I will make begrudging allowances for people who have to clear away vast expanses of lawn in public places. The Mall in DC comes to mind. They probably don't have that many leaves but I grant that it's possibly quicker to use blowers in those settings. And the young strapping men usually hired to do such work like to play with them, just as they like to play with guns and other phallic-like items, so they probably do a better job than they would with rakes.
And there are some older people who believe they are being gentler to their bodies by using leaf blowers, so go ahead if you must. Frankly I'm not convinced that it's any more gentle to lug around an electric blower than to brandish a rake but I have no evidence that I'm right.
But for most homeowners or business owners I say get rid of those evil devices and pick up a rake or broom (or hire someone to do that).
I hate leaf blowers because they are:
1. Noisy. Painfully so.
2. Messy. All the leaf mold spores and dust and bits of leaves that get tossed up into the air we breath can NOT be good for us. Not to mention the chemicals that the homeowner may have applied to their lawn. Another thing I hate. Lawn chemicals.
3. Time-consuming. I am positive that it doesn't save any time to use a leaf blower, especially if you live, as I do, some place where you have to dispose of your own leaves. Your options are bagging them up for the trash/recycling crews to pick up or composting them, which is what we do. And is of course what I think everyone should do. Because it takes absolutely no time to maintain; pile up the leaves and walk away. That's it. (Man, I've got at least three rants I could include in this one but I won't.)
4. Resource-wasting. Obvious. They use gasoline or electricity. Boo-hiss.
5. Polluting. The devices themselves must be recycled when they inevitably break down or burn up (which just happened to my neighbor and is why I sat down right now to write this pent-up rant). So what happens when they are discarded? They end up on the coast of some poor nation -- India, Brazil, Ghana -- where children sift through trash piles of hazardous materials.
So there it is. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone. I don't really want to make anyone feel guilty. Truly. But since I can't say all of this to my neighbors -- I have said much of it, and yet they still speak to me! -- I felt the need to lay it all out there.
And I think I violated only one of the Thanksgiving rules I posted earlier today. Rule 2: Speak without accusing.
Image from here. A blog I'll have to check out later.
8 comments:
AND they don't suck up the leaves and mulch them, they just blow them somewhere else. Ridiculous waste of time, in my opinion!
Guilty as charged although the leaf-blower hasn't been used in years.
We have *tons* of leaves and compost what we can. The rest go into big bins that the city picks up via a truck with a mechanical arm. (The city composts them.)
I could write volumes about our struggles with leaves but I won't. I loved your rant and it got me thinking that pretty soon I will be doing my own annual rant about people with snowblowers ;-)
Amen. Or I concur, if you don't like Amen-ing.
I don't like the mow-blow-and go guys either because they spread plant illness all over the neighborhood.
Amen is a great word. Short, clear, confident.
I had never thought about the spread of illness. Reason No 6.
But since I posted I've reconsidered a bit. The range of motion, in the upper body and arms, required for full-bore leaf raking is a factor for some people, a limiting factor. So they figure that hauling around a blower is something their bodies can handle. Maybe they're right.
One more thing. Blowers might simply be fun to use. I've never used one so how do I know?
But still.
Double amen - HATE 'em! But when I've ranted about there I DO hear from maintenance professionals who cite how much longer it takes to do the job without these godawful things - maybe twice as long. Which I don't get because the blowing never looks that efficient to me.
Don't get me started about the mow-blow-go service. Sharing a mower is like sharing a lawn toothbrush. Would you share a toothbrush with strangers all over the city?
My dad owns a leaf blower and he LOVES using it. Sometimes he uses it at inappropriate times so now it's a family joke.
Off to potty Otsy now. She has had a clean diaper all night.
I regard them as penises. The only people who like them are men. They literally and figurtively give them power. The blowing stimulates the sewing of seed combined with control. The only way they will go away is if the penis goes away. They were a great way to give a man a motorized penis.
Well Cyra, I'd love to agree with you but my neighbor Betty just spent 16+ hours over the past 3 days blowing leaves around her very small backyard. Ad those are just the hours when I was at home to hear her. Ridiculous. Annoying. Polluting. But it obviously brings her pleasure. OCD anyone?
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