‘GREEN GARDENER-ECO-FRIENDLY-LANDSCAPING-ODD JOBS & KNIFE SHARPENING’
By Ben Baeder
Last month, gardener Steve Perez used one gallon of gas. His main fuel? Rice and beans and malt drinks served by his Cuban family.
That’s because Perez went green.
Perez travels his entire gardening route on a three-wheeled bicycle. He doesn’t use a leaf blower or even electric shears. All his tools, such as a broom, a rake and a push mower, are Steve-powered. He carries them in a trailer hitched to his bike. His official title: The Green Gardener-Eco-Friendly-Landscaping-Odd Jobs & Knife Sharpening.
“Most gardeners are just blow and go. That’s what I call them,” he said. “Three guys jump out of their truck with a bunch of power tools, chop up the yard, make a bunch of noise, and then jump back in their truck, all within about 15 minutes.”
Perez is celebrating one year in business this month.
3 Comments
Very interesting. It’s understandable why other commercial lawn care outfits resort to the blow-and-go power tools. I personally prefer using the simple, non-mechanized hand tools for my own non-profit driven yard maintenance purposes; no headache-inducing blower noise, no headache-inducing gasoline and oil odors, no smelly headache-inducing exhaust fumes, no headache-inducing mechanical breakdowns/maintenance, no major safety concerns, no extra storage space required for bulky machines. Just grab the ol’ simple hand rake and go at the grass clippings and fallen autumn leaves and get some needed physical exercise in the process. In the overwhelming majority of instances, I also oppose application of home-use fertilizers and herbicides
Congats to Steve Perez for his year-old Green Gardener operation and wish him much more success in, and expansion of, his green-based yard-care business approach.
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go, Steve, go
there should be a green gardener every couple of blocks taking care of local customers and if need be, coming together to work cooperatively on big jobs.