Here’s the truth no one admits out loud: mowing the lawn sucks.
At least, it does if you don’t appreciate what’s actually happening out there.
If mowing is just a chore to you, of course it’s going to feel like pushing a loud machine across an endless patch of green. But for those of us who’ve logged thousands of lawns over the years, winter is when you start to realize something. You miss parts of it. And you absolutely do not miss others.
Winter slows everything down. Lawns go quiet. The mower gets tucked away. And suddenly you have a little too much time to think about the mowing season you just wrapped up.
Here’s the honest list, straight from someone who’s seen more stripes than snowflakes.
What I Miss
- The first perfect pass of the season
Grass height just right. Soil firm. Deck humming. That clean first stripe is better than any cup of coffee in April. - The small victories no one else notices
When your pattern lines up perfectly with zero overlap. When the turf looks combed instead of cut. Quiet wins that only matter to someone who actually cares. - The sound of a machine running exactly how it should
When the deck, engine, and ground speed fall into one smooth rhythm. You don’t appreciate that until winter gives you nothing but the clunk of a heat pump turning on.
What I Don’t Miss
- The backyard surprises
You haven’t lived until you’ve heard the unmistakable clatter of a blade hitting a Phillips head screwdriver someone “definitely meant to pick up.” And yes, the occasional dog dropping that somehow avoids detection until it’s too late. Winter spares you from both. - Sharpening blades at unreasonable hours
You tell yourself you’ll do it the night before. You don’t. Then you’re standing at the grinder before sunrise wondering what choices led you here. - The heat
There are days when mowing feels effortless. And then there are those midsummer afternoons where you question every decision that brought you to this patch of turf. Winter gives you a pass from that particular interrogation.
Why Winter Thinking Matters
Winter gives you distance. Enough to remember what you actually enjoy about mowing and what you simply tolerate. When spring shows up, it’ll ask you to do both again. The trick is appreciating the parts most people overlook, because that’s what separates a chore from a craft.
And here’s the part that sneaks up on you. When you understand the work, the patterns, the rhythm, and the payoff, you realize something. It turns out mowing the lawn only sucks if you never learned to love it.