AIBU to vacuum my front garden?

[lolapenguin]

I need to know if I've finally lost it or if I just have judgemental neighbours ?

I regularly vacuum my front garden. I have a mix of artificial grass and paving stones, and it just feels like the easiest way to keep things tidy—especially when leaves, dirt, or small debris build up. It's kind of become a Sunday cleaning habit at this point.

The thing is, some of my neighbors have started giving me weird looks when they see me doing it. A couple of them have even made comments like, "Are you sure you don't want to take that inside?" I usually just laugh it off, but their reaction feels like i'm hoovering up the neighbourhood cat! (which I would never btw)

Now I'm wondering if I should I scale it back or just keep going and keep it a part of my weekly routine?

I sweep the patio, I bleach the patio, some people use leaf blowers

Why is that different to hoovering

Although I wouldnt mess up my hoover for that

I sweep my front path because I'n surrounded by trees and the bloody leaves blow in when ever you open the front door.

I'm sure op would attract a fair amount of judgement for bleaching her 'garden' too.

Plastic ‘grass’ should be banned. Gardens should have leaves and twigs in them. Of course people are looking at you when you’re hoovering your garden.

Do as u.please. If they are talking about.u they are not talking about anyone else.

Get a garden hoover. Essentially a leaf blower that also sucks. Our neighbours have an enormous eucalyptus tree and it drops leaves all year round and whilst I’m not particularly bothered, it does get a bit much sometimes.

Well she wouldnt bleach a garden would she?

You've lost it.. like my dh who runs out picking leaves up when they fall before guests come, instead of helping in the kitchen!

My neighbour does this and it does look really bizarre!

@soupfiend does paving and artificial grass that is vacuumed weekly constitute a garden?

Agree!

Henry over the patio - standard

Agree with posters saying the neighbours are judging your horrible environmentally-unfriendly plastic ‘garden’ but out of interest, what time are you performing this Sunday ritual?

It's quirky but I wouldn't judge you for it. Everyone has their idiosyncrasies.

I assume all the people wringing their hands over ops plastic lawn don’t eat meat as it’s one of the biggest contributors to climate change

We have an outdoor vacuum for these kinds of things.

Yes it’s this. There’s no hope when you have a “garden” that you can vacuum!

Nope, I happily eat my burgers out in the grass lawn!

😂😂 this made my day too

It is unusual for someone to be vacuuming their garden so you're bound to get weird looks OP 🤷🏼‍♀️

Surely the noise is annoying?
That and the urgency of having proper wildlife gardens, with soil, for drainage and to counter heat island effects, plus if any (desperately needed for pollination) insects are accidentally straying into your plastic garden they'll be hoovered up and we're in the throes of a dangerous decline in insect populations!
I'd be judging, too!

A more environmentally but still cat-non-allergenic alternative might be gravel. That way you still have some drainage and you could have planters or pots of plants for insects, if the cat's allergy is just to grass pollen (has the vet tested?).

I once heard someone describe that as scrubbing the bread box.

In that while everyone is balls out cleaning and getting ready for guests there is always someone who scrubs out the breadbox to be helpful. Yeah no one gives a shit if you have crumbs in a bread box but that person sure does look busy… see also “helpful like a puppy”

I can't. This is my new favourite MN post.

Thank you