If you have been thinking about switching to a robot lawnmower, do it.

Mark thought about it for a long time before we made the switch last year. Some of the things he considered were:

1. Could a robot lawnmower handle the texture of our mostly kikuyu lawn?

2. Is there a model that could traverse a section as steep as ours?

3. How would it cover the large area of our former paddock (5,000+ square metres)?

When we bought our acre and a half the kikuyu had well and truly taken over. There were no visible fences and when Mark walked down the boundary line in search of them, he sunk to his hip in the overgrown grass.

Initially we had Mike Davies, a local contractor, come in and mow using a tractor with a rotary slasher to get the grass under control. We were living in London at the time, and he would come every few months, since for us it was more about keeping on top of the growth rather than what it looked like. His tractor got stuck more than once in wet ground at the bottom of our steep lawn.

Next, we were able to switch to Gary, a different contractor that used a more traditional ride on mower every few weeks. We were living on the property by then and it was great to see the impact of keeping the lawns tidy. Much of the bogged down ground began to dry out, and the paddock was unrecognizable. But after rolling his machine onto its side Gary decided that our property was too difficult to mow.

Our next contractor also found the terrain difficult, especially after a lot of rain. There was a three-month period in winter when he felt it was too dangerous to mow, and so Mark started to think about a longer-term solution. He had always intended to purchase a ride-on mower at some point.

For the first three years of his career, Mark was the groundskeeper at Auckland Grammar School so there was no question about his ability to take over the mowing of our property. The issue wasn’t skill, it was time. That’s what made him start to investigate robot lawnmowers.

I was dubious, I just could not see how it could work for our property. Our unique terrain challenges meant that we’d have needed a commercial model like Husqvarna’s Automower® 550 EPOS which retails for nearly $12,000.

Then Mark discovered the Luba 5000, a robot mower made by Mammotion, a robotics company based in China. He jumped at the chance to buy one of their units for half the cost of the commercial model he was considering, largely because:

• it is one of the first wire-free robot mowers

• its AWD system offers incredible traction and means it can mow up to 75% inclines

• the dual cutting deck that can handle kikuyu grass

• its ability to mow 10,000m² makes it a ride-on replacement

When it arrived, I thought there was no way it would work. However I dutifully fulfilled my traditional role and named our new appliance “Robbie”. And honestly, I’m glad I kept my doubts to myself. Robbie very quickly turned that three months of lawn growth into a picturesque park. Looking at it you would never believe the state of the grass when we first bought our land.

Check out the different Luba models at robomate.co.nz If you buy one using the code "Marksmates" you’ll get $100 off.

Let us know if you want more information about how to set up and use your Luba, because after more than 6 months Mark has learned a lot of tips and tricks to make Robbie more effective. If you want help naming yours, I’m your girl!