lawn care without gasoline or electricity

[dnix71]

When I was a kid (40 years ago) I had to edge the sidewalk with a manual starwheel and hated it because it gave me blisters. Gasoline weed whackers didn't exist and gasoline edgers cost more than we could afford.

Now that I'm middle-aged, I can see the end of cheap oil and wondered if it was possible to keep a nice suburban lawn without power tools. I keep the lawn at the duplex I live in to keep the rent down and so I can use the land for a garden and solar panels without the landlord complaining. He gets his rent each month from me on time and doesn't have to deal with the small stuff around here.

The Scotts 20" was $150 at HomeDepot. I wasn't happy about the price (made in China, too), but it was assembled, sharp and adjusted, and cut grass better than a gas rotary.

I mow my neighbors lawn sometimes as a courtesy. The pic by the canal is her back yard.

Mine has a fence. Her lawn service will weed whack the edge when he comes by. I don't really need to get that close to the water.

The flat spade doesn't give a sidewalk edge as well as a gas model, but I don't get blisters from it.

One advantage of south Florida's heat and humidity is that I don't need a fancy compost pile. Trimmings just get thrown on top of the bananna/suriname cherry hedge and they rot quick.

The trap in the back is for whatever wonders by. I've caught possum, coon and iguanas in it with no bait. The coon and iguana I gave away to be eaten. The possum I just let go. If the animal doesn't eat my plants or tip over the garbage cans, I don't mess with it.

[FishbonzWV]

D,

When I started reading your story I fully expected to see a picture of a goat or sheep munching through the yard. :-}

I inherited the reel mower we had when I was a kid.

So I attempted to use it, just for old times sake.

Once was enough for me.

With that thing I would have to cut the grass every other day to keep it short enough to get through it. Fescue and bluegrass are tough and thick.

If it works for you...go for it!

We used grass shears for the edging, talk about blisters.

Oh yeah, you'll need a bigger trap for gators.

(tastes like chicken)

Bonz

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

We took out the lawn at the town house.

In front we replaced it with low-water plants - zeroscape once they're established - and wood-chip mulch.  We found some plants that stay green all summer on essentially condensed dew and ground water-table water, rather than looking like they're dead for 3/4 of the year like the stuff the water company recommends.

In back we've put in raised beds - with the grass killed off between them - and automatic drip irrigation.  We're raising our own food.  Apples, blight-resistant filberts, peaches, nectarines, pie cherries, sweet cherries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, potatoes, cantelope, watermelon, table grapes, spices, ...

We use about a quarter the water of the typical house in the area.  (We'd use still less.  But the local water districts respond to drought by mandating a percentage reduction rather than a per-person ceiling.  So we deliberately use more than we need so we don't lose the crops and have to bathe in bottled water come the next drought.)

"Lawn care" at the Nevada place (5.1 acres of sagebrush and rabbit bush, left native) consists of about three weekends a year spraying roundup to kill off the tumbleweeds and other invasive species in the firebreak - which is supposed to be a 50 foot border of nothing but sand.  (Our water rights amount to three acre-feet per year so we can grow a substantial "household garden" like the one at the townhouse - but with some plant substitution and probably a greenhouse cover - once we move there full-time.)

[dnix71]

We're only allowed to water 2 days a week permanently now. The Army Corps can't manage flood control, water supply to the coastal cities and Everglades preservation all at the same time. The city just raised water rates 40% last month to pay for pipe replacement and upgrades because they can't borrow money in this recession. So living on a canal allows me to grow food without breaking the bank.

The down side of living on a canal is the iguanas. They will literally eat a tree if they happen to like the taste. One ate my neigbors hot pepper bush and lychee tree. Fortunately I have lots of neighbors from Guyana and Trindad and they will eat anything slower than they are (possum, iquana, pond apple snails, raccoon). No Jamaican I know will eat any of those.

The iguanas aren't native, so people are encouraged to kill them. They taste like chicken if curried. Central Americans prefer them barbequed. If it gets cool enough, the iguanas will just stop moving and die. They are so tropical that a hard freeze would wipe them out. But people keep them for pets and keep tossing them out when they get too big for the cage.

I've only had to water once since the rainy season began in June. It has been wetter this year than I ever remember. The comercial growers are under % restrictions just like you are. The neighbor who lost his pepper bush and lychee has a 9 acre farm at the end of Orange Drive growing callaloo and squash, but no one has bothered him about water use. The powers that be here aren't stupid. Food matters more than a suburban lawn or golf course.

[ghurd]

"They taste like chicken if curried"?

Soda cans, beer bottles, and car tires taste like chicken if curried.

I unexpectedly walked up on a 4'-er in Mexico.  Or someplace around Mexico.

Maybe the species is incorrect.

I will save the details of me and my shorts, except to say a 1'er is cute, a 2' is exponentially larger, and a 4'er is a frightening beast of almost indescribable proportions.

"Open Carry" is a necessity in that region.  Those things scared the heck out of me.

I hope for a hard freeze every year in your area.

G-

[dnix71]

It's the same animal as in Mexico. Curry is the way to go. Long slow cooking makes them sweet and tender. I'm a live and let live guy. If they didn't eat my plants, I wouldn't mind having them around. They just lounge around most of the time. A python or gator might eat your dog or you, but adult iguanas are vegetarian.

There's a five footer living in the sea grape tree next door. They run away from people here. But if they didn't, you don't want to grab one without gloves. They have nasty teeth, sharp claws and retractable neck spines. There are people that make a decent living catching them for ethnic restaurants. They sleep in trees at night, so if you sneak up quietly with a long pole with a slip rope on the end, you can snag them by the neck. As with all reptiles if you grab them by the neck and rear legs and flip them over quickly they quit fighting.

[scottsAI]

My son bought the same push reel mower.

Same price. He liked it at first, saves a trip to the gym.

No more effort than a rotary mower (non self propelled)

Problem his lawn has a weed with shoots that pop up in 2-3 days taller than this mower will cut.

When he gets done, all these tall things still there!!

He must cut it at least every 2 days, with all the rain, several times he had to use scissors to cut them down. NOT too happy!.

$30 more could have bought a rotary gas mower... now wishes he had.

Suggested using weed killer...

Have fun,

Scott.

[dnix71]

It does seem to grow faster now. A rotary mower with a dull blade leaves shredded blade tops, and may shock the grass enough to slow its growth. I'm happy with the workout. It's actually no harder to push than a cheap rotary and cuts wet grass better. It has rained so much that sometimes I have to mow it wet or not at all.

My neighbor doesn't have a working irrigation system. The parts of her lawn my system doesn't cover grow mostly crabgrass. The reel mower cuts that tough stuff much better than a rotary. Nutgrass is the only common stuff the reel mower fails on. The seed stalks stick up too high and frequently don't get cut, so I have to pull them out by hand.

I actually don't have a rotary mower anymore because a friend needed it and so I just gave it away. I was using a gas weed whacker to mow, edge and trim.

[scottsAI]

Many years ago,

My first home had a small city lot, used a 15 inch push reel mower for 4 years before I bough a new house with half an acre. I was house poor. Continued to cut my half acre lawn for two years with it before I bought a 22 inch rotary mower. (30 minutes quicker). Was interesting to see people slow down to watch me cut with the push reel, even stop!

Checking Craig's list for a cheap one, tried son's on my lawn, very easy to push on my Kentucky blue grass lawn.

Scott.

[richhagen]

I use a reel mower for my front yard.  It is about the size of an office cubicle though.  Your place kind of reminds me of the winter home my grandma had in Fort Myers Beach, my uncle still has it.  It borders a small canal and there were bananas too.  No Iguanas there back when I was a kid and visited there that I recall.  Trailer mounted solar?  Don't get eaten by any gators (or mutant non-vegan iguanas) back there, your help is still needed with the upcoming trips.  Rich