Unpopular Opinion: Why Raking Is Better Than Leaf Blowing

While borrowing my neighbor's leaf blower the other day, I realized something: raking is much more efficient.

Maybe Leaf Blowing Is Faster Than Raking, But I'm Willing To Race

My neighbor saw me struggling with the rake last weekend and said he'd let me borrow his leaf blower. Wednesday night he brought it over and off I went to blow my yard free of those pesky maple tree remnants.

That's when I realized something. Leaf blowing doesn't blow. It sucks.

It's noisy, inefficient, and most important of all did little to get rid of the thousands of little pine needles spread across my backyard from the beautiful old pine tree that looms above it.

I don't want to get into a John Henry race against technology here, but certainly, I can't be the first to come to this conclusion.

Or maybe I do want to have a John Henry race.

You remember John Henry, don't you? He's the guy who was so good at using his hammer to pound away rock for explosives, that he took on a steam-driven automated machine and defeated it, only to die in the process.

So Who Wins When A Leaf Blower Takes On A Raker?

I decided to split my yard in half and rake one half, time it, and then blow the other half and see which one I could personally do faster.

I can't speak for all of you, but I got the raked half of the yard done in just 17 minutes, while it took me 19 minutes to blow it, not counting the extra time I had to spend picking up pine needles.

So, I'm sorry, John, but you can have your leaf blower back. I won't be needing it.

And it'll be a little quieter around here.