By Dave Barnett
The normal “ expectations ” of clients and visitors to an active cemetery require frequent mowing and substantial use of irrigation , fertilization and pesticide use , and historically this was the case at Mount Auburn for all lawn areas throughout our 175 acres . Beginning in the 1990s with the completion of the 1993 Master Plan , many changes have been made to our turf and landscape maintenance practices to reduce their environmental impact , and following is a brief summary :
Mowing
Following the recommendations of the Master Plan , we began to experiment with different mowing regimes by reducing the frequency of mowing in the “ naturalistic ” character zones in the historic core of the Cemetery . By the year 2000 we had established a three-tiered mowing cycle that has been used with various modifications ever since . The lawn areas in the front entry precinct and other “ active cemetery use ” areas are mowed weekly , while the remainder of the grounds in the older , more historic areas are mowed much less frequently . In addition , we are in the process of transitioning our riding mower fleet from gasoline-powered to propane and electric machines . Our fleet currently consists of five gasoline , five propane and one electric . The electric “ Mean Green ” mower in Figure 2 works really well for mowing turf but it cannot handle the mulching of leaves in the fall due to the engine overheating . We will continue to monitor technological improvements in electric mowers , but at this point we plan to continue replacing all gasoline-powered mowers with propane according to our cyclical replacement schedule .
Figure 1 . A “ Mean Green ” electric mower .
Figure 2 . Gas mower that has been converted to propane . Note the tank behind the driver .
Mount Auburn Cemetery | Climate Action & Sustainability Plan 36