Here in Arizona’s White Mountains, we’ve had an incredible monsoon season. Beginning in about mid-July, it’s been raining every single day. The forests look healthy, the streams and reservoirs are full, gardens are green … and lawns need to be cut every single weekend.
I’m not sure why I had this mentality, but for some reason, I thought that the only way to cut grass was with a power-driven device like a gas lawnmower. I live in a small mountain community and huge, green lawns aren’t a big feature here. People pride themselves with their Ponderosa Pine and flowers, not green lawns.
Since my front yard is relatively small, I was using my “weed whacker” to cut the grass. I have a larger yard in the back that’s about twice the size as the front yard. Again, it’s not that big and I could weed whack it down in about half an hour.
The problem is that my cutting job hasn’t been very even. Depending on the volume of beer consumed on the job, some sections of the lawn were two inches tall; other sections an inch tall; and other sections of grass were four inches tall by the time I was done.
Deciding it was time to get a regular lawnmower so my cutting job would look better, I stopped by the local Home Depot to see what they had. For less than $100, there were some hand-driven push reel mower models. Of course, there were gas-powered models available as well.
I was tempted to get the gas powered model, but one of the problems I tend to have is that the gas mixture usually goes bad after a winter of non-use. Plus, the fumes are usually nasty. So I bit the bullet and thought I’d try one of the push mowers.
For around $80, I bought the Scott 16-inch push lawnmower. The only thing that had to be assembled was the handle unit, which then had to be attached to the mower unit.
The instructions were typical, with all kinds of pictures but little in the way to explain what to do. At first, I attached the handles backwards, so I had to remove them and reattach. Even with this mistake, it only took around 10 minutes to assemble the unit.
After that, in between thunderstorms, I took my new Scott push mower for a spin. It was amazingly easy to push … just as easy as my old gas-powered lawnmower that someone sold by mistake at a garage sale. The cutting job was very even and although the grass was wet, was smooth. The mower discharges the grass clippings directly into the yard, which makes for good mulching.
I was able to cut both the front yards and back yards in about the same amount of time as it would have taken if I had used a gas-powered mower, but without the choking gas fumes. It was actually much faster than using the weed whacker.
The only problem is that small pieces of sticks will jam the mower. I found that if you pull it backwards a rotation, the stick will fall out or it can be easily removed. When it rains, a bunch of pine cones tend to fall into the grass. The mower easily went over these — I didn’t have a single jam from them. The only other thing I would recommend is to get a unit that is wider than 16 inches.
Overall, I am very pleased with my manual lawnmower. The greenies will love me because I’m not consuming gasoline. The neighbors love it because there is no sound when I cut the grass. The unit takes very little maintenance, has a 2-year warranty, and works like a charm.
It’s been a week since I cut the front yard with the push reel mower, and a bunch of pine cones have fallen again. Nonetheless, you can see what a good job the manual lawnmower did.
