old fashion push mower and edger
 

Since our lot is small (but beautiful ;) ) my plan is to buy an "old fashion and quiet push mower and edger. Am I out of my mind? If not, does anyone know of a good brand?

Thanks.

Mowing
 

If you have never tried to mow a Florida lawn with a hand mower you might want to reconsider a push mower. This is not ordinary grass you will be dealing with. Buy a self propelled mower or mowing by hand in the summer heat will not be a pleasant experience. It's bad enough with a self propelled mower. We tried 20 years ago when we moved to south Florida and it just doesn't work!

Gasoline alternative mowing and edging
 

we've used those for years and they are great
even replaced the fork of a bicycle with one as a novelty

probably will not work on the stuff that grows here, unless you raise the blade height and keep it sharp

We p[refer high grass to the 'golf green' 'carpet' height we see too often anyway

I worked in a mower shop and sharpening a reel mower is an art
each blade has to be the same height all the way across, and there are five blades on average

best place to get one is eBay/craig's, Ocala4Sale, etc
the older the better Ball bearings, steel wheels with serrated 'tires'

Manual edgers are fine- they will cut pollutionas will what we have these days for our cottage home lawn:
a cordless electric
This is amazing, got it at Lowes (we prefer Ace and Lowes over 'the other place'
one charge does a lawn and a half

Again, we run the height up almost all the way

Yes it's SELF PROPELLED
YOU propel it yourSELF

remember, small mowers pollute worse than the cars in a typical Villages block
http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com...nvironment.htm



we do the lawn in place of a bicycle ride and make an exercise out of it

L and L

I have a courtyard villa with a large backyard that was bark and stone. We decided to install some grass (zoysia) so I went to Home Depot and bought an old fashioned reel mower - human powered. I like it so far - not a lot of work. Cost $129 but no gas or oil or sparkplug and it runs every time.
I also bought a Worx lawn trimmer and edger off the internet - battery operated - cost $119 plus shipping.

We love the lawn and, even though it is a little extra work for me, the tradeoff was worth it.