Lawn mower

A lawn mower comprising:

• a mower deck supported by a vehicle body;
• a blade drive shaft with a blade rotatably mounted inside the mower deck;
• a grass clippings discharging section provided in a side end region of the mower deck;
• a blower unit including a cylindrical blower housing connected to the grass clippings discharging section, a vertical drive shaft having a shaft portion with vanes attached thereto inside the blower housing and a shaft portion extending upward through the blower housing, and a discharging sleeve projecting rearwardly along an outer tangent line of the blower housing;
• a grass collecting apparatus mounted rearwardly of the vehicle body;
• a duct for allowing the discharging sleeve to communicate with the grass collecting apparatus;
• a belt-type blade driving mechanism mounted above a top wall of the mower deck for driving the blade drive shaft;
• and
• a belt-type blower driving mechanism for driving the vertical drive shaft of the blower unit by utilizing power transmitted from the belt-type blade driving mechanism, the blower driving mechanism including an intermediate vertical shaft disposed rearwardly of the blower housing, and a belt transmission unit for transmitting power from the blade drive shaft to the vertical drive shaft through the intermediate vertical shaft.