Gadget: Husqvarna Automower 220AC

The key to a weed-free and luscious lawn has always been the time and effort invested by its owner. If, however, you have better things to do than a spot of grass hairdressing, the Husqvarna Automower 220AC could be just what you're looking for.

While conventional lawnmowers need a human partner in crime to police a lawn, the Automower is the 21st century's Robocop of grass control.

It's a sizeable black slug, weighing in at a meaty 9kg with considerable feline fear-making potential. The Automower is billed as a completely autonomous way of mowing your lawn.

It comes with its own charging station which the robotic lawnmower returns to every 45 minutes. Seeing it trundle around your lawn, nibbling grass as it goes, is an impressive spectacle. Sensors built into the front of the Automower inform it of lawn edges or other garden obstacles such as clothes poles, allowing a quick pivot and change of direction.

Even if your garden is lumpier than school custard, the Automower is up to the challenge with its large course-treaded wheels which have enough grip to handle up to 35 per cent slopes. As you'd expect from a lawnmower designed to be left home alone, it has a built in anti-theft alarm and pin code.

Designed to trim up to about half an acre, the Automower is an impressive, albeit relatively slow, method of lawn maintenance. Nibbling at random, it's more like a robotic sheep than a lawnmower. With a hefty price tag, you've either got to really hate cutting the grass or not have enough room for a flock of your own.

Husqvarna Automower 220AC

(1599.99, visit www.husqvarna.com/uk/ or www.abbeygardensales.co.uk)