Neighbours talking over the garden gate has long been a tradition. They share gardening tips, complain about the weather and pests yet are ever eager to discuss their gardens. That is what I had in mind when creating this blog. So stop by my garden gate to find out the latest happenings in my garden.
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child." ~ Madame Marie Curie"
Our New Mower
My husband has been looking for a mower solution for quite sometime. An electric mower was not a practical option for our last two rural properties. Gasoline fumes triggered respiratory problems so for a couple of years we hired a lawn cutting service. That had a lot of benefits especially when we were away. Two years ago we bought a very nice gas powered mower and while it did save us money it was not a good solution for reducing our carbon footprint or reducing respiratory problems. The reality is using a gas lawnmowers for one hour puts out the same amount of smog-forming emissions as 40 new automible do in an hour! My husband finally found the ideal solution - a cordless, electric self-propelled mower for the new house.
He bought the Epic cordless electric self-propelled mower on sale a few days after we accepted the offer for the sale of our home. This is a 19" full sized steel deck mower that uses the 24V Terra Phase Power System. There is no gas, no oil, and no emissions. According to the label we will save as much as $327 over the next 6 years in fuel and maintenance costs compared to a regular gas mower. The mower has a push button start and rear wheel drive. It mulches and there is a bagger (not pictured). I've used it twice now and the most impressive feature is the noise level. This is a very quiet mower! You can barely tell the mower is going so we have greatly reduced the noise pollution we create through lawn maintenance. The two batteries stay in the actual charger when the mower is not in use. They only go into the mower compartment during use. While we are currently charging the batteries using hydro, they can be charges via a solar panel and inverter. One charge is enought to cut 7,000 to 10,000 square feet. Our last property was 17,500 square feet so it would have taken two charges to cut the lawn but this lot is 11,500 square feet but buildings, gardens and pool reduce the square footage to under 10,000 square feet so we can cut the full lawn on one charge. We will store the batteries indoors for the winter.
With the purchase of this battery powered mower along with our battery powered trimmer/edger we have effectively eliminated the use of gasoline for any gardening equipment. We have greatly reduced our carbon footprint as well as lessened noise pollution we produce. I am rather pleased with this reduction!
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
Yardworks Cordless Grass Trimmer/Edger
Yards need weeding, trimming and edging even if you replace the grass with another ground cover. My husband bought a Yardworks cordless grass trimmer/edger just before we sold our previous house so I had the opportunity to test it on a larger rural lot. The beauty of this edger is it is battery powered. Using battery powered yard maintenance equipment makes a lot of sense when moving towards living off the grid. These devices can be charged using solar power and and inverter. Even if we never get entirely off the grid which is less of a possibility now that we are living in town, we can still set up solar panels to recharge our lawn maintenance equipment as well as my husband's battery powered tools. The removable battery sits just below the handle for easy removal to the charger.
This trimmer can easily be turned into an edger by adjusting the handle knob. I have to say that I am quite impressed with the performance! There are no extension cords to worry about damaging and no gasoline fumes to have to deal with. Unlike the gas powered trimmer, the battery powered one starts up with only a press of the button. There is no fussing with the spool of cutter line either as all you do is pop it into place then it is automatic from there. The battery lasts about 20 minutes which was more than sufficient to trim our larger rural property.
I've used it twice in our new urban location without a problem. As you can see we have a bricked drive so I even used it on edging mode to rid the cracks of weeds. The first time, the trimmer was used here it lasted over the twenty minutes and that's with a bit more trimming than normal given I was cleaning up the driveway. The nice thing about this battery powered trimmer/edger is I know it reduces our carbon footprint. It is an environmentally conscious product that doesn't contribute to air pollution and it is quieter than electric and gas powered trimmers so reduces noise pollution. That's always a good thing!
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
Garden Netting and Twine
Gardening can be as expensive or as frugal as you want to make it. Most serious home gardeners turn to starting their own seeds which is considerably less expensive than buying plant plugs and potted plants. At the same time there is a wide range of gardening supplies needed to help get the best yield possible. There are several sources for getting gardening supplies and equipment without breaking the bank.
Here are a few resources I use:
- dollar stores - Pictured are a few of my recent dollar store purchases, garden netting and twine that cost me $3.75. Dollar stores stock a lot of decorative gardening items but at the same time they also stock a lot of very useful gardening items such as pots, bird netting, hand tools, ties, twists, plant stakes, and so much more. It is surprising at what supplies you can get for as little as a couple of dollars.
- yard sales - Yard sales are ideal for picking up inexpensive used pots, planters, garden decor and occasionally potted plants.
- restaurants/doughnut shops - These are great resources for getting 5 gallon pails for your container garden. Some will give away the pails free while others charge a small fee of about $1.
- farm auctions - Quite often smaller garden tools can be found inexpensively at farm auctions.
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
YardMachines by MTD
May 3, 2010
Five years ago we moved away from cutting our own lawn to a yard service. This resulted in our lawn being neat and tidy looking even when we were away. Now if you have been following this blog you will know a lovely green carpet is not my idea of being eco-friendly. The problem is while gradually reducing the grass it still has to be maintained until it can be eliminated. So the lawn service fit the bill nicely. This spring as I was going through my normal '
where can we be a bit more frugal' spring cleaning, the lawn service became one of my targets.
The lawn service was costing us $650 per year but they did all the cutting, trimming and bagging. Several times they cut the lawn when we were away even though it didn't need it and shorter than it should have been especially in the summer. The real problem was the bottom line was the lawn service was adding to our carbon footprint not decreasing it. Most times there were 3 people during a cutting session with 2 mowing and one trimming. They drove to get to our house then drove to the dump's compost pile to unload clippings then drove home. That's a lot of carbon going into the atmosphere! At the same time one of our kids volunteered to cut the lawn while we were away so our house will be watched on a regular basis with lawn cut all for a bit of food from the pantry and freezers plus the use of our outdoor grill.
We bought a YardMachines by MTD from Home Hardware at a total cost of $316.37 that will give us a net savings this year of $339.68 followed by $650 each year after that. The mower has a 139cc MTD PowerMore OHV engine designed to run more efficiently and produce fewer emissions than the standard L-head engines. It has a 21" deck with 8" wheels and 9 position individual height adjustment. It is also a mulcher or we can bag the clippings and is front wheel drive self propelled.
My husband is looking at the new mower as his new
get into shape equipment so that was a rather pleasant turn of events! We really are looking forward to keeping our lawn the way we want it, not too short. It's surprising how much both of us missed doing our own lawn care too but that could be due to a lot of the ripping out here finally being done. Now we can start focusing on lawn reduction strategies!
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
