Green Lawns That Really Are: LEHR, Brill and Eco-Lawn
Got lawn? You might want to rethink how you care for it. Putting water issues aside (as if), each year Americans use 800 millions of gasoline to groom their lawns.
And according to the EPA, 17 million gallons of that fuel gets spilled while we’ll filling our gas-guzzling lawn equipment.
Whoops.
Plus, mowers and blowers create noise pollution, emit tons of hydrocarbons and stink up the air with noxious fumes.
Ick.
Obviously, landscaping is better off xeriscaped, but for some of us (especially those with kids), having a lawn is a fact of life. And although the ever-so-trustworthy EPA says it’s safe, once we found out about lead dust leaking from old astroturf and carcinogens seeping from the ground-up tires that cushion the newer artificial turfs, we quickly crossed the fake lawn option off of our lists.
So what’s a turf-loving ecoista to do?
Try Eco-Lawn, an environmentally superior alternative to traditional suburban turf, from Wildflower Farm. Once it’s established, this drought-tolerant, slow-growing, proprietary blend of fine fescue grasses—which can be left to grow meadow-like and wild as pictured above, or close-cropped like a traditional lawn—only needs to be watered or mowed once a month—which can save the average family about 75% on water usage and costs. Plus, it grows in sandy soils, loam and even compact clay, with full sun, part shade or deep shade. And it needs no weeding (bye-bye chemical herbicides and their associated threat to reproductive and developmental health) nor fertilizing (sayonara nasty nitric acid, sulfuric acid and ammonia) to achieve a deep green color even that the most discerning lawn lover can appreciate.
On the rare occasion that you have to mow said Eco-Lawn, try a good, old-fashioned, hand-pushed reel mower—without fuel, fumes, blisters or heat exhaustion of yore. The Cadillac (or shall we say Lexus hybrid) of reel mowers is EcoMowers’ new Brill RazorCut 38, which, at 17 pounds, weighs little more than your average yoga bag. (As pictured on our home page, the mower is being pushed by a kid who probably only weighs twice that.) With its ergonomic handles and flame-hardened steel blades, the RazorCut 38 is one sleek, easy-to-handle machine. And with its solvent-free, powder-coated surface and mulching action (unlike a typical rotary mower, a reel mower deposits a fine blanket of organic matter over the lawn which helps grass retain moisture and acts as a natural fertilizer), the RazorCut 38 is not just good for your lawn, it’s good for green all over. Plus EcoMowers has a mower recycling program so you can get rid of your guzzler without adding it to the landfill.
It you’ve still gotta get a gadget, the propane-powered Eco Trimmer from LEHR, is the first hand-held, four-cycle trimmer to use a standard 16.4-ounce propane canister instead of gasoline as its fuel source. That means that while we’re tidying up our flowerbeds and whacking our weeds, we’re emitting zero ozone-depleting hydrocarbons, 99% fewer particulates and 96% fewer carcinogens than if we were using our old gas-powered trimmer. Naturally, we also like not having to get our hands dirty mixing gas and oil. As for eco cred, the LEHR Eco Trimmer exceeds the EPA’s 2011 emission standards, and recently won an EPA Clean Air Excellence Award.
And, according to EcoMowers, you can burn 408 calories an hour while mowing and gardening. Bonus!
Got seed? Now through October 31st, get 20% off on Eco-Lawn at Wildflowerfarm.com with “es7909” at checkout.
