Riding Lawn Mowers

Hello Linda,

Option 1: Is there any possibility of replacing some of the grass with plant material which doesn't have to be mowed? Could you create 'groves' of shrubs such as highbush cranberries, or lower shrubs (red osier dogwood) to make a more natural, variable habitat? Without destroying the view?

Option 2: Are you at all fond of goats?

Option 3: Four cycle, riding lawn mower. Here are the emissions from various manufacturers. This doesn't take into account the emissions (including Greenhouse Gases) used in building the lawnmower in the first place. http://www.etc-cte.ec.gc.ca/databases/lawnmoweremissions/default.aspx

If you use standard figures (1 year old, 10 horsepower, 60 minutes) you can find the amount of noxious chemicals emitted, including Greenhouse Gas (CO2). GHG is a proxy for fuel consumption.

Norm Ruttan

iWasteNot Systems
www.iwastenotsystems.com
Materials Exchanges & Recycling Websites
http://www.iwastenotsystems.com/site/node/1026

Unless you do not have the Viburnum beetle as a pest in your area, I would not plant Highbush Cranberries (which are actually viburnums) 

Gary Fish

Manager, Pesticide Programs
Maine Board of Pesticides Control
28 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0028
207-287-7545
207-624-5020 fax
http://www.ThinkFirstSprayLast.org
http://www.YardScaping.org

Hi Gary,

Thanks. I wasn't aware of Viburnum beetle (a pest introduced from Europe). http://www.uoguelph.ca/pdc/Factsheets/Insect/viburnum.htm It is in south central Ontario. Linda's a bit north of there, but close. She may want to chose a different species.

Norm

Viburnum leaf beetle is a devastating invasive insect. It basically kills the plants or renders them aesthetically worthless. 

Gary Fish

Depending on your tinkering abilities and how electricity is generated in your neck of the woods you might consider an Elec-Trak, these were electric tractors made by GE in the 70's and 80's. My family had one back then and it looks like they still are quite serviceable and have a pretty dedicated following.

Brian Sterner

Goats and sheep make great environmentally friendly lawn mowers. Much more environmentally friendly than a riding mower. Or just let Mother Nature have her way and the grass will take care of itself.

Cheers.
W G Watson
Calgary, AB

Let the grass grow - cut down any plants you don't like - leave the rest and nature will plant a garden for you!

Lucille

High Country Gardens has a website, http://www.highcountrygardens.com/catalog/browse/native-turf-grasses/ , that has a lot of suggestions for lawns that require little or no water and very little mowing. One of my favorites is a Reiter's Thyme lawn.

Archie

Archie Phillips,
Architect

Linda,

I realise that you have ruled out a push mower on the grounds of your age. However, I am running a project in the UK that aims to re-introduce push mowers. Almost without exception, our trialists thought that push mowers would be more difficult to push than their electric or petrol mowers, then changed their minds after trying them out. Their notion (that push=hard work) arises from childhood memories of labouring round a lawn with an old-style machine that weighed 15 kilos, and continuously ground the blades on the bottom bar to keep them sharp. No wonder it was hard. The modern equivalent weighs half as much, and has roller bearing and a case hardened blade. So, if your lawn area is 200 square metres or less (or you can make it so by planting, as other respondents have suggested) I urge you to seek out one of the more expensive of the modern push mowers and just try it for twenty feet. I think you will be amazed. Goats (at least, the anglo-nubians we used to keep) are browsers and not grazers, so they don't really make a good job of keeping the grass down. Good luck, however you decide to control your grass.

Dave Oxford
UK

While sheep and goats can eat your grass, there are so many other considerations that I don't normally recommend them to someone who is simply interested in keeping a lawn or backyard under control. Issues include: ? Controlling the animals - you can chain them which puts them at risk from local dogs and carnivores, or run portable electric fence ? They need something to eat every day, so when you run out of lawn, you have to have another place for them to go, or something to feed them. I have two pet goats, remainders of a herd I ran for fire danger mitigation for 7 years, and they stay in their electric fence quite well, but I have to buy them hay in the winter. I don't know what the carbon costs are of the hay I buy, or if those costs are potentially offset by carbon sequestered in the soil as part of growing the crop. But that's something to keep in mind. I wouldn't recommend sheep or goats unless: 1. you have an agricultural bent and are interested in caring for them year round, or 2. there's someone willing to rent them/manage them for you and your neighborhood. I used to "mow" my lawn in Hyde Park, UT with my first pet goat. My neighbors wanted a more uniform appearance to my lawn and the community than my goat managed. After asking us repeatedly whether we owned a lawn mower, someone took the bull by the horns and I came home one afternoon to find my lawn neatly mowed and my goat out of a job. Oh well! For more information on goats for vegetation management you can visit my web site at: http://www.livestockforlandscapes.com

Hope that helps,
Kathy Voth

I have read all the replies on this topic and find them unresponsive, beside the point and irrelevant. Besides they advance a personal ideological agenda (anti-grass) rather than responding to a valid question with useful options instead of disrespectful judgements about anyone who would dare to have a landscape with grass as a component. I would recommend googling "robot lawn mowers" or "remote control lawn mowers". These robot/remote control lawn mowers cost no more than a good quality riding lawn mower and would be useful in a yard perhaps as large as half an acre. They are electric powered and self-deploying and charging. For larger areas like 1 acre and up, look at the remote control lawnmower made by Evatech. It is a hybrid gas mower with electric drive motors and uses 40% less gas while being able to mow at up to 10 mph out to a distance of 2000 ft from the operator with a joystick. Most of the energy savings will come from not having to transport a person as well as greater productivity from greater speed. I hope this of actual use and is better received than the "get a goat" responses.

Chris Dewey

UF/IFAS Florida Yards & Neighborhoods Builder/Developer
Program Coordinator
Pasco County Cooperative Extension Service
PublicWorks/Utilities Bldg.,
Rm 109 7530 Little Road
New Port Richey, FL 34654
727-847-8177
[email protected]

I don't think they were unresponsive, nor beside the point and definitely not irrelevant! I think all of the responses were logical as far as the issues that are the point of this group: "sustainability"

- however your response neglects the fact that electricity comes from some kind of energy generation. You also neglect the fact that huge expanses of lawn are not sustainable in a world that is becoming crowded with humans

-where are the animals going to live?

- they can't live on a lawn. Native plants in a large expanse which was discussed here would make a gorgeous setting and she might just find that she likes it! The responses were allowing the writer to think outside the box!

Lucille

Thanks for all your e-mails and ideas.

Linda Schell

Hi

I completely agree that from the responses posted re. lawn mowers, it is increasingly irrelevant to waste time on discussing which fiddle to use as Rome burns.... However, as an answer with an tone of compassion for a genuine question - I wish to suggest:

1) Look to lower your energy usage at all times. Less technology rather than more is essential as we transition to a post-carbon lifestyle. It's called "nannatechnology", what would your grandmother have done? Certainly ride-on lawnmowers would have been completely out of the question.

2) Grass is the highest energy consumer

3) Native plant species are the least

4) In view of nanna, she would have produced necessary seasonal, local and organic food for herself, her family & friends (and some livestock). I suggest a mix of the goat, some natives and a large vege garden. And the work is part of the responsibility of owning a large acreage.

Sorry.
Melissa Hellwig
Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario

Dear Chris -

You are entirely entitled to your opinion, of course.  But I completely disagree with you, I have found this conversation interesting, informative and quite to the point.  Any personal preferences aside (and aren't the tenacious attachments to all manner of unsustainable things at the heart of our problem?), the sustainability of lawns is in serious question.  What we are discussing on a smaller scale is how to make the transition to non-lawn yards.  From a broader perspective, we are probing the process of essential changes in how we live, of which lawns are but one small but telling example.

Cheers,
Adam 

Dear Adam and Chris,

My 3 or 4 trips to the US from Australia suggest to me that Adam's position is closer to the mark. I've been amazed at the huge size of unproductive and hence expensive and unsustainable lawn around most homes in states like Tennessee, New Hampshire and Montana. In Australia, spare space on an urban block is often devoted to being environmentally productive by planting native vegetation that provides food and habitat to native birds and animals and/or to being economically productive by planting fruit or nut trees or similar. At the same time, most Australian homes have at least a small patch of lawn for children to play on, to wash the car on, etc. As a few more realities bite in the US (thanks to the high and increasing price of fossil fuels, reductions in available water supplies due to climate change), so I expect (and hope) that Americans become more like most Australians who appear to me to better understand their environment and who have learnt how to live within its constraints. For Adam, this will mean that lawn size will reduce a lot but not completely, while for Chris, there will be all sorts of business opportunities which won't involve robotic or remote control lawnmowers (they may not involve lawnmowers at all!), but nurseries selling native plants and fruit/nut trees, plus grey water reuse systems, sale of mulch and paving blocks, etc. The only certainty in life is change and we will all have to adapt since mother nature is reasonably unforgiving towards us humans.

Bernie

Hmm. I seem to remember, flying into Sydney, that many of the homes, especially in the coastal regions were surrounded by very nice lawns. Are you saying that what I thought was grass was a collection of indigenous farm plants?

peter

Hello Chris,

There are two methods of improving sustainable behaviour. One is the incremental way. Keep on doing something, but just do it in a little technologically better matter. The other is to consider whether or not you need to do it at all. To use an analogy from Human Resources, after you've climbed the ladder, do you discover that you've put it against the wrong wall. In this case, after you've bought the better lawnmower, do you discover that you've got too much lawn. So instead of playing around the fringes (get a lighter riding mower, get a riding mower with a better engine, get a hybrid gas/electic lawn mower), perhaps we need to look at a more fundamental question. Is your lawn too big? Linda (the origianal questioner) is the only one who can answer that. She's suggesting it's too big for her and her husband to cut with a push mower. And she's on a lake in Muskoka with well known water quality issues from the run off from lawn fertilizers. Etc. So maybe the question isn't a bigger lawnmower, but rather a smaller lawn. So I think my original answer was both thoughtful, and respectful. And after I responded, Linda and I discussed the issue in more detail off list. Pleasantly and respectfully. Now, on to the question of whether a large lawn is a good thing. For those on the list who need to deal with maintaining golf courses, playing fields, etc. it may be a really good solution. But I don't think it's sustainable for the 3 billion people on this planet to each have an acre or two of lawns. We know that North Americans would need 3 to 5 planets to sustain our current lifestyle, and we know that we've just reached the age of peak oil. I worked my entire life in National Parks in Canada trying to undo the damage that North American lifestyles have wreaked on this planet, ranging from the extinction of species, to the introduction of exotic pests, to the loss of biodiversity, etc. In fact we're currently going through one of the great mass extinctions of all time, and this one is caused by people. Not to mention the problems of Greenhouse Gases and global warming. So if we can't discuss altering behaviour to make our planet sustainable here, without being criticized for being judgemental, then where can we do it?

Norm Ruttan

iWasteNot Systems
www.iwastenotsystems.com
1-800-630-7864

Hi Peter,

As an immigrant from Scotland to Australia I reckon there is a huge "lawn culture" here - and an obsession with noisy, smelly petrol mowers. Where I live had a huge communal lawn, now a bit less huge since I planted a load of native trees. It's now being mowed with an electric mower on running greenpower - still a compromise but a big improvement. It also looks (if I say so myself) stunning, with lush rainforest borders around glades of lawn. By contrast one of our neighbours let the veggie patch in his garden grow over with kikuyu and has bought a deafening ride-on mower. He actually has less grass to mow than we do. I agree with Melissa - owning land brings responsibility - land is not a commodity and there are ethical problems with the idea that an owner has the right to do whatever they like with their land.

Lorna

Hi all!

I agree that land ownership brings some responsibilities with it. I am one such land owner just north-west of Ottawa. We're actually pretty much surrounded by forests and wetlands but our property sits on an area where there were very few trees. The previous owners planted a mix of grass and clovers (already way better than grass alone) and we're in the process of replanting some areas with native and/or habitat friendly shrubs and perennials. The problem is that, with the price of shrubs, planting an area this size will cost big bucks and take time. We're willing to do it, but gradually. So in the meantime, we are left with growing lawn which I need to cut and yes, I use a horrible riding mower. I could use a push mower but a) not sure how it would perform on very weedy - or shall I say biologically diverse - lawn (which we have) and b) it would take a ridiculous amount of time to do, time which I can spend with my family. And yes I do realize that I could let the whole thing go but I would rather not do that until we know where shrubs and perennials will go. And even then, the kids will want a good area to play on. Once we are done, the size of the lawn will be significantly smaller. My point is that we're doing the best we can. I help out at a local garden centre and I spend a lot of time talking to people about naturalizing/replacing lawns and adding native plants and I can tell you that most people I speak with aren't anywhere near the stage where telling them to buy a goat will convince them. A lot of the people I speak with are more than willing to learn but it will need to be in a stepwise fashion. 

Thank you Norm (and the others who discussed this) for a wonderful, respectful and informative letter.

Lucille

Hi Francois,

Have you tried collecting seed and growing your own shrubs? I realise that in Canada the process would be significantly slower than here in subtropical paradise but it's free and you will end up with better- acclimatised plants.

Lorna 

Hi!

Could do that but most of the shrubs I am planting will also serve as a dirt barrier. We have a lot of dust coming from the dirt road and I would like to prevent that as soon as I can so I need to plant larger shrubs. On the fringe of the forest we are transplanting little shrubs and trees that are in bad positions in the forest. We also have to remember that some species actually like the forest to mixed grass interface. We have an awful lot of activity in that ecotone. Although I haven't seen them for a while, I even had hares coming to munch on my clovers and we see deer from time to time eating in the fringe. We have frogs, birds, salamanders, etc... But again, for most people I talk to, growing shrubs from seeds is probably beyond their level of interest and dedication. I am having difficulty convincing people to grow morning glory from seeds, a species that grows especially quickly. People want things VERY quickly (I'm sure that's not a revelation for anybody here). People also generally have a lot of preconceived ideas about just how much they suck at tending plants. When shrubs cost $100 each, maybe then people will attempt to grow them from seed ;-O.

Cheers!
Franois 

Hi All:

Thank you all for your e-mails. Yes, our grass is too large for us to handle. We are on Lake Muskoka. The Muskoka Watershed Council offered a course in the spring which I went to hence my membership to this listserv. We have put a lot of money into shoreline management to stop erosion. We are surrounded with trees and wetlands. We are gradually going to decrease the size of our lawn with wild flowers and shrubs that the deer don't find enjoyable for lunch. Until this happens, I shall have to keep mowing. I have clover in some spots and Eco grass is planted in spots (grass that does not grow up as high and falls over apparently). This mosquitoes are very large and hungry. Lorna is quite right it takes time and money. Thanks again.

Linda Schell

To me the heart of the problem with the lawn discussion and most other sustainable behavior topics is that we chat as if there is no emergency, and without such a context the response continues to be more or less casual - "we'll do it when we get around to it," "people have to proceed with small steps, etc." When you follow the unfolding of the climate crisis, it become clear that we are in a severe emergency NOW, but in this case the consequences are often not immediately felt - and by the time the consequences are here it's way too late to make the requisite changes. That's because the earth is a huge intertial system and by the time the ball is rolling downhill there's no stopping it. Therefore our challenge, as I've mentioned before, is how to develop the sense of urgency today.

Adam in chilly, rainy Massachusetts, USA where Monday it's scheduled to be 99 F (not my idea)

AAArgghh morning glory!! Yep, we know how quickly that grows here... please feel free to come and collect all of it! Morning glory is the bane of my rainforest. Can you do "nurse trees" - short-lived, fast-growing things that will shelter the slower-growing stuff? They don't need to be native just as long as they aren't weedy. Actually, I find a problem in that people don't value plants which have been grown rather than bought - even if they have taken years to get to planting size. I planted some 18-month old swamp lilies last weekend, then scavenged plant-tags from a neighbour who'd been buying plants. They aren't even for the same species but now my swamp lilies look like they cost money : ) 

If you want to create REAL urgency, go through the pocketbook. Look at cars. How many years have people in North America been told that small cars are the way to go environmentally. Yet SUVs were all the rage. Then the price of gas goes WAY up and, bam, suddenly people "develop" (;-D) an eco-conscience. This is actually great for politicians because they didn't really have to force people to buy the small cars through regulations. They can blame the big bad oil sector/speculators/developing countries/lack of refineries for rising prices and just watch the people adjust their purchases to join the rapidly expanding small car market. Then they can gloat about just how eco-conscious and sharp their electoral base is. Force people to pay a significant premium for their trash bags and see how much less trash they'll put out. Suddenly, recycling and composting are all the rage. I think people need to see their loss clearly and significantly to act quickly and decisively. Which makes a nice segue into the other thread about "carrot vs stick". I'd like to think that humans are inherently eco-conscious but I have my doubts :-O.

F.

Hello Adam et al,

I have sat on the sidelines and watched this discussion unfold as this topic is of great interest to me because I, too, am in the process of ridding myself of as much lawn as possible and limiting the use of my gas powered push mower. I live on about 1/2 an acre in Southeastern Ontario. I would actually have a goat if I lived a bit further out of town. Until I can have that hobby farm, though, I decided to take on a bit of a challenge. My first year with the property (last year), I tilled up about half the front yard for a butterfly and herb garden. This year we have 8 gardens around the property, slowing swallowing up lawn as we go. My youngest and I work on soccer skills regularly, so we'll leave some lawn for now. Our plans: We will rotate food crops and maintain the native flower garden for the butterflies, birds and bees (who we know aren't doing well). Two of the gardens are "test" gardens. One is a compost pile of weeds removed from aforementioned flower beds; we have left them to battle it out to see which prevails. I'm hoping it's the "Indian lettuce" myself or we'll be making nettle tea. The other test garden is a ground cover garden, planted in the mulch to the drip line of our maple tree. It's mostly clover there anyway, but we've put a few other native "weeds" that are soft enough to walk on in bare feet. After checking this weekend, I can report that the wild strawberries and clover are the clear front runners. The paradigm shift required to readjust our thoughts about generally acceptable landscaping practices must run concurrently with my personal efforts to do so. Through discussion with my neighbours, I discovered that they thought my actions last year were odd at first, but as the price of food and fuel climb, our discussions about growing food instead of grass has led to further discussion about other environmental issues. I find most folks find it all so simply overwhelming that they just don't know where to begin and so they just don't do anything. However, I did notice this weekend passed with very few of the neighbours firing up the riding lawn mowers for the weekly ritual. Is it the price of gas? Or is it a sign of the sea change for which I've been hoping?

Peace,
Holly

Hey Friends,

Succession happens! If you let a grassy area go what will eventually happen is that the predominant herbage in the area will take over - If you live in an area that once was forest - if you don't mow - forest will return. You will have to do some selective cutting if you don't want invasives - but by and by you will get what my husband has finally achieved - a very beautiful native woods with whorled pogonia, Indian cucumber-root, wood poppy, blood root and all of the wonderful species that most people are losing! Try it - you'll like it and you won't have to mow! You could actually make a family outing of taking care of your wood lot - just like Aldo Leopold did with his Sand County log cabin.

Lucille

I guess I could set up a willow row but I would have to remove the shrubs already planted to do that. The first set of shrubs I planted are pretty much all fairly fast growing native shrubs. Many of them with wildlife interest. We might dig up a fair bit of lawn again this Fall to set up a second large border in the front. We're also thinking of a large garden to replace the smaller one we currently have. I just finished a hummingbird garden in the back. The lawn is slowly but surely being removed...just not all in the same year. 

Francois Blain wrote: We might dig up a fair bit of lawn again this Fall

No need to dig up lawn, just put some scrap wool carpet down a little while after mid summer. Then the dark kills the grass and the worms do the digging! Personally I like the look of carpet on ground (it makes it look like someone has useful intentions), but if you don't, remember it's just temporary.

Hi Francois,

I don't think you should remove what you have planted - it sounds excellent. I don't know how long you have been in your place but I remember some advice that, on moving to a new garden, to "just look at it" for a year. Of course I never could wait that long to plant, but you do learn a lot by observing.

Lorna

Hello,

Here is another very easy way to renaturalize an area to what naturally grows there, at least in temperate climates. This was the method used at Woodside National Historic Site in Kitchener, Ontario by Parks Canada. A colleague (John Towndrow) described it to me. It's done in the fall of the year. 1. Place snow, or mesh fencing around the area you want to renaturalize. 2. When you rake the leaves, place them inside the snow/mesh fencing to a height of at least a foot; more is better. 3. Winter (rain, snow) and decomposition will then compress the leaves into a blanket, which will kill the grass beneath it. 4. The leaves will contain a variety of seeds from the existing (hopefully natural) forest around the area. 5. The seeds will sprout in the next spring. 6. Remove the snow/mesh fencing for use in another area to be naturalized next year.

Norm Ruttan

iWasteNot Systems
www.iwastenotsystems.com
1-800-630-7864

Neat approach...will definitely try that on my property. Thanks!