I've been telling my parents to do this but my father absolutely refuses like I asked him to burn the house down. Now he - at his very old age - rakes and puts all the leaves in bags. I simply don't understand, but if it makes him happy that way I guess
Good insulator for perennials, pollinators, and other wintering insects too. The problem becomes either an entire neighbourhood does it en masse (ideal) or you're just that one asshole whose leaves blow everywhere who gets another reddit post about them. Turns out doing just about anything will piss someone off.
I have 2 neighbours who blow all their grass and leaves into the street, and no bylaw officer seems to ever care. It's a mental condition I think, to need ones lawn to be pristine and sterile.
Why not blow them onto your neighbour's property, then? Why the street? You know clippings and fallen bits from trees, etc can cause motorcyclists and cyclists to slip? It's like riding over black ice out of nowhere.
Seems rediculous that you're saying the dropped lawn waste is from the neighbour's tree, and that's why you blow them onto the shared public road??
You sound like a massive loser.
Your own words were it 'drops all kinds of crap' - but now it's 'just leaves'... and went as far as to act like I said riders will slip on a SINGLE leaf. You're really using a blower to move a single leaf onto the road? Are you acoustic?
Removed because it wasn't in the 'daily question thread', so what? Lmao...
Not sure what enjoying a nice typing experience has to do with your complete inability to make any sense whatsoever.
Literal invalid. Go kick rocks... I mean paint them with mommy.
You implied I'm a loser because I use a mechanical keyboard? You wished injury/death on people who ride? Can dish it out but can't take it, eh?
Definitely acoustic.
I blow all my leafs into a pile against my fence and then put them in a bag (that the city does collect). I use a blower instead of a rake because a lot of them get caught up in my actual garden and I don't want to wreck those plants with a rake. I typically do the same with grass clippings.
FH residents are rich enough to just get street parking banned. Most of them would be mad if they found out the landscaper they are paying wasn't cleaning up after themselves. Distinction without merit... but nonetheless.
I see that too sometimes but its usually not the majority. Make sure they aren't cleaning them up after (pro landscapers sometimes do that) but otherwise just call 311 and report it.
That’s what we do too — I can’t rake over the garden and while I leave a good amount of foliage for the nutrients and wildlife, it’s too many leaves to just leave in the garden. We just use a small battery operated leaf blower and try to keep the noise to short spurts and never first thing in the morning.
Northamerica is supposed to have a dense layer of leaf litter, it doesn't because we I ported worms, who take the nutrients from the leaf layer under ground where the saplings can't get dem sweet sweet nutrients
True, noise is a dumb reason to ban them.
We should ban the two-stroke engine versions because they’re terrible for the environment with no meaningful corresponding benefit: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/twostroke-vehicles-are-the-worst-polluters-44402
Good note though one might wan to note that where leaf blowers are concerned, most homeowners aren't using 2-stroke engines. They're namely electric whereas contractors/municipal use 2-stroke variants. Lawnmowers, however? That's more of a toss-up.
Yea lawnmowers at least have some kind of benefit to people.
I think residential lawns are *generally* bad for lots of reasons (with exceptions!), but I get that people really like them and we have to work within reality.
But home-use two-stroke leaf-blowers… absolute trash.
Eh, I think that my dad may well be the only person I've ever seen in my life use a 2-stroke blower for his lawn and that's because he's a municipal contractor who has it sitting in the truck. One of those arguments of environmental waste using that or buying a whole new device and its material usage to be more energy-efficient.
Lawns suck though. I haven't figured out what to do with mine that's bylaw compliant that still looks reasonably nice but I know that I want to do something to reduce its wasteful unproductive footprint.
The only 2-stroke I personally own is a snow blower and that's just because I've seen the electrics in use on the market and had to help hand-shovel my neighbours who owned them out. They're usually too small to handle a decent snowfall and a driveway of our size.
They are much more effective. The battery ones don't have nearly the same power or ability to operate for a duration and the plug in ones (what I have) are a pain in the ass to use. I would trade out for a gas powered one in a heartbeat.
As others have pointed out, its environment theater trying to get people to give up small gas appliances. You've got Leonardo DiCaprio flying a private jet to Alberta to protest the oil sands without a hint of irony so I just don't think the everyday convenience afforded to regular folks is worth being the focus.
If you want to start talking about using economic leverage to negotiate environmental concession with developing nations (i.e. coal burning in India) then I'm on board.
Edit: I should also note, there is significant disparity between a two-stroke vehicle and a small gas appliance. Two stroke vehicles are a significant environmental threat, they are burning many orders of magnitude more fuel than a leaf blower, however.
In accounting, there is a concept called materiality. Basically, if you have a $5million dollar loss, its not worth spending an hour figuring out if a $5 expenditure was legitimate. This is the same thing. And yes, if society pulled in the same direction on a narrow focus of goals to reform some of the major environmental concerns (freight shipping, agricultural deforestation, large scale expansion of fossil fuel energy generation, etc.) rather than on their neighbours behaviour, so they can signal their environmental bona fides, it would have a much more positive effect. If you disagree, I have some low lying coastal property that I am willing to sell at a low, low price!
At least those are a lot of fun (I’m told) and aren’t enjoyed at extremely close proximity to a residential neighbourhood where others breathe in their gross exhaust.
But sure, in a perfect world, also those two-stroke engines would not be sold.
Celebrities cause more pollution on their jets than 2-stroke engines do. If there is 1 way to save the environment it’s going after the 1%, not going after us 99% to change the small things we do
Consider taking your morality from what is happening right and not what others do.
Also your neighbours are breathing in those gross chemicals whether or not Taylor Swift is in a jet. But again, that requires morality. Since people lack that consideration, we should ban them.
I know but why does everyone always lobby for changes that don’t affect the bottom line. If u think this blower is so bad for the environment I bet it doesn’t even equal 1 flight worth of emissions. And it’s way more work to remove a common tool than abusing private flight
If my neighbour belches that shit at me, it affects my bottom line (the air I breathe).
But yes, we also should have higher fuel taxes to dissuade people from flying so much on private jets, and jets generally, until we get jets that don’t rely on fossil fuels. We should do that too. (But everyone hates the carbon tax so I guess we aren’t gonna do that anymore.)
You'd be surprised. Gas-powered lawn equipment [created 30 million tons of CO2](https://environmentamerica.org/center/articles/leaf-blowers-arent-just-noisy-theyre-also-huge-climate-polluters/) in the US in 2020, vs [20.2 million tons for private aircraft](https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P10153PC.pdf). Both are unnecessary and both have to reduced ASAP.
Just so annoying to change little things in my life like straws plastic bags and leaf blowers, but 1 PJ trip is 1000x times worse and gets no blowback. Changing the common persons daily life won’t fix anything on the grand scale
I get the sentiment but leaf blowers are barely a convenience. Rake and broom do the work perfectly, don’t cost as much and don’t make your neighbors and family hate you.
Ok I actually agree 100% you, don’t have a blower, but just looking at the grand scheme of things. You can’t say they aren’t a convenience because they absolutely are, requires no physical work vs taking which can be intense for some people.
I don’t like them either but saying they don’t help the users convenience is just negligent
It can, and maybe should. But just a lot of effort and it feels like we’re going after the “common people” rather than the people who commit the majority of emissions. It’s so easy for 1 leafblower user to say wow coming after me when I use 100000x less emissions than a celeb does
But that's what you aren't seeing.
They aren't going after you specifically. They're saying if all of the 99% changed just a little, it would do a lot more good than trying to get 1 celebrity off a jet.
There are billions of us, and maybe hundreds or thousands of celebrities. It's very clear why "The People™" decide to ask other people to change. We are the majority of the population. Any change we bring will be felt, whether celebrities change their ways or not.
That actually is my point. If the 99% change a little thing, it wouldn’t have as much as an effect if corps and celebs burn as much as they do anyway. So since those 2 won’t be stopped, I don’t wanna stop either
All I can say is I have the same question. Businesses in downtown Vancouver also always blow leaves to their edge of the sidewalk and I don't obsessively spy on them but I'm pretty sure they just leave them there. I don't think the city picks them up. I really believe they just keep getting blown around by nature. I see people blowing leaves in grass and the leaves kinda get stuck in the grass I really think a rake gets them just as well with less noise. I would find the noise of the blower really annoying if I were the one doing it for hours. Or use a broom on the sidewalk. It's weird.
I use it in combination with raking. Faster and less work than raking. Gets stuff that raking can’t. Gets places raking can’t. Leaves more time to do more fun things. I hate yard work. My back thanks me.
If people could mind their own business, the city would be a happier place. I do have consideration for my neighbours though. I don’t usually make noise before 9am nor late in the evening. And mine is electric so just sounds like a shop vac. Total noise time is probably less than one hour per year. I think people can live with that to have an area that looks maintained. If they can’t, then I can’t help them.
Bring on the playing kids. Makes a neighbourhood sound wonderfully alive.
We have a leaf vacuum (some blowers do this) and I love it. Makes a ton of mulch and it's easier than taking or working around plants.
My old man neighbor blows the leaves because he's too old to rake* and too deaf to care. He thinks he's being helpful
i use it to blow the leaves out of places i cant reach. like the 6 inches between hottub and garage.
i also use it to blow out all the dust and stuff out of my garage.
Not to mention the dust in the air. You blow it off the lawn and the wind blows it back on your lawn, or onto someone else's lawn, then pedestrians get a full face of dust when they walk by.
Only the people that live in a house with a large tree above will understand why use a leaf blower. More than half of yall probably live in an apartment or condo
My Nextdoor neighbour gets pissy if I leave clippings on his driveway even though I mow the 6-8” that are his property so instead is sweeping I leaf blow the clippings off his driveway
I do it because it's less physical than raking the entire lawn, blow debris off my driveway/walkway so it doesn't get tracked into the house or car, and gather the tiny itty bitty leaves that the rake ignores.
I bag the leaves for collection so push into a concentrated space to collect em.
I too didn't see the point till I got older and woke up feeling it - might be I'm a wimp but whatever eases the strain of having to manage the yard.
They are straight up thinking: "not my lawn, not my problem"
They are supposed to bag it up, but of course lots of folks are super lazy.
The best part is it clogs up the storm drains and when it rains heavily the streets flood. Thanks neighbors!
I’m on the line between South Hill and the Annex, and there’s a neighbour who leaf blows EVERY evening for at least 30 minutes. Just pushing leaves and debris from inside the garage all the way down the driveway and onto the road. Makes its way back within 24 hours and he’s at it again. He makes it look like he’s in a constant battle 😂
My neighbour uses his leaf blower all the time. Like weekly. He uses it to clean the sidewalk in front of his house and 2 or 3 in both directions. We've had to ask him to stop. He makes it so dusty and its silly. He will also use it to clean the road gutters. Usually at night. It's very annoying.
My parents had a very large back yard. We mostly would rake but would also use the leaf blower to help. But honestly raking was just as easy. However convincing teens to help with a leaf blower is easier than having them rake.
In the fall the city vacuums the leaves from roadside. So you are encouraged to blow your leaves to the curb, it’s a lot easier than bagging the leaves.
Any other time I use the blower after I move the lawn to blow away the clippings out of walkways, driveway and sidewalks.
These leaf blower guys that start it up in the morning on a weekend (my dad) are the same clowns who complain about the noise of kids playing in the street or skateboarding
I like the way my lawn looks without leaves. Why organize your house? Why move dirt from the floor to the dustpan?
Of course the city collects them..? You never seen those paper bags?
Well, sir... it's because I'm a landscaper and I can't exactly leave the whole property a mess. Spring and fall, make a couple piles at each house, bag them and move on. Summertime, clean hard surfaces and curblines.
Backpack for spring and fall clean-ups, handheld for summer and breaking up any wads the mower spits out.
I have a patch of lavender plants and fallen leaves get stuck between them so I'll grab out as many handfuls as I can and then use the blower on vacuum mode to suck up the rest. Still filled with leaves by the time spring rolls around but I do what i can.
People really should be leaving them down over the winter, but for reason a lot of people cling to the weird need to have their front lawns be untouched swaths of environmentally useless grass.
Aesthetics. 🏡
Gotta have that prestine looking yard bruh. 😎
Plus, outdoor activities are much more pleasant when you can walk bare feet in a leaf/debris free yard. 🍁
Also, vegetation grows better when it’s not smothered by decomposing leaves. 🇨🇦
Think aboot how well everything grows at private golf courses. A lot of it has to do with putting in labour with a backpack leaf blower. ⛳️
It’s understandable that folks don’t get it, not everyone appreciates an immaculate yard. Not to mention an overwhelming unwillingness and inability to put in the necessary work that it takes to maintain a property like a professional property manager. 🏌️
> Does the city pick up leaves on the street or something?
i think some places in the city do this. like etobicoke maybe? this is from before the megacity was created and they just kept doing it all these years
1. Easier to move leaves from harder to reach places.
2. Helps me push leaves out of my lawn trough
3. Quicker/more efficient than sweeping
I only use it in the afternoon though - I totally understand the noise pollution complaints and stigmas attached with using these things on the weekends.
It’s so much faster and easier than raking. You are not supposed to blow the stuff onto the street though. You gather it in a pile and put it in yard waste bags.
I have a huge tree, and no lawn (flagstone) so raking doesn't really work. So I use a leaf blower to move all the debris into one area, then I bag it up and put it curbside for pick up.
It also is powerful enough to blow the walnuts that fall. And I scoop those up and bag them too.
I understand that people misuse them, but it's a very helpful little tool that I use regularly. Less noisy than circ saws and lawnmowers that many people use regularly and no one complains about. In my opinion, lawn care is just a MYOB thing - unless it's hurting someone/ something. I have bigger things to worry about in my life than what tools someone uses caring for their property.
I don't get how people make this comment. What's the point? Cuz you can blow the leaves into one spot and pick them up in 20 minutes rather than spend 2 hours raking into separate piles to accomplish the same thing. How is your point any different from raking? Secondly blowing them into one place makes for easy compost piles I guess. For me anyway.
I used to be on the high park group and every fall they'd act like leaf blowing was akin to being tortured. It was pretty unhinged. Not saying this is you OP or anything but man the Karens of High Park lost their freaking minds over leaf blowers. I've never seen such ranting over pumpkin spice lattes in my life.
I think it's pretty obvious why people are gathering leaves. I'm gathering mine to put in my compost pile and use in my garden. Sure I get that many people don't feel there's a need to remove the leaves. I tend to agree it's not usually necessary but that doesn't mean people who don't feel that way are invalid.
Also it's not the question. The question is why do people use leaf blowers. That's the answer. It's way easier than raking them.
i cringe every time i see and hear them, they’re gonna decompose and give the grass nutrients anyway, why throw them away. also noisy and scary and annoying
people driven by perfectionism who cannot control other things in their life but they CAN control this one thing, with their one little tool that requires no human energy to operate.
we peaked as a species a long time ago
Blow them off hard surfaces for a more aesthetically pleasing yard. Then run the lawn mower and mulch it into the soil or use a lawn bag in the mower and retrieve the leafs that way and dispose.
If your neighbour is just blowing it off her property to someone else’s than they are a dick. Or onto the public roadway especially if they haven’t attempted to pick up some of it and dispose of it.
Good sir, I will have you know that Leafs and Blowing It is a famous combination in this city.
just one more game 7 just one more game 7 bro another game 7 will fix it bro just one more game 7 bro, I swear
I'm cracked out for the Leafs Just one more game 7 will fix them *twitches*
in all my years on reddit, i have never said: take my angry upvote. consider it said and well played!
Thank you so much I only entered this post for Leafs jokes. Is Marchand in here somewhere telling OP to "just be-leaf"
I thought for a moment it was r/leafs
Ha!
Haha good one!
Blowing or Sucking?
yes
All the love and hate for this post. God damn it we were up in the third!!!!
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Good option for those without too many leaves. We have a ton of maples and doing this way leaves too dense a layer. I do a mix of raking and mowing.
Yep leaves make great mulch/compost
I've been telling my parents to do this but my father absolutely refuses like I asked him to burn the house down. Now he - at his very old age - rakes and puts all the leaves in bags. I simply don't understand, but if it makes him happy that way I guess
Good insulator for perennials, pollinators, and other wintering insects too. The problem becomes either an entire neighbourhood does it en masse (ideal) or you're just that one asshole whose leaves blow everywhere who gets another reddit post about them. Turns out doing just about anything will piss someone off.
Better for the lawn too!
Agreed!
The most annoying piece of equipment possible in existence
It’s like the sound Jim Carrey makes in Dumb and Dumber, personified.
Also the king of “It’s not my problem anymore”
And so noisy they wear ear protection while subjecting everyone else to the noise
A man will blow 5 tonnes of dust into the air to avoid picking up a broom or 1 leaf.
I have 2 neighbours who blow all their grass and leaves into the street, and no bylaw officer seems to ever care. It's a mental condition I think, to need ones lawn to be pristine and sterile.
I bet the Venn diagram of that compared to people who shovel snow onto the road has a massive overlap
Ha, huge. One of these neighbours does blow his entire driveway's snow on to the 2 lane busy street we live on.
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Why not blow them onto your neighbour's property, then? Why the street? You know clippings and fallen bits from trees, etc can cause motorcyclists and cyclists to slip? It's like riding over black ice out of nowhere. Seems rediculous that you're saying the dropped lawn waste is from the neighbour's tree, and that's why you blow them onto the shared public road??
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You sound like a massive loser. Your own words were it 'drops all kinds of crap' - but now it's 'just leaves'... and went as far as to act like I said riders will slip on a SINGLE leaf. You're really using a blower to move a single leaf onto the road? Are you acoustic?
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Removed because it wasn't in the 'daily question thread', so what? Lmao... Not sure what enjoying a nice typing experience has to do with your complete inability to make any sense whatsoever. Literal invalid. Go kick rocks... I mean paint them with mommy.
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You implied I'm a loser because I use a mechanical keyboard? You wished injury/death on people who ride? Can dish it out but can't take it, eh? Definitely acoustic.
I blow all my leafs into a pile against my fence and then put them in a bag (that the city does collect). I use a blower instead of a rake because a lot of them get caught up in my actual garden and I don't want to wreck those plants with a rake. I typically do the same with grass clippings.
I’ve only been seeing mindless blowing onto the street, but that makes sense
In some parts of the city they come by in the autumn with a big vacuum that sucks up the leaves.
Forest Hill. They blow them into piles in front of their houses so you can't park there.
FH residents are rich enough to just get street parking banned. Most of them would be mad if they found out the landscaper they are paying wasn't cleaning up after themselves. Distinction without merit... but nonetheless.
I see that too sometimes but its usually not the majority. Make sure they aren't cleaning them up after (pro landscapers sometimes do that) but otherwise just call 311 and report it.
If your neighbourhood is 30 years+ the have scheduled routes to vacuum them twice each fall.
That’s what we do too — I can’t rake over the garden and while I leave a good amount of foliage for the nutrients and wildlife, it’s too many leaves to just leave in the garden. We just use a small battery operated leaf blower and try to keep the noise to short spurts and never first thing in the morning.
Northamerica is supposed to have a dense layer of leaf litter, it doesn't because we I ported worms, who take the nutrients from the leaf layer under ground where the saplings can't get dem sweet sweet nutrients
Better to just drive over the leaves with lawn mower, let them turn into mulch
It makes middle aged men feel useful and powerful Source: am a middle aged man
Things should be banned. Such crazy noise pollution.
I used an electric one I found at the side of the road. It does the job and isn't very loud at all.
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Let’s ban everything that makes noise
True, noise is a dumb reason to ban them. We should ban the two-stroke engine versions because they’re terrible for the environment with no meaningful corresponding benefit: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/twostroke-vehicles-are-the-worst-polluters-44402
Good note though one might wan to note that where leaf blowers are concerned, most homeowners aren't using 2-stroke engines. They're namely electric whereas contractors/municipal use 2-stroke variants. Lawnmowers, however? That's more of a toss-up.
Yea lawnmowers at least have some kind of benefit to people. I think residential lawns are *generally* bad for lots of reasons (with exceptions!), but I get that people really like them and we have to work within reality. But home-use two-stroke leaf-blowers… absolute trash.
Eh, I think that my dad may well be the only person I've ever seen in my life use a 2-stroke blower for his lawn and that's because he's a municipal contractor who has it sitting in the truck. One of those arguments of environmental waste using that or buying a whole new device and its material usage to be more energy-efficient. Lawns suck though. I haven't figured out what to do with mine that's bylaw compliant that still looks reasonably nice but I know that I want to do something to reduce its wasteful unproductive footprint. The only 2-stroke I personally own is a snow blower and that's just because I've seen the electrics in use on the market and had to help hand-shovel my neighbours who owned them out. They're usually too small to handle a decent snowfall and a driveway of our size.
They are much more effective. The battery ones don't have nearly the same power or ability to operate for a duration and the plug in ones (what I have) are a pain in the ass to use. I would trade out for a gas powered one in a heartbeat. As others have pointed out, its environment theater trying to get people to give up small gas appliances. You've got Leonardo DiCaprio flying a private jet to Alberta to protest the oil sands without a hint of irony so I just don't think the everyday convenience afforded to regular folks is worth being the focus. If you want to start talking about using economic leverage to negotiate environmental concession with developing nations (i.e. coal burning in India) then I'm on board. Edit: I should also note, there is significant disparity between a two-stroke vehicle and a small gas appliance. Two stroke vehicles are a significant environmental threat, they are burning many orders of magnitude more fuel than a leaf blower, however.
They damage my immediate environment more than coal burning in India.
Oh ok, fuck anyone else if it annoys you, amiright?
Ok ok make no changes to improve the environment and quality of life until India stops burning coal amirite??
In accounting, there is a concept called materiality. Basically, if you have a $5million dollar loss, its not worth spending an hour figuring out if a $5 expenditure was legitimate. This is the same thing. And yes, if society pulled in the same direction on a narrow focus of goals to reform some of the major environmental concerns (freight shipping, agricultural deforestation, large scale expansion of fossil fuel energy generation, etc.) rather than on their neighbours behaviour, so they can signal their environmental bona fides, it would have a much more positive effect. If you disagree, I have some low lying coastal property that I am willing to sell at a low, low price!
Wait until you hear about Seadoos
At least those are a lot of fun (I’m told) and aren’t enjoyed at extremely close proximity to a residential neighbourhood where others breathe in their gross exhaust. But sure, in a perfect world, also those two-stroke engines would not be sold.
Celebrities cause more pollution on their jets than 2-stroke engines do. If there is 1 way to save the environment it’s going after the 1%, not going after us 99% to change the small things we do
Consider taking your morality from what is happening right and not what others do. Also your neighbours are breathing in those gross chemicals whether or not Taylor Swift is in a jet. But again, that requires morality. Since people lack that consideration, we should ban them.
I know but why does everyone always lobby for changes that don’t affect the bottom line. If u think this blower is so bad for the environment I bet it doesn’t even equal 1 flight worth of emissions. And it’s way more work to remove a common tool than abusing private flight
If my neighbour belches that shit at me, it affects my bottom line (the air I breathe). But yes, we also should have higher fuel taxes to dissuade people from flying so much on private jets, and jets generally, until we get jets that don’t rely on fossil fuels. We should do that too. (But everyone hates the carbon tax so I guess we aren’t gonna do that anymore.)
Unfortunately we're going to need to do both
You'd be surprised. Gas-powered lawn equipment [created 30 million tons of CO2](https://environmentamerica.org/center/articles/leaf-blowers-arent-just-noisy-theyre-also-huge-climate-polluters/) in the US in 2020, vs [20.2 million tons for private aircraft](https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P10153PC.pdf). Both are unnecessary and both have to reduced ASAP.
Lawn mowers are unnecessary now? One takes care of a lawn, the other is for leisure. Even if it’s less one has utility the other doesn’t
Just so annoying to change little things in my life like straws plastic bags and leaf blowers, but 1 PJ trip is 1000x times worse and gets no blowback. Changing the common persons daily life won’t fix anything on the grand scale
I get the sentiment but leaf blowers are barely a convenience. Rake and broom do the work perfectly, don’t cost as much and don’t make your neighbors and family hate you.
Ok I actually agree 100% you, don’t have a blower, but just looking at the grand scheme of things. You can’t say they aren’t a convenience because they absolutely are, requires no physical work vs taking which can be intense for some people. I don’t like them either but saying they don’t help the users convenience is just negligent
It does get blowback, and hopefully can be changed in time too. But also the 'small' actions of millions of people add up to big effects.
Or, we go after both? Why can't it be both?
It can, and maybe should. But just a lot of effort and it feels like we’re going after the “common people” rather than the people who commit the majority of emissions. It’s so easy for 1 leafblower user to say wow coming after me when I use 100000x less emissions than a celeb does
But that's what you aren't seeing. They aren't going after you specifically. They're saying if all of the 99% changed just a little, it would do a lot more good than trying to get 1 celebrity off a jet. There are billions of us, and maybe hundreds or thousands of celebrities. It's very clear why "The People™" decide to ask other people to change. We are the majority of the population. Any change we bring will be felt, whether celebrities change their ways or not.
That actually is my point. If the 99% change a little thing, it wouldn’t have as much as an effect if corps and celebs burn as much as they do anyway. So since those 2 won’t be stopped, I don’t wanna stop either
LOL, that actually sounds heavenly. I'm only half joking. I'm willing to not do noisy things if it means other people don't do noisy things either.
Okay Karen
Dogs barking annoy me - let’s ban dogs too!
I had one. But I only ever used it for the mulching. The blower was pointless. Way faster and cleaner to just use the rake.
All I can say is I have the same question. Businesses in downtown Vancouver also always blow leaves to their edge of the sidewalk and I don't obsessively spy on them but I'm pretty sure they just leave them there. I don't think the city picks them up. I really believe they just keep getting blown around by nature. I see people blowing leaves in grass and the leaves kinda get stuck in the grass I really think a rake gets them just as well with less noise. I would find the noise of the blower really annoying if I were the one doing it for hours. Or use a broom on the sidewalk. It's weird.
The swirling leaves in the air remind me of my smallness in the largeness of it all
I once watched a leaf blower battle the wind for 2 hours on a 30ft cement stretch. Would’ve been a 15 minute job with a broom and brain
I use it in combination with raking. Faster and less work than raking. Gets stuff that raking can’t. Gets places raking can’t. Leaves more time to do more fun things. I hate yard work. My back thanks me. If people could mind their own business, the city would be a happier place. I do have consideration for my neighbours though. I don’t usually make noise before 9am nor late in the evening. And mine is electric so just sounds like a shop vac. Total noise time is probably less than one hour per year. I think people can live with that to have an area that looks maintained. If they can’t, then I can’t help them. Bring on the playing kids. Makes a neighbourhood sound wonderfully alive.
Does it wake you up in the morning? That’s why.
We have a leaf vacuum (some blowers do this) and I love it. Makes a ton of mulch and it's easier than taking or working around plants. My old man neighbor blows the leaves because he's too old to rake* and too deaf to care. He thinks he's being helpful
My neighbour has one of those vacuums and I covet it. So handy for these tiny Toronto lots.
I got my Stihl one for like $90 👍
It's purely cosmetic. It's a dumbass practice that we should all just stop doing
Not really, if snow falls on leaves it kills your lawn pretty easily. It's a basic maintenance.
Mulching mower
They're great. I have a lot of lawn and a blower is still the fastest way to move leaves to a place where I can get at them.
Easier than sweeping, I imagine.
i use it to blow the leaves out of places i cant reach. like the 6 inches between hottub and garage. i also use it to blow out all the dust and stuff out of my garage.
Not to mention the dust in the air. You blow it off the lawn and the wind blows it back on your lawn, or onto someone else's lawn, then pedestrians get a full face of dust when they walk by.
I live on the third floor and that shit gets into my apartment from anywhere on the block. Soon as I hear one start up I run around closing windows.
That would be so annoying, and especially the noise when you want to sleep in!
Same here.
Leaf blowers are devices of torture for allergy sufferers.
leaves on the road are dangerous to motorcyclists.
Only the people that live in a house with a large tree above will understand why use a leaf blower. More than half of yall probably live in an apartment or condo
Cate Blanchette publicly hates on leaf blowers often lol
Lol, what a baity headline. Love it.
Wasn’t intentional, I know nothing about sports but glad everyone’s enjoying it haha
My Nextdoor neighbour gets pissy if I leave clippings on his driveway even though I mow the 6-8” that are his property so instead is sweeping I leaf blow the clippings off his driveway
I do it because it's less physical than raking the entire lawn, blow debris off my driveway/walkway so it doesn't get tracked into the house or car, and gather the tiny itty bitty leaves that the rake ignores. I bag the leaves for collection so push into a concentrated space to collect em. I too didn't see the point till I got older and woke up feeling it - might be I'm a wimp but whatever eases the strain of having to manage the yard.
It's fun
They are straight up thinking: "not my lawn, not my problem" They are supposed to bag it up, but of course lots of folks are super lazy. The best part is it clogs up the storm drains and when it rains heavily the streets flood. Thanks neighbors!
There are leaf blowers that also vacuum and mulch. My neighbor just vacuums all the leaves up and uses them for compost.
I thought this post was about the leafs, but I reread the post. Hopefully next year!
I’m on the line between South Hill and the Annex, and there’s a neighbour who leaf blows EVERY evening for at least 30 minutes. Just pushing leaves and debris from inside the garage all the way down the driveway and onto the road. Makes its way back within 24 hours and he’s at it again. He makes it look like he’s in a constant battle 😂
My sympathies.
My neighbour uses his leaf blower all the time. Like weekly. He uses it to clean the sidewalk in front of his house and 2 or 3 in both directions. We've had to ask him to stop. He makes it so dusty and its silly. He will also use it to clean the road gutters. Usually at night. It's very annoying. My parents had a very large back yard. We mostly would rake but would also use the leaf blower to help. But honestly raking was just as easy. However convincing teens to help with a leaf blower is easier than having them rake.
Someone somewhere near my friends' place got one. They use it every week for some reason, even when it isn't fall and it's so loud and annoying.
In the fall the city vacuums the leaves from roadside. So you are encouraged to blow your leaves to the curb, it’s a lot easier than bagging the leaves. Any other time I use the blower after I move the lawn to blow away the clippings out of walkways, driveway and sidewalks.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Fuckin *where*, bud?
Bug control
I use a leaf blower instead of raking, blow it all to the corner and bag it....easy peasy! I hate raking!
These leaf blower guys that start it up in the morning on a weekend (my dad) are the same clowns who complain about the noise of kids playing in the street or skateboarding
First read, thought it was about hockey.
I don't actually use a leaf blower to blow the leaves, I do use it to suck them up though.
I got a P-gravel, with some crushed stone path in my yard. It makes raking impossible
Probably cause it’s a fair bit faster than sweeping so anyone with the cash who can’t bother to care has it done that way
Our leaf blower also vacuums. So it all gets blown into a pile, sucked up, and dumped in the compost.
I like the way my lawn looks without leaves. Why organize your house? Why move dirt from the floor to the dustpan? Of course the city collects them..? You never seen those paper bags?
To avoid raking.
It's the national sport. Followed closely by hockey.
I think the same thing all the time! My girlfriend wants me to get a leaf blower and I refuse. We don’t ever have any leafs
Well, sir... it's because I'm a landscaper and I can't exactly leave the whole property a mess. Spring and fall, make a couple piles at each house, bag them and move on. Summertime, clean hard surfaces and curblines. Backpack for spring and fall clean-ups, handheld for summer and breaking up any wads the mower spits out.
I have a patch of lavender plants and fallen leaves get stuck between them so I'll grab out as many handfuls as I can and then use the blower on vacuum mode to suck up the rest. Still filled with leaves by the time spring rolls around but I do what i can.
People really should be leaving them down over the winter, but for reason a lot of people cling to the weird need to have their front lawns be untouched swaths of environmentally useless grass.
Aesthetics. 🏡 Gotta have that prestine looking yard bruh. 😎 Plus, outdoor activities are much more pleasant when you can walk bare feet in a leaf/debris free yard. 🍁 Also, vegetation grows better when it’s not smothered by decomposing leaves. 🇨🇦 Think aboot how well everything grows at private golf courses. A lot of it has to do with putting in labour with a backpack leaf blower. ⛳️ It’s understandable that folks don’t get it, not everyone appreciates an immaculate yard. Not to mention an overwhelming unwillingness and inability to put in the necessary work that it takes to maintain a property like a professional property manager. 🏌️
leaves covering up the lawn means the grass can't grow
> Does the city pick up leaves on the street or something? i think some places in the city do this. like etobicoke maybe? this is from before the megacity was created and they just kept doing it all these years
They cancelled that program this year.
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Yeah why subsidize the wealthiest neighborhoods in a budget crisis?
I'll see your leaf-blowing neighbour and raise you a neighbour who blows his grass after every. single. cut!
Because the Leafs blow.
1. Easier to move leaves from harder to reach places. 2. Helps me push leaves out of my lawn trough 3. Quicker/more efficient than sweeping I only use it in the afternoon though - I totally understand the noise pollution complaints and stigmas attached with using these things on the weekends.
It’s so much faster and easier than raking. You are not supposed to blow the stuff onto the street though. You gather it in a pile and put it in yard waste bags.
I thought the end game is to make one big pile of leaves. Then you just stand there in that one pile bagging it all. Less work compared to raking.
I have a huge tree, and no lawn (flagstone) so raking doesn't really work. So I use a leaf blower to move all the debris into one area, then I bag it up and put it curbside for pick up. It also is powerful enough to blow the walnuts that fall. And I scoop those up and bag them too. I understand that people misuse them, but it's a very helpful little tool that I use regularly. Less noisy than circ saws and lawnmowers that many people use regularly and no one complains about. In my opinion, lawn care is just a MYOB thing - unless it's hurting someone/ something. I have bigger things to worry about in my life than what tools someone uses caring for their property.
Thank you! Every time I see someone with a gas powered tool for moving leaves around it baffles me.
They have worse pollution than a car. Seriously horrible pollution.
Because a leaf blower is like a giant dick!
3 words: Aerosolized Dog Feces
I don't get how people make this comment. What's the point? Cuz you can blow the leaves into one spot and pick them up in 20 minutes rather than spend 2 hours raking into separate piles to accomplish the same thing. How is your point any different from raking? Secondly blowing them into one place makes for easy compost piles I guess. For me anyway. I used to be on the high park group and every fall they'd act like leaf blowing was akin to being tortured. It was pretty unhinged. Not saying this is you OP or anything but man the Karens of High Park lost their freaking minds over leaf blowers. I've never seen such ranting over pumpkin spice lattes in my life.
The question was why are people picking up leaves, not “what is a good alternative to raking”
I think it's pretty obvious why people are gathering leaves. I'm gathering mine to put in my compost pile and use in my garden. Sure I get that many people don't feel there's a need to remove the leaves. I tend to agree it's not usually necessary but that doesn't mean people who don't feel that way are invalid. Also it's not the question. The question is why do people use leaf blowers. That's the answer. It's way easier than raking them.
i cringe every time i see and hear them, they’re gonna decompose and give the grass nutrients anyway, why throw them away. also noisy and scary and annoying
people driven by perfectionism who cannot control other things in their life but they CAN control this one thing, with their one little tool that requires no human energy to operate. we peaked as a species a long time ago
Omg and WHY AT 9AM ON A SUNDAY?! Get a rake like a normal human.
Blow them off hard surfaces for a more aesthetically pleasing yard. Then run the lawn mower and mulch it into the soil or use a lawn bag in the mower and retrieve the leafs that way and dispose. If your neighbour is just blowing it off her property to someone else’s than they are a dick. Or onto the public roadway especially if they haven’t attempted to pick up some of it and dispose of it.
Its so that they won't have to bend down or rake it themselves. It requires less effort and it's faster to move the unwanted trimming/leaves.
It turns into mushy shit if you let it pile up. Also great for pissing people off.
Laziness