I have just bought what promises to be THE machine for those of us who find that once we have mown the lawn we have no energy left to do anything else in the garden - a robot lawn-mower.
Up until the end of last summer, I had a gardener who came every fortnight and cut the grass. Actually, he didn't do anything else - he had cut his hours down from two to one, so he had no time. When he retired, I had to buy a mower. I can't humph it up and down the steps to the lawn, so I couldn't get anything too heavy, and the light ones all looked a bit tinny. Then I saw this Flymo robot, reduced by about £360 and was tempted.
You have to peg down a wire round the edge of the grass to give a signal to stop it vanishing over the horizon, but once that is done you install the charger, programme the timer and let it get on with it. It bumbles round randomly and goes back to the charger when it runs out of juice. It is very quiet - I have to look out of the window to check whether it is still alive. You don't get bowling green stripes, but I can live with that.