Want to get more out of your lawn mower? Check out all the things you can do in this fun video. Oh, and BTW, here is the link to that Disaster Shampoo article I mentioned… ouch, what a bad idea that was (in retrospect of course). But definitely, don’t do that at home! LOL.
Marjory Wildcraft is an Expedition Leader and Bioneer Blogger with The [Grow] Network, which is an online community that recognizes the wisdom of “homegrown food on every table.” Marjory has been featured as an expert on sustainable living by National Geographic, she is a speaker at Mother Earth News fairs, and is a returning guest on Coast to Coast AM. She is an author of several books, but is best known for her “Grow Your Own Groceries” video series, which is used by more than 300,000 homesteaders, survivalists, universities, and missionary organizations around the world.
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Please do not mow without shoes. Very dangerous and does not set a old example for those who watch your video. Like your site. Tom
Marjory,
Very good tips on Lawn Mower uses. For safety reasons when mowing grass you should always full shoes. Not sandals. Better protection for your feet. I just don’t want to see you get hurt…
James
thanks James.
will try to watch it again later for some reason the sound is not coming thru for me..other you tube vids as well as other sound based programs are coming thru fine..but no sound on your video..
Hi gina,
Most people can hear them just fine. We did recently discover that sound was only coming out of one side of the stereo system, so I wonder if you have the other side… Oh gosh, I am reaching into technical worlds I should probably best leave alone. LOL
Allowing the clippings to cure in a hot compost heap should kill any seeds. Sometimes surviving seeds will grow out of the heap and can be pulled before spreading the compost.
Better yet, get some goats, then you won’t need a lawnmower!
Please let me offer another idea or two.
Back when my father-in-law, Joe, was living in town on a large lot he pulled over all of the jack pine trees that were on the back three lots then since he worked for the city he had the guys that were picking up leaves dump four dump trucks of leaves in his yard.
We were living out in the country and I had a light weight wooden 4X8 trailer with two feet tall sides so I used my ramps to run my 16HP lawn tractor up into the trailer and dropped in the tailgate.
When I got there I unloaded the tractor and hooked the trailer to the tractor for Joe to use to get the leaves to the garden. He put down an eight inch layer of leaves then fired up a lawn mower he had gotten free off the garbage route. He had got it running great then he raised the wheels up all the way and took off the 26″ blade and put a 24″ one on the mower.
He mowed those leaves to chop them up. It did a great job. Then he tilled the shredded leaves in and did it all again. Then the next spring he did it one more time and planted. That soil was sand but he grew a great garden on it. Also off the “Route” he had brought home a LOT of plastic 5 gallon buckets. He cut the bottoms out of them and planted inside them all the plants like tomatoes and peppers. We fed Green drink to those buckets and along the rows of the other plants.
Green drink stuck like crazy because we were dipping buckets of it out of two sunken 55 gallon drums of water with grass clippings in them.
Oh nice use of available free resources.
Thanks for sharing
Guessing that by installing a shorter blade helped to decrease the chance of jamming up the mower.
That is a good point. The shorter blade for chopping up the sitcks would be helpful to keep from jamming things up.
He said it was to give the engine more power.
It could do more hogging through all those leaves if it had a shorter blade to turn.
I really wish I could do edits here. Green drink STUNK like crazy.
Carrying a five gallon bucket of that liquid Nitrogen and dipping out tin cans full to water along rows or in the buckets was tough for the first few minutes but I soon got used to it.
I really loved my father-in-law and I did anything I could do for him.
That first great garden was 1983 and I remember it well. Winter showed up later that year because on Christmas 1983 I was in a thin dress shirt picking tomatoes out of that garden and eating them right there. That means there had not been one single hard freeze yet.
It still was a real Michigan winter though because the last two weekends of January and the first two weekends of February we had major blizzards that shut everything down for each of those weekends.
Work all week and be snowed in all weekend four in a row was a lifetime memory event.
Well that one was too long so I will continue here.
If you happen to have an extra lawn mower with a good engine you can mate it, the engine that is, with that extra car alternator and a battery on your extra handcart. Best Battery charger there is.
There are a few other details to work out but I am sure with a little checking around you can do it.
Wear shoes/boots when using dangerous cutting things. Also long pants would be good. Protection from the blades but also stuff, wires, glass, rocks that can be thrown out.
Safety first, especially if it’s grid down 🙂
no cats were harmed in this video, they don’t have shoes ever.. love JON in MD.
no cats harmed, but definitely annoyed…
Incorporating good safety practices is worth the effort. This whole survival thing does not work so well when you become one of the unfortunate statistics of poor decision making. Note I like to farm barefooted too … But/and PPE gets used with power tools.
Couple extras I’ll throw in:
After cutting up tree trimmings into firewood and kindling material, I remove all pieces much greater than 1/2″ thick, make long 8″ tall rows and then chop the material with the mower. Be careful of potential pieces kicked out at high speed.
Mulch all autumn leaves &/or use side discharge to gather leaves into the center of yard. Yes, you can use the bag if you’re patient enough to empty it many times.
Hi JJM,
If I were chopping up small sticks, yup, I would wear better shoes then! LOL
Living on a relatively small suburban lot, I made the decision last year to mothball my gas-powered lawn mower in favor of a reel-style one. I found it didn’t take me much longer to cut my grass than when I used the gas-powered mower and it was a much more enjoyable — and quieter — experience. I keep it around though for when I want to bag up clippings to add green matter for use in my compost bin, or to chop up leaves. And last year I also bagged up my leaves at the end of the season instead of putting them at the curb for pickup so that I will always have brown matter on hand to compost as well.
I’m slowly reducing the amount of lawn I have as it is. I’ve doubled the size of my vegetable garden this year and am adding more fruit trees and shrubs to create more of an edible landscape. Videos by you, Geoff Lawton, and others are great source of inspiration for adopting a permaculture management style. Thank you!
Rich
P.S. I’m not sure who all these people are who are cutting their toes off while mowing the lawn, but I wear sandals too when cutting the grass! 🙂
Hi Rich,
Nice work on the conversion from lawn to food.
I wonder what everyone will think when I show how I cut grass with a scythe barefoot?
Funny you should mention that. I’ve found I get a lot more bulk and better mulch effect if I cut with the scythe and compost in place. There is a little bit of a steep curve learning to use and maintain one though.
A scythe is no danger to your feet, unlike a power mower.
Hi Fred, oh yes! I want to get better with scything. I would really like to get some instruction – I use mine mostly for getting rabbit feed in the mornings I have time for it. So enjoyable – no noise.
I do think a zero point turn mower would be fun too though. 🙂
I’m sorry, but getting my toes into “God’s Green Earth” is what I live for. I know what’s in my yard, and “Tickle my toes” in it all the time. Now, if I am doing something a bit different, like mowing sticks, Yep, I have shoes on. I’m not crazy. However, my toes need that little bit of grass I have, and they love me for I make them feel in the yard.
Of course, I’m older than dirt, and I do remember when no one ever wore shoes if it was summertime, including our parents, but we do have to be a lot more careful today.
Now that my children are grown and don’t “live” in the yard anymore, I can walk without any worries, and man, is it ever good to be able to do that again.
Oh, and now I can also sit in the garden with the sprinkler on and play in the weeds while I pick them. I only wish more had the time to do the same. Kinda fun trying to get into the house without getting mud all over the place. Oh well, that’s why I’m going to build a mud room, or did I tell you that already?
Become 12 years old again, you will love it.
For years I have used a grass catcher on my mower to catch the clippings and put them in my compost pile. I only catch every other mowing, leaving some nutrients for the lawn, but what I do catch gives me almost a ton of compost for my garden every year. Because of this, I know exactly what is going into my garden.
Great tips, especially for those who TRASH/WASTE their clippings.
Only time I bag the cuttings is to use as Mulch or Compost material. I probably would bag also if I was mowing where a bunch of weeds had gone to seed.
Never paid attention to the Mowed vs Un-Mowed. Will need to see when I escape the suburbs.
Love your Comment! I’m ready to retire and do what you do all day!! 🙂
Marjory – please wear suitable footwear when using lawnmower…
I like to let my grass clippings lay for a couple of days and let the sun turn them brown. Then I am fortunate that a friend gave me a Sears lawn sweeper that I pull behind my riding mower. I dump the clippings where I need them. In fall, I mulch leaves with a mulching mower and sweep them up.
Good info. But you really shouldn’t be mowing barefoot. My husband lost his big toe that way.
Since safety should be paramount when using power tools and equipment, would you please wear shoes when operating your lawnmower? Others seeing your video may think it is okay to mow bare footed. Do the lawn clippings keep the moisture in and the weeds out of the garden?
I brought my teen boys to a Farm Safety class at our local Extension office, and boy, did I learn respect for machinery! Augers, blades, and other moving parts spin so fast that your body part is cut off before you can begin to react. In addition to the leather boots, tie up hair and loose clothing,and wear jeans, long-sleeve cotton shirts, and gloves. Also, if you can’t talk to someone in your normal voice volume, the machinery is damaging your hearing–use ear protectors. This class was taught by a university professor whose job was to investigate every fatal farm accident in our state and it was pretty sobering. No one expects accidents to happen, but most would be so easily prevented. You are working so hard to save money– a trip to the ER can put you back for years or life, so be safe!