Mowing the lawn
We’re looking for ways to conserve money around our house, so I decided to start mowing the lawn myself. I have fond memories of my dad mowing the lawn with a push mower on Saturdays when I was growing up, and also I remembered some of Roger’s posts at Easy Green about how much pollution gas-powered lawn mowers can emit, so I knew I wanted a manual push mower.
These websites helped me figure out what exactly I wanted:
We have some St. Augustine grass, so a Brill would have been too lightweight for us. I decided on the Scotts 20-inch manual reel mower
without the grass catcher. (Grass clippings are good for the lawn and I’d heard that the grasscatcher didn’t actually fit this mower all that well.) I assembled the handle Friday night while I was watching a movie, and I went outside in the dark with Gavin holding a flashlight so I could test it out as soon as the movie was over. It was solid and easy to push and a little addictive. I finished half of our front lawn by flashlight because it was so satisfying. Saturday morning I got up early to finish the rest of the front and all of the back. I’m pretty out of shape, but even so it was just a light workout. The blades are quiet enough that I can mow without worrying about waking up the neighbors. I could hear birds chirping. It felt good to be outside in the early morning pushing the lawn mower around, watching the grass clippings fly and listening to the birds.
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(whimpering sound) You have grass? It’s snowing here, again.
so how are you liking it so far
It was good. I liked doing it. The lawnmower is relatively quiet (not silent, but quiet enough to do early in the morning without bothering the neighbors). I could hear the birds chirping. It worked great; it was a pretty light workout, even for someone out of shape like me. It was more invigorating than anything else.
Yay! I have the same mower!
That’s pretty cool! Especially considering that I was inspired by remembering you mowing the lawn with a push mower when we were little. How long have you had it? Do you like it?
…good excercise, not to mention that you get that rustic, one-of-a-kind, handmade look. Very charming. You should be proud. It made me smile to read about it.
As locals were always saying to me when I was in Italy several years ago, “The Old Way is better.” They should know. They do living right.
I’ve had it about 6 months. I like it except that I can’t get it to go any lower than about 3″, and I think it was advertised as having a range of cutting heights from 1″ to 3″.
Do you still have the manual? I think I remember reading that to get it lower than the factory setting (which is pretty high), you have to do something with a screwdriver or other tool.
We used a manual that looked like that one for about 5 or 6 years without needing to resharpen blades or do adjustment. Always loved the tranquility of cutting without smoke or noise.
Where did you buy your mower? I have a heavy one (better for St Augustine) that I want to trade in for a lighter one ( for my marathon II sod)