Cleaning lawn of branches

[2manyrocks]

Pull behind lawn sweepers and vacuums used to be more popular, but IMPO, I couldn't see buying one today when mulching decks/blades take care of normal leaf accumulations as well as chop up the grass clippings every week. Trying to pick up sticks would be rough on the bristle brush.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Well I think my Agrifab sweeper was like $300 and the CMP dethatcher was $500. Out of a budget of $8.5k, that leaves a whole lot for coke and hookers!

I bought a Lawn Genie from the neighbor for $200. I use it for leaves in fall but it works for small branches too.

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/01150801040601160320080610456dc644539d37f633005d40-jpg.104909/

 

[GeneV]

That's how all purchase prices should be gauged.


How's it do with sticks? Looks like a "leaf only" endeavor?

I remember my father and grandfather both had a sweepers very much like this, probably badged Craftsman in the 1970's. I remember pulling them around behind the old Bolens garden tractor, but can't remember how well they worked.

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Yeh like I said earlier, big branches I pick up by hand, the sweeper grabs the smaller stuff. The sweeper doesn't have the lawn looking like a golf course, but good enough to look presentable.

 

[oldballs]

"That's good enough" is my old age goal in life............

Cheers,
Mike

 

[5030]

Reading along and not commenting, all I can say is... 'get off your dead butt and on your dying feet' and pick them up. The exercise will do you good.

 

[GeneV]

Pull behind lawn sweepers and vacuums used to be more popular, but IMPO, I couldn't see buying one today when mulching decks/blades take care of normal leaf accumulations as well as chop up the grass clippings every week. Trying to pick up sticks would be rough on the bristle brush.

Nah man, I'm on year 7 doing exactly that with that sweeper, it's fine. In fact, that's all I do with it...I hardly ever use it for leaves, for the reason you mention.

 

[Chris In Gallupville]

Sadly, I don’t think there’s any magic out there. Big piece of property? Gonna have branches to pick up.

I bought a landscape rake w/ wheel set to help clean up when I have to take a tree down and deal with a lot of busted branches. It did a decent job but I didn’t worry about tiny stuff (that would be objectionable on a house/yard lawn).

I’ve also got a tooth attachment for my FEL and it’s decent, too. But it’s heavy and somewhat rough. Not a good choice for a lawn.

I can do some gathering with my backpack blower but there’s still the pick up.

I have the rubber-fin power sweep from Stihl. It cleans up stuff wonderfully (stones from the driveway after snow plowing, all manner of branches, deeply packed wet leaves….honestly, it cleans well) but it’s also on the heavy side and whether you’re pushing or pulling, you’re working hard against the power of the motor. I get as tired as my yard gets clean.

I have an excellent hand rake that I learned about from a tree trimmer guy. Got very springy and strong teeth that pull and self clean. It’s called the Groundskeeper Rake and with mild effort it pulls branches together to a small pile and I can curl the rake and pick them up to go into the loader or garden cart. It’s often my best choice for raking up woody litter.

 

[Jimc295]

I’m interested in possible solutions too. I surrounded by a dozen 80-100 year old pecan trees. They are notorious for self-pruning, twigs to thigh sized limbs. Note: do not park or build anything of value under them. My solution so far:

This works about as well as anything I've tried, except moving LOL. I used to live in S GA and had lots of pecan trees over a 100 years old, the spring cleanup was a real chore. However we moved to N GA and it is no longer a problem, now it is walnuts.

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[botaproducts]

3.35 acres here lots of sticks ,branches when the wind blows I pick up the large ones with wicked grapple or by hand then mow over everything else with the 54" & Gator blades. I have a rake but no trolley wheels so that is not an option for me.

 

[panamaguy]

Every spring, I spend at least a full afternoon cleaning up downed branches from my ~4 acres of lawn, mostly from the more mature walnut and maple trees. I get to repeat this exercise after each major storm, all summer long, and I'm getting awful tired of the routine. Presently, I drive the FEL to an area with a bunch of downed branches, pick up each larger one and put them into the bucket. Then I rake up all of the smaller bits, and scoop them into the bucket. Very tedious.

I'm wondering what automated options might be possible. A landscape rake with float (anti-scalp) wheels would do half the job, at least gathering them together. Although driving over them in the process is just going to make them harder to pick up, in the end. Perhaps a tooth bar on my bucket, fitted with large swivel caster mounts on either side, so that I can drive around gathering branches with the bucket floating just an inch off the lawn.

Ideas? I can't be the only one hating this chore.

Hire a neighbor kid. All kids want spending money. As we get older we get smarter not stronger