Where to blow debris

[jocko1104]

I usually just blow it in to the middle of the street but have gotten a coupleof dirty look from a few neighbors.

Do you guys actually sweep up all of the debris, clippings, etc... after a job? It just seems unnessacary.

[TurfGuyTX]

Most of our goes back into the lawns. If there's alot of traffic, we might put it out and let the cars work on it more. If there's a large amount, we'll pick it up. It all depends on the individual circumstance.

[Ryan Lightning]

Most of the time I blow every thing first, then mow. Anything left is just grass, and gets blown in the lawn. It sucks to blow twice, but everything is much cleaner.

[TurfGuyTX]

Originally posted by Ryan Lightning
Most of the time I blow every thing first, then mow. Anything left is just grass, and gets blown in the lawn. It sucks to blow twice, but everything is much cleaner.

Yeah, that is something we do sometimes too.

[wojo23323]

I sometimes blow twice. Once before (if necessary) and once after. Everything gets blown back into the lawn or swept up. I get upset when I go to a clients house and the other neighbors debris is blown in the street and the curb area of my clients property. It is more work for me to clean up their mess.

[dlandscaping]

We pick up every house every mowing.
Two years ago, a homeowner was out picking up stuff in front and three companies including ours was working on the same street. We all copied and it has become the norm here. Even scrubs do it with their bare hands.

[hoagie]

Blow twice... me too.

Every house, first thing, backpac the street and drive onto the lawn, trim, then bag it all up w/ the walker. Blow one more time quick if theres any stray clippings around. Leaves a much neater appearance.

[walker-talker]

I try not to blow debris in the street, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

MATT

[awm]

if i have any i dont mind if it goes in the street . a quik run with the mower at low rpm and its laying nicely where the pavement meets the grass. not noticeable.

[greenman]

We pick up every house every mowing.
How many guys does that take? You get yours guys to pick up the house so you don't have to go through the small gate :laugh:
Plus no trimming around the house:D

I do my trimming and blowing (especially now with the leaves falling) first.I blow everything into the lawn ,then mow. After I mow, there are only a little bit of grass clippings to be blown back into the lawn. It really doesn't take that much longer either. Yes, I am blowing twice, but the second time only takes very little time. I usually just let my mower cool down while I'm doing my last blowing (just a minute or two).

I don't blow anything into the street, it looks unprofessional to me, then again maybe I'm just too picky. Sometimes I will blow debris into the sewer drain (gutter) though.

[Mowingman]

In our town it is a code violation to blow any debris into the street, even leaves or grass clippings.If the police or code enforcement officer sees you, you get a ticket. We blow everything up into the lawn first, pick up any trash, mow, trim, and edge, then blow all clippings back up into the lawn.:)

[LonghornShortgrass]

Mowingman- I have not heard of this code violation, is it only in Denton, or in the surrounding areas? :dizzy: I don't usually blow into the street unless it is a very busy street where the cars will just carry it on down the road, and I don't want to take the risk of someone hitting me.:

[TurfGuyTX]

It's in Fort Worth too. It's not enforced very much. In severaly years, I've yet to encounter any official complaints.

[Doogiegh]

It would only become a problem with code enforcement if there were alot of clippings and a motor vehicle accident. Someone could say that there were tons of leaves in the street, he skidded to a stop, but the wet leaves made him loose control and that's why the accident happened, etc...

Stretched out reason, but that's the only time I think it would be an issue.

Or a more "upscale" type of town where they don't want to see any of that mess on the street getting their mercedes tires dirty.. <G>

Gary

[GroundKprs]

Blow litter into the street? How unprofessional and inconsiderate. Common decency should suggest that you clean up your own mess.

I have several heavily wooded lots where the gutters have to be blown onto the lawn before mowing every mowing of the year. Then stray grass clippings are blown back onto lawn after mowing. Makes you, and your client's property, look sharp.

[Mowingman]

It is a code violation here in the City . It is unsightly to have all the lawn debris in the street and it ends up in the storm drain system and in the creeks and drainageways. :)

[cos]

I will have to admit I blow clippings and debris onto busy highways only! This is a no brainer. You blow it back to the lawn, unless it is a leaf clean up. You want a leaf clean up to look as clean and neat as possible.

I see alot of landscapers blowing clippings and leaves to the middle of the street. It looks unsightly and if anyone saw you doing that, they won't be giving you a call (for work anyway).

[MOW ED]

What kind of debris?

Paper and general non organic junk has to be picked up. I'm pretty fortunate to not have too many dirty sites.

Grass and leaves go back to the lawn in the mowing season.
In the dusty season it gets ground up and mostly left in the lawn.

Otherwise I try not to ever leave it on the street. It looks tacky.

[allenandinga]

A neat trick for a nice finished look is to do all edging, trimming and blowing first. Blow all trimmings and street trash ,unless its large or alot of paper (the street trash) into the lawn and then mulch or bag it finishing with a quick blowing and you have a very nice finished look. Been doing this for years and it works great. Doesn't really take any longer, just a matter of the order of each part the whole job. If you bag you don't even have to worry about paper.

[bubble boy]

big pet peeve for me. i hate the way grass looks in front of a prop you just tried to make look good.

i blow back on the grass. and i give it to the guys hard when they try and leave it on the street

with smaller lawns there are too many neighbors right nearby. and the street is just too visible from the house. your blowing anyway, why not just blow it right!

[cos]

Originally posted by allenandinga
A neat trick for a nice finished look is to do all edging, trimming and blowing first. Blow all trimmings and street trash ,unless its large or alot of paper (the street trash) into the lawn and then mulch or bag it finishing with a quick blowing and you have a very nice finished look. Been doing this for years and it works great. Doesn't really take any longer, just a matter of the order of each part the whole job. If you bag you don't even have to worry about paper.

This is exactly what I do when doing leaves. It is truely not necassary during cutting. Paper and trash is not what i constituted as being debris. That, of course, is to be picked up and discarded.

[kppurn]

When I was working for someone else I had a customer come out and raise he** when I was blowing off the sidewalk. "What are you doing!!?" He said it as if I were chasing his dog with the trimmer or something.
I replied, "blowing the clippings off the sidewalk sir"
"Well I don't want any dirt from the sidewalk in my yard":rolleyes:
The next week he stopped me and said the guy trimming wasn't keeping the curb side as level as the sidewalk side. That was the last time we mowed him. I guess on his final bill he deducted that mow because the island wasn't level on both sides. My boss never did get the money either.
I've had to deal with some difficult people since starting my own business, but nobody like him.

[greenman]

The next week he stopped me and said the guy trimming wasn't keeping the curb side as level as the sidewalk side.

:confused: I don't understand it. Did he mean he was trimming the grass shorter by the curb than he was by the sidewalk? I don't think that would be noticeable as long as it wasn't scalped. That guy (the ex-client) is an idiot, and I sure hope he has to get out there and do it himself. I don't think anybody else is gonna do it for him. Maybe he gets out there with a level to make sure its up to his standards:D

[crawdad]

Originally posted by jocko1104
I usually just blow it in to the middle of the street but have gotten a coupleof dirty look from a few neighbors.

Do you guys actually sweep up all of the debris, clippings, etc... after a job? It just seems unnessacary.

Into the street? Waddaya doing? Trying to kill a motorcyclist? I would never leave stuff in the street. Looks sloppy. Illegal in many places, lots of reasons not to do it.
Crawdad

[Gravely_Man]

Never blow into the street. Blow all of the trash and clippings into a pile and pick them up. Nothing looks worse then a well cut and trimmed lawn then clippings in the street in front of the house.

Gravely_Man

[stick9]

I'm curious as to how long some of you are at commerical accounts where there are literally hundreds of cigarette butts and miscellaneous other paper products lying about? You guys who pick this up each time .. that's INSANE!! There are places that took us 15 minutes to cut -- but would most certainly take 2-3 hours picking up litter. Now granted, as cutting commenced, Scott/I/Rob would pick up the stuff along the way (especially the ones that liked to turn into 2092039029302 other pieces if you accidently hit them like toilet paper) but there is NO WAY we could've picked up all those cigarette butts!! Call me a jerk, but we'd blow them into the road and let them go down the street with traffic after we finished cutting!

That's why I disliked doing commerical accounts. Private residents are better. Obviously, all litter/trash/junk is picked up prior to cutting (or during, depending on the situation).

STICk-nINE

[awm]

man i cant think of a worse nightmare than leavin a lot o grass on a street and watching a car loose control because of it.
wouldnt be no place to hide.

[TurfGuyTX]

Originally posted by Mowingman
In our town it is a code violation to blow any debris into the street, even leaves or grass clippings.If the police or code enforcement officer "SEES" you, you get a ticket. We blow everything up into the lawn first, pick up any trash, mow, trim, and edge, then blow all clippings back up into the lawn.:)

[kppurn]

Greenman-
I have no idea what this guy meant when he said that. I thought it looked perfectly fine. This guy came out before to watch us and actually followed us around. I told him numerous times to go inside and this time I really had enough. I told my boss about the guy and I think he was afraid to confront him. I don't know, but that last time was it for me. I grabbed the trimmer from the guy working with me and took down that high side nice and low.;) I have a feeling this guy has had his share of LCO's on his property. I usually stay pretty composed in these situations but not that time.

[Doogiegh]

Does anyone ever SWEEP out the area of the street up to the curb, usually where 1 set of parked cars tires wind up? Many areas it's white concrete, whereas the actual road is black asphault?

Do you blow everything there (clippings), back onto the lawn or sweep the property into a pile and pick it all up?

Anyone ever use one of those "Power Sweeper" attachments for I believe Echo or Stihl to do this?

Gary

[greenman]

sweep? whats that,lol?

[MJStrain]

Originally posted by Ryan Lightning
Most of the time I blow every thing first, then mow. Anything left is just grass, and gets blown in the lawn. It sucks to blow twice, but everything is much cleaner.

Don't think I would have thought to blow twice. Good idea. Especially if you are catching the grass clippings. Blow all the leaves and stuff into the yard, mow and it's all picked up. Great idea!

[JimLewis]

Well, I always learned this as the proper way to blow up debris;

After mowing, we blow all grass clippings into the street. After it's all in the street, we blow it up against the curb. Usually, by that time, there is very little of the grass clippings left and what's against the curb is barely noticeable. Further, most streets have a little debris against the curb anyway from cars driving by and such. But then we look around at the street and if the rest of the street looks totally clean and the only place the street has anything up against the curb is the place we just blowed, then we rake it up.

We also have street sweepers that come by and get the stuff by the curbs every few days.

In the fall, there are often a lot of leaves and such. So most of the time after we blow everything against the curb, we have to rake it up and haul it away because it's too much and it wouldn't look right if we left it there.

[Stihlcutter]

I usually just blow it in to the middle of the street but have gotten a coupleof dirty look from a few neighbors.

Do you guys actually sweep up all of the debris, clippings, etc... after a job? It just seems unnessacary.

Take what you may from this. But this is my routine, (Pending on how long the grass is) Mow,Edge, and then blow. Blow the clippings and dirt back in to the lawn. if there is leaves or little trash i just rake them or pick them up.
-ac

[MOW ED]

Its nice to see that the search feature is being used. Man this thread is 8 years old. I am feeling real old now.