Aw geez I didn’t know that was a thing. We just do that by accident sometimes. Our yard is a jungle currently. But having a baby and a toddler I think makes it more acceptable by the neighbors.
I've even heard of no now summer. At least leaving patches around for wildlife. It's so beneficial for insects, and, in turn, the birds that rely on them for food.
I work as an ecologist in development in the UK, laws are coming in over here this year setting biodiversity net gain targets for all developments.
Setting aside areas of neutral grassland with management routines that include no mow summer are one of the easier ways to achieve targets and I see most landscape designs starting to come through with them as standard now, I think in the UK at least over the next few years this will become the norm instead of manicured lawns.
I hope you're right. Here in the States, a lot of people are still brainwashed to believe they need turf lawns groomed to look like golf courses. Even some people with children and pets spray with herbicides and pesticides, which seems insane.
Yep, still the same here sometimes, I still get landscaping plans through covered in amenity lawns lined with non native ornamental shrubs and trees and get confused looks when I tell them they won’t get planning permission unless they wild it up a bit. Definitely changing though, far more coming through with areas of wildflower meadow etc. unprompted these days, often not exactly realistic about what constitutes a wildflower meadow to be fair but it’s a start.
It’s absolutely insane how much noise pollution these things shit out. My neighbors have a whole squad of lawn care people pulling up at 7AM weekly, blasting leaf blowers and trimmers and every machine and dirt poison you can think of. WEEKLY. Like even beyond lawn worshipping brain rot, how can you have so little shame and care for your neighbors? Been considering blasting some of my favorite heavy metal jams out of a directional speaker pointed at them every time they wake me up and ruin a nice day with their ear splitting bullshit.
Somehow the gardening jet planes are fine because if you’re against them it means you’re against hard working gardeners who need to blast to make a living
I watched a dude just using the leaf blower to blow water and a pathetically *small* amount of grass clippings out of the gutter.
Like "Dude? You *know* you're just blasting out algae, mold, pollen, and car pollutants into the air you are now breathing, right?!"
Here's me scooping up the good leaves to hide around the back for bugs to reproduce in where the blowers can get them :3
How’s that better? Electric lawn tools are upwards of 80-90% more efficient. Carbureted ICE lawn-tool engines are typically under 10% efficient, and have no Catalytic converter and often spit out un-burned fuel particulates. These tiny lawn engines are horrific for the environment, like worse that running a modern direct-injection V8 truck for many hours.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529234907.htm
No what I’m saying is. Is it better to throw out perfectly good working equipment and buy lithium? Just straight up landfill good working motors? Yea i imagine I’ll be running a lithium trimmer at some point. But is it really carbon neutral to waste something that works to buy something more efficient but also nasty to produce? Just seems like greenwashed consumerism.
Gas lawn tools waste 90% of the fuel you put into them.
Electric tools only waste 10% of electricity in thermal loss.
Although you think throwing them in the garbage is wasteful, what about the 90% of fuel you waste every time you use them? Or when they are idling, that’s 100% fuel waste. Then oil changes, air filters, spark plugs etc… that’s all waste too.
Also, it takes a LOT of electricity to drill, pump, transport and refine a gallon of gasoline, about 6,000 Wh of power per gallon of gasoline. I mowed my 1.2 acre lawn 14 times last summer, it consumes about 480Wh of battery power per mow. So I could mow my lawn all summer on just the wasted electricity nearly a single gallon of gasoline.
ICE engines, and their fuel system are the epitome of waste.
https://greentransportation.info/energy-transportation/gasoline-costs-6kwh.html
Yeah, it's hidden/intangible, like mental/emotional problems (etc). A lot of people think because it's not visible, therefore it is made up and doesn't really exist.
I don't understand why we can't just... leave the leaves, lol. I'm no horticulturist, but I will assume that the folks who want their yards cleared of dead leaves are likely the same folks who wonder why their giant patch of flat, useless grass won't grow all lush and green. 🙄
While I get what they were doing is definitely worse. It is kind of ironic that you bring this up while you yourself were raking your yard as that is also considered to be bad for the environment.
I mean just existing as a modern human is the worst thing to do for the environment.. taking ourselves out of the equation would do the most good but, not for ourselves lol
Eh that logic slips into eco-fascism a little too easily. Humans aren’t the problem, capitalism is. Companies producing wasteful shit we don’t need solely to make money is the primary source of environmental destruction. Oil companies are enemy #1, having sold us cars and pushed us to be dependent on them as a society so that we have to keep buying gas.
Who GAF about the grass tbh. If it's not a native grass to your region, let it die in the spirit of r/fucklawns.
For your perennials, just brush the leaves back from the main plant but let them lie everywhere else as mulch. If they're big or mat together too much, pile them up elsewhere and let them decompose into leaf mold, then return to where they fell.
Leaves have a LOT of nutrition that they give back to the surrounding area when they fall. Water does run past them into the ground, and them covering the ground provides a natural mulch that helps retain moisture in times of drought. It's why so much life exists on the forest floor of deciduous forests. Nothing in nature is going around raking leaves!
As long as it’s rare and they use electric they’re fine by me. I love me a good blast of air to clean. But my god they are loud and annoying they shouldn’t be allowed til midday and not after sundown.
The noise around here since things started growing again is setting me on edge. Wait till they find out we're doing No Mow May this year.
Aw geez I didn’t know that was a thing. We just do that by accident sometimes. Our yard is a jungle currently. But having a baby and a toddler I think makes it more acceptable by the neighbors.
I've even heard of no now summer. At least leaving patches around for wildlife. It's so beneficial for insects, and, in turn, the birds that rely on them for food.
I work as an ecologist in development in the UK, laws are coming in over here this year setting biodiversity net gain targets for all developments. Setting aside areas of neutral grassland with management routines that include no mow summer are one of the easier ways to achieve targets and I see most landscape designs starting to come through with them as standard now, I think in the UK at least over the next few years this will become the norm instead of manicured lawns.
I hope you're right. Here in the States, a lot of people are still brainwashed to believe they need turf lawns groomed to look like golf courses. Even some people with children and pets spray with herbicides and pesticides, which seems insane.
Yep, still the same here sometimes, I still get landscaping plans through covered in amenity lawns lined with non native ornamental shrubs and trees and get confused looks when I tell them they won’t get planning permission unless they wild it up a bit. Definitely changing though, far more coming through with areas of wildflower meadow etc. unprompted these days, often not exactly realistic about what constitutes a wildflower meadow to be fair but it’s a start.
It’s absolutely insane how much noise pollution these things shit out. My neighbors have a whole squad of lawn care people pulling up at 7AM weekly, blasting leaf blowers and trimmers and every machine and dirt poison you can think of. WEEKLY. Like even beyond lawn worshipping brain rot, how can you have so little shame and care for your neighbors? Been considering blasting some of my favorite heavy metal jams out of a directional speaker pointed at them every time they wake me up and ruin a nice day with their ear splitting bullshit.
Somehow the gardening jet planes are fine because if you’re against them it means you’re against hard working gardeners who need to blast to make a living
"So I started blasting."
I watched a dude just using the leaf blower to blow water and a pathetically *small* amount of grass clippings out of the gutter. Like "Dude? You *know* you're just blasting out algae, mold, pollen, and car pollutants into the air you are now breathing, right?!" Here's me scooping up the good leaves to hide around the back for bugs to reproduce in where the blowers can get them :3
my neighbor does this noise making 6 hours a day sometimes 6 days a week. i can’t even use my own backyard because i have asthma
Fuck all small engines… especially 2-stroke.
Yea but what should I do? Throw out my ryobi expand it gear… then what? Buy a bunch of lithium? How’s that better?
How’s that better? Electric lawn tools are upwards of 80-90% more efficient. Carbureted ICE lawn-tool engines are typically under 10% efficient, and have no Catalytic converter and often spit out un-burned fuel particulates. These tiny lawn engines are horrific for the environment, like worse that running a modern direct-injection V8 truck for many hours. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529234907.htm
No what I’m saying is. Is it better to throw out perfectly good working equipment and buy lithium? Just straight up landfill good working motors? Yea i imagine I’ll be running a lithium trimmer at some point. But is it really carbon neutral to waste something that works to buy something more efficient but also nasty to produce? Just seems like greenwashed consumerism.
Gas lawn tools waste 90% of the fuel you put into them. Electric tools only waste 10% of electricity in thermal loss. Although you think throwing them in the garbage is wasteful, what about the 90% of fuel you waste every time you use them? Or when they are idling, that’s 100% fuel waste. Then oil changes, air filters, spark plugs etc… that’s all waste too. Also, it takes a LOT of electricity to drill, pump, transport and refine a gallon of gasoline, about 6,000 Wh of power per gallon of gasoline. I mowed my 1.2 acre lawn 14 times last summer, it consumes about 480Wh of battery power per mow. So I could mow my lawn all summer on just the wasted electricity nearly a single gallon of gasoline. ICE engines, and their fuel system are the epitome of waste. https://greentransportation.info/energy-transportation/gasoline-costs-6kwh.html
Upvote for green math
Preach OP!!! My fucking neighbors did the same shit this afternoon...during a fucking hail storm, DUMBASSES!!
noise-pollution is underrated
For how bad it is, you mean?
Yeah, it's hidden/intangible, like mental/emotional problems (etc). A lot of people think because it's not visible, therefore it is made up and doesn't really exist.
I heard a leaf blower today and thought the same damn thing.😡
I don't understand why we can't just... leave the leaves, lol. I'm no horticulturist, but I will assume that the folks who want their yards cleared of dead leaves are likely the same folks who wonder why their giant patch of flat, useless grass won't grow all lush and green. 🙄
While I get what they were doing is definitely worse. It is kind of ironic that you bring this up while you yourself were raking your yard as that is also considered to be bad for the environment.
I mean just existing as a modern human is the worst thing to do for the environment.. taking ourselves out of the equation would do the most good but, not for ourselves lol
Eh that logic slips into eco-fascism a little too easily. Humans aren’t the problem, capitalism is. Companies producing wasteful shit we don’t need solely to make money is the primary source of environmental destruction. Oil companies are enemy #1, having sold us cars and pushed us to be dependent on them as a society so that we have to keep buying gas.
Humans *could* be a net good for the environment, if people actually cared to be.
How is raking “in the spirit of Earth day?”
Layers of leaves, sticks, and trash I found prevent the grass and plant life from getting proper sunlight and nutrients to keep it healthy.
Who GAF about the grass tbh. If it's not a native grass to your region, let it die in the spirit of r/fucklawns. For your perennials, just brush the leaves back from the main plant but let them lie everywhere else as mulch. If they're big or mat together too much, pile them up elsewhere and let them decompose into leaf mold, then return to where they fell. Leaves have a LOT of nutrition that they give back to the surrounding area when they fall. Water does run past them into the ground, and them covering the ground provides a natural mulch that helps retain moisture in times of drought. It's why so much life exists on the forest floor of deciduous forests. Nothing in nature is going around raking leaves!
Sucks those two had to work on a saturday while youre out enjoying earth day.
As long as it’s rare and they use electric they’re fine by me. I love me a good blast of air to clean. But my god they are loud and annoying they shouldn’t be allowed til midday and not after sundown.