It started on a Saturday afternoon in late June 2018. The sun was beating down, the grass was knee-high, and I was standing in the middle of a big-box home improvement store staring at a wall of lawn mowers. Red ones. Green ones. Orange ones. Self-propelled, push, electric, gas, zero-turn, robotic. Prices from $200 to $5,000. Every single one of them promising a “beautiful cut” and “easy maneuverability.”

I had no idea which one to pick.

I pulled out my phone and started researching. An hour later, I had twenty browser tabs open, five conflicting forum opinions, and a headache. My neighbor swore by his riding mower. My brother-in-law said robotic was the future. The guy at the store kept pointing me to the most expensive model on the shelf.

I bought the wrong one.

That mower and I spent two frustrating seasons together. It struggled on slopes. It clumped in damp grass. It took three passes to get a clean look. Every Saturday morning, as I pushed that machine through my yard, I thought: There has to be a better way to figure this out.