{"id":112,"date":"2007-05-04T03:35:18","date_gmt":"2007-05-04T03:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/cutting-the-grass\/"},"modified":"2017-09-05T17:56:02","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T21:56:02","slug":"cutting-the-grass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/cutting-the-grass\/","title":{"rendered":"Cutting the grass"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been born and raised in the land of suburbs. <\/p>\n

And that meant yard work. Pulling weeds, getting 25 cents a trash bag full. Cutting the grass. Putting mulch everywhere. My dad was proud of our lawn. I think since he never had one as a child, he worked extremely hard at it, and he made sure we worked on it too.\"cuttingThe one task I hated more than anything else was starting the lawnmower. This was before easy-start engines. I would crank and crank on that cord and nothing \twould happen. And what was really bad was that I did not understand anything about engines. Choke and throttle meant nothing to me. I would just pull on that cord until I couldn’t anymore. I would give up and had my dad start it. Which he could do within two pulls. (Did I mention I was short and fat?)<\/p>\n

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So now I have my own yard. And I cut it myself. But I gave up on the whole two stroke engine lawnmower. For a while I had a battery charged lawnmower. But it did not have quite enough charge to make it the whole way through the yard. It would take me two days, especially on those weeks where I was a few days late.<\/p>\n

Now I have an electric lawnmower that does not have a battery, but instead has a really long extension cord. It is lighter than the battery charged one. Quieter than any gas powered engine. And I never have to have a can of gas in my garage. I always felt good about doing this small part for the environment. And now I have found something else I can do as well.<\/p>\n

I am letting the grass grow higher. I now use the highest cutting setting on the lawnmower. And there are extra great benefits. And no, I still have to cut the grass just as often.<\/p>\n

  • I will use less water. Because there is more grass, it is less stressed and needs less water. When the grass is shorter, the leaves have to work harder to get the same energy from the sun in photosynthesis. And when it does rain, the grass holds more of the water reducing run-off.<\/li>\n
  • I will have less weeds. Because the grass is healthier and gets thicker, there are fewer places for weeds to get in and once they get in, they don’t get enough sun to grow.<\/li>\n
  • I will need less fertilizer. Because the grass is not working so hard to grow back to a sun gaining size, it uses less fertilizer.<\/li>\n
  • And it just looks better. There is more green since there is more grass.<\/li>\n

    Yes, this is a simple thing to do. But it is the simple, easy things that will save us. <\/p>\n

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