It is now 4:30 on a Sunday, and for the first time since about 8:30, it is quiet. It starts with the lawnmowers, whick I can deal with, I don’t expect everyone to use a manual push mower. But it seems every other traditionally manual task of gardening has been taken over by noisy machinery. String trimmers (I swear one neighbor used his to mow his entire lawn, because it ran continuously for two hours), hedge trimmers, one guy even washed his car with a pressure washer. And why, when you only have 50 feet of sidewalk, do you need a freaking leaf blower to get the grass off? I can sweep my sidewalk in two minutes with a broom.
It’s Sunday, for Christ’s sake (heh). Doesn’t anyone play golf or go to Church anymore?
I despise the same thing. I dislike the mowers, detest the leaf blowers, and want every edger destroyed. God how I hate them. I noticed some young people across the street last summer using an old school push mower-- I almost ran over to hug them.
We don’t have a lawn, but when we do have one, I’m getting a push mower (the kind with whirly blades and no power). No leaf blowers, no power trimmers, no nothing. When I garden, all you hear is me softly cursing the weeds, grunting as I change from kneeling to standing, and occasionally talking to the plants.
The non-powered push mowers are fun the first time you use 'em. Then, if the grass part of your yard is bigger than say 15 x 10 feet, you will rue the day you didn’t buy the power mower. Take my advice and just go ahead and buy the self-propelled mower because after the first time you use your push mower you will regret not buying self-propelled. Of course, you will immediately regret not buying a riding lawnmower, but that is much harder to justify if you just have a city lot. I covet my neighbor’s riding mower.
As to the noise–I’m with you. Unfortunately, mr.stretch wants our grass to grow right up to the fence and the planting beds, so he weed-whacks every two weeks. I would prefer a mowing strip so we could just mow and be done with it, but no…mr.stretch must weed-whack. He rarely uses the leaf blower, though–he’d rather use a rake or broom.
I hear you - the guy across the street mows either at 730am, or 930pm. There isn’t any halfway about it.
We were at the cabin this weekend. The place where we are supposed to relax, listen to the haunting cry of loons, the chirruping of birds in the trees…
We got motorboats at midnight (fishing opener) tearing up the lake, the guy next door revving up his chainsaw at 7am this morning and a lovely domestic (NOW with additional children crying and numerous dogs barking goodness!) on the other side for a chunk of this afternoon.
So we came home for peace and quiet. How wrong is that?
MissTake, I feel your pain. I very seldom go to our cabin on Lake Harding on weekends anymore because it seems like ever person over the age of 10 either has a personal watercraft or a boat with a motor big enough to launch the damned thing into orbit. No peace and quiet at all on weekends. It’s not as bad during the week, when most of them have either gone home or gone to work.
I was living in California when a bunch of landscaping workers decided to go on a limited strike: no leaf blowers. Wow, I was sad when that strike was over.
I swear they mow the lawn so often I’m surprised we don’t have a block full of bald patches. I work at home, frequently on weekends, so that compounds the problem. The only way I’ve found to combat the damned noise is via really loud classical music.
Leaf blowers are the worst of the lot; the car alarms of the yard tool. Nothing is noisier and less effective. I think they should be banned and users heavily fined. One of my neighbors, a man of immense proportions, spent a full two goddamned hours using one last fall. I couldn’t take it anymore so asked him when he was going to stop invading my living room. He frowned and just kept at it. I swear his lazy ass could have finished the job with a broom in a tenth the time.
Another one likes to use one – while wearing ear protectors. I’ve often wondered if it’s ever occured to him that if it’s too noisy to use without ear protection, then perhaps it’s too noisy for the rest of us to listen to as well?
Yet another decided that the best time to mow her front lawn was 7:30 am on a Saturday a few months ago. Her front yard is about ten feet from my house. I had a polite “discussion” with her. She hasn’t done it since.
Ugh. My husband uses a hand mower. He’s promised to never buy a leaf blower. So much for quiet suburbia.
I couldn’t be more atheistic, but somehow I seem to be the only person in my circle of existence who keeps holy the sabbath.
I’ll tell ya – the Jews and this “no shit on Saturday” stuff is a great idea.
For the rest of us. . .mow and do your woodwork on Saturday. And, isn’t Friday after work traditionally lawn-mowing time? I’ve been in small towns where it seems to practically be a Friday ritual.
Can’t people have ONE day where they take it easy. If you have to do chores, can’t they be of the quiet variety?
Fine, come cut my 2 acres of very thick and fast growing grass. It took me 2½ hours to complete it on Saturday with a 20 horse power 52" Mulching mower and sweeper. This tractor had problems cutting the grass as it grew so much in 8 days that it was ridiculous.
Your puny push mower would not have been able to keep up with the grass the way it grew last week. I think it would have taken 8 hungry sheep for that matter.
I had the same problem on Saturday- my power mower barely got through one week’s growth; I had to go over a couple areas twice. I only have .16 acres now, but will be moving soon to a house with anywhere from .75 - 1.25 acres. Think I’m not going to use a power mower? Yeah, like I have all day to kill mowing the lawn with a push mower.
I use hearing protection when I use most power tools, including lawn mowers.
If I had my druthers, the lawn wouldn’t get mowed. Ever. I despise lawns. Since not mowing doesn’t appear to be an option, I will do the job with whatever it takes to get it done quickly.
Our neighbor across the street got himself a riding mower last fall. They have about 150 square feet of totally flat yard. Now he gets on that stupid riding mower and goes around and around and around the yard for a good 45 minutes every three fucking days. And since I work at home and my office looks right out at their yard, that means I get to try to be able to concentrate enough to work while he’s doing it.
At least everyone around here rakes their leaves by hand. I’m grateful for that small favor, believe me!
Check your facts, man. Gas lawnmowers aren’t the best on emissions, but you save very little using a reel mower–much to the chagrin of my crunchy granola co-workers. After very few weeks of mowing their tiny yard twice a week with the reel mower I gave them, they were only too happy to take the powered push mower I handed down to them next.
And I’m not a fuckin’ wimp–I mowed the lawn for ten years using either the reel mower (for the small yard) or a 4.5 hp push mower. However, I am no longer the mower in my family and I was willing to give my husband a nice self-propelled lawnmower when he killed my old faithful push mower. Now he has a kick-ass Husqvarna and it makes the mowing easier for him.
My push reel mower has zero emissions, and my lawn is much larger than 10’x15’, which is what you were bitching about. So I’m cutting emissions 100%. They are effective for just about any city lot sized lawns. For suburbanites like What Exit?/Jim with an insanely large lawn to mow, not so much. Perhaps it might be adviable to consider that monoculture is a bad idea in the yard, as well as in the field, and look to alternatives.
tried to ETA, but wasn’t quick enough: My reel mower is a lot less hassle- no worries about getting gas, cleaning filters, trouble starting. I just start pushing. Perhaps not as easy as a self-propelled motorized, but it doesn’t weigh as much as a non-self-propelled. I mow several areas around the house, probably about 1200 sf, wild guess. I can do it in an hour. Gas mowers might not take a lot of gas, but it adds up. They do not have emissions controls like cars do (or are just starting to) and two cycle, which leaf-blowers, etc, burn oil with the gas, which compounds the problem. If you insist on using powered lawn care tools, at least look at whether electric will work- then there is the chance to control the emissions at the power plant (or perhaps your electicity is ‘clean’).
