairly inexpensive lawnmower to trim the lawns?)

Many thanks in advance for any help you can offer

Lone Northern Lass

Here are some shots of the back garden:




This is the front lawn which slopes up from my house to the road:

 

Welcome to GC

 

Yes, I don't see why not - except:

Yup. Putting a brand new, relatively cheap, mower through a hay field!! won't do it much good and may strain the motor - plus you'll be having to unblock / empty it every couple of yards.

Alternatively hire a suitable cutter for a one-time cut, rake all the "hay" off (stack it in a corner, it will rot down and make "compost"), and then cut it with your shiny new mower. Use the mower on its highest setting to start with, and gradually lower it. Try not to cut off more than 1/3rd of the height of the grass (obviously the first cut will be a lot more ) The grass will look yellow and dead after cutting the "hay crop", don't worry about that, it will recover.

If you mow it once a week, without fail, from March to November then by this time next year the rough grasses will have given up and you will have some relatively fine-type grasses, which will look a lot better.

If you want to spend a bit of money on the lawn you could over-seed with a good quality grass seed, that will make sure that there are the right type of grasses in your lawn, but personally I wouldn't bother until you find that there is a problem with the grass types that you do have.

The Bosch Rotak 40 (Ergoflex) [around £130] gets good reviews, and people I know who have one speak highly of it, so that might be worth a look.

 

Thanks for that Kristen. One question:

What kind of cutter?

 

Looks like a lot of work, one off cut by professional

 

If it is knee high, or more, then perhaps a Power Scythe

http://www.hss.com/g/62146/Power-Scythe.html

I would ask your local hire company what they recommend, and then compare the price with getting a contractor in, how much time you have spare, and what you can afford

 

Like @JWK said: I have meadow grass in areas here, I cut it once a month or two with a tractor topping-mower (bit like taking a short hay crop ). Anyways, when we decide we want a path, or an area of mowed grass, we just cut that rough grass regularly and within a season, or less, it has become lawn. It just needs the first cut to get it down, and then a mower that won't mind the grass being tough to start with. Actually I wonder if a power scythe is the right tool, it will cut the height down, but will leave stubble. A rotary mower would get it down shorter, initially, which would probably make it easier to get a normal mower through it from then on.

Any of your neighbours got anything industrial? A decent brush-cutter (i.e. a grown-up strimmer) would get all the bulk off, you then need a powerful rotary mower, and I suspect that might need to be something stronger than a regular lawn mower. I would definitely see what my neighbours have that they would be prepared to lend for a rough job - they might even do it for you? - it will only need to be for the first few cuts, so once a week for a month, say.

Next spring the rough grass stalks will have rotted away and fresh succulent grass will be growing, so that will be easy to cut (even if they are still rough grass types, rather than fine grass varieties)

Hope that all makes sense? if not just ask please