The days of using a rake to deal with a lawn full of leaves is past – now, there are tons of tools to make coping with the falling leaves easier. These labor savers help cut down the amount of time you’ll spend in the yard, and also have helped to banish the good old days of lying down with a backache on a Sunday after raking all day on Saturday.
Leaves on ground, courtesy joiseyshowaa via Flickr
The Rake
Cheap, simple, and useful for so much more than just picking up leaves. It shouldn’t be the only tool in your shed for dealing with leaves, but it should be in everyone’s shed. There’s a reason they have been around for so long – when all the new technology breaks down or runs out of gas, a rake is still there.
Leafblower
Everyone knows the signature whine that announces the arrival of fall – the simple leafblower. A handy tool that helps to shove all the leaves together, it does have some disadvantages. Not all units are powerful enough to blow leave loose from the grips of the grass. You still have to bag by hand afterwards.
Lawn Vacuum
The most efficient leaf tool, lawn vacuums can be found in push models or in tow-behind models for tractors. They are powerful, sucking up leaves and other debris into a holding container. They are fast, and efficient – however, they come with a high price. In addition, they aren’t practical for small lawn. You really need to have a good half-acre of heavily wooded lawn that lays down lots of leaves to make a lawn vac worth the purchase price.
Lawn Sweeper
A lawn vacuum without the sucking power – and also without the noise. These will use brushes or tines to sweep debris into a bin, and are usually towed behind a lawn mower – although there are walk-behind versions as well. They don’t pick up quite as much as the lawn vacuum does, though. So why bother? Well, a tow-behind lawn vacuum will run up between $1,000 and $2,000, while a good walk-behind lawn vac will run in the $600-$1,000 range. Lawn sweepers, on the other hand, often run in the $250-$350 range for tow-behind, and in the $70-$100 range for push models. If you don’t need every single leaf off the grass, it might not be worth spending that extra cash.
Leaf Mulcher
Waste disposal companies sometimes charge to haul away leaves, and you’re wasting that possible source of lawn and garden nutrients. A Leaf Mulcher shreds leaves, reducing the amount of space they take up while simultaneously making them easier to decompose. It won’t help you collect leaves, but it most certainly will help you dispose of them efficiently.
Shred n’ Vac
Having a combination handheld lawn vacuum/leaf mulcher sounds like a great idea, and that’s where the Shred n’ Vac system comes in. It probably would be better named the Vac n’ Shred, because that’s exactly what it does – vacuums up leaves, shreds them, then either dumps them out the back or into a bag.
Leaf Scoops
Leaf Scoops are simple, handheld devices that are, essentially, just giant scoops that attach to your hand. One of those ideas that is so simple that you wonder why it hasn’t been around for centuries, they increase the amount of leaves you can pick up and move to a compost pie, leaf mulcher, or trash bag. They can also serve double-duty when it comes to moving mulch, snow, or compost.
Taking into consideration the size of your property and your budget, you can easily find the right mix of tools to improve your leaf removal this fall. The best part is, even though some of these pieces of equipment are expensive, they will last for a long time due to their seasonal application.
