The Compost Bin

Did you know that the average lawn mower produces 93 times more pollution than the average automobile? Don't believe me? Well I got this factoid from this NY Times article that talks about how the effort to make catalytic converters mandatory on lawn mowers is being met by resistance from lobbyists.

93 times is a lot. I've made my lawn smaller with mulched border beds and I maintain it organically and I'm sure that helps a little but I still need somewhere for my kids to play. My lawn isn't going away anytime soon and neither is my need for a lawn mower.

When my Black & Decker Cordless Electric Mulching Lawn Mower died, I decided to go old school and bought a reel lawn mower. That old mower served me well for 8 years without any problems but keeping it plugged in all the time to charge the battery probably wasted a lot of energy. Now the only energy I'm wasting is my own. And I heard that push mowers took more of a physical effort to mow your lawn that a gas power motor but I disagree with that. I really don't see a difference unless the gas powered mower is self-propelled, it's really the same amount of effort.

The best part about the new push mower is that there's no engine, no gas, no tune ups, no fumes and it's pretty quiet. In fact it sounds like it's cutting my lawn with lots and lots of scissors.

You'd think that with all the news about climate change and Al Gore and how everyone is going green that I would get some congratulations from my friends and family on this purchase. I wasn't looking for a parade or anything just a "good for you" or a "wow, that's cool, maybe I'll get one too" would have been nice. But I was just met with puzzled looks.

So I did what any decent blogger would do to spread the word that a reel lawn mower is a viable lawn cutting option. I grabbed my video camera and turned it into a Mower Cam.