On my block in Dallas, I think there are only two or three people aside from me who mow their own lawn. Two neighbors use cordless electric lawnmowers, and I use a manual reel mower. We all shoot superior, disapproving glances to the other guy with the loud, stinky gas mower. (Not really.)
Everyone else on the block uses a service, as far as I can tell.
Because of those services, on Saturday mornings, I have to choose the time carefully when I mow.
One of the services shows up around 8:30 a.m. and mows the lawn next door and across the street at the same time, and it’s L O U D. Two blowers, two mowers, all buzzing away at once.
It takes away any pleasure from enjoying the quietness of my own reel mower if I have to listen to two other loud gasoline mowers and two gas blowers 50 feet away while I’m using it.
How do you take care of your lawn?
Do you mow it yourself, or use a service? If you mow, what kind of a mower do you use?
I’m also curious to hear what most people do about lawn fertilizing.
Last year, I ordered an entire dump truck load of compost from the city of Plano, and spread it several inches thick across my entire lawn. For about three weeks it looked like I was some sort of crazy person who was trying to bury his lawn. Someone asked if I had dug up the lawn to install a sprinkler system.
But after it settled and the grass grew through it, my lawn was amazingly green and lush for the rest of the season. In fact, it grew in so thick that my wife, who sometimes mows if I am out of town, asked me not to do it again, because it made the mower harder to push! (I have St Augustine grass, which is one of the most challenging grass types for a push reel mower.)
I also used our Mega Green organic lawn fertilizer once, just to try it out. I don’t think I really needed to fertilize at all after all that compost though.
Do you fertilize your lawn?
If so, do you use chemical fertilizer, or organic, or a combination?
Let me know, because I’m curious!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I have a Scotts reel mower and tried to use it to exclusively mow my lawn. Unfortunately the condition (bumpy) and the size (my lot is 100×200 and my house is under 2000 sq ft) make it almost impossible. So I bought a used gas mower so I can keep up with the grass and not incur the wrath of my neighbors.
HOWEVER, after visiting this site and others like lesslawn.com, I am inspired to use the newspaper smothering technique to reduce my lawn to a few mere circles of grass in the midst of a lot of mulch and ground cover, so I can use my reel mower and permanently retire my gas mower. Now all I need is a ton of mulch…
p.s. and no, I don’t fertilize. Why would I want the stuff to grow more?? I don’t even water my lawn.
We had an electric mower for a few years, but our huge yards burned it out, so we got a gas mower.
We fertilize, but not regularly. We were using organic fertilizers, which were fine for the grass – but also fine for the weeds. Organic pre-emergents were not helping, either. Last year, we broke down and tried a weed & feed – can’t remember which one. Sadly, it worked really well and our yard has been healthier, stronger and more weed-free than ever before. I expected it to just be a boost that would end quickly, but it wasn’t. We will probably skip the chemicals this year, though, since they don’t seem to be needed. We use organic products everywhere else in our gardening.
I would gladly use compost as a fertilizer – if it could be absolutely guaranteed to not have tons of weed seeds in it.
Hi mates
If you live in the country on half an acre or more and can afford t0 fence your yard you can buy a couple sheep. They need some shelter in northern climates but for the rest of us they mow the lawn like a professional, fertilize it in the process, you can shear them for the wool and slaughter them for food if you are so inclined.
We just took out all the grass from our yards. Instead, we tilled and put in a variety of native and naturalized trees and plants in beds and with walking trails and a couple benches to stop and rest. All on 1/4 acre.
I use a robotic lawn mower. It is electric and works great for my yard. It goes out at scheduled times and even recharges itself when it is done. I just limed and fertilized my lawn. Hopefully it won’t be a super dry summer and it will stay green. I let mother nature take care of the watering.
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I’d be careful with that robotic lawnmower….
As mentioned on our Choosing a Mower page, we recommend avoiding these mowers, because robots are evil and will eventually attempt to take over the world. We don’t want to have any part of that, so we avoid selling robots.