It's that time of year again. Time to rake up the leaves that have covered the lawn. I did the first pass at our lawn last weekend. It was a few hours of work which resulted in about 15 (paper) bags of leaves.
Our township will pick up the bags of leaves this week and compost them.
I don't use a leaf blower to move leaves around. Not anymore, I haven't in years. I used to use a gas-powered leaf blower until it died a few years ago, I then replaced it with a battery-powered leaf blower. The battery-powered leaf blower is more convenient for small jobs like clearing off the driveway, walkways, and deck. The battery-powered leaf blower isn't as convenient for blowing leaves.
I rake the yard using a rake. Very old-fashioned. But it works. It's also a nice bit of exercise.
This week, I read two blog posts (by Seth Godin and Chuck Wendig) about the detrimental effects of using a gas-powered leaf blower. I'm glad that I use a rake. The gas-powered leaf blowers seem incredibly wasteful and horrible for the environment. They are also a noise nuisance.
I'd probably be OK with having the leaves just stay on the lawn. But there are a few reasons I rake them up.
Leaves on the lawn kill the grass. Our backyard has poor drainage. If that all turns to mud, the dogs will just bring more mud into the house.
Leaves hide the dog poop. Having grass makes it easier to see it when I pick it up. Being able to see it and pick it up, means the less we step in.
The green grass (fine, weeds) looks nice in the Summer.
So. I'm glad I rake the yard by hand. I thought I was doing it just because my old leaf blower broke. But now I can feel good about helping the environment, at least a little.