Tell us a bit about yourself/work/where you live/where your love of lawn care comes from
We're a family with two grown-up children and our pets; our Australian German shepherd and our two cats. I'm 47 years old and work in the automotive sector as a project manager so my job has nothing to do with my passion for gardening!
I also love doing other manual work as a hobby such as cabinet making, 3D printing, etc. I'm often on the move all over France for my job, so my house and garden are a real change of scenery for me, in short "my little haven of peace" where I like to rest and enjoy myself.
After moving around a lot all around France we bought a house in Vienne, near Poitiers where we currently live- I moved for work opportunities. Previously, we had often lived in flats in town centres. We had our first house in the north of France, and that's where I started to get a taste for mowing and tending the garden.
Tell me a bit about your trip to the lawn so far? How big is it? Was it a project from scratch? What seeds do you use, etc.?
The advantage of this house was that the outside wasn't landscaped at all so I took the opportunity to create a garden that suited us from scratch.
As the region is rather mild I opted for a Mediterranean garden style.
Once the main trees were in place we did a quick initial sowing without any particular knowledge. I wanted to keep the area small, around 220m2.
This allows me to maintain it properly and enjoy gardening rather than having a large area that would certainly not have been as pleasant to maintain due to lack of time. I soon realised that there was a fine line between desire and reality! My lawn didn't live up to my expectations. Being a complete novice in this field I read a lot on the internet and also a lot about lawn care.
I took this step as a bit of a challenge and as I went along I applied each spot meticulously. I took a lot of time to weed manually because I didn't want to impact my environment or that of my animals with products that could have been harmful to the ecosystem. Even if this work isn't necessarily the most pleasant at first sight, I was very proud of the result once the job was done.
I completely redid my lawn starting with 100% Rye Grass from ICL and I took the opportunity to redo my planimetry. I started using fertilisers and after a few attempts and failures I meticulously prepared my own maintenance plan (always respecting the environment and nature).
What made you buy the Allett Liberty? What did you think of it? What are your favourite features and why? What additional cartridges do you have and what do you think?
After all these preliminary steps, I was still using my good old rotary mower obviously with all the inconveniences, such as wheel marks, noise, the smell of petrol, setting the cutting heights too high and the weight of this machine.
I started looking for a battery-powered mower for my 220m2 lawn. Initially I was looking for another rotary mower but after scouring the forums I realised that only a cylinder mower could meet all my criteria. After all the research, the comparisons between each model, the decision was made; I ordered an ALLETT Liberty 35.
I hesitated between the 35 and the 43 but the 35 allowed me to make more stripes in my modest-sized lawn (which visually enlarged my lawn) and it was a little lighter, in short the perfect mower for me and at a moderate price.
As a result, I took the opportunity to buy the Scarifier cylinder which does a truly extraordinary job. Now, of course, I'm dreaming of buying the Verticutter cassette to perfect my lawn even further.
I often alternate between position 4 and 5 for my mowing which is ideal for me at the moment. The possibility of going lower will require a better levelling of my land, but I'll get there eventually!
Why did you opt for battery power, what do you think of it and are you satisfied with the battery life?
When I was shopping for my new lawnmower I was looking for a battery-powered mower and the main thing I was looking to do was reduce noise levels.
It's so much nicer to be able to mow without the noise of the internal combustion engine! What's more, there's no need to worry about starting it up, no need to prepare the fuel mixture, almost no maintenance, no smell, no smoke, no pollution, in fact nothing but happiness.
I must confess that I also took a second battery when I bought my Liberty, because I doubted the ability to mow my lawn with just one battery. In fact, I can mow my lawn without any problem with just one battery which is great and in line with the machine's technical specifications. As a result, I can use one battery to scarify and then mow directly after it.
After more than a year's use the batteries are holding their charge very well and I haven't experienced any loss of charge. The advantage is that even in several years use I can always replace the battery and it will run like a new mower.
Have you noticed any difference in your lawn since using the Liberty and would you recommend it to others?
You can spend a lot of time looking after your lawn, but if you don't have the right mower you'll never get the results you want. Even if, like all enthusiasts, I always want more in terms of quality for my lawn my Liberty fulfils its role to perfection.
Being on several lawn forums in France, I have often recommended Allett, and the Liberty in particular for its ease of use.
