Mow, blow, and go away!!!

People who hire gardeners are lucky they don't have to deal with the messy hard labor of keeping up appearances in their yards. Of course, in general, those are people who have lawns, a few shrubs, and trees that drop leaves. Cue the mow, blow, and go guys.

Our City wisely adopted a ban on gas leaf blowers that went into effect over a year ago. Electric blowers only. Quieter. Less pollution. Good benefits indeed. The City even provided help for gardeners with obtaining the new equipment. Sounds well thought out and doable. Yeah...not so much.

What the City unwisely decided to do, was no longer hold the person employing said gardeners with upholding the new ruling. Doesn't take too many guesses to know how that turned out. Gardeners felt it was too much trouble or expense, other cities have not banned gas blowers, and why change what works for them, right? When asked, a couple of the gardeners in the 'hood said that it took too many batteries to get through the day and the blowers weren't strong enough. (Side note: my electric blower is plenty strong enough). The gardeners have a good point about the batteries not giving them enough juice to do all their jobs. So what to do about that?

Naturally I have the answer. If someone is rich enough to hire someone, then they can provide either the entire blower with a fully charged battery every time their worker shows up OR, they can simply have fully charged batteries available the model owned by the gardener if they don't want to purchase the whole tool. They can put the equipment in a secure place for the gardener to access when they begin work. It reduces expenses for both parties and it confirms compliance with the law. (Side note: won't happen). I get why raking and sweeping is not viable for those who have multiple clients per day. But having a gas blower that only creates a hurricane of dust, fumes, and noise that sounds like jet planes taking off, is truly not a good choice for the planet.

The other problem with the whole mow, blow, and go concept is all the mowing. If a gardener is retained weekly, that means the lawn (which in SoCal is a big water waster) is mowed weekly. What's wrong with that? Lawns that are cut short enough to play a game of pool (billiards) are hotter and don't retain water well. As a result, they need to be watered more frequently and never look as lush and green as people expect. In fact, in the summer they just look sad.

And don't get me started on weed whacking. Used carelessly around the base of trees it causes damage. Weed whackers don't solve the problem of certain weeds that should be pulled out by the roots, like foxtails, which are so dangerous to pets and other animals. It simply spreads the whacked seeds around.

OK -- enough ranting for one day. Though I will point out that the name of this blog is CRANKY little old lady, which means, yes, there will be rants from time to time.