Lawn care without the racket

This Minnesota summer, complete with legions of kamikaze mosquitoes, is drawing to a close. In addition to the cessation of the record-breaking, almost unbearable heat and humidity, I am ready for the infernal drone of lawn mowers to stop.

We have created smartphones and iPads. We put a man on the moon over 40 years ago. Why can't we build a lawn mower quiet enough for me to hold a conversation on my porch when one is being used across the road?

That same lawn mower remains audible, a dull buzz suggesting a 250-pound flying insect, when I am in my house with the windows, blinds and doors tightly closed. Nothing seems able to shut out that sound completely.

Even Consumer Reports recommends hearing protection. Every lawn mower it tested emits more than 85 decibels - a level that causes hearing loss, according to the National Institute on Deafness. I know several people who must be well on their way to becoming deaf due to compulsive mowing.

Not necessarily to protect my hearing, but rather to save my sanity, I abruptly abandoned my porch in a fit one afternoon after enduring dueling lawn mowers. I drove to the nearest electronics store and bought a set of pricey noise-reduction headphones, which work perfectly well as long as I am willing to wear them all summer, inside and out.

Paintings and early photographs give us an idea of what the 19th century looked like. It's regrettable there are no recordings of what a typical street sounded like without the roar of gas engines. I imagine a tranquil soundscape of horse hooves clacking on cobblestones, wagon wheels turning on crushed gravel, feet walking across boardwalks, and water splashing against the blade of a mill along a river. No blaring lawn mower, chainsaw, motorcycle or airplane overhead. It must have been quiet.

I do not deny that the gas engine significantly reduced backbreaking human labor. Using horses again would be hard on them and smelly for us. I would not choose to go back in time, even if we could.

But there is no need to turn back. The future looks bright. The engine in the hybrid car I rented recently was so quiet, the lot attendant had to convince me it really was working before I was willing to drive it away. Hybrid lawn mowers are beginning to appear on the market. Push mowers, like the one my grandfather had, seem to be making a comeback.

You can turn portions of your lawn into prairie, which in addition to being low maintenance has the advantage of attracting butterflies and birds in ways that provide pleasure and increased biodiversity. I know a woman who has converted every square inch of her yard into a vegetable garden that feeds her family. Silently.

Or we can cover our yards with an eco-blend of fescue grass that doesn't have to be mowed to golf-green standards every five days to look good. Why do we voluntarily commit so much of our valuable discretionary time to mowing?

We have alternatives that could help us return to quiet summer days, without giving up a nice yard or the advantages that the engine has afforded us. Until then, bring on the fall. But don't even think about picking up that leaf blower.

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Virginia Wright-Peterson lives and writes from Marion Township, outside Rochester, Minn.

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