Eco-friendly Lawn Keeping

Materials:

• Push Mower (You can buy these at home depot almost any time)
• Hedge Clipers (Not the huge kind, the ones that are one handed)
• Push Edger (Also at home depot. I have one that you push to spin a blade, which then cuts the grass, but one that you push down on will also work)
• Rake (To spread grass clippings)
• Broom (To keep your sidewalk looking nice and neat)
• Time (If you want your lawn to look nice, It’s going to take a bit of time either way)

Step 1: Mowing

Let your grass get a little longer than you would normally get it, and then go over the entire thing with your push mower. It might be a little hard, because the grass is pretty long, but don’t worry. Once you have done that, go over it again in the opposite dirrection (Ex: if you went up and down first, then do left to right). Continue switching dirrections until the grass clippings are mulched.

Step 2: Edging

You are going to want to edge all the way around your sidewalk. It might be a little hard, but it will get easier the more often you do it. This is especially hard if you live on a hill where the dirt slides down towards the sidewalk, but it will get easier after a few weeks of mowing. Once you have gone all the way around your sidewalk, then do the rest of the edges with the hedge clippers (Like around the edge of your house). Now, all of the edges all the way around your lawn should be clipped and trimmed.

Step 3: Sweeping

Sweep up all of the stuff that fell on your sidewalk into a pile, and then start tossing that pile into the yard. When there isn’t enough stuff to throw, just spread it out and sweep it into the yard. You might want gloves for this, depending on the quality of the soil in your area (You don’t want to give yourself mercury poisoning!)

Step 4: Raking

Remeber that pile of stuff from the sidewalk? Well, now you have to rake it all around your yard to spread it out. If you want to go over it after you spread it out again with your push mower (to mulch it), that would be even better, but it’s not required. Then rake around the edges where you used the hedge clippers (There should be some pretty long grass clippings where you cut). Once you have raked your entire yard, and there are no piles of grass, you are done raking.

Step 5: Tidy up

After all of that, you probably got some more grass on your sidewalk. This is the time where you can clean up anything that fell out of place. After that, You are done!

Side Notes:

• You should do this every week or so durring the spring, and twice a week durring the summer.
• You shouldn’t need to water your lawn. If you do, then you probably got a bad type of grass for your area. 

Benefits:

• You don’t use any gas
• You don’t use any electricity
• It saves money on bills
• You don’t need to fertilize it
• You can save water
• It gives you a good work out!

Once you are done, sit back and relax and watch as all of your neighbors envy your lush, perfectly green grass!Have fun!