In an earlier article, Frugal Lessons from The Amish, I talked about out Amish neighbors and how we could learn a lot about being frugal from their daily practices. Amy, a young Amish wife and mother shared a lot about the things they do that save money.
Even though Amy lives on a big farm, she still maintains a front lawn. The lawn is grassy and has a small kitchen garden to one side. It looks like almost any other front lawn in front of a home. While the Amish of Lancaster do sometimes use gas powered tools around their farm, they don’t feel that cutting the lawn is a good use of gas, when they can do it by hand with a push mower.
Wait, wait! Don’t shake your head and think, “There is no way I am going to use a push mower!” Push mowers of today are very different from the old, hard-to-push types of years ago (although Amy does use one of the older ones for her lawn). In fact, these mowers are so different that they are now called “reel mowers.”
Reel mowers are great because they save a lot of money on gas and maintenance. They don’t have the mechanical issues of a traditional gas powered rotary mower.They also reduce the “pain” of mowing, because there are no fumes or large noises to deal with. They also save money on mulch for your yard, because they leave such a fine spray of grass clippings that can feed your lawn and don’t need to be raked or bagged. This is because they cut the grass like scissors instead of ripping it the way a rotary mower does.
If your current gas-powered rotary mower isn’t self-propelled, you won’t notice much difference the the force you will need to push the reel mower. It is a different story if you are used to a self-propelled model. The upside, is that you can get your workout in at the same time for a much healthier lifestyle. But, a reel mower does take a little more time to use. Count on an additional 15 minutes for every 45 minutes it normally takes you to cut your lawn.
L Hundley, Chief Gardening Evangelist of CleanAirGardening.com mentions:
“If you live on a half-acre lot or smaller, then a manual reel mower is a very reasonable choice,” says Hundley. “But if you have more grass than that, then it’s going to be too time consuming for the average person.”
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