Leaf collection ideas

[Jbeery78]

Looking for some new or creative leaf collection ideas before fall hits... We have 7 massive maples in our yard and have used a sweeper in the past, but about one pass and she's full. I think it's a standard sized sweeper, any massive ones on the market? Or better ideas? Need to save myself some time this fall, between bow hunting and getting snow equipment ready time is thin!

 

[CalG]

Looking for some new or creative leaf collection ideas before fall hits... We have 7 massive maples in our yard and have used a sweeper in the past, but about one pass and she's full. I think it's a standard sized sweeper, any massive ones on the market? Or better ideas? Need to save myself some time this fall, between bow hunting and getting snow equipment ready time is thin!

Mow 'em first. then pick 'em up.

I just make unidirectional passes with the walk behind until the leaves are blown over the bank.
Where that doesn't work, the get mowed to reduce volume and then raked up and put in the garden trailer to be dumped over the bank.

Every 10 years or so, "the bank" gets hauled back up as compost for the gardens.

I've got over 100 head of maple in the "yard" most are pushing 100 years old and 100 feet tall. ;-)
I'm trying to grow a few more oak, but they have leaves of their own.

 

[KennyG]

Trac Vac, Cyclone Rake etc

 

[pmsmechanic]

I picked up a used Lawn Genie with a collection bin for $200. It works awesome. Especially if I can pick leaves on a dry day. The flails tend to shred the leaves and they take up a lot less room. I dump them in the same place and after a few years I have nice compost.

 

[grnspot110]

I picked this up off CL last fall: had enough hose from a previous project to make it to the mower. Bought a new remote hose for it. Use it on my 1980 JD 314:

 

[Ed of all trades]

I just got the biggest tarp, a good one, and bolted two 2x4s together across the middle of one end. Then I drilled a hole in the 2x4s and put the ends of a rope through and tied a knot so it would not come out, tied a loop in the middle of the rope and that gave me a place to hitch the tarp to the tractor. Rake the leaves on the tarp and use bungee cords to hold the sides up and pull it where you want the leaves. Ed

 

[Code54]

We have a lot of trees on 3 acres (area we mow) that produce leaves for me to clean up. I have raked them, moved with tarps, used rear bagger on little box store tractor, used the front end loader and pushed piles, used magnum stihl leaf blower, rear bagger on Kubota BX25 and now a cyclone rake. My advice, spend the money and get a cyclone rake. I use the leaf blower and get the leaves off my drive way and out of the flower beds (several) then just mow the grass wi the cyclone rake attached. Done , put it away and go hunting. About 1/3 the time of any other options I tried. They are not cheap but it works, works really well and really does not take any longer than cutting the grass (maybe 10 minutes more in my case). Best thing we ever did for fall cleanup hands down.

 

[oosik]

I mow the leaves to reduce volume and get it all in one row. Then, hopefully, the sun will dry the row and I can rake it up and dump in my compost pile.

This works well for my apple trees. Now as far as all the pine needles - they don't really "mow" into a row well. I end up trying to mow them into rows but usually end up having to hand rake the lawns. I have no idea how well a vacuum system of any type would work on pine needles.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I don't know how you guys with the big yards and lots of trees cope. I have an acre plus, with two huge Maples, two huge Ash trees, a 50 foot Pecan, various others including, up until this Spring, a couple of 80 foot Cottonwoods. My method is pretty labor intensive, but I have a mulcher attachment for my mower, and I handle it with that. Sometimes in the Fall I spend a lot of time around the Maples, but eventually I get 'er done. In the Spring is when I have to clean the leaves out of the flower beds, and around the Lilacs. That takes more time than anything, but then I mulch them with the mower.

Not to mention my neighbors have a couple huge Maples, several Pine trees and a Sycamore that with the help of the prevailing winds here, deposits pie plate-sized leaves all over my yard. I find, however, that if I continually lower the cut on the mower over the Fall and the Winter (yeah, I mow several times during the Winter, weather permitting) that by the Spring, I have everything mulched up and the dry grass scalped down to about 2". Ah, the joys of country living.

 

[smstonypoint]

I have oaks (red, white, and post) and red maples that produce a prodigious amount of leaves that I mulch using one of these on on my ZTR mower. My mower is a Bad Boy, but the attachment is supposed to fit other brands.

Lawn Mower Accessories For Tilling, Aerating, Mulching & More - Bad Boy Mowers.

Steve