What a Concept: Raking leaves by hand!
Sadly, the yard and garden rake might be going the way of the broom and the push mower. What’s wrong with the rake? Actually nothing; a lot is right with it. Rakes are great tools for a variety of yard work tasks, and as side benefits, their rhythmic sound is gentle, they do not require fossil fuels or electricity; they do not emit air pollution other than a little dust, and you get exercise while using them. Studies and overwhelming visual evidence suggest that Americans need more, not less, exercise.
To counter the pro-rake crowd, of which I am one, I suppose pro-leaf blowers would say that rakes require too much effort, and do not get as much done as quickly. Interestingly, I have noticed that yard services using leaf blowers on yards comparable in size to mine and with a similar amount of leaves falling upon them run their blowers even longer than it takes me to rake our yard quite thoroughly.
But alas, it seems that most are going to the leaf blower. Progress in our culture often means burning fuels and running a motor. Anything to avoid running our human motor!
Recently, I heard a well-known naturalist and writer refer to leaf blowers as “satanic devices.” I agree. No thanks to leaf blowers, nearly every neighborhood in America, including ours, is dominated by their din, often for hours a day. Presumably leaf blowers do a service of tidying up, removing leaves and other yard debris. But actually, they often blow the debris somewhere else… into the street or into the yard of an adjacent business or neighbor. The two-stroke engine that many of them have is more polluting than most vehicles on the road today. The dust gets blown into the air, polluting our atmosphere. And the noise, the dreadful droning sound of leaf blowers, has made it thoroughly unpleasant to go outside. As if we needed yet another reason NOT to enjoy the outdoors! Leaf blowers cause more problems than they solve.
There is another factor at play, namely sense of community. If you want to drive your neighbors away and turn off a conversation with them, turn on a leaf blower. If you would like to visit with them, use a hand rake. I have found that every time I rake leaves in our yard, I have a conversation with a neighbor or a random passer-by, which is nice.
The Unfortunate Rake was an English folk song about a young soldier who faced a variety of maladies. Now things aren’t looking so good for garden rakes. Here’s hoping we keep our garden rakes, and enjoy the relative peace and quiet, fresh air, and exercise that accompany their use.
