The Real Cost of Suburban Lawns

[GreatGazoo]

With all the authenticity of White Castle restaurants we have lawns that were inspired by English Manor Houses of the 1800s. We may live in an $80,000 plastic box but our neatly mowed green lawns free of anything edible or useful tells the world: "Here lives some British royalty". No?

Those green expanses come at high a cost:

Habitat loss isn’t the only consequence; maintaining a mowed and fertilized lawn also pollutes the air, water and soil. The emissions from lawnmowers and other garden equipment are responsible for more than 5 percent of urban air pollution. An hour of gas-powered lawn mowing produces as much pollution as four hours of driving a car. Americans use 800 million gallons of gas every year for lawn equipment, and 17 million gallons are spilled while refueling mowers — more than was leaked by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Homeowners use up to 10 times more chemicals per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops, chemicals that can end up in drinking water and waterways.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/03/my-town-calls-my-lawn-a-nuisance-but-i-still-refuse-to-mow-it/?tid=sm_fb

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. I've got an electric mower, but

it's more to avoid local pollution, since I also live in a part of the country where most of the electricity comes from coal. So it's not really any less polluting overall, until the utilities start using more renewable energy. Although I keep hoping solar will come down in cost enough I can set up my own recharging station.

[GreatGazoo]

2. I got one too

Kobalt 40w and I love it. It metered the recharge and it took less than .2 kwh to recharge the smaller battery (about 7-cents).

Love never having to worry about pulling that cord and hoping it starts. Easy to shut it off, move something, turn it back on. No fumes. A little less noise -- mine is dual blade so it kind of sings.

Going to go to solar charging for it next year. I use it on the farm and it will be handy to have a charging station right out in the field.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. Mine's 5 or 6 years old now, and still chugging along.

The only complaint I have is that it losing charge really quickly if the grass gets too high. The next door neighbour got tossed in jail a couple of months ago, and his wife wasn't mowing, so I finally mowed their front yard along with mine and my parents. It took 3 entire charges just to mow the neighbour's front lawn, when normally I can mow both the parents' and my front lawn and the parents' back lawn on a single charge.

[GreatGazoo]

4. I notice something similar

In tall grass it is using the juice much faster but on stuff I have mowed within the last 10 days or so it is fine. I can run almost an hour on the 2 batteries.

I also love being able to tip the mower on its side to clean it, or to put it in the car, without concern for spilling gas and oil, or drowning the carburetor.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. Yup.

Although I admit I'm more careless than I should be, and don't always take the key out to clean out the undercarriage. I don't miss pulling on that $%^%^&%^ cord to start it at all.

[GreatGazoo]

6. Ethanol killed the prior mower as it has killed many small motors

$75 a season to get your gas mower de-gunked -- no thanks. Ethanol pretty much forced us to go to a different fuel source/design.

[Fred Sanders]

14. The battery technology advances just in the past two years for residential lawnmowers and tools

is amazing.

[yeoman6987]

8. We all have lawn services here which may help

Reduce overall pollution because one company does everything with the same equipment and rules that are stricter then individuals. I think that should be mandatory that companies do all lawns in U.S. Might be better off.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

12. I'd only go along with that if it was publicly owned and run.

I don't care much for 'mandatory' things that involve my handing over money to private for-profit corporations.

I'd get rid of my lawn entirely rather than be forced to pay a private company.

[yeoman6987]

17. That's not a bad idea to make it public owned

In fact, government run company would certainly have even more guidelines then private companies and might even be cheaper for customers since the bulk of customers.

[Botany]

7. No mow grass

[GreatGazoo]

18. looks like Canadian Fescue (?)

[Botany]

19. it is a blend of fine, creeping red, sheep, and chewing fescues

lots of people now say they have it but the stuff I use is from the Prairie Nursery
in Wisconsin

[jtuck004]

9. I see a a lot of waste as I look around and see people cutting their lawns, bagging and throwing

the leaves away, and then applying fertilizer they bought and then chauffeured back home in their expensive car.

I started throwing my grass in a compost heap a while back, and the grass around the runoff from that is one of the best splotches of grass and weeds in the yard.

Weeds reach lower to get nutrients, and bring them to the surface. When they die they feed the shallow-rooted grasses. We take advantage of that process which has been going on a lot longer than front lawns.

I have a lot of dandelions and redroot pigweed, so I pick a few handfuls of those, put them in a bucket with water. I bubble that a bit with a fish tank aerator, and use the runoff as foliar spray and to water my plants.

[Kablooie]

10. Get a sheep.

Seems like it should be "Get a ship." or "Get a shop."
"Sheep" always sounds plural to me.

[jwirr]

11. In the rural areas of NE MN many of us mow because long grass has more ticks than short grass.

Thus to give our children and our pets a better chance of avoiding tick diseases we mow during the tick season.

[tclambert]

13. I heard of a neighborhood with rules against having a vegetable garden in the front yard.

I think this was the one they objected to:

https://s.yimg.com/fz/api/res/1.2/YoDcMohqL6A849eEVjQwAw--/YXBwaWQ9c3JjaGRkO2g9MTIwMDtxPTk1O3c9MTYwMA--/

[Fred Sanders]

15. Is there a place for chickens?

[tclambert]

16. I dunno about chickens in the front yard. They might want to cross the road.

[Skittles]

20. I think that looks nice

[sue4e3]

21. I wish my yard looked that neat , I live in the woods next to a lake

My yard looks like jumanji compared to this. Then for fun I threw in a bunch of wild flowers and milk weed , I naturally have Queen Anns lace and laurel, Then I planted sunflowers around the edges. For s--- and giggles I put morning glories on my fences a few years back (no one told me they just keep going). All the little girls in town call my yard the secret garden.Sometimes I think how beautiful then other times I get a little scared

[NickB79]

22. I've got a half acre I'm converting back to prairie savanna

https://www.prairiemoon.com/seed-mixes/pretty-darn-quick-seed-mix.html

https://www.prairiemoon.com/seed-mixes/shortgrass-echinacea.html

500 sq. ft already herbicided to death and tilled up, ready for fall sowing.