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.
this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
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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 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.
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?"
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.
Idk I find using a rake is actually pretty hard
My property has dozens and dozens of trees, many of which are big leaf maples, it’s sweaty physical work that lasts months and months to keep up, the rainy months too, and if I don’t keep up my house gets overtaken by the forest
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)!
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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.
I live in the UK, I have never had an issue with leaves beyond a brief sweep of the main pathway.
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.
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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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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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.
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Wouldn't a goat be a cheaper and less polluting solution which would also automatically mow the lawn and produce milk..?
(Of course it wouldn't solve the noise problem, but it'd probably be less offensive than a leaf blower...)
You think that right up until you see and smell how much poop comes from one cow/goat/sheep. If your neighbor had one, you would have complaints.
Can't even jump in big piles of leaves anymore cuz they just blow them away 😩
...and also stop using it when a car is passing by. Thanks assholes
Relevant podcast episode. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-los-angeles-leaf-blower-wars/
Good episode for sure. Well... most 99% Invisible episodes are good!
Theyre banning them where I live. Good riddance.
My town banned landscaping companies from using them, but enforcement is non-existent. More often than not, the person operating it doesn't speak English, so I can't even explain why I would like them to stop.
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I always think about something along these lines about cars.
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