As a scandinavian I never got what the deal is. Just let it decompose? Or use a rake, it's not that hard.
Then I visited Texas, and leafblowers were everywhere to the point where I had to ask a coworker "why do you guys hate leaves so much?"
this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
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It goes against the perfect manicured lawn narrative.
And perfect lawns are horrible for the environment!
And boring to look at, I would rather see a mix of flowers and bees.
Won't someone please think of the property values‽
I will not, I own this property now and will do what I like with it! The front garden has taken care of its self for the past 2 years now. Loads of foxgloves growing right now and a mix of some other things. I do remove a few thorns though when they start getting big.
Mainly focusing effort on the back garden, got some shrubs growing but want them to get bigger to properly take up the area they are growing in and cover some of the bare soil a bit more. Its getting better over time. I think a cat keeps trying to dig in some of them too and having bigger established shrubs in the way should prevent that but it takes time. Overall focus is on low maintenance things.
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I'm Brazilian. As one can imagine, we do have a lot of leaves, being a tropical country and all.
I have not seen a leaf blower in my entire life, and I don't understand the obsession with them.
Being in a tropical country, I imagine most/all of your trees are non-deciduous, as in they don't lose all their leaves in autumn and then regrow in the spring? Imagine all the leaves drying up, falling off, and the mess is left all over the ground. Cleanup is a laborious effort. Leaf blowers speed up the process by blowing the leaves from trafficked locations and/or to more centralized locations that are easier to clean the debris. Helpful, noisy, and often environmentally unfriendly.
You're correct about most trees not following your typical seasonal variance.
You're incorrect about this meaning we don't deal with significant amounts of leaves and flowers. Search for Handroanthus images, then imagine one on each sidewalk, and imagine all their flowers on the ground.
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The massive jacaranda mimosifolia (native to Brazil) which is dominating my front garden, laughs at your suggestion that it does not leave much mess on the ground.
It regularly carpets the area below it in purple flowers, tens of thousands of small leaves, hundreds of twigs/seed pods and a few larger dried branches. Not just one season either - it flowers multiple times a year with how weird the weather is nowadays. The birds and bees like it though so we're cool.
I live in the UK, I have never had an issue with leaves beyond a brief sweep of the main pathway.
The world will be better when people will stop following the medieval trend of having a lawn. Water consumption, leaf blowers, habitat invasion would be finally gone.
Gas ones are banned in my town starting June 1st. Going to be reporting so many people.
Luckily I own a battery powered one owned by a giant multinational gas company (Ego/Chevron)!
Or you could just use a leaf rake.
I tend to for leaf removal. The mounds of leaves get too large for a blower to handle.
The blower is more for gutter-cleaning, blowing random woods-generated debris off the porch and deck, and blowing lawn clippings off the sidewalk/street/driveway/walkway back into my lawn.
Dang. Quite a multitool.
And uses the same battery as my pressure washer, lawn mower, weed eater, edger (giggity), misting fan, and chainsaw. It really is a great line of products.
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It sounds like a very American problem. I just let the leaves rot away on their own really, maybe sweep the path by my house and they can sit on a garden bed around some plants and rot down there.
I live in South America, it's not, every groundskeeper in my medium-income condo neighborhood has one, and makes working from home really difficult, specially in the summer when you want to open a window
Somewhat. Mostly because you have a lot of suburban people in America who like manicured lawns and expect you to do the same. Even without an HOA, you still have people calling the city if your lawn gets too out of sorts.
In the documentary "The Power Of Nightmares", it's mentioned that Sayyid Qutb (an Egyptian political theorist who's ideas directly influenced Osama Bin Laden) saw Americans being overly concerned with lawncare as a decadent and repulsive thing. I can't say he's wrong. He wasn't even around to see what TruGreen does to things. It should be noted, too, that his criticism wasn't from afar. He spent two years as a student in the US after WWII, and he didn't come away liking the place.
I live in the UK and as long as my lawn isn't blocking out the sun or causing an actual health risk to people I can pretty much do what ever I like with it. I am thinking of aim for wildflower meadow.
I had a neighbor who was rather compulsive about her yard. She would mow her yard/have it mowed 2-3 times a week and would use a leaf blower to push the grass clippings onto her neighbors yard every time. She would also leaf blow her roof with surprising frequency.
I gotta say, I was a little relieved when I saw the for sale sign in the yard earlier this year.
I agree that overuse of them is an issue, but damn they come in handy more than I thought it would... Mine is at least electric, and cleaning out dusty stuff (fans, cars, rugs, etc) is so quick and easy... I almost never use mine for grass or leaves.
Yeah! Clean the coils onthe fridge fast and easy. (Open windows first. Close cupboard doors.)
Oof, I’d go shop vac there. You’re just spreading it around, no?
If on the scale of annoyance gas leaf blowers are 10/10, electric are 3/10.
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I get a lot of leaves. I have a battery powered 60v leaf blower. I blow them away from my foundation so I don’t get a rotting mound around my house. Then I have to blow those away or they won’t biodegrade without leaving giant dirt patches. What I’ve found works well is blowing them into the forest bed at the edge of my property. The deer and other animals seem to help break them down. I don’t have to worry about them until fall but there are just too many to leave lie where they land. I go through three batteries a day over the course of weeks to keep them from building up really bad. I’m not a mow every week manicured lawn kind of person either. Right now most of my back yard is over a foot tall with a mowed area for my small dog.
I also like the leaf blower for cleaning off my gutter guards, drive, lawn mower, garage floor, deck, and even when it’s just a light snow I’ll go out a few times to blow everything off so I don’t have to shovel.
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The answer to the world's problems ..... remove leaf blowers
you jest, but children around the world are no longer starving thanks to this post.
I sleep with earplugs in because I work nights and have no idea when the HOA maintenance people are going to start blowing those things at 8 in the fucking morning.
Echoing a handful of comments in this thread, I'm from Argentina and I've seen maybe one leaf blower in my entire lifetime. However, I've been to the US , so I believe you (my condolences)
If my understanding is correct, leaf blowers contribute a lot to the current massive bug die-off that's been happening lately all over, because many bug species reproduce in leaf litter. In that regard, they're not only terrible noise-wise, but ecologically-wise as well.
So, terrible all around.
You know, I was just— bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Your comment blows, dude...
They were invented in the 1950s.
So the Depression and the World Wars were quieter....
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I always think about something along these lines about cars.
Blowers should be illegal.
Leaf blowers piss me the fuck offffff VvRrrmmmm Five seconds later… VRRRMMMMMM Sound gets closer… VRRRRRrrrMmmmmmMMMMM!!!
we are blessed here to have the noise in the winter, too. more than three flakes of snow and there's sure to be a legion of leaf blowers clearing off precious pavement in neighborhoods all over town. the guys that do it at 4-5am are the true treasures.
am i the baddie?
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