Mower and Blower Noise in PDX? (Portland: HOA, houses, landscaping)

[aaronmidnight]

Currently live in Tennessee, in an HOA subdivision with ~ 1/2-acre lots.

HOA mandates that lawns be kept short and weed-free (or nearly so).

Ergo, every week from oh about March to November, squads of professionals on large, loud riding mowers come through and chop the grass on a weekly basis. And use their gas-powered string trimmers to edge it. And gas-powered blowers to get the clippings off the driveway and road.

It's loud.

I assume it's the same deal in the Portland area?

From what I've seen online (and what I remember from one visit years ago), developments (at least older ones) might preserve a bit more wooded areas than most developments seem to have in Nashville. So perhaps that cuts down on the lawn maintenance noise?

PS - I did see that there's a lawncare company that uses electric mowers in your area (Lawn Care Portland | Organic Lawn Care | Clean Air Lawn Care). Very cool. I hired such a company once in Nashville, but then he stopped serving my part of the metro area. The electric mowers and blowers tend to be much quieter and less polluting.

[ccjarider]

As Li-Ion battery technology continues to evolve, battery powered Lawn and Garden products will become mainstream and issue will resolve itself.

There is an Oregon based company developing professional battery powered L&G products right now.

https://www.oregonproducts.com/en/120vproseries

[StealthRabbit]

Don't choose to live in an HOA controlled area.

Leaves in Oregon (few) vs Leaves in TN (mtns) are a whole different animal.

You can just live in a windy area and let them blow to the neighbors (or in our case, no neighbors, so they blow into the fields and forest.)

[PNW-type-gal]

When I last lived up that way, mower and blower noise was very common on Saturday and Sunday - when homeowners were home to do yard work - and much less common during the week. In my "median house value" neighborhood, very few people had a yard service. I am sure there are parts of town where there are more weekday gardening services active. When I visit my son in the LA area, everyone there seems to have a yard service and the noise is pretty much all day every week day.


For our smaller lot, we have an electric lawnmower, electric string trimmer and a battery-powered blower. They work just fine, much less noisy and you don't have to string together multiple cords to reach corners of the lot.

[izzy2017]

I used to live in Nashville. Lawn services are less common out here and more people do their own yard work. We live in a nice suburb and it is mostly just the retired folks who use a service. So weekend work is more prevalent.

Also, because of fencing they don't have those massive loud lawn mowers here for residential use, some people have smaller riding ones but most are the traditional ones. Leaves are less of an issue too because of the wind and also because there just are more evergreens.

[texasdiver]

It's not like it is in upscale subdivisions in the south where the landscaping companies sweep through every week and do pretty much all the houses at once with crews on mowers, trimmers, and blowers. A few people will be out with mowers and blowers, especially in the fall to clear all the leaves. But most people just do their own lawn maintenance.

[aaronmidnight]

@izzy2017 - Interesting. Do people have lawns or landscaping along their fences? I always wonder how they prevent weeds (or grass) right in the fenceline. I've seen people use a string trimmer along the fenceline here (the services do it weekly, the homeowners less often) and it doesn't look like much fun. Can't be good for the fence either.

What would you all say is the mix of lawn vs. other landscaping (trees, shrubs, perennials, annual beds, veggie gardens, etc.) on most properties?

Where I live, it seems typical for many people to have a couple trees in the front yard, maybe a tiny planting bed by the mailbox, some foundation plantings around the house, some hedges or trees on the edge of the property and then mostly just lawn.

You don't see many folks with large landscape beds like what I remember from growing up in Pennsylvania.

In other words, I see a lot of folks around here with something like this (https://bit.ly/2Qg7oXz) or this (https://bit.ly/2N3agsz).

Wondering if people use more landscaping like this (https://bit.ly/2oXgaxc) in Oregon or this (https://bit.ly/2QklcQM)

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by aaronmidnight

@izzy2017 - Interesting. Do people have lawns or landscaping along their fences? I always wonder how they prevent weeds (or grass) right in the fenceline. I've seen people use a string trimmer along the fenceline here (the services do it weekly, the homeowners less often) and it doesn't look like much fun. Can't be good for the fence either.

What would you all say is the mix of lawn vs. other landscaping (trees, shrubs, perennials, annual beds, veggie gardens, etc.) on most properties?

Where I live, it seems typical for many people to have a couple trees in the front yard, maybe a tiny planting bed by the mailbox, some foundation plantings around the house, some hedges or trees on the edge of the property and then mostly just lawn.

You don't see many folks with large landscape beds like what I remember from growing up in Pennsylvania.

In other words, I see a lot of folks around here with something like this (https://bit.ly/2Qg7oXz) or this (https://bit.ly/2N3agsz).

Wondering if people use more landscaping like this (https://bit.ly/2oXgaxc) in Oregon or this (https://bit.ly/2QklcQM)

Google street view is your friend. Generally speaking you see more overgrown properties here and more wooded and mulch/stone landscaped properties in newer areas as opposed to grass from fenceline to fenceline. These would be typical Portland streets in nicer areas of east Portland: