Am I the only one who still rakes?

Question

I was raking leaves this morning,and my ears were assaulted by the noise of those dang blowers.Doesn't anyone like to get exercise and smell the leaves anymore?

I live in NE Ohio--tons of leaves are down already.

Answer 1

I always raked but then got a leaf blower. I found that it is really only good for the driveway. Anywhere else you do it it digs up the grass and blows the dirt around.

Last year my wife did me a favor and got the local kids who we usually hire for some raking to do the whole yard. She didn't know that they had just gotten leaf blowers so that they could do a lot of yards. They managed to remove so much topsoil that most of the grass still hasn't recovered. This year we will have a no-leaf-blow policy.

That great leaf smell that I remembered was really the smell of burning leaves and that is prohibited now so smelling the leaves is forbidden.

Our street is lined with overarching giant oaks and maples so that even though we don't have a lot of our own leaves we have tons of neighbor's leaves. Thyet cover our yard to the point of suffocating the grass if we don't keep after them

Answer 2

Fortunately, I live in So. Cal, and in a new house at that. But at our old house every fall, I only raked. Hell I need the exercise, and besides unless you do this for a living or live on 5 acres, theres no real reason to use a gas powered blower or mower just to pick up leaves. Besides the leaves made for great compost that I ended up using as soon as the following fall. YAY!!!

Answer 3

Sorry, I use a blower most of the time. I have a huge yard with 15 large trees and though it is good exercise to rake I get soar muscles and blisters. I think its beter than leaving the leaves to blow in my neighbors freshly raked lawns dont you!!! Yes, I do like the smell though!!

Answer 4

The reason we hear so many blowers in my neighborhood is because everyone is elderly and has a service come in a do there yards. Still I vacuum because it is quick and the vacuum has a mulcher in it. In order for me to not not have to buy bags for yard waste I use the vacuum mulcher and make a small bag of waste then then throw it in the compost pile. I don't have a lawnmower machine with a bag but I saw that you could use that machine to cut your grass and collect your leaves at the same time and it compresses them. When I rake only (I do that too on occasion) I need more lawn bags because the leaves I don't save for compost because they take up too much space.

Answer 5

I raked the other day, and taught my daughter to rake and pile up leaves under the shrubbery and around flowers and trees for compost.

Blowers are a stupid and obnoxious invention, which only benefits the manufacturer of the device, and battery, cord, and power companies.

Answer 6

Where do you live? Maybe we should be neighbors. Mine NEVER rake okay they don't even mow. Seriously they have weeds in their "yard" that are taller than the front door and those swing sets for adults with the capony on them. I would love to live next to someone that cares about their yard like it appears you do! Hope you have a Happy Fall! :)

Answer 7

i use to rake, when i lived with this super big frount lawn/garden, with like, more then 10 trees, in japan, but now, i only hav 1 tree in the back and it dosen't loose much leaves... =(
i think alot more people would rake, if they had the time, and the trees.

Answer 8

no I do not rake nor do I use a leaf blower. I just let the leaves mulch right where they fall

Answer 9

Ummmm no...i don't enjoy the labor of raking leaves.... the part that i hate the most is putting the leaves on a tarp omg if there is one thing in this world that i can't stand the most, its TARPS!!!!!!!

Answer 10

I feel for you!!! I had to rake my yard yesterday. Lots of leaves and rotten apples on the ground. I hate that apple tree.....cant even eat the apples and I have to clean up after it!!!