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Urban Baler
Lawn baling mower (attachment)
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Mulching mowers leave a mess that looks bad, browns, and gets tracked into the house. Grass catchers get clogged, especially with damp lawn and have to be emptied.

So, I think that a baling mower or attachment for mowers would be nice. Small, compact bales that pop out every swath or so. Clogging would be handled by having the baling mechanism positively remove the grass from the exit chute of the mower housing with a toothed conveyor. The bales could be compressed with a bit of water to promote decomposition and bound with soft jute or other Earth-friendly strands. There could even be a decomposition promoter of some sort added in the baling water.

A newly baled lawn would look cool and the bales easy to pick up for composting or disposal.

(There is a cheap “baler” for lawn sweepers but they are about $20, don't really bale [just compact the contents of the catcher a bit with a hand operated lever] and aren't at all what I am proposing.)

bristolz, May 27 2004


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       Perhaps you could offer a mower/weaver that left little woven grass mats in its wake?
ldischler, May 27 2004
   

       Heh. I like that idea. Or braids! Or it weaves it into a continuous rope and coils it up for you.
bristolz, May 27 2004
   

       Ah. I was hoping this was something to clean up the neighborhood cats or something.
DrCurry, May 27 2004
   

       I'd probably end up falling on my face every swath or so, but it would be worth it. Who knows, maybe eventually I'd learn when to hop.
Worldgineer, May 27 2004
   

       You will have serius problems with the lenght of the grass peices...especial with the standard "crazy spining knife" method of mowing.
my-nep, May 27 2004
   

       That's easy enough to solve. Use the "crazy spiral knife" method and only mow every two months (of which I'm guilty anyway).
Worldgineer, May 27 2004
   

       Most agricultural blaers work on drier grass so you'd have to let the clippings dry out a bit and run over the lawn a few times with a turner too. Manufacturers would love to have more machines to sell to us.
oneoffdave, May 28 2004
   

       I'd just like to see it in action: mowing along and every so often a little green bale just pops out a chute and plops on to the grass. A tiny cow moos somewhere in the distance. (It's really just across the yard, but that's a long way for a tiny cow.) Then a tiny farmer with a tiny tractor comes along and loads the bales on to a trailer.   

       Maybe those big round bales would make it easy enough to just roll the bale(s) off the lawn in to the compost pile. Less lifting.
Gromit, May 28 2004
   

       oooh, can I have a pile of grass mini-bales in the corner of my lawn, covered in tarpaulin and tiny tyres please?
dobtabulous, May 28 2004
   

       For a standard size baler, you need to let the vegetation dry a bit. If you bale too wet, the inside of the haystack decomposes too rapidly, resulting in black hay and sometimes even spontaneous combustion. The mini bales would tend to trap less heat, and may allow you to bale directly - particularly if you let the grass dry somewhat before cutting.
If you wanted to make a windrow, it would leave a nice decorative yellow pattern on your lawn a couple of days later when you do bale it.
lurch, May 28 2004
   

       These would be green and compacted and, I suppose, if dumped in a composter and left to decompose a fire is possible. I didn't think about that.
bristolz, May 28 2004
   

       urban bales make great cover when doing battle
flerper, Jun 08 2004
   


 
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