Leaf Planning - is a sweeper enough?

[RjCorazza]

I also use a chute blocker and gator blades on my ztr mower for leaves. Whats left gets blown into a tree line.
I do have a propelled shredder that I have used on large piles when I get behind.

 

[drb1215]

I have about the same amount of leaves in my yard. I use to mulch them, but it would still leave a lot of debris on the lawn. I looked at the cyclone rakes, and other pull behind units that would work behind my yard tractor (didn't have the Kubota at the time)...they were a bit expensive for the amount of time it was to be used per year.

I ended up just putting a 2 bushel bagger on my lawn tractor. It chops up and compresses the leaves enough to where I need to empty only about 4 times (a short ride from the lawn to the mulch pile), and acts like a vacuum cleaner on the lawn. The only thing you need to be mindful of is that the chute will get clogged if you try and go too fast.

 

[KennyG]

Seems like we all go through the same decision agony. Lawn sweepers are just too much work for lots of leaves. Mulching them in place with the mower is good for some but it sounds like you are in my situation with too many leaves to make that practical. I went with the Cyclone Rake. Yes, it's expensive but I've had mine over 5 years now and it's like new. The eventual cost of ownership of this thing will be well under $100 per year. The storage space required is minimal and that was a big item for me. As far as getting in tight spots, not so good. Even though it's rigidly attached, it makes the whole rig really long. Also it takes some getting used to since when you turn left it swings WAY out to right. I have the accessory tube which allows to you easily pick up leaves from flower beds and inaccessible areas, but when you do this you lose the mulching function (all comes from the mower deck.) Good Luck.

 

[texas42]

+ one on Cyclone Rake. I clean up about 3 1/2 acres with 80 trees.
Got Cyclone Rake 6 years ago.
It's the easiest and fastest way to pick up leaves I have found.
Also, Cyclone Rake has great customer service

 

[MitchellB]

We use our leaves as mulch. We have not come up with a method I really like yet, but here is what we have tried in the past. We have about 2 1/2 acres now, but we have many small natural areas interwoven between mower and tractor width trails behind the house. We have a large pin oak in front with a large mulched circle around it (cause nothing will grow under there but poison ivy).

Some of our neighbors rake and bag leaves next to the street for the city to pickup. Other neighbors just rake everything to the street (and often into the street) for the city to come by about 3 or 4 times a year to vacuum them up in their big truck. These options are my least favorite, nor do I use them.

What I used to do when I had a large riding mower with a triple bagger is mow the leaves into the rear bagger and distribute the chopped leaves around the yard as mulch into the natural areas and around trees, shrubs and flowers. The bags filled up quick but provided free mulch.

I have also attached my rear scrap blade to my tractor, turned the blade backwards so it would not dig in and pull the leaves to the back portion of our lot into a big pile. I use this method also to scrap snow off our gravel driveways, so it does not disturb the gravel very much. I have often thought of trying a rock rake or pine straw rake to drag leaves off, but I do not own either of those two attachments. The backwards scrap blade does a pretty good job, but at the cost of some lawn destruction, but I am not one of those that obsess about the looks of the lawn.

Another method that I use now, since I do not have a bagger anymore, is to use the riding mower to blow the leaves into the natural areas. This often requires driving forward and backward slowly moving the leaves to one side of the lawn to eventually blow the mulched leaves into the natural areas and around trees, or to begin mowing in the middle of the lawn driving in circles until everything is blow to the outside edges. Not the greatest solution, but still easier than raking and faster than blowing.

 

[Ron of Va]

I do my lawn with a John Deere GT235 fitted with a mulching kit on the deck. I pull a Sears lawn sweeper to sweep up the mulch leaves. I have been doing it this way for years. I now own a Massey Ferguson with a dedicated mulching deck (disappointed, but more on that later).

When using a sweeper, the leaves have to be mulched or the sweeper will fill too quickly. The good part is you can cover a large area with minimal manual labor, and do so very quickly. Mulching the leaves, will leave crumbs all over the yard, but you will not notice them unless you get close and look down. If you don't mulch, and just sweep, then the sweeper cleans the yard very well, but the sweeper gets full quickly and keeps you busy just emptying the leaves.

Here is a fall photo, my JD and sweeper takes care of this, but I won"t let it get this bad very often.


I had some early leaves come down so I did an experiment comparing the JD to the Massey Ferguson with the Mulching deck. With and without the sweeper.


As you can see the MF with the mulching deck left a strip of non-mulched leaves in the center but a sweeper cleaned it up. The problem is un-mulched leaves take up too much space in the sweeper.
The JD with the sweeper does a better job, I have no complaints

 

[Fiziksgeek]

I the guy...maybe the only guy on here...with a PTO powered Protero unit. I love it, but I use it to bag most of the year. IF I were only bagging leaves in the fall, I'd go with one of the larger tow behind units. Cyclone rake models fold up, making them the easiest on storage. Just about the only other brand out there with a PTO powered unit (not uber expensive commercial type) is Trac-vac.

 

[4570Man]

I hate my cyclone rake. The bag is poorly designed and doesn't dump good. I've since upgraded to the new bag which is wider at the back so I'm hoping that helps. I prefer to mulch the leaves first. If I stay on top of it I can usually get it looking good enough like this. If I get behind I end up having to vacuum them, but I mulch them first. That significantly reduces the loads that I have to pickup.

 

[Ghost River Retrievers]

+ one on Cyclone Rake. I clean up about 3 1/2 acres with 80 trees.
Got Cyclone Rake 6 years ago.
It's the easiest and fastest way to pick up leaves I have found.
Also, Cyclone Rake has great customer service

Another plug for the Cyclone Rake!
I used one at at our former home for about 8 or so years, where we were on one acre with about 70 trees, mostly oaks. I must admit that when riding our Hustler ZTR with the Cyclone Rake behind it I felt privileged ... neighbors would drive by and just watch to see how well it worked; in fact, a couple families who lived in the neighborhood bought their own (I should have asked for a commission!). It did a fantastic job. Occasionally the leaves were higher than the mower deck, so I had to develop certain techniques to deal with them. When we moved to the farm, I knew that I wouldn't be vacuuming leaves, so we sold it with the house!
And yes, their customer service is very good.
My only regret was not getting the biggest one available.
GRR

 

[leonz]

Thats the nicest thing about my Mathews Company Lawn Genie I can chop them up and then pick them up or just pick it all up when I mow.