GoingTrueGreen's Blog Postings

Mowing Down the Lawn

7/22/2013

Less Lawn and More Garden: part one
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Lawn mower, mowers, reel mower, cutting grass, grass, lawn, save earth, earthday, going green, going true green, GTG, gas spills, oil spills

No gasoline needed!

Would you like to mow your lawn without noise, gasoline, oil, spark plugs or electrical wires while saving yourself money and helping our earth by Going True Green?

Reel mowers are the way to go, but all Reel mowers are not the same. However, today’s Reel mowers are not anything like your great uncle’s lawn mower.

They are much lighter and easier to push as well as to maintain. One stands out above the others: Consumer Reports recommended this model over other Reel mowers and Popular Mechanic presented this model with the 2010 Green Design Award. You can look up this model in Popular Mechanic and compare other models yourself.

Additional advantages to this model are as follows:
- Grass clippings are thrown to the front and not on your feet
- Optional grass catcher is available
- Adjustable heights
- Adjustable handle bars
- Front wheels inside the cut zone
- 18 inch cut zone
- Gear Drive to increase speed of cutting action
- Blades continue to spin by an edge or curb even after you stopped
- 5 non-sharp steel blades that cut with a scissor action
- Blades don’t need to be sharpened
- Longest warranty that I could find

So Going True Green when cutting your lawn requires you to do things differently, but that isn’t the complete picture.

Take time to think about having less lawn and more garden areas. Garden areas that include flowers, trees, stones, vegetables, fruits and a compost. All this will save you more money and help you get a little closer to true green.

Another part of the complete picture is pollution. EPA states that a standard lawn mower can put out as much pollution as a current car driving almost half a million miles.

Reel mower, mower, lawn mower, fiskar mowers,

Fiskar Reel Mower

Exxon Valdez, oil, oil spill, clean up, Prince William Sound, pollution

Clean up after oil spill

Some reports claim that here in America we use 800 million gallons of gasoline per year just to cut the grass. Then we have spillage when refueling. We spill oil and we spill 17 million gallons of gasoline per year. God help us if these numbers are correct, because that is 6 million gallons more than the Exxon Valdez spill that occurred in 1989 off of Alaska within the waters of Prince William Sound. As horrible as the Valdez spill was, that happened once. Are we spilling 17 million gallons of gasoline in this country every year when cutting the lawn? Step back and look at this big picture, I am using a Reel mower as one step, reducing the amount of lawn I maintain is another.

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Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

1 Comment

Joe

8/31/2013 08:22:46 am

Because of a neighbors non native invasive tree, I simply cannot have the “as little lawn as possible” yard I have always wanted. Only grass and the mower prevents this monster from seeding all over my property and, of course, his seeds always blow just to my property! It is listed as invasive because, if you do not pull that seedling THAT first month it is in the ground, you will never get it out or kill it. So, I have a lawn.
I have what I call a Dutch lawn. The Dutch have little and very long and shaggy lawns behind those canal homes in Amsterdam. I can't have a little lawn because of my neighbor's tree but, I grow my grass really tall. A bit higher than the rough of a golf course just before the weeds and woods. My WWII father would hate it! This prevents weeds better than poison except for crab grass. I still have to use a pre emergent on the front every 1-2 years in late winter. But other than that, I don't do anything else except mulch mow with an electric mover (charged by all wind electric). My more elderly neighbors mow their lawns constantly down to putting green height. They have nothing but little weeds. They mow 17+ times a year. I mow mine, at most, 10 times a year. If it is cool summer, they are out there every weekend!
So if you must have a lawn or can't avoid it, grow it thick and tall. Much mow on highest or nearly highest setting. Live with some dandelions in the spring and plenty of clover (which is good for the lawn). If you get some crabgrass, you'll have to treat it before it comes up in Spring. Seeding it once in a while also helps keep it thick with grass.