Here in Boulder, Colorado – where we get over 300 days of sunshine [1] per year – there's not much sense in having a lush, water-needy lawn [2]. As you may have heard, water tends to be somewhat scarce [3] out West, making xeriscaping [4] – gardening with a mind for low water demands – the better choice.

Thanks to our house's green-thumbing former owner, our own yard is covered in small carpets of drought-resistant spotted dead nettle and thyme alongside pockets of deserty yarrow and sage. Of course, a little patch of grass is always a nice variation in landscape texture – plus it gives the dogs [5]something to roll around in when the urge hits. So we've got a few square feet of the green stuff here and there around the property. Only trouble is, those areas are generally small, irregularly shaped, and interspersed with trees and short bushes, which makes keeping it trim more of a chore than need be. (And having grown up mowing my parents' giant Wimbledon [6] of a backyard, I hold little love for this summer pastime.) Needless to say, we don't much value our John Deeres [7] around here. Enter the Brill 33 reel push mower [8], a light, efficient, sharp little mother of a mower. Gas-powered mowers are known for their lower-than-low regard [8] for the environment (a single mower can put out more pollution than 73 new cars). Push mowers, of course, produce no emissions other than a healthy sweat [8], especially given their awkward bulk. We inherited a monster of a push mower from the property's previous owner – heavy, metal, and never quite fit through all our yard's crannies, leaving us to trim big chunks with the hand clippers.

The Brill 33, however, weighs a mere 15 pounds and is only 18 inches wide (the cutting area is 15 inches), allowing it to slide quite easily through our grassy maze. And while it looks a little rinky-dink, it feels like a solid machine, with a rigid, loop-style handle that doesn’t twist out of place like the more familiar T-style handle of our former clunker. We tend to leave the mown grass where it falls, but Brill offers an optional catcher that attaches to the rear if you want to gather the fallen for the compost [8]. Winning the Brill its biggest props, though, is the way it cuts. It somehow scissors the grass in place rather than pushing and chopping it, making a single pass all you need. Wimbledon, watch out.

Brill 33 push mower

Cost: $199

Where to Buy: Amazon [9]