As a scandinavian I never got what the deal is. Just let it decompose? Or use a rake, it's not that hard.
Then I visited Texas, and leafblowers were everywhere to the point where I had to ask a coworker "why do you guys hate leaves so much?"
this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
322 points (91.9% liked)
Showerthoughts
35230 readers
1352 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It goes against the perfect manicured lawn narrative.
And perfect lawns are horrible for the environment!
Won't someone please think of the property values‽
I will not, I own this property now and will do what I like with it! The front garden has taken care of its self for the past 2 years now. Loads of foxgloves growing right now and a mix of some other things. I do remove a few thorns though when they start getting big.
Mainly focusing effort on the back garden, got some shrubs growing but want them to get bigger to properly take up the area they are growing in and cover some of the bare soil a bit more. Its getting better over time. I think a cat keeps trying to dig in some of them too and having bigger established shrubs in the way should prevent that but it takes time. Overall focus is on low maintenance things.
And boring to look at, I would rather see a mix of flowers and bees.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I'm Brazilian. As one can imagine, we do have a lot of leaves, being a tropical country and all.
I have not seen a leaf blower in my entire life, and I don't understand the obsession with them.
Being in a tropical country, I imagine most/all of your trees are non-deciduous, as in they don't lose all their leaves in autumn and then regrow in the spring? Imagine all the leaves drying up, falling off, and the mess is left all over the ground. Cleanup is a laborious effort. Leaf blowers speed up the process by blowing the leaves from trafficked locations and/or to more centralized locations that are easier to clean the debris. Helpful, noisy, and often environmentally unfriendly.
You're correct about most trees not following your typical seasonal variance.
You're incorrect about this meaning we don't deal with significant amounts of leaves and flowers. Search for Handroanthus images, then imagine one on each sidewalk, and imagine all their flowers on the ground.
load more comments
(2 replies)
The massive jacaranda mimosifolia (native to Brazil) which is dominating my front garden, laughs at your suggestion that it does not leave much mess on the ground.
It regularly carpets the area below it in purple flowers, tens of thousands of small leaves, hundreds of twigs/seed pods and a few larger dried branches. Not just one season either - it flowers multiple times a year with how weird the weather is nowadays. The birds and bees like it though so we're cool.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I envy you. They are the bane of my existence. I have 4 neighbors that use them for landscaping once a week, most of the year. As for the appeal: you ever see a kid use a straw to blow stuff around? My theory is leaf blowers are an extension of that curiosity. A toy, really. When I hear someone rationalizing their use of a leaf blower, I hear someone talking about a toy they like. nevermind all the times i hear folks revving them like they're on a motorcycle.
Gas ones are banned in my town starting June 1st. Going to be reporting so many people.
Luckily I own a battery powered one owned by a giant multinational gas company (Ego/Chevron)!
load more comments
(6 replies)
I had a neighbor who was rather compulsive about her yard. She would mow her yard/have it mowed 2-3 times a week and would use a leaf blower to push the grass clippings onto her neighbors yard every time. She would also leaf blow her roof with surprising frequency.
I gotta say, I was a little relieved when I saw the for sale sign in the yard earlier this year.
I agree that overuse of them is an issue, but damn they come in handy more than I thought it would... Mine is at least electric, and cleaning out dusty stuff (fans, cars, rugs, etc) is so quick and easy... I almost never use mine for grass or leaves.
Yeah! Clean the coils onthe fridge fast and easy. (Open windows first. Close cupboard doors.)
Oof, I’d go shop vac there. You’re just spreading it around, no?
If on the scale of annoyance gas leaf blowers are 10/10, electric are 3/10.
Ditto. Primarily mine is used to "sweep" the shop and dry off motorcycles after washing.
load more comments
(10 replies)
The answer to the world's problems ..... remove leaf blowers
you jest, but children around the world are no longer starving thanks to this post.
load more comments
(2 replies)
You know, I was just— bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Your comment blows, dude...
It sounds like a very American problem. I just let the leaves rot away on their own really, maybe sweep the path by my house and they can sit on a garden bed around some plants and rot down there.
load more comments
(3 replies)
The world will be better when people will stop following the medieval trend of having a lawn. Water consumption, leaf blowers, habitat invasion would be finally gone.
I get a lot of leaves. I have a battery powered 60v leaf blower. I blow them away from my foundation so I don’t get a rotting mound around my house. Then I have to blow those away or they won’t biodegrade without leaving giant dirt patches. What I’ve found works well is blowing them into the forest bed at the edge of my property. The deer and other animals seem to help break them down. I don’t have to worry about them until fall but there are just too many to leave lie where they land. I go through three batteries a day over the course of weeks to keep them from building up really bad. I’m not a mow every week manicured lawn kind of person either. Right now most of my back yard is over a foot tall with a mowed area for my small dog.
I also like the leaf blower for cleaning off my gutter guards, drive, lawn mower, garage floor, deck, and even when it’s just a light snow I’ll go out a few times to blow everything off so I don’t have to shovel.
load more comments
(4 replies)
They were invented in the 1950s.
So the Depression and the World Wars were quieter....
load more comments
(2 replies)
Leaf blowers piss me the fuck offffff VvRrrmmmm Five seconds later… VRRRMMMMMM Sound gets closer… VRRRRRrrrMmmmmmMMMMM!!!
Blowers should be illegal.
we are blessed here to have the noise in the winter, too. more than three flakes of snow and there's sure to be a legion of leaf blowers clearing off precious pavement in neighborhoods all over town. the guys that do it at 4-5am are the true treasures.
I always think about something along these lines about cars.
Relevant podcast episode. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-los-angeles-leaf-blower-wars/
load more comments
(1 replies)
am i the baddie?
My grandfather got in a minor disagreement with his neighbor one time. Shortly after I went to his house to visit and saw his neighbor on the roof blowing leaves off his roof on to my grandfather's lawn.🤣
Wouldn't a goat be a cheaper and less polluting solution which would also automatically mow the lawn and produce milk..?
(Of course it wouldn't solve the noise problem, but it'd probably be less offensive than a leaf blower...)
You think that right up until you see and smell how much poop comes from one cow/goat/sheep. If your neighbor had one, you would have complaints.
Echoing another comment in this thread, I'm from Argentina and I've seen maybe one leaf blower in my entire lifetime. However, I've been to the US , so I believe you (my condolences)
If my understanding is correct, leaf blowers contribute a lot to the current massive bug die-off that's been happening lately all over, because many bug species reproduce in leaf litter. In that regard, they're not only terrible noise-wise, but ecologically-wise as well.
So, terrible all around.
view more: next ›