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November 09, 2006

Comments

Just so you know, 2 cycle engines are filthy. Now I also have a couple, and a hot rod, and other politically incorrect etcs, but they really are filthy engines.

Sounds like your lanscape is at fault. You have 10 acres that require leaf blowing?

No one goes through and blows leaves in all the forests and wild lands around Oregon. And yet they still seem to look just fine every season. Blowing leaves is sort of like mowing lawns. A whole lot of unnecessary work caused by landscapes that are too labor intensive and unnatural.

If you really want to dump the leaf blower perhaps take a look at your landscape choices and go with a more natural design that can absorb the leaves naturally.

Myself? I just mow my leaves in place with a mulching mower on the lawn and don't bother the ones that fall in the flower beds. I blow the leaves off the patio with an electric blower but that's it.

I loved this post and also love my leaf blower which I have been using happily again this fall. I remember years of raking leaves and agree with you Thoreau could find beauty in this tool. It teaches you things like on the days you try to blow them against the wind and the wind thinks otherwise.

It is a satisfying job as I can see results even knowing as I look up at the huge oak trees that more is yet to be done. At one time I didn't see the need for this, thought go natural... and then had a year of muck in the driveways as they disintegrated over the winter-- not to mention most flower beds don't really like a heavy layer of oak leaves and how can the sheep eat the grass with leaves covering it (yes, wimpy, spoiled sheep). I am not quite done with it here-- looking up but the lawns, deck and driveway look great for the moment :)

Autumn afternoons, when it's just my leaf blower and me (mine is electric and a cord does limit me some), it's almost Zen with how the only thing I can think about is the leaves, how they look, where they are going, did I get them all, will the cord stretch far enough? Other problems just fall away.

Chuck, the Stihl backpack leaf blowers are much Greener than older blowers. Their Stihl 4-Mix engine (don't ask me what that means) reportedly is five times cleaner than the California Air Standard's emissions requirement.

See:
https://www.aqmd.gov/news1/2006/leafblowerexchangepr.html

Kent, most of our ten acres is left natural. There the leaves fall where they may. As Rain said, I've learned that it just isn't practical to let our high volume of fallen leaves sit on landscaped areas to rot.

They're unsightly, for one thing. They also tend to smother low-lying groundcover. I too use a mower to chop up relatively small amounts of leaves on the lawn.

I don't burn any leaves. So aside from the relatively small amount of gasoline/oil I burn in the blower, my method is pretty darn Green. I scatter all of the leaves back into nature, so each and every one gets recycled.

I was imagining blowing the leaves off a 10 acre manicured estate!

I still think Thoreau would have figured out how to live with the leaves though.

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