apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i really hope they give them to all the gardeners! how about trading in the leaf blowers?

I have a very scary lawn (steep hills, exposed tree roots, tree stumps, half embedded rocks, etc.) in the house I am renting in east Tennessee and I love my electric mower!! I don't have the brand mentioned in this article; I have a Black and Decker electric mower and a 100 foot outdoor extension cord. I was surprised at how well it works. The body is made of plastic, so it is very light and easy to push. It is easy to start (no yanking - just press the lever and hold) and requires very little maintenance (no messing with gas or oil). I think the mower is safer to use - it doesn't kick up debris the way a gas mower does. The only thing that takes getting used to is managing the cord which I haven't found to be problematic because the mower is so light (you really only need one hand to push it).

How about a push mower instead? Electricity seems clean to us because it's so neatly delivered to us from a wall socket. But much like gasoline, fossil fuels create that very electricity too - in fact, it's often generated by burning coal.

From the environmental defense fund website (edf.org):
"Conventional electricity sources include coal, nuclear, oil, natural gas, and large hydropower facilities. These sources supply about 99% of the electricity used in the United States today."

We love our "reel" mower. It does take longer than a gas-powered model, but as long as you don't let it get too long, and there aren't too many weeds, it's a very pleasant mowing experience. The clicking noise it makes is quite soothing compared to the gas-powered alternative.

I was so excited to find a brand new reel mower for $35 at the thrift shop, but our yard is so weedy we can't use it. We've tried to get our lawn weed free, but we are connected to neighboring yards and have a community association that won't allow a hedge or anything of the sort. I am hanging onto it for when we move though!

That's a deal! The Neuton 6.3 is $500.

I tried one of these when I had a lawn. Unfortunately, my strategy of mowing my lawn as little as possible doesn't work for the electric mower I had. It just couldn't cut through the tall grass and weeds.

dang, all we got in TX was up to a 150 rebate with the trade in of your gas mower, weed eater, or leaf blower.... which pretty much means you have to come up with the cash to actually buy the new energy saving products. :/

home body: I agree with your recommendation and also take it one step further with the notion that a great deal of Southern Cali lawns should be pulled out and replaced with drought tolerant native flora, which will aid in our water shortage situation. But then again, some people who aren't fit or who are older might benefit from an electric mower; people do prefer convenience when it comes to tasks like this, so in that sense, electric would be a nice step forward from gasoline powered models.

When I was a teenager growing up in the late 70's/early 80's - our family had an electric mower and an electric weed-eater with a really long extension cord.

It was kinda like vacumming the living room, but outdoors...
...Never once did I cut through that cord.

(But the sprinkler heads - Those were another story...)

I had a borrowed gas mower, but I was terrified of it. I borrowed an electric mower, which was great, but then I went and bought a push mower. I LOVE it! I have to not let the grass get too high, but it's super easy to whip it out every two weeks or so. So much more peaceful...

I think the thing with electric is that there are options as to how it's generated. It still might be oil based, but not necessarily.

However, I'd agree with gregory. If the house was my own, the lawn would go altogether (especially the nature stip out the front, which is a pain) and native Australian things would go in.

Damnit home body, you beat me to it! Here is MI, like 90% of our electricity is from coal, so either way, you're still burning a fossil fuel. And when I suggested a reel mower to my mom, she quickly vetoed the idea.

Instead, she got the Black & Decker Electric Mow Hog and it worked well at my parent's 3/4 of an acre yard. Yeah, the extension cord is a bit of a pain but that thing moves like a vacuum. And in my current home, we don't have a garage and we're able to bring it up the stairs and store it in a closet.

And I'll agree with gregory, working at a lawn care company for 4 years (I had to pay for college somehow!), I've seen too many people pick grass that isn't suitable for the climate. Lawns can be too high maintenance, go with what's suitable people!

But a few tips for those who try to go the natural route: a thick lawn keeps the weeds out, I suggest aerating in the spring and/or fall and then overseeding. We had a mess of a lawn b/c of our neighbor's trees and bushes, once we had it aerated (professionally), it greatly improved.

know what else doesnt pollute? a push mower. and they aren't expensive and you can get some excercise while you use it.

I second (er, or fourth) the push reel mower concept. I have a 1/4 acre so its a pretty good sized lawn for an urban area.
Takes me about 45 minutes to mow the lawn, not bad if its cool and when its hot, I split it over two days. Which, since there is no work to get the mower ready or put it away, is easy to do before work. I love the quiet, my neighbors love the quiet, it is relatively safe (no flying rocks or sticks), and obviously green. Also a great workout but not too hard for the average person either.
Caveat is that it can't handle long grass or weeds (over about 4 inches) so the first mow of the season is often better with a traditional gas mower and you HAVE to keep up with it. Also jams on sticks but only takes seconds to pause and grab the stick out.

I had a rechargeable mower for the first couple of years we had our first house (15 years ago). I hope they have improved their ability to hold a charge. Ours went from running 2 hours to barely 45 minutes within the first 4 months. Figured something was defective, so swapped it out for another, only to have the same thing happen. I think a reel mower is the ticket.

The piece of info I don't know, and it's hard to find the answer, is whether gas or electricity is actually cleaner to use - especially for a small motor like a lawn mower. I could see gas actually being the greener option, but that's just a guess. I would definitely say an electric mower that uses a battery, instead of a power cord, has a huge strike against it because all of those batteries have a limited lifespan, usually have some heavy metals in them, and also require energy just to make (more fossil fuels.)

Ahh the guilt of knowledge...

I have the 6.3 model and love it. This is a sweet deal.