Leaf blowing

[sparksals]

I'm in the UK, and was going to post that I agreed that Larrabee that I'd never seen a leaf-blower here (never heard of them before E-hell in fact), but what do I see not even 2 hours ago?

A man leaf-blowing his front garden! Actually, it had a bag attached, so it was kind of a leaf-sucker (like a hoover). This seems to make more sense that just the blowing kind, are they not common in the US?

I haven't seen the type you describe.  I guess that would be a leaf sucker? 

[Judah]

I just counted 19 deciduous trees in on our property.  No way am I going to give up my leaf blower to rake all those leaves.  A build up of leaves will clog the storm drains causing the house to flood, the lawns to die, and giving mosquitoes a nice place to live and reproduce.  The truth is, it takes one person with a rake and another with a leaf blower several hours every Saturday for about 10 weeks to keep the leaves from overwhelming us, so we pay someone else to do the work.  But when we did it ourselves, we used a blower that both blew and sucked.

[Spoder]

A leaf blower is not even half as loud as a mower. 

I have to disagree. I work next to a park and the city's maintenance staff has leaf-blowers that are ungodly loud and often used every day, _all_ of spring and fall. Even with closed windows the sound is extremely grating and they really take their time.

I think leaf-blowers are a huge waste of energy. Trouble is, they are used around here above all so the staff using them can work faster and not claim exeedingly strenuous work - so the city can pay them minimum wage.

Not sure which I dislike more: leaf-blowers or the whole city employment system.

Oh, I guess I can see an institutional size LB being loud, but a household size?  Nowhere close to a lawn mower or even a weed whacker.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I honestly think the jury's out on that one. I did a bit of googling, out of interest, and except for some small models that use the latest technology, it seems domestic leaf-blowers are as loud, or louder, than lawnmowers.

I was surprised too, but here's just one example:

http://www.nonoise.org/library/household/index.htm

[sparksals]

Well, I can say with all certainty our LB is nowhere near as loud as our lawn mower.  Not even close.  I do'nt know how recent it is.. we've had it about 5 years, so certainly not an old or new tech.

[kherbert05]

My lawn guys use a blower not so much for leaves as to get any cutting that go in the cutter. Allowing yard waste to go down the storm sewers can get you a fine I believe. Houston was built on swamp and bayou land. Street flooding can be a problem in a regular thunderstorm if the storm sewers are blocked.


Hurricane season is even more of a danger.

[jaxsue]

Leaf blowers are very common here. I don't understand it, myself. It would make sense if we were talking about a big suburban lawn, but everyone here has a wee postage stamp that could be raked in five minutes flat. Seems like a huge waste of money to use a leafblower!

My neighborhood (NJ) is pretty much postage-stamp-sized yards, yet people use leaf blowers a lot. In fact, my a-retentive neighbor will get his out to blow one leaf off his lawn! I am not exaggerating.

When I grew up we used rakes (it was us kids' jobs). A leaf-blower was not even considered. I don't like them due to the noise pollution and real pollution. They're very high on the "pollution" scale.

[sparksals]

My dh wondered out loud the other day when we were jealous how our neighbour has no snow remnants after shoveling or plowing snow.  He wondered if he cheats and uses a leaf blower instead to move the light dusting of snow so it doesn't grate into the driveway. 

[WhiteTigerCub]

I have a desert landscaped front yard with rocks, flower bushes, rocks, cactus, rocks and more rocks. Occasionally it is necessary to clean up the unsightly dead leaves and flower petals that blow in. Because it's very difficult to rake rocks, my landscaper uses a leaf blower to get my yard all tidy looking. He does my front porch too. Quick and easy clean up for him.

[EMuir]

We mow our leaves and then put them on our compost pile.  I've seen people here use leaf blowers after a very light snowfall to clear their walks too.

[magicdomino]

I'm in the UK, and was going to post that I agreed that Larrabee that I'd never seen a leaf-blower here (never heard of them before E-hell in fact), but what do I see not even 2 hours ago?

A man leaf-blowing his front garden! Actually, it had a bag attached, so it was kind of a leaf-sucker (like a hoover). This seems to make more sense that just the blowing kind, are they not common in the US?

I haven't seen the type you describe.  I guess that would be a leaf sucker?

Some models of leaf blowers, like mine, have an attachment that turns it into a vacuum/mulcher. In fact, I bought my leaf blower for that attachement:  I would rake the leaves into a pile by hand, then use the mulcher attachment.   Now my lawn mower has a bagging attachment, so I use that to suck up the leaves.  Leaves are then dumped in various flower and veggie beds because these are my leaves, nobody else can have them.