Banning leaf blowers permanently
My mower is electric, battery powered, built in 1974 by GE recharged with solar electricity. By the way, nitrate levels in streams are especially high right now due to lack of rain. You get your drinking water from a stream. So maybe you all should skip the fertilizer this fall.
Hey tourn
Takes you about a week to cut the grass, right?
quercus said:
My mower is electric, battery powered, built in 1974 by GE recharged with solar electricity. By the way, nitrate levels in streams are especially high right now due to lack of rain. You get your drinking water from a stream. So maybe you all should skip the fertilizer this fall.
Hey tourn
Takes you about a week to cut the grass, right?
My lot is 50' by 220'. I use a battery operated lawn mower and weed whip. I charge them from my solar array. Doesn't take to long to mow at all, and it's light enough that my 10 year old can handle it. He does about half now.
Yes, if you must use power tools, consider using electric. Electric tools are somewhat quieter than gas powered. Electric generation is done on a large scale and therefore more efficient. If you can make it work, corded motors are more efficient and cleaner than battery powered. I did cut my cord accidentally a couple of times, but after that, I developed habits which prevent that from recurring. Also, corded tools are much lighter. My corded hedge trimmer and lawn mower and leaf blower are surprisingly light.
Klinker said:
unixiscool said:
But none of the landscapers have electric mowers. You are just pushing the landscaping companies to use a different piece of machinery that, MOST LIKELY, is louder and more polluting than a leaf blower.
I think the key word here is "MOST LIKELY" since electric mowers are both quieter and less polluting (by an order of magnitude) than gas leaf cannons. I am tempted to take your statement as disingenuous.
I am not talking about electric mowers I am talking about the gas mowers that are used by landscaping companies. I said most likely because I am sure you can find some gas mower that is not as loud as a leaf blower, but if you have seen the mowers that landscaper use, it is very obvious that they are louder than the leaf blowers that they use. So you ban leaf blowers and the landscape company runs the mower longer to clear the grass clippings. Pat yourself on the back.
unixiscool said:
But none of the landscapers have electric mowers. You are just pushing the landscaping companies to use a different piece of machinery that, most likely, is louder and more polluting than a leaf blower.
yahooyahoo said:
My mower is electric and extremely quiet compared to any leaf blower.
unixiscool said:
theneighbor said:
Gas lawn mowers run about the same decibel levels as backpack blowers, assuming the interwebs are correct... what gives mowers immunity?
I think it is funny that I often hear anti-leafblower folks say that you just need to run your mower along the sidewalk/driveway to deal with the grass clippings. Given that the mower has just as high of a decibel level I am not sure what they are gaining.
I am thinking of starting an all electric, solar powered, organic landscaping business. Any takers?
quercus said:
My mower is electric, battery powered, built in 1974 by GE recharged with solar electricity. By the way, nitrate levels in streams are especially high right now due to lack of rain. You get your drinking water from a stream. So maybe you all should skip the fertilizer this fall.
Hey tourn
Takes you about a week to cut the grass, right?
Never timed it. But the riding mower cuts pretty quickly.
Chiming in to give another thumbs up for a battery powered mower. My mower finally died after 11 years and so I got one of the Greenworx line. I'm no big, in-your-face environmentalist but I would say this has been more than worth it for my modest lawn care needs.
- More expensive than gas-powered push mowers, sure, but there's no gas engine stuff to deal with.
- No cord needed.
- Pretty light even with both lithium batteries.
- Really really quiet.
- Easy start - just push a button and hold a lever with the handle.
- I've done both my front and back yards, weeks apart, on a single charge.
- More than enough power for anything I've need it for, but I haven't had to tackle any really tall grass/weeds.
As I read the Paul Mulshine column this morning (10/20/2016) and this thread, I can't shake the feeling that both sides of the debate are perpetuating the suburbanization of Maplewood & South Orange ... and not in a good way. The rise (my perception) in the use of lawn services & leaf blowers is a trend toward an increasing value placed on appearances. Not awesome, in my book. I prefer a more natural look & less stress on lawn care, along with more tender care of the earth re: fossil fuels & exhaust. On the other side is an increasing (again, my perception) notion that we can tell our neighbors how to live. One of the attractive points about Maplewood when I arrived nine years ago was a less pressurized attitude than I experienced in northern Bergen County - a live and let live attitude that extended to all sorts of areas of life - lawn care included. I see that neigborliness (made up word) slipping. Thankfully, my block is not contributing to the trend.
It seems to me that this issue has become one persons fight to have quiet while working from home. I posted about residents watering their grass with their sprinkler systems. Zero traction, maybe because nobody has been hit by a car from them having to walk in the street to avoid this.
An argument, based on public safety, animal rights, pollution, and public nuiscance, can be made for banning domestication of dogs in Maplewood.
While I don't have a dog and could easily live without the leaf blower that I use once or twice a year, I wouldn't support either restriction out of respect to others choice to have/use both.
vdfam said:
The rise (my perception) in the use of lawn services & leaf blowers is a trend toward an increasing value placed on appearances.
We use a service because I just didn't have the time to take care of our lawn. For some of us, it's just that simple.
alias said:
An argument, based on public safety, animal rights, pollution, and public nuiscance, can be made for banning domestication of dogs in Maplewood.
While I don't have a dog and could easily live without the leaf blower that I use once or twice a year, I wouldn't support either restriction out of respect to others choice to have/use both.
alias said:
An argument, based on public safety, animal rights, pollution, and public nuiscance, can be made for banning domestication of dogs in Maplewood.
While I don't have a dog and could easily live without the leaf blower that I use once or twice a year, I wouldn't support either restriction out of respect to others choice to have/use both.
No dogs. No leaf blowers. No oil derricks in driveways. Distinctions, too, can be made, I think.
Agreed.
At root the issue is how the community distinguishes a balance between a member's desire for an activity and the detrement that activity may have on other community members and the threshold of collateral detrement that should trigger a prohabition/curtailment of the desired activity.
For me the line is somewhere between leaf blowers and oil derricks in driveways.
DaveSchmidt said:
alias said:
An argument, based on public safety, animal rights, pollution, and public nuiscance, can be made for banning domestication of dogs in Maplewood.
While I don't have a dog and could easily live without the leaf blower that I use once or twice a year, I wouldn't support either restriction out of respect to others choice to have/use both.
No dogs. No leaf blowers. No oil derricks in driveways. Distinctions, too, can be made, I think.
alias said:
At root the issue is how the community distinguishes a balance between a member's desire for an activity and the detrement that activity may have on other community members and the threshold of collateral detrement that should trigger a prohabition/curtailment of the desired activity.
For me the line is somewhere between leaf blowers and oil derricks in driveways.
And there's the rub.
The Town tried an ordinance to limit decibel levels of leaf blowers. It failed due to non-compliance and lack of enforcement.
This is the next step. And if an ordinance is passed, we will still have non-compliance and lack of enforcement.
DaveSchmidt said:
No oil derricks in driveways.
If I find oil on my property I'm throwing one of those suckers up, aesthetics be damned.
I like coming home to a nice thick healthy patch of green grass. I guess that makes me the devil.
Robert_Casotto said:
I like coming home to a nice thick healthy patch of green grass. I guess that makes me the devil.
When's the last time you walked on it, or laid down on it, or felt it with your hands?
The lawn care craze is an environmental nightmare which affects everyone around it. You can't contain the noise and pollution to your own property. It transcends boundaries and therefor your rights to do as you please.
tourn said:
Robert_Casotto said:
I like coming home to a nice thick healthy patch of green grass. I guess that makes me the devil.
When's the last time you walked on it, or laid down on it, or felt it with your hands?
My kids do all the time. They especially like going barefoot in the grass in warm weather. But at my house, not at Robert_Casotto's house, cause I don't know him and it would be kinda weird to take my kids to some stranger's house to play on his lawn.
spontaneous said:
tourn said:
Robert_Casotto said:
I like coming home to a nice thick healthy patch of green grass. I guess that makes me the devil.
When's the last time you walked on it, or laid down on it, or felt it with your hands?
My kids do all the time. They especially like going barefoot in the grass in warm weather. But at my house, not at Robert_Casotto's house, cause I don't know him and it would be kinda weird to take my kids to some stranger's house to play on his lawn.
Just wait until he's not home like everyone else!
theneighbor said:
spontaneous said:
tourn said:
Robert_Casotto said:
I like coming home to a nice thick healthy patch of green grass. I guess that makes me the devil.
When's the last time you walked on it, or laid down on it, or felt it with your hands?
My kids do all the time. They especially like going barefoot in the grass in warm weather. But at my house, not at Robert_Casotto's house, cause I don't know him and it would be kinda weird to take my kids to some stranger's house to play on his lawn.
Just wait until he's not home like everyone else!
Good point. And his grass is greener than mine, so the kids will have more fun.
tourn said:
Robert_Casotto said:
I like coming home to a nice thick healthy patch of green grass. I guess that makes me the devil.
When's the last time you walked on it, or laid down on it, or felt it with your hands?
About an hour and a half ago.
Sometimes, I like to lick it too.
So what was the upshot of the town meeting? Still in the review phase?
tourn said:
unixiscool said:
But none of the landscapers have electric mowers. You are just pushing the landscaping companies to use a different piece of machinery that, most likely, is louder and more polluting than a leaf blower.
yahooyahoo said:
My mower is electric and extremely quiet compared to any leaf blower.
unixiscool said:
theneighbor said:
Gas lawn mowers run about the same decibel levels as backpack blowers, assuming the interwebs are correct... what gives mowers immunity?
I think it is funny that I often hear anti-leafblower folks say that you just need to run your mower along the sidewalk/driveway to deal with the grass clippings. Given that the mower has just as high of a decibel level I am not sure what they are gaining.
I am thinking of starting an all electric, solar powered, organic landscaping business. Any takers?
Will you charge less than my landscaper?
Steve said:
vdfam said:
The rise (my perception) in the use of lawn services & leaf blowers is a trend toward an increasing value placed on appearances.
We use a service because I just didn't have the time to take care of our lawn. For some of us, it's just that simple.
I stopped doing my own landscaping when I started working 60+ hours per week. I agree. This is a matter of convenience and a decision on how I want to spend my limited free time.
Here's the problem...
FOr starters...The commercial 'landscapers' (terrible misnomer - they are just grass cutters with powertools). Okay, so they cut your lawns. But they are misusing the leaf-blower. I was raking/blowing/mowing my lawn yesterday at the same time a commercial 'landscaper' did 3 yards of my neighbors. I worked for 2 hours and so did they.
First I mulch-mowed (like we always do) and it's great. Then I used teh blower to clean off the mess on the sidewalks, my walkway, and my driveway. However, I used a rake to get the leaves that built up around my garage and around my gate and a bit in the garden areas ; i raked them onto a tarp; i draggged them to the curb. At some point i'll have to do more raking in my gardens...BUT I will NEVER use the blower on the garden beds.
This is where the landscapers have created a nightmare...My mowing took longer cuz their mowers are bigger, but they spent 2/3rds of their time blowing. THey blow every single leaf off a property. In so doing, they are blowing the $1000 that the homeowner probably paid them in the spring to put down mulch, and they are also blowing off all the top soil. In the process, they use full force on the their huge commercial blowers, and this is what has set off this anti-blower brigade. It is very unfortunate that the blowers have completely replaced the rake - but these guys are trying to do as many properties as possible to make a living.
But As a do-it-yourselfer on every aspect of my yard and shrubs and gardens, I will not abide by a ban on my blower. The amount of blowing I use it for does not even compare to the commercial guys. I really don't know the answer - I was thinking that a decibel ceiling would be the answer...but it's the way the commercial guys use the blower to 'clean' the property that is an enormous problem. They don't have rakes. They just don't. And homeowners aren't paying attention, mostly because they have given over the maintenance of the property to guys that call themselves 'landscapers'.
But I don't think you can legislate and tell a homeowner how he should rake his property.
Woot said:
I stopped doing my own landscaping when I started working 60+ hours per week. I agree. This is a matter of convenience and a decision on how I want to spend my limited free time.
I don't think anyone is questioning your decision to hire a "landscaper". All we are asking is that, for the well being of your neighbors, your "landscaper" use a rake.
Simple stuff here.
There you go again, making light of the concerns of a parent whose child has asthma or bad allergies.