I hate leaf blowers. If leaves need to be removed from paths (to avoid people suing the council when they fall after slipping on fallen leaves) they can be raked! But definitely I've never understood the need for so much tidiness, fallen leaves are beautiful and part of nature's cycle.
Similar story with dead wood, unfortunately. Visiting the New Forest last weekend, I realised how used to seeing tidied woods I had become. In the Forest there is dead wood everywhere, fallen and standing, a beautiful place, rich with wildlife.
Love this! Not least because there are so many leaves clogging my garden just now - gathered into corners, banked up in great drifts - fabulous drifts. x
My apartment building has a small garden, we are not allowed to go there (the landlord had lots of issues with tenants spoiling it in the past) but there is a gardener coming every few weeks. I call him the butcher, as no planted flower nor blossomed branch survives his passage, he simply "shaves" the lawn and every single weed he encounters. Thankfully he doesn't come very often in the colder months so I can still see autumn leaves on the grass until they decompose. Small blessings!
The people who use leaf-blowers, like the people who have billiard table lawns, who have naked lawns, are not conscious of the natural environment. They despise it and want to crush it. I wish there was a chance they cared, but I don't think they do.
My neighbor texted me just today to apologize about all the noise from his landscapers using their leaf blowers.
Many landscaping companies run out of work because the lawns have stopped growing, so they roundup as many leaves as they can. Here, they have a lot of down time before the snows arrive.
It would be interesting to see a test where landscapers use rakes versus leaf blowers. I would bet on the rakers to be more productive any day. And the leaf blowers have so many down sides.
My favourite thing about autumn, shuffling my feet through the copper, brass and gold of fallen leaves. The leaf blower is ever incomprehensible to me with its noise and petrol smell, like a mark of laziness and disrespect.
I hate leaf blowers. If leaves need to be removed from paths (to avoid people suing the council when they fall after slipping on fallen leaves) they can be raked! But definitely I've never understood the need for so much tidiness, fallen leaves are beautiful and part of nature's cycle.
Absolutely!
Leaf blowers are the worst. They should be banned. So noisy as well as pointless.
Yep
Similar story with dead wood, unfortunately. Visiting the New Forest last weekend, I realised how used to seeing tidied woods I had become. In the Forest there is dead wood everywhere, fallen and standing, a beautiful place, rich with wildlife.
Great point! I love the New Forest, you might like this piece I wrote on it this year. https://www.urbannaturediary.com/p/my-heart-is-in-the-new-forest
Love this! Not least because there are so many leaves clogging my garden just now - gathered into corners, banked up in great drifts - fabulous drifts. x
Drifts of leaves is a fabulous image!
My apartment building has a small garden, we are not allowed to go there (the landlord had lots of issues with tenants spoiling it in the past) but there is a gardener coming every few weeks. I call him the butcher, as no planted flower nor blossomed branch survives his passage, he simply "shaves" the lawn and every single weed he encounters. Thankfully he doesn't come very often in the colder months so I can still see autumn leaves on the grass until they decompose. Small blessings!
Crazy how gardening is often just hacking back plants as much as possible!
The people who use leaf-blowers, like the people who have billiard table lawns, who have naked lawns, are not conscious of the natural environment. They despise it and want to crush it. I wish there was a chance they cared, but I don't think they do.
My neighbor texted me just today to apologize about all the noise from his landscapers using their leaf blowers.
Many landscaping companies run out of work because the lawns have stopped growing, so they roundup as many leaves as they can. Here, they have a lot of down time before the snows arrive.
It would be interesting to see a test where landscapers use rakes versus leaf blowers. I would bet on the rakers to be more productive any day. And the leaf blowers have so many down sides.
Interesting to think that collecting leaves is just a way of keeping landscapers in work out of season. I hadn’t thought of that.
My favourite thing about autumn, shuffling my feet through the copper, brass and gold of fallen leaves. The leaf blower is ever incomprehensible to me with its noise and petrol smell, like a mark of laziness and disrespect.
100%!