Comment

Comment on The world was a nicer place before the advent of leaf blowers

the_abecedarian@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

They're loud, they kick up dust, and they happen at intermittent times based on when the neighbors do it. they also use fossil fuels. Loud mowers are annoying, too! If you -- heaven forbid -- want to keep your windows open and feel a breeze, you're going to get all of that noise and maybe even some of the dust.

I understand that we have to clear sidewalks and driveways so that accidents don't happen. People usually don't have so much sidewalk + driveway that a broom or something wouldn't do that job quickly. But then we have to blow the leaves off the lawn, too? I know that your HOA will kill you if you don't, but doesn't it seem silly to remove the leaves from a lawn, then buy and put down commercial fertilizer, when the leaves would have biodegraded into new topsoil? To spend so much time watering a lawn to keep it alive when the leaves would have shielded it from the sun? Why are we spending so much time, money, water, and effort to maintain sterile grass lawns? We can have beautiful outdoors spaces without being slaves to an HOA enforcing what plants we grow.

I understand that it's really the HOAs these days that are a big part of the problem. A good number of people in my HOA-less neighborhood have diverse plants in front of their homes. They look fantastic, they seem to take way less maintenance (I never see them mowing, watering, weeding, fertilizing, etc), and ofc they're much better for the environment.

source

Sort:hotnew top

shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
So, again, what sort of space do you live in where this is annoyance? I’m only aware of leaf blowers when I’m driving and a lawn service is blowing.

Who’s complaining is my question. People in nice hoods with the neighbors going nuts? Apartment complexes? Is this an autumn thing where leaves fall everywhere?

source
- the_abecedarian@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I have lived in suburbs, subdivisions, and city neighborhoods with green space. People (or their landscapers) use leaf blowers in all of them.
  
  source
  - shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Maybe I don’t notice because I’m in the deepest South. Trees don’t dump all at once, it’s a gradual thing from fall through spring. All I ever see is landscapers doing a quick blow down after mowing.
    
    Also, we’re not so much into appearances down here, not like other places I’ve lived. Your yard doesn’t have to be perfect.
    
    source
Lyrl@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

doesn’t it seem silly to remove the leaves from a lawn, then buy and put down commercial fertilizer

I think you are imagining leaves from small and widely spaced trees. We do not put down fertilizer, but we remove leaves from the part of our yard we want to include grass. The parts of the yard we let the leaves stay kills all the grass (hardier plants grow there, but they are not compatibility with mowing to a walk-over height). Leaf mould easily takes two years to create, and grass needs sunlight in a half year from fall.

source
- the_abecedarian@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  fair enough. It's another reason why grass doesn't make sense to me -- it's so incompatible with the landscape unless you put in the effort to make it habitable. Maybe there's a type of ivy that would have an acceptable max height instead?
  
  source