A push/pull lawn mower.....

Yesterday I enjoyed a sensational day in my garden. The sun was shining, there was a light breeze, the birds were singing and all was good in the land of Reg. At the moment I am preparing my garden beds for winter. There is lots of mulching and manure, pruning and trimming, weeding and feeding.

For the last few years one of the biggest and rottenest jobs has been mowing my lawns. I dislike this job so much that at times (a lot of the time) I leave it for months. It is not uncommon for me to hire a brush cutter to knock down the out of control ‘lawn’ before running the lawn mower over it. The last time I let the grass get out of control I hire a garden ‘hit man’ to come in and get it under control. Hit men do not come cheap and it cost me around $300 to get it down. Admittedly, I couldn’t see the dogs or chickens in the grass. And there is a possibility that a small village of pygmies had been set up in the backyard and I would never have seen them.

A few years ago I got the bright idea of buying one of those old fashioned mowers the push/pull lawn mowers – no engine things. However the lawn had big clumps of thick weeds and grass. And the lawn mower wasn’t tough enough to cut through them. So I put it in the shed and thought no more of it.

My petrol powered lawn mower has it’s own set of issues. As it is old it required yearly (and some times twice yearly) servicing, new blades, and the spark plugs....oh the spark plugs!! They were my problem child.

Now that I don’t have a car it is a lot more difficult to get the mower serviced. It is not easy to pop it on a bus and while I don’t mind walking the dog I am not too keen on taking the lawn mower for a walk. Plus there is the costs associated with the lawn mower including petrol and 2 stroke or 3 stroke or whatever the green stuff is that is added to the mix.

For some time I have had TW mowing my lawns, wiper sniping my edges and generally making my garden sparkle. TW runs ‘Fix My Garden’ and does a sterling job. He is efficient and hard working and without his help my garden would actually have a small pygmy tribe living in it.

However as I am trying to reduce my carbon footprint there is, as always, environmental considerations to take into account. Petrol, noise pollution, carbon pollution etc...

The big question is ‘Is a push/pull lawn cutter better than a petrol powered lawn mower?’

Pros

No petrol, no servicing, hardly any noise, no hard cords to pull, no myriad of bits that can go wrong. It is good physical exercise. I am sure my arms and legs got a pretty good work out. It is easy to start, ok there is no starting an engine or in fact an engine at all.

Cons

Grass can’t be too long, too fine or too thick and clumping. It doesn’t work well on uneven ground. It did jam a bit too. And to be honest I did use some unsavoury words (ok I did use a lot of words that rhyme with duck like mother ducker). The grass catcher at the back whilst easy to use did keep coming off. This mainly happened over uneven ground or when I went to too fast or too rough.

The Verdict

I will use it again. It works well now that my lawn is under control. If it is used similar to a paint roller (up and down, diagonal and horizontal) it cuts pretty well. The lawn looks pretty good. The chooks loved it and were not at all scared. Neither were the dogs or cats.

Attached are some photos of the lawn and the lawn mower so you have some idea of what I am talking about.

I think I like the romanticised idea of living a green sustainable and somewhat old fashioned lifestyle. The reality is quite different. And I often ask myself why I even bother and what is all this hard work for. Surely I must be an escapee from an insane asylum to go without a car, to make my own pet food, to use a lawn mower that’s main fuel source is me!

I am a little nuts but I am not insane. I like the quote “quirky but cute and adorable”. It hasn’t taken off but I am still hoping it will. But I digress. It is worth it. I do have to remind myself that this is a big picture long term project (life time). It is about preserving our resources for our life time and for future generations.

After Mr Rudd’s neck breaking turn around on our environment I have been thinking about his performance since taking office. I admired him for apologising to Aboriginals and their ancestors for our ancestors and our transgressions against them. But in a hundred years time my descendants saying sorry will not dissolve our transgressions against mother earth. I’d like my descendants to say that I did everything I possibly could to preserve the earth and ensure their future. My romantic side would like them to be proud of my actions not ashamed.