Connecticut
I’ve lost count of how many lawns I have mowed. In my early teens I placed a lawn care advertising flyer in every mailbox in our neighborhood. The response was overwhelming. I had plenty of customers. I made the mistake of charging an hourly rate for each yard. Initially it would take me about an hour and half for a half acre plot. I would net about $2.50 with a tip. But I as I grew stronger I was knocking these out in under an hour and making less. It was not the best business model.
I didn’t have a professional mower, just the regular hardware generic 22 or 24 inch mowers with a Briggs & Stratton engine. These were not self propelled either, they relied on muscle power. I would wheel the mower down the street to each job. It was helpful that the houses were in close proximity.
Later when I was attending Norwalk State Technical College, I had a part-time job at Sperry Semiconductor in Norwalk, CT. I worked in the maintenance department. I mowed the lawn astride a tractor equipped with a flail mower which covers a huge swath of lawn. I ran into a bit of trouble with it when I rode down a hill and couldn’t stop. Luckily a telephone pole caught the mower boom and kept me out of ditch. It was a scary ride and I was more worried about the tractor than my own safety. One of the engineers had a land rover with a hoist and was ableto pull the tractor back to safety. After that experience I decided to ignore that patch of grass.
New Ipswich, New Hampshire
We moved to New Ipswich in 1975. I was intrigued with the possibilities of having a large garden and plenty of open space. Mowing the lawn was challenging because of a steep slope. After my former experiences with a tractor and hills I knew that I need a walk behind mower. After several push mowers I was able to purchase a used eXmark commercial walk behind mower. It had three blades and a 48 inch cutting swath. It was a beast and could cut through grass and small brush. It did have one flaw though. The safety “dead-man” control was broken, which meant if I let go it would take off by itself. Luckily it only pulled me into some rose thorns a few times.
During the ice storm of 2008, the eXmark met its match. A pine tree broke in half and crushed it,
I Call it Quits on Commercial Mowers
Insurance covered my damaged commercial mower. I bought a somewhat smaller Scag walk behind with two blades and a 36 inch cutting swath. This was also a beast. Unlike the eXmark it did not use the engine for braking so it took a lot of hand strength on the brakes when I mowed the hills. It had an operational safety system but I still managed to let it pull me into some errant rose cane thorns. Mice made nests under the cowling and destroyed the ignition wires. It was expensive to fix.
Finally one summer day the mower made a loud clunk and the block cracked. At that moment I decided I was done with gasoline powered mowers.
Battery Power
After some thought I purchased a battery powered mower. It is quiet and fairly light. It is supposed to be self propelled but that feature is useless. It uses a separate electric motor with a flaky control arm. It is only useful for transporting the mower.
I like that it has a one arm control for height. I can cut over low growing perennials like these European Ginger.
Let it Be
I am amazed at the variety of flowers that grow in my yard. There is the every present dandelion of course, but also violets, thyme, wild strawberries, clover and some kind of Ajuga. I asked myself why I was cutting it down. Why not let it be. I’ll mow a small section in the back for the hammock, some in the front and side of the house and let the rest just be. If I can’t see it why should I mow it? The bees and butterflies will be happier.
The Incredible Shrinking Lawn
My flower beds have increased in size over the years, This has the added benefit of effectively shrinking the size of the lawn. In some cases it has gotten out of hand. I planted a few Japanese Butterbur (Petasites japonicus) plants in our old cellar hole and they have gone wild, devouring swaths of lawn. Another patch has some kind of white flower which increases in diameter each year. Eventually the two circles will intersect and that will be the subject of another post.
