Today’s post is by guest Lisa who writes at Privilege.

Lawn mowers might be one of the most passionately discussed topics in the United States. First and second place may go to politics and religion, but try bringing up the subject of mowers at your next gathering. You may have to step back and let the sparks fly.

Some people love ride-on gas models. Sort of like the vintage car aficionados appreciation for the power of a ‘56 Thunderbird. Others argue for the minimalist push mower. But I tell you, in the pantheon of good design, there’s nothing, nothing, like a cordless electric lawn mower with a removable battery.

Pictured above is my battery powered lawn mower, poetically named the Black and Decker CM1936. I love it. I  bought my cordless lawn mower from Amazon.com, where folks give it great reviews. Impassioned, almost. The only other home goods I love as much as this mower are beautiful and impractical. I’m thinking granite counter-tops, slate tile, and antique Federalist hall mirrors.

Let me show you what it does. This is my lawn before mowing.

This is my lawn after cutting with my cordless lawn mower.

One might almost think that the sun came out and flowers bloomed as a result of my lawn grooming. I admit, that’s just an accident of Northern California morning fog.

So, should you be a sensible person who is only convinced by real data, herewith the Top Eleven Reasons To Buy A Cordless Electric Lawn Mower Like Mine.

1. There’s a recession on. Few of us have extra money to hire gardeners.
2. Gas mowers? There’s a limit to what the earth can sustain. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, emissions produced by gasoline powered motors are responsible for about 5 percent of the nation’s air pollution yearly.* The Department of the Interior’s Green Seal Program estimates that electric mowers emit 3,300 times fewer hydrocarbons, 5,000 times less carbon monoxide, one-fifth as much nitrogen oxide, and less than half the carbon dioxide as gas engines.**
3. Push mowers? There’s a limit to what aging bodies can do. I used to have a push mower. But I can’t push the darn thing up the little slope of my lawn any more.
4. This Black and Decker mower is on sale on Amazon for $398.54 down from $399. OK, so that’s not really a good reason. But compared to using a gardener, you can pay this purchase off in a matter of months. Compared to a gas mower, it might take a year.*** But it’ll be a nice year.
5. Electric mowers with cords may be even more environmentally sound, but you will find the cord to be So. Annoying. that you will never use yours. That’s truly environmentally unsound.
6. You can store the battery for this baby in the garage, plugged in, and then just carry it over to your mower when you’re ready to mow. Not too heavy, even for us midlife types.
7. The mower handle adjusts easily for comfort.
8. Stanley Black & Decker is a well-run American company with years of tradition on its side. I can’t guarantee that buying this lawn mower will help the US remain competitive, but you never know.
9. The wheel height adjusts easily so you can have exactly the lawn height you want. If that matters to you.
10. Electric mowers are quiet. Electric mowers do not smell bad. That’s two reasons for the price of one.
11. Because of reasons 5, 6, 8 & 9 you will mow your lawn more frequently, thereby ceasing to annoy your neighbors with unruly herbiage. Once I got a ticket for having weeds of a “downy and noxious habit” in my front lawn. No, I am not kidding.

I wish you all happy, quiet, environmentally-sound, economical-over-the-long-haul mowing. And the joy of owning something useful, aesthetically pleasing, and green.

*Via Garden Guides.
**Via Sea Coast Online.
***”Financially speaking, an electric mower makes common sense. They generally cost about half the price of a gas mower. Cordless models can run a bit more, but have an added advantage of no cord to watch over. The savings continue. An electric mower costs around $3 to $5 dollars to power for a year of use. Filling the gas tank just once on a traditional mower can easily cost that much. Over the expected lifetime of the mower, the savings become significant.” Via Helium.

Lisa writes the blog, Privilege, about style, some anxiety, the raptures of living and, sometimes, gardening. Visit Lisa’s most recent gardening post on cottage gardens.

Related posts:

1. Weekly Earth News 05/12/09
2. Nine Reasons to Nature Garden

Squirrel Dexterity Demonstration by Tomi Tapio

What do you want? I’m very curious to know.

This blog is about you and what you want from your garden: that little, or large, growing space around, outside, and inside your home.

So Many Gardening Possibilities

Do you ever wonder what to plant? There are so many wonderful possibilities for your garden and only so much space! Still, it’s quite amazing what you can fit into even a small garden when you get down to it, once you learn a few basics. Do you know the basics yet? Is that something you need help with?

Coming up at Loving Nature’s Garden

Here are some articles which you’ve asked for and others I have planned. I want to know what you think. Which sounds like something you’d love? I’ll be working on your favorites first.

Summer planting – a request from Manal. I’ll be writing about that before the end of July. Get ready to learn how to grow fall crops.

Fall planting - a request from Katie. Katie is too busy to get planting right now and she asked me what she can plant in the fall. So I’m planning a little gardening experiment – some indoor growing. I hope you’ll want to take part.

Healing Foods. Did you know that tomatoes could lower your blood pressure, or that potatoes can help prevent osteoporosis in your bones? There’s a fabulous book I recently came across which is all about the health benefits of lots of different fruits and veggies. Is this something you want to know about? Would you like links to recipes for using your health-giving garden produce?

Rain garden update. Rain gardens may seem complicated, but they can bring you benefits and great joy. I’m committed to sharing what I’m learning, Hopefully there will be some hummingbirds to report soon. Maybe some butterflies too. Maybe you’ll want to know how to get started with your very own rain garden. Would you like plans? What do you need?

Nature and gardening books. Publishers are keen for you to learn about their nature and gardening books and there are a few already in the review stack for you to learn about. Among them, some great nature books for kids and a book for anyone who would like to build a home among nature. Have you seen a book you’d like to know more about? Just ask.

Bringing You the Best in Gardening

As a garden writer sharing information, there are just a HUGE number of options. I want to bring you the very best in inspiration to keep you planting and growing, or if you’re not yet started, to get your fingers in the dirt. But I need to hear from you. Tell me what you want. If you ask for something I don’t know about I’ll find someone who does.

What do you say? What do you want from your garden? How can I help? Let’s brainstorm together. Let’s grow more green in our gardens.

Related posts:

1. Rain Gardening in the South

Leek Flower, June 2010

syn·er·gy (snr-j)n. pl. syn·er·gies – the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

No plant is an island. What an amazing thing! When nature combines plants and animals in a natural ecosystem suddenly overall productivity is increased.

Nature Knows Best

In nature you don’t find fields of annuals. Annuals indicate that nature has been disturbed. Neither will you find a solitary oak tree growing all by itself on a barren plain. It just wouldn’t be natural. Rather, an oak tree nourishes caterpillars which birds feed on. And under oak trees belong understory trees and shrubs and carpets of perennial flowering plants. Some of the plants bring up nutrients from deeper soil levels, some attract pollinating insects, and yet others fix nitrogen from the air. And the fallen oak leaves and branches are food and homes for organisms which break down natural waste and recycle them.

Synergy in the Food Garden

But natural synergy isn’t just about native plant gardening. There are ways to combine herbs, fruit trees, bushes, and vegetable growing which lead to higher yields in your garden. Take for example the corn, bean, and squash guild – something the Native Americans knew all about before Columbus arrived. Plant guilds are more complex, and altogether more powerful, than companion planting. For now all you need to know is that natural synergy exists; I’m going to wait to bring you tips another day.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

But synergy doesn’t stop in the garden. Isn’t it true that when we talk and learn about gardening here together on the web synergy happens also? I feel fortunate to be part of the community which the online world has brought me – I’d not be the enthusiastic gardener I am today without it. And it doesn’t even stop here on my blog. I’m part of the Twitter Gardening Community, and I’m an A-List Blogger, and I’m very proud to announce that my articles here at Loving Nature’s Garden are now in the home and garden section of the brand new Daily Brainstorm Blogazine.

Do go over and check out all the wonderful Daily Brainstorm contributions from writers as well known as Leo Babauta (Zen Habits) and Darren Rowse (Problogger), as well as a whole host of positively minded, up and coming writers. What a great place to ‘rock your mind’ and get you on a new, fresh, track to self-improvement. I can feel the natural synergy of being a part of this. I know I’ll be visiting often!

Related posts:

1. Natural Science Foundation
2. What Do You Want?
3. I’m a gardener because…

Hairstreak on Butterfly Weed, Carole Brown 2010

There are many reasons to plant a nature garden – my friend Carole Brown knows them all.

The following post appeared originally at Carole’s blog Ecosystem Gardening.

It’s easy to assume that you can’t possibly make a difference for wildlife from your small share of the planet. But every positive choice you make in your garden can actually make a huge difference for the wildlife in your area.

And when you help your neighbors make better decisions the benefit to wildlife is magnified. And so it spreads.

Reasons Why Your Garden Matters

#1 The Power of Doing Just One Thing – really, choose just one thing and start making a difference now.

#2 Why Your Garden Matters to Wildlife even When we Have Protected Lands – only 5% of available land in this country is protected, but much of that is being overrun by invasive plants. We’ve simply left wildlife nowhere to go.

#3 Your Ecosystem Garden is Important to Wildlife – habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation due to human action is the number one cause of wildlife declines. You can help reverse this by planning your Ecosystem Garden.

#4 Ecosystem Services: How Your Garden Contributes to a Healthy Environment – Healthy ecosystems contribute many vital services that we tend to take for granted: oxygen production, clean water, soil health, and more. Your Ecosystem Garden can provide some of these services.

#5 Health Care Reform in your Ecosystem Garden – a fun and tongue-in-cheek look at the importance of your garden by borrowing the language of the health care debate.

Children, Nature, and Your Habitat Garden

#6 Awe and Wonder always Welcome in Your Wildlife Garden

#7 The Sense of Wonder in the Wildlife Garden

#8 Helping Your Neighbors Learn to Love your Ecosystem Garden – we mentioned this above in the introduction. Remember that old commercial “They told two friends, and they told two friends……” That’s the way we’ll start making a bigger difference.

#9 Best Reasons NOT to be an Ecosystem Gardener – having some fun by reverse engineering the best reasons for creating your wildlife garden

What are you doing to help wildlife in your garden?

Carole Brown can be found at her blog Ecosystem Gardening, on Twitter at @CB4Wildlife, and on Facebook at Ecosystem Gardening.

Related posts:

1. Can We “Out Nature” Mother Nature in Our Gardens?
2. How Green is Your Garden?
3. What Can You Find in a Nature Garden?

American Goldfinches, April 2010

What can you find in a nature garden? Here’s an update on mine. I hope you’ll be inspired. Do let me know what is happening in yours.

Beautiful Birds

Back in December 2009 I asked the question How Long Does it Take Birds to Find a Feeder?

If you hang a feeder full of thistle (niger) seeds which goldfinches love, and goldfinches are gone until spring, then the answer could be 5 months, or more.

Five months is how long it took these little golden American beauties to turn up in my garden. It was worth the wait!

House Finch, May 2010

Also recently spotted at my niger feeder:  mourning doves (they eat the seeds which fall to the ground), sparrows (which I don’t care for), and house finches.

Fearless Robins

I’ve done a lot of digging in my garden this year and American robins have been my constant companions. Compared to the other birds, they’re fearless and don’t mind getting close  enough to grab juicy worms.

Robins make me laugh with their antics – they seem to be reluctant to fly and can be seen running away from people and cars in my neighborhood from January through December.

Blue Bird House, June 2010

Scolded by Nesting Birds

Nest boxes are prime real estate in my neighborhood. I’m going to have to put up some high rises next year.

My west neighbor had chickadees break into his siding this spring. When he chased them out, the sparrows moved in.

Then my east neighbor hung up this cute blue bird house. Chickadees were soon raising a family. Now, in June, wren parents are busy scolding anyone who gets too close and their youngsters can be seen out and about being fed.

I’ve never seen so many birds raising young around my garden since I moved here over 10 years ago. I’d like to think my nature gardening efforts are paying off, but maybe it’s because the cat who used to keep down the birds and rabbits is gone. Either way, it’s all good.

Phlox in Woodland Garden, June 2010

Beautiful Native Flowers

Native woodland and prairie flowers are so beautiful and delicate.

Not many flowers will bloom in woodland shade when summer comes around. These pink phlox are the stars of my summer shade garden.

Rain Garden Flowers

I’ve added a bunch of new native plants to my back yard this year, with the addition of my rain garden.

And my rain garden has had a really good testing. It’s been a crazy spring, with my whole back yard looking like a river several times. And the rain garden stood up to it all!

Cephalanthus occidentalis (button bush), June 2010

One of the new plants in my rain garden is Cephalanthus occidentalis, or button bush. The button bush came to me in a 5 gallon plastic pot, from which a massive central root had escaped.

The root had been hacked off before it left the nursery and I was a little worried about how the button bush would settle in. I’m pleased to report that it’s doing amazingly well, has put on significant growth, and is now flowering.

I can’t wait for the red cardinal flowers, Lobelia cardinalis, in my rain garden to bloom in July. Of course I’m hoping for some hummingbirds and butterflies. Meantime I’m enjoying my prairie garden.

Butterfly Weed and Spiderwort, June 2010

Prairie Garden

Asclepias tuberosa, the orange butterfly weed, is an itinerant visitor to my prairie garden. This year it has shown up and looks delightful next to the blue spiderwort, which has been in bloom since April.

The Liatris pyncnostachya, purple blazing star, will soon be in bloom.  I feel like the flowers are my friends who step me through the Kansas year.

Native flowers keep me going outside in the summer heat, provide a rhythm to my days, and give me a sense of place. I recently wrote a post for Carole Brown about Falling in Love with My Garden.

I hope you will grow to love your garden as I do, if you don’t already. Share the wonders of native plants and wildlife with your children and neighbors. I’m sure they will thank you.

Your turn – please leave a comment. What are your favorite native plants? Did any birds nest in your neighborhood this year?

Related posts:

1. Planning a Nature Garden
2. Nature Hates Bare Soil
3. Prairie Flowers

Compost Bins by USFS

In Basic Composting for Busy People Leah wrote about the slow, or cold, composting method.

You’ve probably also heard of hot composting (the method which involves turning) and vermicomposting (using worms).

If you want to know more, read on. I’ve grouped the resources below by presentation method – read, watch, listen.

Read – Comprehensive Composting

The USDA NRCS has a number of tip sheets on Backyard Conservation which you can download, including a comprehensive 4 page pdf tip sheet on composting (explains both hot and cold composting).

And Cornell University’s Waste Management Institute provides guides, manuals, and tip sheets at their Small Scale Backyard Composting Page, including advice on composting for schools and additional information on  health and safety considerations with composting.

Read – About Red Worm Composting

Worms make fabulous compost. If you don’t mind having a few extra pets to take care of, worms might be for you. Worms can be kept indoors (or outdoors if you have the correct conditions) and will produce wonderful compost in the form of castings for you all year. For more information on worm composting, visit Compost Guy at his blog Redworm One.

Watch – Composting Videos

You might prefer to see compost knowledge, rather than read it. Here are some useful composting videos, with a variety of emphasis.

• What Composting Is and How it Works – a TV style interview with the editor of Organic Gardening Magazine.
• Cooking up Compost from Better Homes and Gardens. Presented like a cookery program.
• Composting Demystified – it’s all about the bacteria. Video from Kitchen Gardeners International which explains the compost ecosystem and uses a lasagna analogy to explain layering.
• After that you might need some light entertainment. If so, try How to Build a Compost Bin in under 2 minutes. I don’t guarantee it will teach you how to build a bin, but it will surely make you smile.

Listen – The Idiot’s Guide to Composting

If you need some more reassurance on the fact that composting is not only possible, but it’s really not as complicated as it seems, Chris McLaughlin, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Composting has done a series of interviews with Carole Brown, the Ecosystem Gardener.

• Compost and Healthy Soil.
• How to Start a Compost Pile.
• The Accidental Organic Gardener – on composting all those autumn leaves, cute bunny poop, and becoming an organic gardener.

Have you started composting yet? If not, what barrier is there for you? What method do you like – hot, cold, or worms.

Related posts:

1. Basic Composting for Busy People
2. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 3 – Bokashi
3. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 2 – Worms

Leah's Compost Bowl, June 2010

Today’s post is by guest Leah McClellan who writes at Peaceful Planet.

All you need to start composting is a bowl.

That’s right, a bowl. A bucket would do just as well, or a plastic milk jug with the top cut off. Even an old coffee canister will work.

You can buy cute little ceramic compost keepers—in your choice of designer colors—but really, we’re talking about basic composting, and all you need is a bowl to get started. Oh, and a garden of some sort.

Composting is not Complicated

Composting isn’t complicated, though countless methods have been developed for turning kitchen scraps and garden waste into rich soil. Some work faster than others and take up less space—and are much prettier—than the way I do it. But if you’re busy like I am, or if you’re new to composting, you’ll want to keep things easy.

Leah's Active Compost Pile, June 2010

How to Start Basic Composting

Choose two locations for “compost piles.” These can be out-of-the way spots behind a shed or garage or in a corner of your vegetable garden.

Do be sure to check for local regulations before finalizing your compost location – some cities and neighborhoods stipulate factors such as the distance your compost must be from a fence boundary.

How much space you need depends of how many scraps your kitchen produces and how many grass clippings or leaves you typically have or can get. If your yard and garden are small, keep your compost piles small. Each of mine are about 3 feet (1 meter) square.

The first pile is for immediate use. The second pile will be active while you let the first pile rest, so you don’t need to start the second one right away; just plan on a location.

Leah's Maturing Compost, June 2010

How to Contain Your Compost

A good compost pile can be a simple heap of kitchen scraps and yard debris. I’ve done it that way a few times, and it works just fine.

If you prefer things a bit tidy, you can build a simple structure. Pound a few stakes into the ground in a square, rectangular, or circular shape and wrap some flexible fencing around them.

“Chicken wire” is great, but any kind of metal fencing with small gaps will work (the smaller the better to keep some things in and other things—like rabbits—out).

Before you pound anything into the ground, locate your utilities. Hitting a power cable would be quite a shock!

Metal stakes are easier to pound into the ground than wood, plus they’re stronger and will last longer. But almost anything will do: 1×3 or 2×4 lumber cut into points at one end, even old wooden or plastic tomato stakes are fine. Just don’t use pressure-treated wood because of the potential for chemicals to leach out.

Be sure to sink most of the stakes a foot or so into the ground, so it’s sturdy. How tall, how wide, and how sturdy it needs to be depends on how much you plan to put in it and how long you want it to last. Basic here, remember?

Leah's Compost Bowl, June 2010

What to Compost

Here’s where your bowl comes into play. In the kitchen, put vegetable and fruit peels, seeds, stems, and cores in it. Corn husks. Coffee grounds. Eggshells.

Empty the bowl in the compost pile and cover with lawn clippings, weeds, or dead plants (if not diseased). Small twigs or branches and autumn leaves are great.

Ask neighbors for their lawn clippings and mowed or raked-up leaves if you don’t have much of your own. Make sure they don’t use herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers if you want to stay as natural as possible.

Do Not Compost These

Never use meat, fish, or animal products of any kind (except egg shells) because it will attract flies and other critters that you probably don’t want. Skip prepared foods, too, like salad with dressing or cooked vegetables with sauce.

Stick with raw fruit and veggie scraps for best results. Coffee filters or the occasional paper napkin are just fine (you can even line your bowl with old newspaper or a brown paper bag and dump it right in the pile).

How to Care for Your Compost

It’s great to turn the pile over once in awhile, to mix things up, but you don’t have to. Layering is good too. Keep grass clippings or dried leaves handy to cover the veggie and fruit scraps. A few twigs or thick-stemmed weeds added here and there help with ventilation (which aids in decomposition), and an occasional watering during a summer dry spell is helpful.

Leah's Compost is Ready, June 2010

How to Know When Your Compost is Ready

I’m working with a yearly system, give or take a few months. I stop adding new material to my first pile in the spring, and I start adding to the second.

By the time mid-summer or fall rolls around, the compost is ready in the first pile.

Simple compost can be ready in as little as a few months. It depends on how many scraps you have, temperature, moisture, and other variables.

To check, just poke around with a shovel. If it looks like dirt with nothing squishy, it’s ready. You might find a stray corncob or an eggshell, but that’s OK. Just rake through and put twigs or anything else not decayed into your other compost pile.

If you find more sticky muck than crumbly soil, then you probably need to add more grass clippings or leaves in thinner layers and decrease the amount of moisture. Just turn things over, maybe dig into the soil a little for drainage, stir in some grass and leaves, and check back in a few weeks. Or months. There’s no hurry.

How to Use Your Beautiful Compost

You can rake the finished compost around the vegetable garden at any time of the year. Or dig it into your flower beds or anywhere your garden needs a boost. Tomato plants just love some rich compost in their holes when you first set them out.

When your first compost pile is emptied, it’s time to start it over again and let the second pile rest until it’s ready. And then repeat the process.

As long as you have a bowl and at least a small yard or garden, you can start composting. Instead of putting those valuable kitchen scraps in the trash, enrich your garden the natural way by making some organic compost. And instead of bagging leaves and grass clippings, just dump them in the compost pile like I do. Composting really is that easy.

Leah McClellan is a freelance writer, part-time English instructor, gardener, vegetarian, and animal lover who dreams of world peace and writes about communication. Visit Leah at Peaceful Planet.

Related posts:

1. Composting Resources
2. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 2 – Worms
3. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 3 – Bokashi

“One of the great changes in American life – and one barely noticed at the time – took place early in this century (20th century). There was a radical revision in the concept of boyhood.” “Before about 1915, boyhood was seen by most grown-ups as a state of natural savagery.” ” Boys were little savages, yes… but like Rousseau’s savages, they were also noble.” “And best of all they were free…”

“‘Savage’… derives from Latin silvaticus, ‘pertaining to the woods.” “…all day long, if they could manage it, they were paddling on the river or up tree houses, living happily at the food-gatherer level, as savages do.”

Foreword to The American Boys Handy Book, Centennial Edition, David R Godine, Publisher, Inc, 1983

Related posts:

1. Boys and Girls Come Out to Play
2. Across the Prairie
3. John Muir – A Scottish Boyhood