What's In Your Shed: The Surprising Truth About Gas Mowers - They're Worse Than Your Car

It's spring! Which means every weekend, and sometimes on weekdays, we hear the sounds of lawn mowers, weed trimmers, leaf blowers and other yard tools. On top of hearing them... we also smell them.

Oh, I'm not talking about the smell of fresh mown grass which is actually quite pleasant, unless you have allergies, in which case, it might make you a bit twitchy.

No, I'm talking about the smell of gasoline exhaust. Even though we live in a semi-urban area with moderate sized properties (8000 sq ft), an appalling number of people still have gasoline powered lawn mowers. Not only are they stinky, they are also really noisy... and as I listen to the neighbour trying to get theirs working after its winter hiatus... I wonder... why? And what cost?

We sit in the middle of three houses that run the gamut of lawn mowing equipment. From battery to electric to gasoline-powered.

Battery Lawnmower

Downslope from us is Lindy who uses a battery operated lawn mower. State of the art and super quiet. She just plugs it in to a wall outlet to charge. There are no cords, no fuss, no muss. There's also not a lot of oomph. Lindy laments that she can only do about 30 minutes at a time before the battery loses power and she needs to plug it in again. That's usually enough time for her to finish the front lawn, but not the back lawn. That's the thing with battery-powered tools, they often lack oomph and their battery drains leaving you with an anemic lawnmower that can barely do anything.

Corded Electric Lawnmower

We, on the other hand, have an electric lawn mower, a Black & Decker, I think. We got it second-hand for $40 and it's been great. It has a height adjustment lever... one lever raises and lowers all 4 wheels. Nice! It has decent power although if the grass is long and shaggy, I have to raise the mower or risk it choking. You have to coddle electric mowers a bit... they don't have as much oomph as a gas-powered mower. And if you're not paying attention and try to plough through a long, dense patch of grass and don't listen to the mower and adjust accordingly... you will trip the breaker. We had that happen with the guy who does our house cleaning. He does yard work as well but had obviously never used an electric mower and... tried to push through and... tripped the breaker. The other thing you have to watch out for is the power cord... don't mow over that or your lawn mowing adventure will come to an abrupt end.

Gas Lawnmower

Then we have our upslope neighbours who have an old gasoline-powered lawnmower. It is old. It is super noisy. It stinks the whole neighbourhood up with the fumes. And every few times, they have to tinker with it to get it going. I had a friend who had a gas mower... her shed stank of gasoline and the wooden floor was stained with gasoline and oils spills. Yuck.

Obviously, the gas powered mower is not great for the environment... but I had no idea how bad...

Impact of Gas-Powered Lawn Equipment

The problem lies in the type of engine within these devices - two stroke and four stroke engines. Two stroke engines do not have a separate lubrication system so gasoline and oil are mixed. This means that 30% of the fuel does not combust completely, releasing toxic fumes into the air. Four-stroke engines are slightly better but not great.

For example, let's consider a two stroke scooter, which you might think is eco-friendly because it hardly uses an gas. A 2014 study of VOC (harmful gases) found that emissions were 124 times HIGHER with an idling scooter than with a car or truck.

Oh, and a four stroke gasoline powered lawnmower emits the same amount of emissions as a vehicle travelling 800 kilometres. 

A consumer grade gasoline powered leaf blower emits more hydrocarbons than a truck or sedan.

An EPA study in the USA found that gasoline powered lawnmowers produce 5% of total air pollution in the USA.

From APCD of Kentucky (Air Pollution Control District)
based on EPA data

And let's not talk about fuel spills when refilling a gas-powered lawn mower. This can release toxic compounds into the air and seep into the soil and ground water.

Oh, and then there is noise pollution. Most gas lawnmowers, particularly older models run at 95-100 decibels (db). Irreparable hearing damage can start at just 85 db with repeated or prolonged exposure. Electric mowers? They run at 75 db. You can listen to that all day and be fine. Gas powered mower or weed trimmer?

Solutions

 If you want to reduce your carbon footprint... and don't have the budget for an electric vehicle... don't worry... you can get huge bang for your buck by switching from a gas-powered lawnmower to an electric one! If you can't go big... don't go home... go small!

You could also, of course, get a reel lawnmower... one of those push mowers. A neighbour 2 houses up from us had one of those and... used it once and then it sat in the front yard and quietly rusted. I'm going to guess it was not a success. If you have a tiny patch of lawn then a push-reel mower might be the thing for you.

Take a look in your shed... can your gas-powered anything be replaced with an electric version? The electric version might cost more initially but over time... with gasoline costs going up and up... you'll make your money back. Or buy a second-hand electric mower and save even more! Or a weed trimmer... or a leaf blower... or a snow blower... or a chainsaw.

On top of that many municipalities are moving to ban gas-powered lawn equipment... so if you still have a fume-belching, gas-guzzling lawn dinosaur... it's days might be numbered...

Oh... and that cute little Italian Vespa scooter that is going to solve your commuting woes? Remember... two-stroke and four-stroke engines... put out more emissions than a car... The Italian city of Genoa, birthplace of the Vespa moved to ban the little things back in 2019... and other European cities have followed suite... mostly banning older models. But the writing is one the wall.

This is one of those times where you don't want "vintage", no matter how cool and retro it looks. Function (poor emissions quality) trumps Form (cute look).

Grow Food not Grass

When we bought our house seven years ago, the back yard was a blank slate. There was a lot of grass and not much else. A couple of fruit trees, a shed with some grape vines, and some neglected flower beds.

How times have changed... We started with one raised bed built during our first summer and that has expanded each year.

This year's project is to install some squash beds along the south-facing side of the house. That side gets great sunshine during the summer and gets very hot with sun and heat reflecting off the stucco siding. Perfect for heat-loving squash and zucchini.

We don't even have to deal with the sod in that area as the ground was torn up and redeposited during perimeter drain excavation work. We already knew, but learned again, how insanely rocky the underlying soil is - glacial till at its finest. We will never have a shortage of rocks in our yard... Just choose a spot, dig down more than 2 inches and start excavating... We have done a lot of digging in our yard as we have planted various shrubs, grasses, and removed the lawn to build raised beds. It seems we are on point... at least in this area.

Replacing a lawn with a garden, be it flower or vegetable, is a growing trend. A lawn is not very eco-friendly on a number of fronts.

Before...

Lawns use an inordinate amount of water... and given that our summer dry season usually saddles us with water restrictions, lawns turn golden yellow in the summer. Mostly. There is always the older retired gentleman somewhere on the street who believes that a green lawn is a sign of good home ownership, status or something. Apparently lawns in the US require the most irrigation of any agricultural crop in the country...

My Dad was one of those older retired gentleman. When he lived in our basement suite, he could never understand why we didn't water the lawn and spread weed killer and moss killer all over it. I tried to get to the heart of what it was for him... something along the lines of "what will the neighbours think". I would hope that they'll think that we are eco-friendly rather than sloppy homeowners...

After...

Which leads me to my next point... weed and moss killer are biocides... they are poison and there have been more than enough studies to show that things like Round-Up are NOT good for humans... never mind bugs and birds and worms and other creatures that lived here long before we came along.

And the run off from the lawns... as they are watered... means the biocides end up in the streams and rivers where they continue to poison and kill.

There are of course, other options... like tearing out the grass and laying artificial turf. Although... there is a house near us where the front lawn is artificial and... it has weeds growing in it. Real weeds obviously. I'm not sure how that is even possible but it is... Mind you, the older, retired gentleman who lives there seems to be a Snow Bird who doesn't do a lot of yard work...

And then... one could also just paint the yellow lawn in the summer rather than watering it... it's a growing trend although seems rather... excessive. In our community, a yellow lawn in summer is a badge of honour...

Lawns are also a lot of work... even if all you do is mow them... they are a hassle. And let's not even talk about the weeding and feeding via various means. I go over the front lawn on my hands and knees a couple of times in the summer and stab out the worst dandelions and other weeds. It's easier during the dry season because the grass is golden and the weeds are still green which makes them super easy to spot... But all that crawling and stabbing is hard work... although very therapeutic...

A house in Quebec... before and after

We still have an almost unsullied front lawn although it is shrinking from the outside inwards. We added a little 2 foot wide strip of flower garden along the driveway, and then expanded the front of house garden bed by another 3 feet or so.

We have debated turning the front yard into a series of veggie beds but... we also suffer from a plague of deer all year round. And deer love nothing better than to sample each and every plant to see whether it is palatable. Most vegetables would be right up their alley...

Although... perhaps potatoes (leaves are toxic) or rhubarb (also toxic) would survive the deer buffet? We did try a few squash one year which seemed to do OK with their prickly stalks and leaves.

Mind you... raised beds are not all fun and games. Our dry summers mean that watering the veggie beds can be an onerous task. Most vegetables benefit from low and slow watering but in the summer we are limited to hand watering... which means most beds get heavy and fast watering which doesn't benefit things like carrots. We've tried them and they are super fat at the surface, a good inch in diameter but... only an inch long. It's the watering thing... heavy and fast means only the top laywer of soil gets watered. We need low and slow... Our goal is to get an irrigation system for each of the raised beds but other priorities have... well... taken priority. Perhaps this year it will actually happen given the enforced stay-at-home-as-much-as-possible orders. Which show no signs of easing as I write this (April 1).