What kind of places have lots of grass and therefore, lots of grass to mow?

July 2, 2004 8:00 AM

I'm looking for places that have a lot of grass. I'm doing a research project on commercial lawnmowers and I need to find places that use a lot of them. Golf courses are an obvious start, but where else do you see a lot of big lawnmowers? In particular, where are they most obnoxious/loud?
posted by rorycberger to Grab Bag (14 answers total)

Our school playing fields had mucho grass and used the big tractors to cut it.
posted by zeoslap at 8:02 AM on July 2, 2004

Soccer field complexes, baseball field complexes, etc. Schools, public parks.

In particular, where are they most obnoxious/loud?

Outside my apt. building at 7 on Sunday mornings.
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:02 AM on July 2, 2004

I work in a state building that's in a relatively residential area - we have a large amount of grass around the building that they use a riding mower to cut. I'm sure the neighbors aren't thrilled with the noise, though the many cars and the huge parking lot are probably larger issues for them.
posted by soplerfo at 8:05 AM on July 2, 2004

Cemetaries need them. The residents probably don't mind the noise, but the visitors might.
posted by stefanie at 8:13 AM on July 2, 2004

Any state highway department has lots and lots of lawnmowing equipment, and depending on the location of the right-of-way, they might be damnably obnoxious.
posted by pomegranate at 8:18 AM on July 2, 2004

Response by poster: thanks for all of the ideas, keep 'em coming!

Another one I thought of is hotels/resorts, anybody know of a web site that allows you to search for resorts based on the ambiance/environment? Expedia, etc. seemed to be based on cities/nearby attractions.
posted by rorycberger at 8:22 AM on July 2, 2004

New subdivisions on the edges of cities usually have a ton of grass that grows out of control, and since few of the lots have been sold, the developer gets a lawn crew out there once every 21 days.
posted by rocketman at 8:24 AM on July 2, 2004

Airports
posted by yesster at 8:36 AM on July 2, 2004

All grass tennis courts. They are working every day preparing the courts at the Longwood Cricket Club. Boston Commons is another large enough area where I see a lot of landscaping crews.
posted by brent at 8:53 AM on July 2, 2004

At a slight tangent but may be helpful:
Picture Perfect : Mowing Techniques for Lawns, Landscapes, and Sports by David Mellor (Red Sox Groundskeeper)

Having worked on a sports stadium magazine, I can tell you that groundskeepers are a weird bunch.
posted by i_cola at 9:50 AM on July 2, 2004

Out my window. Right now.

And any nice horse stable. In my riding days, I used to mow my trainer's yard for her on occasion when the groundskeeper was away. Her "yard" had about 3 acres to it.
posted by amandaudoff at 9:54 AM on July 2, 2004

Highway mowers are the big one around here. They don't just have to mow grass on the median strips but basically down the sides of every highway that has greenery next to it which in Vermont is pretty much every highway in the state. It's not often a noise hassle, though they are loud as hell, because you know they'll just keep moving down the road. Where I live, every damned person seems to have a rider mower to go over their little patch of the earth which makes lawn mowing WAY more noisy than it needs to be. Residential apartments out here have the highest annoyance:residents ratio because when you mow the lawn you get to annoy all residents at once.
posted by jessamyn at 10:22 AM on July 2, 2004

office parks. These are always mowed by 3rd party services. And these services have lots of the cool "turn on a dime" mowers and other fun lawn toys. I'd just call some of the law services in the yellow pages and get what you need (or meet them at one of their work sites if your research calls for it).
posted by zpousman at 11:45 AM on July 2, 2004

Response by poster: ooh, good call on office parks/3rd party services....if i were looking to, say, call some of these 3rd party services, what exactly would i look for in the yellow pages/google? i.e. are they gardeners, groundskeepers, commercial lawn maintenance professionals, landscape developers, etc.?
posted by rorycberger at 1:00 PM on July 2, 2004