Reel mower

Its been so busy in the garden lately that I haven't had a chance to post or take pictures. I had company for a while and then had to put in all the plants that waited out the late frosts in the garage. I may have lost a fern but all of the remaining plants seem to be doing well. Of course the real test will be to see if they show up next year!

In between planting and weeding I'm trying to stay on top of the rapid lawn growth. I can't wait until its all gone but that will be a few years. This year I hope to remove the center concrete path and dig up all the grass in the back yard, except for the pathways. The sods will be used to build a low berm with two "peaks" and a flagstone path through a shallow valley. That will give the flat yard some interest and allow me to plant more of those alpine plants I love.

Since the lawn square footage is decreasing all the time I'm finding the electric lawn mower harder and harder to use so I have been planning to replace it with a reel mower. Maybe I should call it a push mower because every time I say "reel mower" I get a look that says, "yes, mine is real too". :-) Canadian Tire has a sale on so I got a 14" Yardworks model. The size is perfect but I think the handle might be a bit flimsy. I really haven't put it to a fair test though because the grass was far longer than this type of mover is designed to handle. I will try it again next weekend and I'll bet it will handle a week's worth of growth better than the 6-8" I made it chew through last night.