May 2008 Archives

Want to green that lawn care but these cons outweigh the pros of both electric rotary push mowers and reel mowers?

Ivy at Shakyard and one reader named Indie both feel this way. In fact, Indie brought up a great question about it on a recent post about reel mowers.

She says,

"We bought a reel mower recently and it won't cut some of the weeds. Since our "lawn" is almost entirely weeds, this is a problem. Any ideas? We plan to reseed the lawn, probably in the Fall, but in the meantime our lawn looks cruddy."

Have you ever heard that complaint or, even worse, found yourself in the same boat?

An electric reel mower may be the answer to your green lawn care prayers.

As you have probably figured out by now, children learn how to do things by watching and mimicking adults.

If adults set a bad example by doing tasks in front of children the wrong way then of course the children learn to do these tasks the wrong way as well. They don't know it's the wrong way, they are just learning.

This is true for any task or set of tasks, including living green and doing what you can to help preserve the environment. The world is going to someday day belong to our children and if we ourselves do not step up to the plate and take responsibility for our own actions then our children will learn not to take responsibility too!

Like anyone who is trying to live green, I have a problem with the speed with which the rain forests and every other forest on the planet for that matter are being cut down. One of the reasons of course that so many trees are being cut down in addition to the fact that humanity is expanding at an exponential rate, is our need for paper products, and one of those paper products are books.

I freely admit that I am a book junkie, and I have more paperbacks in my house than any one woman should own in a lifetime. The fact is I adore reading, and am a voracious reader, but this sometimes clashes with my concerns about the numbers of trees being cut down to provide me with my favorite vice.

Are you an eco-minded consumer on the look out for products that are safe, non-toxic, fair trade certified, organic, etc?

If so, you're part of a group that spends about $45 billion annually on products for living green...but you probably don't go looking for those products on eBay.

Guess what, eBay has realized that. Will their new fair trade community and marketplace be all it's touted as, or will it be another case of consumeristic greenwashing?

Wouldn't you totally love to stop getting all that unwanted junk mail?

I swear, I bet I shred 5 pieces of junk mail per day at my house. It's ridiculous.

Whether you want to be semi-militant about stopping junk mail (and sticking it to the junk mailer's pocket book), or if you'd politely like to opt out of their mailing lists, there is a solution for you!

The reel mower of the 21st century--it definitely ain't your grandad's old rusted out, hard to push, doesn't really work that well thing of the past.

Nope, reel mowers are the cleanest, greenest, most econmically and environmentally savvy way to get that great green and nicely manicured lawn.

As with anything else, there are pros and cons, so let's explore them here and see if a reel mower might your next step towards a better lawn, thicker wallet, and cleaner earth.

It's true. I am. I'm a water waster. I waste water in all the worst ways.

I swear. The sound of running water is so intoxicating to me. I think I really have some sort of weird complex.

I leave it running while I brush my teeth (while simultaneously letting the shower heat up--like in the pic).

I even have this weird thing where I "have" to have the sink facuet on while I'm "taking care of business"...if ya get my drift. I know, I'm a freak. Someone send the nice men in white jackets.

Seriously though, the EPA says that although 2/3 of our planet is water, only about 1% is available for human use!! So how have I begun to change my water wasting ways? One step at a time...that's how.