Yesterday I watched a man in the supermarket carpark walking around with a leaf blower, apparently aimlessly stirring up leaves and rubbish and blowing it around the carpark.
Sometimes council workmen walk the streets doing the same.
What are they trying to achieve? I could understand if they were vacuuming it up, but why just blowing? Are they hoping the wind will take it away so that someone else has to clear it up properly?
It's a noisy operation. The man has a hefty petrol engine and blower in a harness on his back, and wears ear defenders.
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You see it in France a lot. I actually owned an electric one back along and found it useful, but I have a big garden and a lot of trees. That one sucked as well and ground up the leaves.
Some time ago in a seaside town near La Rochelle I watched a team of five workers and a supervisor using petrol-powered machines to blow sand from the esplanade road back onto the beach. I took a photo so I wouldn't think I'd dreamed it.
A few weeks ago I watched a similarly equipped team in Menton, blowing confetti into a heap after the annual lemon festival parade. I snapped that as well.
I suppose it's the high-tech, money-wasting, up-to-the-minute equivalent of a person with a broom - who would, in my opinion, have much more control over the actual process.
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The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
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The operatives that I've seen using them, blow the leaves into a heap then come along with a trailer which has a suction device attached that gobbles them all up.
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The only situation in which I've felt a blower might be useful is when I've been trying to separate dry leaves (very light) from gravel (heavy enough not to get blown away.) A rake tends to collect equal proportions of leaves and gravel. But for leaves on grass, especially if it's at all wet, a good rake makes much more sense.
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I agree. A proper plastic (or wood if you are a traditionalist) lawn rake is much more useful than a leaf blower in the average domestic situation. The best way to pick up the raked leaves is with a couple of pieces of board used as "hands"
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Hmmm depends, mainly on whether you have dog or not... Rake can be a mistake. Not as dramatic a mistake as a strimmer but nonetheless ...
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I don't get dog ownership. Why would anyone want a garden full of dog crap? I suppose there must be benefits but I just don't get it.
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>> I don't get dog ownership. Why would anyone want a garden full of dog crap?
>> I suppose there must be benefits but I just don't get it.
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Dogs hypnotise vulnerable humans into believing they are the dog's "master" or "mistress".
And then they (the dogs) are fed daily, kept warm and taken for walks when they want and don't even have to learn toilet training or clean up after themselves.
The benefits are for the dogs. The "owners" are just weak willed fools who have a lack of empathy with humans and find a dog provides it..
:-)
We used to have cats...
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>> The operatives that I've seen using them, blow the leaves into a heap then come
>> along with a trailer which has a suction device attached that gobbles them all up.
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No, actually the opposite. Wherever the litter was tending to accumulate he just scattered it about more thinly and then left it.
He was back again this morning, this time spraying weedkiller over all the pavements. There are no weeds.
The prize for apparently pointless operations must go to another operative a few days ago who was gently spraying water over newly-laid paving slabs that had been set in dry mortar.
It was pouring with rain while he was doing this.
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>> this time spraying weedkiller over all the pavements. There are no weeds.
Maybe there are no weeds because he sprays the pavements with weedkiller??
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 9 Apr 14 at 10:42
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I used to have a leaf blower when we lived in the UK. We lived on the edge of a forest, so it formed one of the boundaries. We accumulated a large number of leaves on our drive, which was quite wide at the top end, but funnelled downhill into a narrow section between two walls. I used the blower to manoeuvre them down the funnelled section, then round the corner back from where they came :-) Worked a treat, and much quicker and easier than sweeping.
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I was that man. During a 7 year break away from my usual work I worked for a local gardening firm. One of the contracts they had was supermarket maintenance, grass cutting, hedge trimming, litter picking etc. I had never used leaf blowers before but couldn't imagine doing that sort of work without one now. Ok prevailing wind can be a pain if too strong in the wrong direction but generally they allow you to achieve a really professional looking finish. When the job was completed and mowers etc all put away we blew off all paths and drives, especially in the private gardens, before leaving.
This was all done with pretty expensive Stihl petrol machines, I have no experience of the cheaper domestic models.
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Our council use blowers on the long lane by the cemetery. The trees deposit their loads all over the pavement in Autumn. The guys blow the leaves into the road and the street cleaning machine sucks 'em all up. Why they don't just run the vac down the pavement, I don't know.
They do our road with the little brush/vac motor about once a month. It sounds like a jet fighter and they come at about 7.30am. They go up...then they come down. Some days they do it twice. Then, later in the morning, a larger gully cleaner from a private firm does it all over again. Talk about wasting money 'cos there's never any litter. I don't know why they don't do the 'mega litter ' areas like Cheetham Hill where the shopkeepers leave all their rubbish outside for someone else to dispose of !
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I have it on good authority that the reason for councils going from sweeping brushes to leaf blowers is that their employees can't spend all day leaning on a leaf blower.
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I want to know why the council has to start leaf blowing/grass cutting/bin emptying so blumming early. If they came round later (ie: after I have got up and gone to work) access would be easier for them, as most of the parked cars would have taken to workplaces etc. Its not as if they are busy blowing/cutting/emptying in the afternoon.
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Leaf blowers are used regularly in the autumn here by local parks gardening staff working for the council. Probably used for composting when it's all gathered in a pile.
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Surely its obvious?
Rakes and brooms are sensible, appropriate and do the job.
Leaf blowers are boys toys and fun, and its hilarious to chase the dogs with them. Its quite good trying to balance stuff on top of the airflow as well.
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>> Leaf blowers are boys toys and fun
Yep
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfjorMkjYPM
Edit www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q_ifItT5i8
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 10 Apr 14 at 12:56
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I was watching a council worker blowing leaves along in Limoges last autumn. All of a sudden he stopped, turned around and jumped hard on a huge snail in the middle of the pavement behind him. You've never seen such a mess. I said 'You cruel man! What did you do that for?'
He looked at me and said 'Well, he's been following me around all day.'
With acknowledgments and thanks to the great Max Boyce.
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>> Rakes and brooms are sensible, appropriate and do the job.
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Can't agree with that, trying to get slightly damp leaves off of a concrete surface with either rake or broom is nigh on impossible! Spent years doing it with little success.
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Leaf blowers - why? - Mike Hannon
