Saturday, May 5, 2007

Zen and the Art of Lawn Mower Maintenance


I've found that the crabgrass in my lawn grows at about 20 times the rate of the regular lawn grass. For some reason, this is unsightly to the sensitive nature of our suburban neighbors. I can usually defend my right to leaving my lawn alone in early spring, when our grass is sprinkled with crocuses. Around this time of year, I pull out my trusty people powered push mower and prepare it for a new growing season as I mull over my reasons for using it.






  1. It's environmentally friendly--the only gas is in the person pushing.
  2. It's fun--I never had a musical push toy as a child, so it satisfies my inner child.
  3. It's quiet--Monday mornings around here are pretty noisy as my neighbors' landscapers do all of their yards at once. I refuse to contribute to the noise pollution.
  4. It's a workout--The only way to keep those blades humming is to push, push, push! Great for the upper arms!
  5. It's incentive to enlarge garden areas and flower beds--the smaller I can make the lawn area in our yard, the better.
  6. It helps me appreciate the bare patches where the children play--see reason #5
  7. I don't have to worry about storing flammable fuel--see reason #1
  8. No rip cord--truth be told, I never got the hang of starting a traditional mower. I would probably be useless on a motorboat as well.
  9. It never stalls out--unless I do.
  10. It's so easy, even an almost 14 year old daughter can operate it--now where did she go?
Maybe I'll have to do an entry about our crank handle mixer and our french press, too. I wouldn't want them to get jealous. It's my dream to have solar power just so that I can have the electric company owe us money every now and then! Don't get the wrong idea, it isn't so much that I'm an environmental activist, I'm just a penny pincher. If my frugal nature makes me green, just call me Kermit.

4 comments:

Amelia Antwiler said...

Well, Kermit...I had to laugh.
Especially after I clicked off of you blog entry - I thought, was that the Recycle symbol on her shirt? So I clicked back over and Sho' 'nuff! It is!

Are you SURE it's only because you're frugal? *L*

Happy mowing!

Halfmoon Girl said...

You would be wildly approved of in my neck of the woods- lots of environmentals around. Not a bad thing for sure- lots of common sense to a lot of the practices. We are a recycling family ourselves, and I get after my kids about noise pollution when they are outside screaming ( I am half serious)but now that we have planted a big lawn, I would have to confess that we are looking at buying a lawn tractor. Shame, shame!

Katie said...

I desperately wanted one of those human powered mowers until we moved to this house. With our huge lawn, it's completely impractical. It takes about 3 hours with a regular mower! When I am old and my children grown I plan to move into a condo with a teeny tiny yard, then I will get my push mower!! Yup, I plan that far in advance ;-)

Anonymous said...

We've had the identical model for 10 years, for the front yard. The back yard's bowl shaped and swampy, so we scythe it a couple of times during the summer. Our neighbors don't think we mow the grass enough...their summer Saturdays start out at about 7 a.m., turning perfectly good gasoline into lawn clippings!

Deborah

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