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What you may not know about your yard care company...

Started 1 year ago by Julie
Latest reply from JoB

Julie
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Is that they might be annoying your neighbors unnecessarily.

Gas-powered leaf blowers are really loud, and it just adds insult to, well, insult, when they crank up their radio so that they can hear it over the noise!

Really, I don't see that the leaf-blowers save any time over a broom. Gas lawnmowers I can sort of understand, although electric ones are quieter and it seems to me they could be used in most situations.

Out of consideration of your neighbors, when choosing a yard-care company, please ask whether they use leaf-blowers. Choose a company that doesn't. You're not home, so it doesn't bother you, but some of your neighbors are!

Posted 1 year ago #
MargL
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Here's a rave for Adam and the guys at Clean Air Lawncare! Electric/battery powered equipment - much quieter. And while they do use leaf blowers they are quieter than the gas powered ones.
My neighbors with the gas mowers also have this amazing ability to pick -just- the right time to start mowing, like the kid's NAPTIME!

Posted 1 year ago #
beachdrivegirl
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Seriously???

Posted 1 year ago #
johnnyblegs
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What's the point of leaf blowers anyway? I've always thought lazy people used them or people that just like to burn gas. Is it to reduce the bending over with a rake? If that's the case, it kinda makes sense for companies that do tons of yards to use them. I'm assuming it all gets blown into a pile to rake up VS just blowing it into your neighbors yard right? Hopefully. So why not kill two birds with one stone and use a backpack style shop vac? Just suck 'em up! Way faster right?

Posted 1 year ago #
MargL
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Alright - so even if you don't care about the noise aspect - there are other things to consider.
The companies that use electric powered mowers also tend to use the 'green' energy alternatives (BTW, as energy consumers we can sign up for that, too thru SPU, costs a little more but supports those wind farms). Less gas and petroleum products used, no smelly exhaust fumes (I'd much rather go out and smell fresh cut grass than engine exhaust), and they also tend to use less pesticides and fertilizer.
The lawn company I used before Clean Air was also always interested in applying moss-out and fertilizer. No thanks!

Posted 1 year ago #
charlabob
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I don't know where to start, so I'll just start. You might be surprised what annoys your neighbors or your fellow sidewalk walkers or ... well, you get the picture.

We live in a city -- some of us live in a city because we want to live in a city. If we wanted complete control over every facet of our environment, we wouldn't.

Everyone has a perfect right to rant about their pet peeves -- mine happens to be this odd entitlement that says, for example, a group of people talking has to notice my approach and dive off the side walk. Or that power lawn blowers annoy the neighbors, so they should be outlawed. (That actually happened in some upscalel california towns -- probably because the stoop laborers didn't have a stronger lobby.)

End of only somewhat facetious rant on rants. :-)

Posted 1 year ago #
TDe
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Yeah Johnnyblegs.... what's up with leaf blowers anyhow? I see people all the time blowing leaves into the street and I don't get it. Why clog up the storm drains and why blow them into a street where they are likely to blow back into your yard at some point? Is raking and putting them into yard waste tubs that much more work?

Posted 1 year ago #
JoB
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move off the sidewalk..
i am coming through with my leaf blower
if only i had thought to combine the two sooner

Posted 1 year ago #
Andy
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I am nearly finished training my chupacabra on leaf blower operations. Rant HIM off the sidewalk, if you have the stones.

Posted 1 year ago #
triplecp
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Main reasons for using a leaf blower in yard care is to get all the little remnants of grass and blow them into one pile that's easier to sweep up. Surely you can broom it all by hand, but it will still leave small grass clippings behind and you'll have to go over and over again with the broom. With a leaf blower you can conveniently blow all the clippings in a small pile and sweep them up in a dust pan much faster. Blowing leafs into the street, yes I never got that myself either.

Most electrical mowers I assume would be impractical considering the charge time and battery life for a company that does multiple jobs in one day, and hauling a cord around only puts that much more constraint on time and practicality.

Posted 1 year ago #
thansen
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Here's my RAVE for Eusibo Tovers..he has a crew of the 3 guys, they and their noise are in and out in around 30 minutes AND they do great work!

Posted 1 year ago #
Julie
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charlabob, I don't think I phrased this as a rant, nor as a demand to outlaw leafblowers, nor as an expectation of complete control over my environment. It is, rather, a request that people give consideration to this aspect of choosing a yard-care service.

Most of us would rather not annoy our neighbors. Indeed, I have no wish to block your passage on the sidewalk, and I would consider it a rudeness to do so. Were I oblivious to your annoyance at being unable to pass, I would prefer that you (kindly) bring it to my attention. As I have tried to do in my post.

Posted 1 year ago #
JoB
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Julie...

chill..

i am guessing there is some activity at your house that aggravates your neighbors as much as the leaf blower aggravates you.

do you have children or dogs or even worse.. teenagers? Do you ever play music.. especially classical music? is anyone at your house taking music lessons.. and practicing? have you ever hung a picture on the wall or done any home improvement project? have your trees ever been trimmed? is your mower silent?

We tend to notice other people's noise while discounting our own... and when we have moved on in life past the noisy stages we tend to forget how much we contributed to the urban orchestra ourselves.

if the leaf blower bothers you that much... leave the house when they are scheduled to work.

No matter where you live in West Seattle.. no matter whether you drive or walk... you are minutes away from a public park and some measure of tranquility.

Go on.. smell the roses... summer is on it's way...

Posted 1 year ago #
Andy
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"you are minutes away from a public park and some measure of tranquility."

Unless there's some dude blowing a goat horn.

Posted 1 year ago #
HolyKow
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What we all need to understand is that you are annoying. I am annoying. She is annoying. He is annoying. We are all annoying to someone somewhere. We just need to get over it, figure out the happy middle where you just accept a certain level of annoyance (nothing illegal or threatening, just annoying) and try to move onward and upward.

This qualifies. Yes, leaf blowers are annoying. The waves of green pot smoke from the student rental on my street is annoying (and illegal (for now)), the huge fracking bear killing dog down the street that barks at the wind all afternoon is annoying.

But I cannot dwell on that. I could not prove to the cops that the pot smoking kids are deadbang for sure the house that has the megaskunk smell coming out of it. I know it is them, but really, I do not have the heart to call it in. They keep it inside and create reasonable doubt by doing so, so I just go with they are running business that breeds skunks for chupacabra food and move on.

The bear killing dog gets taken inside by noise ordinance hours and gets let out at a proper time as well, so really, can't loose any hair over that either.

I must affect what I can, embrace some adversity, and move on with the more productive phase of my life (aka get over whatever it is that is annoying me that is not illegal).

Blood pressure as of this AM:

110/65.

hk

Posted 1 year ago #
anonyme
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Julie, I agree with you. I work in the landscape industry, and in my opinion blowers are unnecessary most of the time. In most situations a broom would actually work faster. As another poster pointed out, I often see leaves being blown onto the street where they then clog the storm drains. The other situation that completely baffles me is when you see some guy standing in place for minutes at a time trying to blow away a pile of packed, sodden leaves that (of course) just won't budge. Not only are blowers an environmental nightmare, but the effects of noise pollution - including those on blood pressure - are well documented. Let's face it - guys like big, loud, tools especially if they are phallic in nature!

Posted 1 year ago #
JoB
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anonyme..

sometimes a tool is just a tool...

a tool btw that is easier for me to use than a rake or a broom...

Posted 1 year ago #
Julie
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Missed the author on KUOW today, but here's an apropos book:

The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want: A Book About Noise, by Garret Keizer

Quotes from a reviewer on Amazon:

"...painful and intrusive noise sucks. The politically aggressive bullying that typifies noise dominance is finally given a good lashing on these pages [....] Most of us tend to stoically (by our own estimation) tolerate a great deal of noise in our daily lives, convinced that the risks of confrontation outweigh the uncertain rewards of complaint. We also recognize, even if only by a tacit sense of fair play, that the rights of the noisemaker and the accidental ear overlap in uncomfortable ways [....] Even if it isn't necessarily going to make the world a quieter place, it's a good start."

http://books.google.com/books?id=zXqcQAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Garret+Keizer%22&hl=en&ei=LBsuTMrdL8PvngeFzNSNBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBQ

Posted 1 year ago #
MrJT
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Hey Julie, how about we trade neighbors? Ours does NOTHING to their yard. Their front steps/porch are rotted out from the vines that have taken the over, so they and their guests use OUR yard to access their house.

I would be more than happy to hear a leaf blower / lawnmower for a couple of hours a week.

Posted 1 year ago #
JanS
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Mr. JT...bear traps and No Trespassing signs? Or are those too subtle? We have a walkway from the front of our bldg. to the back parking lot (so between 42nd SW, after you walk up the front walk, and the lot behind the building. ) The landlord posted No Trespassing signs. Yet I'm constantly running into people who use the small walkway to go from 41st to Adm. Safeway. And the foot traffic from the highschool during the school year is incredible. I have told the kids to move on, that it's private property. I get treated like I was speaking a foreign language.

So sorry about your neighbors. Maybe a flyer with a gentle reminder about the Tool Library is in order in their mailbox.

Posted 1 year ago #
JoB
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JT...

i too would love to hear the sound of a weed wacker next door :(

a fence and the dogs keep people from using my yard to access his

Posted 1 year ago #