Human Powered Lawn Mowing

Posted July 16, 2006 * Comments(2)

I have come into the possession of a human powered lawn mower. By that I mean, one of the lawn mowers where there is no engine, just you, pushing.

I have wanted one for a while, and serendipitously, Josh had one at his house.

I took it home and fired it right up, so to speak. Oh man, it was hard work. For example, you’re cruising along, and a stick flies up and gets stuck. Well, this thing just stops and punches you in the gut with the handle. Mmm, fun.

After sweating it out for an hour, and then using my electric weed-wacker, the lawn is looking a bit more manicured. The grass is completely dead, but at least it is short-dead now.

I guess this is a good sacrifice to make though, if I’m trying to save the environment. I’ve read that a gas mower puts out more pollution in an hour than your car does in a week, could that be true?

2 Comments so far

  1. Jean on July 18th, 2006

    Hence the magic of the electric lawnmower! It’s proved to be a great compromise for us – works much better than the old-fashioned type, and is far more environmentally friendly than a gas model!

  2. John on July 18th, 2006

    As the owner of a human-powered mower, I’m a strong advocate for electric mowers. There’s no substitute for a fan blade spinning parallel to the ground — the barrel config of the push mower only really works on a lawn that’s perfectly flat and totally free of debris.