I’ll explain why we use blowers as generally the public find them confusing. Incidentally, tbe leaf blower is my most important tool, the only one that saves me serious hours of work and could not be temporarily repaced by another tool.
1. Leaf blowers are not just for leaves. They clear grass cuttings from paths, twigs, stones/soil are blown back in to shrub beds, hedge cuttings get blown onto lawns so they can be sucked up by mowing.
2. Try brushing up wet leaves. A blower lifts them no bother and puts them somewhere I can then collect them.
3. Gravel paths/driveways. You can’t brush leaves off them and a rake won’t collect the majority of small bits. Left on stone chip areas, leaves will decompose and provide something for weeds to grow in and encoirages moss / algae.
4. Gardens often have ‘sink’ areas that can be used to blow leaves and debris into and not require picked up. These could be out of sight behind hedges etc, places where the debris can be left to rot down and add something back to the ground.
5. Dog poo. If I have to cut a lawn and find dog poo, I’ll either leave the site and still charge for the wasted time, or on the odd occasion use the blower to move the poo out of tbe way. I won’t have dog poo on my machines/clothes/face/in tne van.
6. General speed. Far quicker to walk straight lines on large gardens windrowing leaves for a final rake up than to rake the whole garden.
7. Awkward corners. Blowers can clear leaves from corners and under shrubs/hedges far more thoroughly than rakes.
8. Loads more reasons but I’ve had enough of tne typing for now.
Screw noise pollution. Maybe we should ban vehicles, children, building works, road repairs and anything else that makes noise? My blower is one of those nice commercial ones strong enough to knock down kids and throw small pooches in the air 🙂
