This spring, a green lawn means more than the color of the grass.

Some Madison retailers report growing interest in electric and manual lawn mowers from customers who want to reduce air pollution and escape the deafening racket of gasoline-powered mowers.

"I think there is some concern about the impact of gas-powered engines," said Lew Hill, store manager of Sears at East Towne. "We're an environmentally conscious community."

Every summer weekend, millions of Americans rev up their gasoline mowers and belch tons of pollutants into the air.

In southeastern Wisconsin, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 7 percent of summer emissions of volatile organic compounds are produced by lawn and garden equipment. Those are the compounds that form ozone and smog.

"Your choice of lawn mower is a great way to do your part in keeping our air healthy," said Dave Merritt, coordinator of the Dane County Clean Air Coalition and user of a push mower.

Sears is featuring its non-gasoline mowers more prominently this year, including electric mowers with a cord or a rechargeable battery, and several models of reel mowers, the old-fashioned kind that run on "people power. You can't get greener than that," Hill said.

At Ace Hardware on Williamson Street, a neighborhood of small lawns and eco-friendly citizens, electric and reel mowers are displayed on a sunny sidewalk in front of the store.

"Around here we've always sold them," said Tom Shepherd, an owner of the store. Customers "want to do something that's a little nicer for the environment."

One happy mower on Madison's West Side is Katie Place, who just bought a corded electric Black and Decker mower after she got tired of recharging the battery on her old workhorse, a Whisper Lite she used for 10 years. "I don't like the noise and the smell and the maintenance" of a gasoline mower, Place said. It takes her about 45 minutes to mow her 10,000-square-foot lawn in the Greentree neighborhood.

Gas prices didn't affect Place's choice, but customers at Dorn Tru Value Hardware on North Sherman Avenue are mentioning prices when they turn to electric mowers, said salesman Lou Guthrie.

Some customers are justifiably concerned about running over their cords with an electric mower, he said, but newer models ease that problem.

"You just flip the handle over and go the other way," he said.

Darin Burleigh uses a new reel mower on his lawn in the Spring Harbor neighborhood, happy to avoid air and noise pollution and the expense and hassle of buying gasoline. In his early homeowner years, though, he waited too long to mow in the spring, got delayed by rain and then found himself with grass so tall he was forced to borrow a neighbor's gas or electric mower to regain control. Now, he doesn't procrastinate and his German-built reel mower does the job efficiently and quietly.

At Sears, some young buyers choose a reel mower for exercise, but Guthrie's senior citizen customers "don't want to work that hard," he said.

Merritt, who uses a "human-powered lawn mower'' on his tiny lawn near Tenney Park, hates the noise of gas mowers but is motivated mainly by air quality. "Most people do not associate air pollution with mowing the lawn," he said. "But all that outdoor power equipment really has become a significant source of air pollution."