I live in California and have
resorted to having Mexican
Nationals do my lawn twice
a month.

I own an old funky power
mower but the damned thing
is a smog hog and I used to
get a headache from the Carbon
Monoxide when I ran it, so I just
let the illegals do it.

Besides, I have Saint Augustine
grass in my from and backyards
and that would be a hard row to
hoe if I did it with a hand mower.

I got burned out on hand mowers
as a child. That was my job, to mow
the lawn, and it became a karmic
nightmare. To this day...

I now live an apartment, but before that I lived in a house with a moderate sized yard. The landlord had provided a gasoline mower, but when they added MBTE to the gasoline, it caused the carb primer to melt. So I tried doing the yard with an electric weed whacker and continued to use it for the rest of our time there. It took longer, but actually because there were so many places in our yard where a mower wouldn't fit and so many places where the dogs had dug up, it gave a better result.

When we moved into the house, the neighborhood was very laid back and casual in a baked-desert sort of way. Houses were going for about $30K. When we left 8 years later though, the neighborhood had changed radically. The same houses were now worth more than $300K. A new crowd had moved in and brought in willows, hibiscus and other water hungry plants. Lawns were now mowed with diamond shaped patterns in the grass, where a few years ago, small clumps of crabgrass eeked out their lonely existence. My neighbor and I got into a bit of a turf war. She watered so much that there were constantly puddles in our yard. I had weed problems that I never had before. So I started weeding out the weeds that had come with their turf, and promoted the growth of the native species. Some native trees had gotten a tenuous foothold in our yard, so I moved one next to the neighbors yard and after a few months of care to allow it to sink roots deep enough to enjoy all our neighbors water, it went crazy. We didn't spray anything, so our Orange tree was great. Oddly for the desert, we had a large snail population in the front yard. The local road runners loved our yard because of this fresh protein bounty. (We discovered towards the end of our stay, that a boy who had lived there previously had collected them) But there was a wonderful balance of nature and the snails never became a problem. Our back yard was small, but since it had a lot of old growth shade and water, it was popular with the birds. I counted 11 different species over all, and 7 different species at one time. We had everything from hummingbirds to Cooper's Hawks there. Our golf-course style neighbors didn't.

I found no problem mowing in 110deg shade. (8pm temp in summer)

In our neighborhood in the California desert, summer mowing hours were from 6am to 8am. But then again, we were the only part of the country where residents would go to Phoenix to cool off.

I use an old Scotts push mower.
Things I like about it:
it doesn't kick up dust, It doesn't make noise so I can listen to my ipod while I mow, It has like 24,000,000,000 different height settings, so I can cut grass from golf green to about 8" high, it's lightweiht, so I can carry it up the the raised portions of my lawn. It doesn't take up much space in my shed.
What

I use an old Scotts push mower.
Things I like about it:
it doesn't kick up dust, It doesn't make noise so I can listen to my ipod while I mow, It has like 24,000,000,000 different height settings, so I can cut grass from golf green to about 8" high, it's lightweiht, so I can carry it up the the raised portions of my lawn. It doesn't take up much space in my shed.
What

I use an old Scotts push mower.
Things I like about it:
it doesn't kick up dust, It doesn't make noise so I can listen to my ipod while I mow, It has like 24,000,000,000 different height settings, so I can cut grass from golf green to about 8" high, it's lightweiht, so I can carry it up the the raised portions of my lawn. It doesn't take up much space in my shed.
What I don't like:
Hitting sticks and getting stopped in my tracks.

If I had a bigger yard I'd justify bolting one onto the front of a bike and making a riding lawn mower.

After the second blade on my mower this year, and the third airfilter, I have reached the conclusion that "yard" and "lawn" are not necessarily synonymous, (I mow more yards than just my own).

Reel mowers work great on lawns, not nearly as well on yards where you have to knock down the weeds so the grass can compete.

I live in a rented apartment but my parents are just letting the grass grow in the backyard. It doesn't seem to interfere with movement, looks good, feels good. Why mow anyway? Just take a sickle to it once in a while. :)

Isn't it funny that people have all those lawns to have a nice barbeque on the weekend or something, and they can't even enjoy it because everybody around is mowing his lawn for hours and it's just too damn loud for any sort of relaxation and unwinding. So they go inside, turn on the air conditioning watch TV... :rolleyes:

If I had a bigger yard I'd justify bolting one onto the front of a bike and making a riding lawn mower.


Then you'd have a custom chopper.

Then you'd have a custom chopper.
:lol: Good one. :)

Yup, I have a push mower, its pretty old and heavy, says Great American Ball Bearing on the cast iron ornate wheels. Has some old rubber wrapped around the wheels, the roller and handle are wood. After reading this thread I decided to sharpen this grass cutting machine up. What a difference a sharp blade makes!!! Please do your self and your lawn a favor, go to NAPA and get some grinding compound ($5) water base variety, apply with a tooth brush, adjust the blade distance, roll the real backwards till every thing is shiny(watch your fingers), rinse with water..... and MOW. This sharpening process may take some time as I'm self taught and just learning but go for it.

Human Power: I think its having a comeback, I hope so........Mike

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but Neuton makes a very good battery-powered mower, for under $400, I think. I have used it this year and I am very satisfied with it. It is sold with a money-back guarantee, in force for the first 6 months that you own it. I'm keeping it.

My lawn mower is coal powered.




Actually it is an electric, but since my electricity is from a 60 year old coal plant, it is likely a very dirty mower.

Luckily, it no longer rains here, so my lawn is very,very dead.

I have a push mower. But I make my kids do the pushing.

This summer I went back to using the push mower- I just go over everything twice to get the same effect as my electric mower on the first try.

I did it mainly so I could cut the grass while my kids play outside by me- they are 2 and 4. They get to ride their bikes in front of the house while I cut grass and my 2 year old doesn't freak out by the noise made by the power mower. We can actually have a conversation while they play and I work.:)

An unexpected result of this is that my neighbor just bought a push mower after watching, and trying, mine. His gas mower was about dead and he wanted to replace it with something lighter due too the hilly nature of our yards.

Now, I just need to convert the rest of the neighborhood so we can get some peace and quiet around here on a Saturday afternoon. ;)

Jon

Although yards are wasteful, it seemed to me that letting it go to prairie or meadow stage increased the mosquitoe population. After mowing there seemed to be far fewer mosquitoes. Or was that just a coincidence?

Mosquitos breed in stagnant water. So I think it was just a coincidence unless you had puddles in your lawn.:D

Why water it . . .why fertilize it . . . only to have to CUT it? Silly people?!!
We live in southern AZ and have not cut a lawn in 29 years . . . we have crushed granite and cactus. . . .

Actually it is an electric, but since my electricity is from a 60 year old coal plant, it is likely a very dirty mower.

I think the cleanliness of your coal-made electricity depends on the modern filtering equipment that may have been installed on the plant (and therefore, the people that regulate coal plants) more than on the age of the plant.

Mosquitos breed in stagnant water. So I think it was just a coincidence unless you had puddles in your lawn.

They breed in stagnant water, but in my experience the adults like to hide in vegetation that protects them from wind. 12+ inch grass or dense bushes seem to be favorites.