In spring, autumn catches up with garden lovers.

He put the old mower back in the basement and forgot or pushed aside that the cable bothered him every time.

It should have been a long time since a new one.

But which one?

It should be motor-driven and in any case have no cable.

The answer of the child in the man can only be: A ride-on mower is needed, professionally called a lawn tractor.

It's petrol-powered and tends to look a little oversized in the urban garden - although the attempt to come up with arguments becomes more urgent with each passing year.

Holger Apple

Editor in business, responsible for "Technology and Motor".

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There are workarounds.

You can buy a plot of land in a rural area and combine your play instinct with the useful, because the ride-on mower has a lot of power, sometimes two blades, and gets just about everything small.

Or you become a groundskeeper in a tennis club or football club, there is always something to mow, to pull, to push.

Manufacturers such as John Deere or Honda have various models on offer, they are all robust, but cannot withstand everything.

Repairs are expensive, and if you only use the good piece privately, you are not protected from surprises.

The battery is usually quite tight, and if you only mow rarely, you risk collapsing.

Then it's time to start with the car battery and buy a new one.

So a little manual skill doesn't hurt.

This is different with mowers for domestic use.

Small gardens can probably still be mowed by hand.

But apparently more and more homeowners are enjoying letting robots onto the grass, even if the area is only 200 or even 100 square meters.

The reason is not just convenience.

The quality of a regular and evenly trimmed green visibly increases, the lawn is denser, weeds have a harder time.

There are robotic lawn mowers for larger and smaller areas, for flat and hilly landscapes, for simple and complex terrain.

The range is large, Husqvarna, Bosch, Alko and Gardena are just a few manufacturers.

Some work with GPS, in most cases a cable has to be laid in the ground so that the robot knows its limits.

The reasonably talented publisher manages the installation in one to two hours.

The perimeter wire must be pulled around the outside of the lawn, and plastic pegs to be hammered in with a rubber mallet fix it to the ground.

Alternatively, a furrow can be dug in the ground and the wire placed in it below the surface.

Both work, in the on-grass variant the wire is overgrown beyond recognition after a few weeks.

Many devices run randomly, which looks irritating at first, but the result is usually convincing.

In the long run, all straws are caught.

Three hours of battery life should be in it.

However, the robot needs regular updates, which should preferably be possible without contact via the app.

Some models require the complicated variant with a connection cable to the PC.

This is cumbersome and messes up where the data is transferred because there is always some grass stuck to the mower.

Around 500 to 1000 euros may be considered a house number.

If you prefer to do it yourself, you can use the battery-powered mower.

Some of them are soberingly processed, the body made of plastic sometimes looks very cheap.

The Husqvarna LC 142 i, for example, seems to us to be a solid device, which wants to score with a stable handle and easy cutting height adjustment.

The handle itself is not height-adjustable, so if you want to divide the work between big and small, you should pay attention to that.

Weight is possibly also a criterion, the Husqvarna powered by the 36 V system weighs 17 kilograms and can be moved easily.

Mulching enthusiasts can do this with an additional set.

Cordless mowers are becoming everyday goods, but despite this or precisely because of this, it is advisable to take a careful look when buying them.

On our test device, the rubber cover of the handle, which is comfortable for the hand, was cut during transport.

And the charger went on strike.

Around 600 euros would have to be invested here, that's quite a word.

If you buy a cordless tool, you should think beyond the first purchase.

The batteries are expensive, so they should also fit in the hedge trimmer or drill.

It can be worthwhile to rely on a system from a manufacturer.

Not that you get annoyed because the old batteries don't fit in the beautiful new mower.