As I have no lawn on my property, I decided to give my petrol lawn mower that rarely got used, to my daughter Amy as a gift. She was after one for her new place in Ballarat, so I thought it best not to increase the fossil fuel burning mower population of the world by one more.
Now, I still have a nature strip that must be mowed as per local laws, and I wanted to be a green as I possibly could, so I went old school. I hunted in the second hand shops for a serviceable hand mower but to no avail.
So, off to the hardware store to see what I could find. I picked one up for just under $150 which I thought was a bargain. It weighs only 8kg and is light as a feather to push. It has a great motion and I was surprised about how well it actually cut the grass. I bought a catcher to go with it, but should not have bothered. The grass clippings will help the lawn to thicken and retain moisture. But the most fantastic thing is that I am so excited about is that I never need fuel again! Slowly but surely, I am kicking the carbon habit. Less emissions can only mean happy smiles from Gaia.
Anyway, Ben took heaps of great photos, so I have strung them together in this short video. Watch the Green Lawnmower Man in action, with his faithful sidekick Ben the Assistant!
We have the opposite problem right now – could do with 20 lawnmowers, as we’re knee-deep in grass!
Everyone around here is the same – a very warm and wet winter and the growth has gone crazy, plus a lack of lambs for various cold-snap death reasons (millions lost in southland). So now we all have heaps of grass and not enough mouths to eat it!
As a result, I’m crazy busy making hay for winter, but I feel like I’m five steps behind everything.
One thing that continually amazes me, though, living and working in a rural town, is the sheer amount of petrol used to get food from paddock to plate. Peak oil is going to be scary indeed – and the cars will only be a tenth of it, I reckon.
Enjoy your pushie! And happy Christmas! 🙂
I had a couple of those type mowers in my shed, but of course, the fire we had in 07 took most of my things that were stored. I kept it because I remembered using one at my grandparents home, as a kid. Strange how we think we have evolved so, and now find ourselves needing to go back to those old ways. Life is funny that way.
Lawn mowing is absolutely, positively my least favourite job in the garden – by a very large margin!
As a result, I’m constantly working on removing lawn and replacing it with productive garden. I’m also looking into no-mow options for ground covers like Dichondra repens or Corsican mint.
I look forward to the day when a hand mower is all I need.
Great achievement Gavin!
Great aren’t they, I have one that I picked up from a neighbor for twenty bucks for doing my small patch. I found it a bit light for doing the buffalo (the wheels kept skidding) so I made a concrete block for it and put a 60mm roller on to lift it a bit. I like to keep the lawn a bit longer so it retains a bit of moisture. Only trouble is it’s a bit hard to push in long grass so my fearless leader makes me do the lawns.;-)
http://users.tpg.com.au/jonsey/countryplans/Flymowithweight2.jpg
i wish i hadve known you wanted one. ive got one sitting here doing nothing
The grass/ lawn at our place is more like weeds/ dirt patches anyway, but I would like a hand mower too (and a manual carpet sweeper would also be nice!)
When we have finished our gardens, there will be only a small amount of grass under the clothesline, near the kids play area… but we might even change that to a native ground cover that doesn’t need mowing. I quite enjoy mowing, but I enjoy eating produce grown where the lawn used to be MUCH more!
Lunch not Lawns!! (Can you grow something edible in the verge/ nature strip area??)
Hi Gavin, I found a push mower under a tree at my place but it is so big and heavy I can’t use it. The new ones look much more user friendly… I will look for one at the tip shop. Now that is a great invention, the tip shop. Almost nothing gets wasted here, as everything taken to the tip is sorted and resold, super cheaply, on site. And in 2011 we are getting one only a few minutes from my house! Woo hoo!
If you can’t find what you’re looking for at the tip shop remember the trading post, eBay and freecycle. Oh and friends and family. I got a barely used flymo from eBay for $100, but I’ve seem them go for $40 and I picked up another older one from curbside collection and on-sold it for $5 at a garage sale. It takes a bit of fiddling to get the blade tension just right, but I find that when it is just scraping it goes best and set the roller to the highest clearance. As long as I’m only ever removing a few inches or less it works beautifully and I favoured it over the heavy petrol mower even when I had 800sqm to mow. It’s so much lighter I find it quicker and easier than the petrol one for all but the longest toughest grass. I’m slowly replacing our grass with productive plants/trees, but the nature strip will be the last to go – ironic that it’s called a ‘nature’ strip…
I’ve got one of these too, I love it. Our mower died and as the landlord does our gardens we didn’t need to buy a new one. We got the pushie to let us do the back lawn between landlord visits – and we got a catcher to go with it so we can use the clippings in the compost and garden beds. I love it!