With so many top brand names, choosing the right petrol lawnmower for your garden can be very difficult. The best way to go about it, in my opinion, is to make a list of the features that are going to be important to you and the top price you would be willing to pay. This will simplify the process enormously.

Once you have compiled your list of features, go along to your local dealership. You will find that they will be very pleased to know that you have already done your homework and they will be able to show you some models that fit your criteria pretty closely. Of course, you always have the option of buying your petrol lawnmower on the Internet as there are literally thousands of sites with excellent offers. If you are going to go down this route, it is even more important to do your research thoroughly beforehand to save yourself the problem of getting the wrong model.

The first decision to make is whether you want a walk behind mower of the push type or one that propels itself or even whether you want to have a riding mower. Then, consider which type of garden you have, is a family garden or is it a show-piece garden with formal lawns? If you have a family garden, a rotary mower will be your best choice by far. If you want to get an immaculate putting-green look to your lawn, you will need a cylinder mower.

Then, consider what you are going to do with the grass clippings. Are you going to want to use them all for making compost? If so, you definitely need to choose a mower with a grass box for collecting the clippings. Are you going to want to use them as mulch on your lawn to feed your grass each time you mow? If so, you will want a mower with a mulching attachment or mulching deck. If you really cannot decide, do not worry, there are models available that will do either, or a bit of both at the same time!

There are many features that make a mower easier to use. Handles that are adjustable will be very useful if you are tall because otherwise you will end up bending when pushing the mower and end up with a bad back. If you haven't got much space to store your mower when it is not in use, choosing one with handles that can be collapsed right down will make things much easier. A pull cord start can often be difficult, especially for lady gardeners so why not make things easy for yourself and choose a model with an electric ignition key start?

Once you have narrowed your selection down to a few models, do a bit more homework, go online and check out reviews from people who have actually bought that same model as you will often unearth problems that will never get mentioned in the sales brochures.

The very last thing to consider before you finally choose your shiny new petrol lawnmower is, how wide are your access ways and gateways? The worst thing ever would be to take delivery of your new mower and then find it is too wide to go through your garden gate!