Fall is here and the leaves are . . . falling! While nature’s autumn display is both beautiful and a reminder that the seasons are changing, fall leaves also create a new set of garden and yard chores for those of us with outdoor spaces. When leaves cover your lawn, garden, or patio, it may be tempting to break out the leaf blower and make short work of it. Before we do that, however, let’s learn a bit about leaf blowers, how they damage soil, and some alternatives we can use instead. It’s a complex subject but we’ll do our best to break it down for you, so let’s dig in!
A quick note: while we do advocate for environmentally friend practices in gardens whenever possible, we also know that different folks have different needs and different levels of physical ability. If a leaf blower is the best way for you to accomplish the task at hand, use it and find other ways to support clean air and wildlife in your garden space that work better for you!
Leaf Blowers: Pollution, Noise, and Erosion
Leaf blowers are convenient, but like a great many short cuts and conveniences they bring some problems along with them. Leaf blowers are noisy, with electric leaf blowers creation noise in the 60 to 70 decibel range and gas-powered blowers coming in at up to 100 decibels. To put this in perspective: decibels are measured exponentially, so 10 points higher = 10x louder. Normal conversation is about 50 decibels, while a motorcycle starting is around 80 and chain saw 110 or so. According to the US Center for Disease Control, prolonged or routine exposure to noise over 80 decibels can cause hearing damage. So if you must use a leaf blower, please using appropriately rated hearing protection and limit your time around the noise. However, that doesn’t help your neighbors, family, or the nearby wildlife, so noise is another reason to reconsider using a leaf blower.
Gas powered leaf blowers create air pollution, as do all gas powered engines and motors. However, all leaf blowers can erode soil. The powerful jets of air that move leaves so effectively also remove soil—in some cases, quite a lot of it. This is harmful in any garden or landscaping space; we spend so much time and energy creating healthy, thriving soil and leaf blowers just blow it away into the air. While it’s pretty obvious that a leaf blower can damage delicate annuals or new plants, using a leaf blower around the base of trees and shrubs can cause permanent damage by removing soil and exposing roots. Exposed roots leave plants vulnerable to infection, weather, and dehydration/starvation from lack of soil contact and soil nutrients. It’s best to exercise caution when using a leaf blower around our plants, no matter what kind or what size.
Leaf Blowers and Respiratory Health
Soil particles in the air cause other problems as well. When inhaled, they can cause respiratory issues. If the soil is inhabited by some kinds of fungus or other microorganisms, those microbes can move into the air along with soil particles and then into our lungs as we inhale and exhale. This can cause irritation, infection, or even serious disease. This is especially risky for folks with asthma or other chronic breathing issues who may be especially sensitive to these problems.
In addition to soil particles and microbes, soil dust stirred up by leaf blowers may carry anything on or incorporated into the soil itself. Depending on where and when this is happening, leaf blowers may stir up animal feces, pesticides, herbicides, and other lawn chemicals, or heavy metals. None of this belongs in our lungs or in our air, so caution when using a leaf blower or working around one is advisable.
Alternatives to Leaf Blowers
Here at Gardzen we try to offer solutions rather than just pointing out problems, and we’re going to do that with leaf blowers, too. There are a number of possible alternatives to routine leaf blower use, and we’d like to offer some of them here:
· Limit leaf blower use to hard surfaces like patios, driveways, and other paved spaces. This doesn’t fully solve all the problems leaf blowers create, but it does minimize them and avoid some of the more egregious issues. Hard surfaces produce less dust and debris, and they clean up quickly with a leaf blower minimizing exposure to noise, pollution, and particulate matter.
· Use brooms and rakes instead. Many of us grew up sweeping driveways and walkways and then raking fall leaves off the lawn. If your circumstances and abilities permit, consider ditching the leaf blower for a rake, leaf bag, and (for hard surfaces) a good push broom. You’ll get some outside time, some exercise, and a bit of time with your lawn or garden space while also helping to keep the air cleaner and healthier—everyone wins!
· Leave the leaves. We’ve written about this before so we’ll refer you to that blog for more details, but we do encourage you to “leave the leaves” if possible. Autumn leaves aren’t a waste product, they’re a vital part of the ecosystem. If you can leave the leaves on the ground in all or part of your outdoor space, you’ll support local flora, fauna, and insect life through the winter and into spring.
Leaf blowers are useful, but they come at a pretty steep cost. We hope this blog encourages you to think differently about leaves, leaf blowers, and how we care for and maintain our outdoor spaces. If you have your own experience leaving the leaves or using alternatives to leave blowers, please share them with us. Gardzen is all about community and we love to hear from you!
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