Oh you got rain Xringer!? Still none for us. My lawn is brown where there is still living grass. I made a pass with the reel mower the other day and that's all I've done to it in over 30 days. The only thing that has grown are the weeds and even they have stopped growing now. My mother has a grass whip for me but it's about 80 miles away (in Maynard of all places NeilBlanchard!) so the weeds will have to stay as they are for a while yet. The reel mower just passes right over them. I have found if I get up a little momentum, enough to keep the reel spinning, lift up one side and rest it over a weed it will suck it up. I'm not going to bother with that for a hundred or so weeds but one here and there is fine. This kind of drought happens in MA most years, at least for a little while. I have acute memories of cutting lawns with 3 blade 56" deck mowers in times like these and basically all that would come out of the chute was a massive cloud of dust. I started off taking my bandanna from my head and putting it over my mouth and nose. Eventually I moved to keeping it on my head and just wearing a dust mask. Those days are gone! The Reel mower doesn't suck up dry earth and make it airborne. It also doesn't atomize garbage that isn't biodegradable. Now I have to be responsible and rake/pick up that trash.
I don't think I'm going back to a gas mower ever again. Personally I don't care what my lawn looks like. If it wasn't so much work I'd tear it up and plant clover. If it gets too long here and there and the reel mower can't cope for a little while, so be it. I imagine that if you have a chemlawn though it's a different matter and you'd have to cut it 2 - 3 time a week which would bite. But then again, the sort of person with a chemlawn probably doesn't cut their own lawn much less use a reel mower.
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