If you hate leaf blowers, you have some famous company. Many of you may have already seen Thursday’s article in The Guardian, “‘Everything that is wrong with the human race’: inside Hollywood’s bizarre war on the leaf blower.”
If you haven’t, read it for free: no paywall here. For my part, I contribute to the Guardian monthly; I value their reporting on many nongardening matters. Though technically a British daily newspaper (back in the day, it was called the Manchester Guardian), it is now global and has plenty to say about what’s going on our side of the pond. Oh, so much – and most of it right on.
I guess to their reporter, Hannah Jane Parkinson, leaf blowers seem rather a silly thing to get excited about, because the piece starts out with lines like “Truly, this is one of the greatest celebrity animosities of this century,” with most of the ultra-snarky hilarity directed at Cate Blanchett. However, Blanchett gave Parkinson more than enough material. Here’s a typical Parkinson deadpan: “The earliest extant Blanchett-rant on the subject is a W Magazine interview, way back in 2007, when she ambiguously characterised leaf blowers – a lot of fence-sitting here – as ‘everything that is wrong with the human race.’”
When it comes to leaf blower rants, Blanchett puts us to shame. She is happy to admit her obsession – “I talk about them all the time” – and it goes without saying that she wants them eradicated from the face of the earth. There is even a whole school of memes that have been devoted to Blanchett’s leaf blower tirades.
But it’s not just Cate. There are many, many more high-profile leaf blower haters in Hollywood. Danny DeVito’s comments on the devices are such that I cannot quote them here on our family-friendly blog. Ricky Gervais is more restrained: “I want to ban leaf blowers. Why have they got leaf blowers? What are they doing? It’s bad for the environment, it’s noisy … it’s pointless.”
Parkinson goes on in this manner for many paragraphs, and then, finally – and I am guessing reluctantly, because it has to be much less fun – she unpacks all the reasons that at least some of the celebrity rage might be justified. She is thorough, to give her credit, going well beyond the noise pollution, poisonous emissions and harmful particles that we often mention, even including biological responses to the feelings of annoyance caused by this menace that can bring on endocrine system disruption and high blood pressure.
Gas-powered leaf blowers were banned throughout California in 2024, though many of the state’s municipalities had prohibited them much earlier. But electric ones aren’t and they produce many of the same noise/health problems. Also, any ban like this is very difficult to enforce. You have to assume the scourge continues, unabated.
And when I say unabated, remember, this is California. These things are whirring away all year long. Also remember, these stars live in the type of exclusive neighborhoods where perfection is artificially imposed on the landscape as well as on the human face and body. It is a relentless, if ultimately futile, quest.
Finally, of course Blanchett and other high-profile types are mouthing off about them. Because when they mouth off, people pay attention. It even gets written up in the Guardian, as much as Parkinson makes it so very clear that all this does not really deserve her serious attention.
But this is why I like the Guardian. In spite of all the snark and ridicule, I have to admit she did a decent job.
As a British Guardian reader I have to admit I haven’t got to yesterday’s paper yet, so thanks Elizabeth. Delighted to hear any criticism of the dread leaf blower, not only noisy but often in local suburbs used to blow leaves from gardens onto public pavements. I’m also a fan of Hannah Jane Parkinson’s journalism.
I live on a corner with sidewalk in front and on the side. After cutting the grass and then edging the sidewalks (battery-powered trimmer) I use a battery-powered blower to clear the sidewalks. I also use it all year to keep the front porch and main sidewalk clean. It is quieter than most cars that drive through my neighborhood.
So right, and so much better than bagging stuff up and sending it to the landfill. My blower doesn’t make a fraction of the noise that our riding dinosaur does. At the big-box store they are predicting that battery mowers will have wider cutting decks next year, and l will buy one.
Leaves in the UK can go into our local council green waste bins and are recycled into compost hopefully providing a modest return for local authorities. Of course leaves can go straight into a household’s own compost heap or can be stored separately to make useful leaf mould. Our local council’s own leaf collection has now dwindled to a once-yearly service.
For people that have been around as long as I have, leaf blowers were introduced in California to replace an even larger environmental problem. That was people using hundreds of gallons of water to wash those lawn clippings down to the local storm sewer. Not a wise use of water in a drought climate. Leaf blowers are louder than passenger jets, you would think someone could design them to be quieter.
i have a feeling many people are unaware of how noisy the environment is because they are shut up in air conditioning and/or have the squawk box going all the time (TV) or have ear plugs in. Traffic, sirens, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, car alarms, alerts on smart phones….all add to the noise pollution urban dwellers suffer under. A Twilight Zone episode had a cowboy from the 1850’s come to modern NYC. the first thing he did was put his hands over his ears because the noise was so painful. I sympathize.
So how do Cate and Danny and all of the rest of the movie stars in their wealthy pristine neighborhoods keep their property tidy? Raking and sweeping won’t get the pavement perfectly spotless. Plus takes more man-hours, and their are less landscape workers.
Being a Southern California person, yeah, they are annoying because they are year round and in many neighborhoods a six-daysa-week, several times a day noise.
The electric ones are much quieter, and do not spew the two-stroke engine hydrocarbons, carcinogens, and stink that the gasoline ones do.
I wonder if people who are complaining about the blowers are also striving to pay landscape workers a living wage for the additional time it takes to remove leaves from walks and drives by rakes and brooms, to extract leaves from twiggy shrubs, and to at least keep perennial beds from being buried under sometimes thick layers of leaves. (How do people remove leaves from roofs and out of roof gutters, if not allowed to use blowers? Are they supposed to stand on the roof to sweep it?) I’m not even talking about removing all the leaves–and only about twice a year. Doing everything by hand, as I used to do, with no more than a rake or broom definitely took more time each fall than it does now for me to blow the leaves from my trees (and my neighbor’s adjacent trees) into a pile on a tarp and throw them–as a deterrent–over the invasive stilt grass in the high-canopy woodland behind my house. I understand the dislike of the sound (I wear earplugs because I am holding my electric blower), but I seldom have the time or money to pay someone else to rake, sweep, and hand-clean shrubs at a living wage.
I daily sweep, rake, and happily compost–and stay in excellent shape at 86.
You have reminded me to contribute to the Guardian.
Thank you Elizabeth!
Good job! I feel overly proud of myself that I still have never used a leaf blower but I’m only 60. Maybe I’ll make it as long as you have, Sarah.
I wish I could be rid of mine. I have two (one large, one small); they’re noisy and uncomfortable to use.
But I’m dealing with large gardens on my own and at best I’m only in a garden for eight hours in a fortnight. In the autumn that can mean literally tons of fallen leaves in some gardens. I sympathise with people who don’t like the noise (except for the ones who are abusive), but must also say that the majority of people don’t seem to care; they see someone doing a job and know I’ll be gone in a few hours and won’t be back for two weeks.
My rebuttal to complainants is always the same. I ask them if they’re willing to pay me to come back and clear the leaves with my rake. The answer is always ‘no’. It’s OK to expect the garden owner to pay for my extra time, and no doubt it would be fine for me to work for free, but when it’s their money they have a change of view.
Hollywood complains until boarding their noise producing, jet fuel spewing, private jets.