When we bought our house, we decided to try a green experiment: a reel mower. One of those 1950s-style jobbies that is entirely man- or woman-powered.
We fought the good fight. The yard won. It's too big, too uneven and too full of wispy bits of grass that laugh at nonmotorized blades.
Since an estimated 5 percent of pollution comes from yard tools, we didn't want to just break down and get a gas mower. (Well, I actually did want to, but my husband's cooler head - and greener principles - prevailed.)
Thanks to a sale at Menards in Joliet, we now own an electric mower. Since we have tons of nuclear plants in the area, a lot of our power comes from nuclear energy, which is cleanish. So we're not just straight-up trading gas pollution for coal pollution.
Plus it's so quiet and light. My husband couldn't wait to mow when we got it home. And I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Now, I'll try to hawk our reel mower on Craig's List to someone with a more even, smaller yard; buffer arms; and greener principles. Then, I'll try to be more like him or her. Till then, the hum of the lawn mower calls.
Do you use a reel mower? Or an electric version? Or perhaps your lawn is trimmed by sheep? Let us know how you green your lawn by commenting below.
Julie Todd is the night editor at The Herald News in Joliet. She and her
husband are looking to cut the chemicals and get back to basics -- minus the
granola and hemp clothing. They live in a home they bought last year in
Plainfield, where they're making changes to create their own little patch of
utopia.
Good article. We also found the reel mower we bought from Home Depot to be poor quality so we returned it. Then we found a super nice model at www.ecomowers.com and it works really well!!!
I've been using a manual reel mower for a couple of years on my small lawn in Joliet. It works just fine, as long as one doesn't require golf-green perfection in one's front lawn. Since I don't use chemical pesticides or fertilizer on my yard, and have a decent number of weedy species competing with the grass, perfection isn't my goal.
I get good exercise, reduce my household carbon emissions, and occasionally contribute to the local economy by bringing in my mower for a tune-up at Will County Sharpening on Plainfield Rd in Joliet, the only place that'll still bother with the labor-intensive process of sharpening a reel mower.
Bottom line -- if you have a small to medium yard, a reel mower works just great. And it's so quiet, you can actually have a conversation with a neighbor while you work!