Manual push mowers, like this one from Husqvarna, are friendly to the environment and your lawn.
I paid $82 to fill my gas tank this morning. With regular gasoline at $4.29, it's a new record for me. One I seem to be breaking on a weekly basis. My husband surprised me with a Prius for our anniversary in June, which will save me roughly two-thirds of what I'm now paying to gas up. But the Prius is months away. Last I checked, I was number 31 on the waiting list. And the saleswoman said the dealership only gets "a few" Priuses each month. At this rate, I might be driving a 2010 model.
So, while I continue to chug along at 15.8 MPGs, helpless and at the mercy of automakers in Japan, there's another gas guzzler that can be replaced immediately. I'm talking about the lawn mower.
Electric and even old-fashioned push reel mowers are making a huge comeback as homeowners are becoming more and more eco- and wallet-conscious. If you're in the market for a new machine, you should consider one. Electric mowers don't use gasoline, obviously, and they're quieter and don't pollute the air with exhaust fumes. While push reel mowers are purely manual machines, they have the advantage of being so quiet you can cut your grass at 5 a.m. without disturbing the neighbors.
What's more, reel push mowers are kind to your lawn, with blades that cut like scissors.
O.K. There are some downsides. For one, if you neglect your lawn-mowing chores for more than a week, it likely will be kind of difficult to push the thing across your grass. For another, manual mowers typically don't do a great job cutting tall weeds.
But those issues might not be that big of a deal. I think we're approaching the point where convenience might not outweigh cost for long.
