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leaf clean up

W

Whistler

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On my small property of just less than one half acre I have several trees. Raking takes forever. What are some better ways to gather and remove the mountains of leaves from my property?
 

w_r_ranch

Master Gardener
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6,450
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DR Power Leaf & Lawn Vacuums. Materials are shredded twice, once by the mower blade & once by the impeller—reducing everything substantially from its original volume.

 

Mike

Might know the answer
Messages
977
Location
Kentucky
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6b
I normally rake the leaves in the front yard then use a Toro blower/vacuum then dump the contents into my compost bin. The back yard I will use my zero turn mower and do laps around the back yard cutting up the leafs and blowing them toward the center of the yard as much as I can then vacuum them up using the said Toro and again dump in the compost bin.

The compost bin burns down the leaves very quickly and being my back yard is so heavily covered in leaves it saves me a ton of time having to rake them every other day. It's much quicker, then raking and while most get vacuumed there are still some left overs to go back into the ground.

OR you could use something super awesome like Sam suggested! :D
 
M

Mr_Yan

Guest
My first thought was hire the neighbor kid.

I use the same blower vac as Mike but my whole lot is only 0.11 acres. I shred all the leafs and directly apply them to the gardens as mulch. I used to run them over with my mower and mulch then down. While the mower is faster it is not as neat.
 
W

Whistler

Guest
Yan thank you for the suggestion i like the idea of using the blower to sweep up the leafs. does it work ok with wet leaves or do i have to wait for the leaves to dry?
 
M

Mr_Yan

Guest
Yan thank you for the suggestion i like the idea of using the blower to sweep up the leafs. does it work ok with wet leaves or do i have to wait for the leaves to dry?

Yeah wet doesn't work well. And don't think that a blower will replace a rake. If anything the shredder vac adds more complexity. Can you borrow a bagging mower from a neighbor or even rent one. The leafs will be shredded into the bag and you just need to dump the bag.

On a side note I want to try using my leaf blower to clear snow. I'll have to wait for a cold dry fluffy snow fall.
 

Mike

Might know the answer
Messages
977
Location
Kentucky
Planting Zone
6b
@Mr_Yan I have used my Toro to clear off snow and it works great. Obviously much better for fluffy snow vs wet snow but it does work with both. I just got a gas echo blower last week that I'm sure would make even shorter work of it compared to my electric toro.
 

Lost in mn

Well-Known Member
Messages
98
Planting Zone
3
I just read an article the other day that said it's much much better for your lawn to leave the leaves until spring. It's all pine where I live now so I don't have that problem. However, I used to buy a purpose made Leaf mulching blade for the lawn mower a couple of passes and the leaves are pulverized and left on the lawn as fertilizer for the next growing year. It has to be very dry in order for this to work well.
 

Mike

Might know the answer
Messages
977
Location
Kentucky
Planting Zone
6b
I just read an article the other day that said it's much much better for your lawn to leave the leaves until spring. It's all pine where I live now so I don't have that problem. However, I used to buy a purpose made Leaf mulching blade for the lawn mower a couple of passes and the leaves are pulverized and left on the lawn as fertilizer for the next growing year. It has to be very dry in order for this to work well.

This is basically what I do with my ZTR mower, with the exception of a purposed blade. That said I still need to clean up a few in my back yard as I have far to many trees and the leaves would be thick... even cut up and if left that way could actually kill the grass.
 
E

ErnieCopp

Guest
I hope a couple of inches of pecans, nuts, not leaves, will help a flower bed. Pecan trees are rare in CA, but i have a couple of forty footers along my west property line. One is above the driveway and Statis flower bed. We have about 10 times as many pecans this year as the other two years i have lived here. I blow the driveway clean with the mower, and as of now i have about six inches of leaves and 2 inches of pecans in the flower beds. Some of the local Mexicans come pick up pecans, but they are falling faster than the pickers can get them.

A flock of crows were around for a while and they fly way up and drop them to crack, and they drop a lot on the house roof, to.
These are older trees, and nuts are smaller than the big paper shells, so i do not harvest any myself.

Ernie
 

Mike

Might know the answer
Messages
977
Location
Kentucky
Planting Zone
6b
It's that time of year again... and already I'm starting to wish I had one of those extra large vacuums Sam mentioned. My blower/vac blew up on my early last year.
 
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