A gardener and automatic sprinklers make lawn maintenance a snap. I don’t have to remember to water the lawn. When the lawn needs a hair cut, someone comes by every week or every other week to give it a trim and clean-up all the cut grass and dead leaves hanging about. In fact, maintaining a lawn looks a little too easy until I had to write a check to the gardener and another one to the water company. Then, I realized that low maintenance doesn’t mean low cost.

So, in a bid to tighten the belt a little, I tried cutting the grass myself. Trying to make the “environmental” choice, I started off with a manual push reel mower. Lured by the promise of low maintenance and “free” exercise, I jumped at this opportunity. I now realize the error of my ways. I did not find a manual mower to be difficult or slow to operate. I probably could cut grass with a manual mower as fast as I could with a powered mower. However, where the manual mower failed was when it was time to clean-up the mess. It takes quite some time and effort to rake up all the clipped grass. In fact, the clean-up takes longer than cutting the grass itself. I could never get the rear attachment to work properly and catch the clipped grass. So, I will be continuing my lawn experiment, but will be looking at an electric mower.