Push Mowers are Heaven!

Lazy Gnome loves her lawn mower. Now, she doesn’t often get all excited about a tool, let alone a gardening tool because being a tool, by definition, it represents work. And, as we know, Lazy Gnome is all about not doing work. However, if a tool can make a necessary chore more pleasant, that is a good thing[*].

This particular lawn mower is a Gardena 380C, a lovely wee push mower. It is LG’s first push mower but not her first tool for cutting the lawn.

This is push mower has so many advantages over the electric or gas-powered alternatives. First, it is quiet so you can safely cut the lawn without worrying about ruining your neighbour’s attempts at entertaining. Second, it is very light making it easy to manoeuvre and in LG’s case, take up and down the stairs as it currently lives in the basement. Thirdly, there are hardly any moving parts and what there are, you can see all at once—no mysteries! Fourth: no bagging. Okay, this is a choice but given the operation of this mower, bagging is not a necessity for safety because the blades can’t get moving fast enough to fling projectiles into anyone’s eyes. And no doubt there are other ways to sign its praises.

Others may find they prefer the power and likely increased speed of the actual mowing action of an electric or gas powered mower. However, the Gardena 380C involves no usage of electricity (so no charging or power cords to deal with) or messing around with gas. (LG’s last mower was a 2-stroke engine that involved mixing oil into the gas. Yikes and yucky!!)

While the push mower is very light to use, a person can still get a bit of a work out taking it around the yard. All the energy in its operation is from the energy burned by the user. And burning calories really is the only redeeming reason to sweat. Sweat = less guilt while drinking Mojitos. This is important: LG’s weekly usage of the 2-stroke monster drove her to drink. She would take an entire evening to do the lawn—to start, it was 45 minutes of edging by dragging two 30-feet electrical cords around tree trunks, under shrubs and around the corner property to operate a $2.00 garage sale weed whacker before she could even pull the mower out. And the bagging—the endless hoisting of the mower bag over her shoulder to carry it over to the contraption set up to ease the operation of dumping the clippings into the black garbage bag, so pleasant a task in itself. Then, every night after all this, she had a beer. Once week all summer over 10 years can build a bad habit: Pavlov would have been proud. It got to the point where even the smell of freshly cut lawn would trigger the beer reflex.

So, here at the “new” house, LG has been fighting that impulse so far with some success. Given that one tactic is to divide the lawn care over several days or evenings, this is a good fight because that could mean a beer every day at this pace!! So, LG owes even her current sobriety to the Gardena 380C...

*Unfortunately, there are some who disagree with LG’s understanding of pleasant activity in relation to cutting the lawn. For instance, the June 2010 issue of Family History Monthly magazine has an essay called “Products that Changed the World: Turf Trimmers” about the evolution of contraptions meant to address a fad that arose from the 1700’s, in which “[a] well-cultivated lawn became a status symbol.” They conclude with this: “With their manpowered equipment, our ancestors found lawn mowing a heavy, tiresome chore. Today, the task has been greatly improved with lightweight, electric-powered hover or petrol-driven machines. Thank goodness for progress and the development of these grass-guillotining gadgets!” Well, they are entitled to their opinion. However, it might be pointed out that the alliteration in the final phrase packs extra punch as the opening paragraph blames the initial fashion for formal lawns on the French...a-hem.

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A bad workman blames his tools~~ Proverb
A bad excuse is better than none~~Another Proverb