On a lighter but rantier note...

[ewt]

Leafblowers:

WHY?

Ugh. Stupid.

Comments

[nitoda]

There are reasons. Our old garden in Doncaster had many trees and a high hedge. It had what was supposed to be a lawn too but over the years it had grown more moss and weeds than grass. Leaving the fallen leaves on the "lawn" contributes to killing the grass. Raking leaves is backbreaking labour. Leaves don't all compost well.
What exactly about leaf blowers do you object to?

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

My guess is a combination of loudness and the fact that petrol-powered leaf blowers are incredibly polluting (inefficient two-stroke engines without catalytic converter); electric leaf blowers exist, but seem to run about fifteen minutes per battery, and I can't find a model for which you can conveniently keep ten hours of batteries in your van and swap out batteries when they expire.

[nitoda]

Ah - our leaf blower was electrically powered on a lead. A long lead. :-)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

If raking leaves is backbreaking then you need a rake with a longer handle, like sweeping. Or...other things where you have a long pole that goes down to the ground. Crutches and things.

[nitoda]

If you enjoy raking leaves from around a dozen trees in a quarter acre plot, then all strength to you. I've never understood why people like gardening. To me it is all hard labour. But raking and bagging leaves ranks right up there with shovelling snow.

I'm glad your mileage seems to vary.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Oh boy, shovelling snow!

It may help to point out that my only form of exercise is doing stuff like that, and I really like it. Running just feels like too much pain for not enough results. Raking leaves, shovelling snow and digging vegetable plots makes me feel like I've done something really useful and sleep really well.