Having trees in your yard is awesome. Not only it increases the beauty of the house, it also purifies the air that we breath. However, it comes with disadvantages too. Trees can make your yard dirty. Especially during the fall and autumn, it can get very hard to deal with the fallen leaves.
So, you need something that can help you out with this boring chore. Fortunately, we have the perfect solution for this. In this article, we are going to show you the best way to clean up leaves in large yard.
So, let’s get started!
Choosing a Suitable Tool
Cleaning up leaves in the yard is an exhausting task for most of us. The old way of using a rake and filling loads of bags is just not efficient anymore. It takes a lot of time and manual labor. There are various types of leaf blowers and vacuums on the marketplace today that can help you out with this. Here are some tips to choose a suitable tool for cleaning leaves in large yard:
Picking A Tool
The first thing you need to do is pick a suitable tool. The most popular tool for cleaning yard is a leaf blower. They come in different types, sizes, and models. A leaf blower is perfect for cleaning a large area, however, for small areas, they do a pretty good job. We have found that for cleaning large yards, mowers work best.
Knowing The Price
There are different types of mowers in the market. They come in various price range. Generally, the price starts at $500 and gradually increase with more functional models. The mowers that are suitable for large areas have wide brushes of 25 or more inches at a pass. Mowers vacuum leaves and mulches them, stockpiling them in a solid unit until you can fill them into garbage bags. This way, you can clean a large area very quickly and efficiently.
What to Look For in the Tool
If you are going to get a leaf blower, you need to know how to choose the best one within your budget. While shopping for leaf blowers, try to look for large self-propelling wheels. They would travel over any surface easily. Make sure that it also breaks the leaves into tinier pieces that can be disposed of directly or used as mulch. The basket or vessel that holds the leaves must be easily refillable. Also, there needs to be a guard of some kind to avoid debris getting stuck with your legs.
Choosing The Brand
Brand is the most important thing when choosing any tool. A good brand ensures us of good quality. So, whether you are looking for a leaf blower or a mower, make sure the brand is reputable. A decent quality leaf blower or mower can last for years without any type of malfunctioning.
How to Clean Up Leaves in Large Yard
Cleaning up leaves in large yard can be very tough if you don’t know what you are doing. That’s why here we are sharing a step by step process to clean up leaves (even in a large yard).
Here are the steps:
Preparing the Yard
Remove any type of garbage or object such as pine cones, card boxes etc. from the yard. Collect them in a garbage can or bag. Move all other stuff away from the yard. If there is any car, park it somewhere else. If there is any kid playing in the yard, ask him to play inside for a while. Wear proper safety gears such as safety glasses, long slacks, a long-sleeved shirt, work handbags, and steel-toed shoes. You can get a cap or ‘do-rag for extra head protection.
Cleaning
The next step is to take out the weeds, twigs and other debris from the yard. When the yard is only left with leaves, now is the time to use a suitable tool. As we have said earlier, we prefer mower for cleaning leaves in a large yard. However, you can also use a leaf blower. Whatever you choose, wear protective gears all the time and follow the safety guidelines. If you are not sure how to use the tool, watch a YouTube video. It’ll give you a clear idea.
Filling Bags
Whether you are using a mower or leaf blower, you need to find an environmentally friendly way to get rid of the leaves. The most popular way is to take the leaves and fill them in a bag. Then disposing of the bag is easy and less time-consuming. We use this method. However, you need to make sure that the bag is made of environmentally friendly materials.
Using Adaptable Ring
In the beginning, it can get very frustrating to deal with the bags. We were not sure how the bag was supposed to stay open since like any shopping paper bag they usually collapse onto themselves. After hours of research on the internet, we came across a thing called the Adaptable Ring. The Adaptable Ring makes the cleaning a whole lot easier. They can be used with the bags to prevent the bags from collapsing onto themselves. This small thing literally cut our cleaning time into half!
Final Words
So, this is our step by step guide on the best way to clean up leaves in large yard. When dealing with large yards, patience is the number one key. If you have a significantly large yard, we’ll highly suggest investing in a decent mower. Though it can be pricier than leaf blowers, mowers are far much more efficient for large areas.
One more alternative way is to rent a yard vacuum from the local gear rental. It will be particularly helpful if you have low storage space and only need to use the vacuum for a few days every spring and fall. This way, there is no need to spend a fortune for a mower or a leaf blower.
