The Power of the Lawnmower

I was recently asked to have a conversation by Zach Benedict and Heather Schoegler about what role the lawnmower has in the health and development of a neighborhood and/or community. When Zach and I first talked about this idea a few weeks prior to our interview, I quickly got excited about all the ways I’ve seen this simple machine make a huge impact on NeighborLink volunteers, those they’ve helped, and on myself. 

As you can imagine the discussion has very little to do with the actual mower itself. Sure, the modern lawnmower is becoming a hightech machine as consumer and environmental pressures demand innovation. We even see a resurgence in the old style reel mower, which is a symbol of my position throughout this post. The mower has long been one of the most toxic, emissions emitting, machines on the market, and technology is pushing electric and battery powered mowers to new places and the use of propane will be here before we know it. We’ve already seen that on small machines like line trimmers. We could write an entire post on this estimated $40billion dollar a year lawn care industry that includes all the pesticides and lawn care treatments, but lets get to the community transformation conversation. And, then a post after that one about the environmental impact mowers have and if we fully embrace collaborative consumption, what kind of impact we’ll have.

You can drive through any neighborhood in our city and make a pretty strong assessment on the health of that community by the condition of the lawns. If you want to get more specific, just look at the houses individually. Both of these pictures in this story represent vulnerable properties in the community of Fort Wayne. They also represent one neighbor helping another.

Here are some thoughts for why I believe the lawnmower is a powerful tool of community development. Think about it like this. There are multiple phases of lawn care and maintenance. 

• Basic lawn care just includes the bare minimum. Is the grass cut, bushes trimmed, trimming done, and maybe even the weeds pulled. 
• Moderate lawn care may include landscaped flower beds, edged sidewalks, and mulching around the trees. 
• Advanced lawn care includes regular fertilizing, meticulous mower lines, regular watering, and even may include decorative garden sculptures. 

When an individual or the majority of a neighborhood struggles with even covering basic lawn care tasks, you can visibly see the problem. Problems could range from age, disabilities, lack of a mower, lack of pride, vacant properties, or maybe a whole list of priorities or crisises far more important than mowing the grass. 

The story in the first picture represents a team of volunteers caring for the lawn of a woman with disabilities that can live independently just fine, but cannot physically mow her grass anymore. It’s only takes these volunteers 45 minutes to mow her yard and provides an economic and emotional health benefit to this recipient, which in turn makes a healthier community because it makes her a healthier and happier neighbor. The most significant part of this particular project is that it started with volunteers coming from all over Fort Wayne to help, and is now cared for by people in the neighborhood or that live close. We’ve seen someone go from being unknown and considered someone who doesn’t care, to a now a known neighbor who just needs a little help. The transformation from a liability to an asett is incredible. 

The house in the second picture represents a vacant house on the edge of a neighborhood that repeatedly has the grass grow so high that it triggers Neighborhood Code Enforcement to threaten a fine, which if carried through and goes unpaid, puts a lein on that property. You see a NeighborLink volunteer taking care of it to help beautify the neighborhood and reduce the blight the long grass creates. In this case, we don’t care that much about the lein on the property and this person loosing the house because it’s vacant. Maybe loosing the house would be a good thing because it could free it up for someone else to buy, fix up, and be a part of the neighborhood.

The reason we encourage people to take care of lots like this is because of the overall aesthetics of the neighborhood which effect all of the neighborhood’s property values and our sense of community pride. NeighborLink often has cases where we have actual residents facing these violations simply because they cannot physically do the project nor do they have family, friends or neighbors who are willing to help. When this happens, we begin to hurt for that person because of the failure of a connected, supportive community.

The lawn mower is a powerful tool to transform communities, especially when used to do something out of the ordinary. Seeing strangers come on your block and mow the grass of your neighbor, or mow that vacant lot that distracts you every day that you drive by and wish someone would do something about it is disruptive. 

We need more people that are willing to be agents of community transformation by positively disrupting the cultural and societal norms. Society says that when the grass grows long, it means no one cares and it has just became the community dumping ground or dog walking stop. When this happens, it encourages us to ease into the attitude that we no longer have to care either and the aesthetics start to slide. 

When people realize their potential to do something about it and choose to use a tool like a lawnmower, radical things begin to happen both tangibly and intangibly. We see lawn care become a priority, which has a trickle up effect and people begin making exterior improvements, like painting. Those positive actions can’t help but go internal and people begin re-imagining what it means to be neighbors and have pride for themselves and for each other. One 45 minute action by a neighbor to clear that vacant lot, that will only need cleared again next week, can cause a chain reaction that will make it a better place to live. 

Anytime we go beyond ourselves to do for others and the greater good will always ultimately lead to the transformation in our communities that we long to see and only hear people talk about. 

A machine that turns a sharp blade around and around is just one of the tools that can be used to spark something great. But, like any tool, it is only as powerful as the person that chooses to use it.