Good For The Earth, Good For Your Wallet, Good For You!

As a young teenager, I would occasionally have the duty of mowing our large lawn with a gas powered push mower. I would put on my bathing suit, go outside (barefoot!), and fire up the mower. By the time I was done, I had a deeper tan, and numb hands from the mower vibrations. And when my mother found out that I mowed the lawn barefoot, I also had a lecture on mower safety. Today, I think a lecture on skin cancer might also be included. Then I left home for college, and for the last number of years I've lived in places where the landscaping duties belonged to someone else.
This spring, my husband and I moved into a neighborhood where we have a tiny backyard and the delightful duty of taking care of our own lawn. For the first time in our lives, we had to contemplate buying a mower.

This is the mower we chose. It's a reel mower, you know, the "old-fashioned" kind of mower. My mother used a mower like this when she was a child. I called her before we bought this mower to ask her how hard it was to mow the lawn without the assistance of electricity or gas.

Our lawn was super long as we started to mow (a lot of rain + a low-lying lawn = well watered grass that takes a while to dry out). Getting started was a little difficult, but once we got going, our little lawn didn't take too long to finish. Now that we have the first mow of the season in, I'm sure it will be easier to upkeep our lawn with this mower.

This reel mower has so many great advantages. It uses the ultimate in renewable energy for propulsion, it is the most economical option of all mowers, it offers a good way to get some excercise, and my favorite, it's quiet and it doesn't vibrate like crazy under your hands!

I recommend that anyone who is shopping for a new lawnmower consider buying a reel mower. Even if you only use it to supplement your electric or gas mower, you can't go wrong!