Some time ago when I came home, I found my mother-in-law in my garden, weeding. I had mixed feelings about it – on the one hand, it was clearly a judgement on my domestic housekeeping skills. On the other, at least someone was doing some gardening.
I forget how many times I’ve described my outside areas as ‘nature patches’ but it’s pretty wild out there. My neighbours have perfectly manicured lawns and thinly veiled sneers. Something had to be done.
That something came in the form of Honda’s Miimo, a robotic lawnmower that I’ve been allowed to try out. The lazy gal’s answer to pushing around a mower, Miimo sits in a docking station, happily charging away, before coming out to snip away at my relentlessly growing blades of grass. She (I have it on good authority that it’s a girl) even works in the rain. And here she is in action:
Theoretically, she can even work during the night, being quite quiet. However, as my lawn is on a slight slope, Miimo makes a little more noise than on the flat but it’s no louder than a remote-controlled car. Then, when the pre-programmed time is up, she toddles back to her docking station.
Small blades mean minimal damage if she does happen to run over something, though the guide wire around my lawn keeps her away from where she’s not meant to go. Miimo will gently bump into things but change course, no harm done.
You can even choose cutting patterns and length of grass – so your lawn will look exactly the way you’d like. The frequent nibbling of mine means that my grass is actually in much better condition than before, when it used to grow abundantly before being repeatedly slashed and torn with my push-around mower.
Seeing as my other friends won’t come round and mow my lawn at night and in the rain, I’ve nominated Miimo as my new best pal. They’re going to have to work pretty hard to knock her off the top spot.
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