The beauty of nature is unmatchable, and it goes to another level if there are a lot of colorful leaves all around you. It is a soothing view to get relaxation to your mind and eyes. But once the leaves start to fall to the ground, the real problem starts. It will become a tedious chore to clean the leaves from your backyard, patio, garden, roofs, etc.
So, let us understand how to make your job easier and other tips for effective cleanup of leaves.
Part 1: Leaf clean up tools
Once the leaves start to gather on your surroundings, you will face the big question of how to clean up leaf. The below provided seven tools saves your time and also renders relaxation with the ease of cleaning.
1.Rakes
Tools like rakes will make gathering the leaves easier. Be it fall leaf clean up or any season leaves clean up, this tool is convenient. To deal with the fallen leaves, rakes are the ideal tool; with this, you can gather and make a pile and dispose of the leaves. Rakes are available in different materials, and as per your needs, you need to decide. The plastic rakes are enough to gather dry leaves, but metal rakes become handy if the leaves are wet and stuck on the ground. So, purchase both plastic and metal rakes to deal with all types of leaves with ease.
2.Wheelbarrow
Once you are piled-up the leaves, you can't waste much time; if you do so, leaves will travel with the wind, and you need to start your work from the gathering stage again. So, it is essential to collect and dispose of at once. To do this, the wheelbarrow is critical, especially if you are having a large number of leaves to get rid of. It can comfortably hold many leaves at once, and it is very easy to dump the leaves.
3.Shovels
I assume you have both rakes and wheelbarrows, but you need shovels to transfer the leaves on the ground to the wheelbarrow. Shovels are available in different sizes, and you can purchase the one which suits your wheelbarrow size and the number of leaves you are dealing with.
4.Tarp
The tarp is the easiest way to clean leaves. Especially, if you are dealing with a massive amount of leaves, a tarp can save a lot of precious time. You need to spread the tarp on the ground and rake all the leaves on this. Once the gathering of leaves is done, you can grab all corners and comfortably relocate the leaves.
5.Leaf sweeper
With this machine, you can push from behind or tow behind a tractor, which depends as per the model of your leaf sweeper, and it automatically scoops leaves inside the bags. As a result, you don't need to do the raking. However, it is not best suited for cleaning up the leaves stuck on the grass, for that without the rakes; it is not possible. But you can clean up leaves fast if you have a lot of loose leaves.
6.Shredders
If you are surrounded by more leaves, then shredding makes your job less tiresome. The shredders help you to reduce the size of the heap of leaves and make them easier to carry and dispose of.
7.Leaf blower
Leaf blowers are the most useful tool to clean up leaves efficiently. They are available in electrical, battery-powered, and gasoline-powered options. The leaf blowers are the best choice because it is available in plenty of sizes and easy to operate.
Part 2: Best way to remove leaves - Leaf Blower
Out of all the options we have gone through so far, leaf blowers are the ideal tool to maintain your surroundings neat and clean. The leaf blower is designed to handle and clean up the leaves from a negligible amount of leaves to a large heap of leaves with less time and effort. Let us look at the advantages of leaf blowers.
Versatility
The leaf blowers are available in multiple sizes and with numerous features. You can also get the leaf blower with cord and without cords. Again in the cordless mode, you have the choice of choosing from electrical and gas-powered leaf blowers. And depending on your requirements and the type of leaves you are dealing with, you can select the leaf blower to make your job effective.
Lightweight
The days of bulky and hard to operate leaf blowers are gone. Now you can enjoy your cleaning work with lightweight and cordless leaf blowers. If you choose with cord electrical leaf blowers, they are also easy to operate because they are free from the heavyweight batteries and motors.
Noise Level
With the increasing fame of these devices, the innovations are led to introducing very minimal sound-producing tools. It not only makes you free from the irritating sound while you are working but also, they are environmentally suitable.
Maintenance
The modern-day electrical and battery-powered leaf blowers are easy to operate, and the most significant advantage is they need very minimal need for maintenance. All you need to do is clean the tool by removing the dirt and residues stuck onto the machine. Only this much maintenance provides long life for the leaf blowers.
Efficiency
The leaf blower is the most efficient tool to get rid of your cleaning headaches. They need a minimal workforce compared to raking. You end up burning fewer calories in leaf blowing than raking, where you can catch back pains.
Time-saving
With efficiency, you can expect the reduction of time needed for performing a job. The leaf blower is available at various wind speeds. As a result, as per your task, you can get the high speed or moderate speed machines, the high-speed leaf blower finishes the work much faster.
Part 3: Tips for clean leaf
If you are looking to clean up leaves fast, then the below tips will indeed become very useful for you by saving hours of work.
1.Select the right rake
To do your job efficiently, first, you have to select the right tools. The rakes are undoubtedly one of the best tools to make your job easier. However, there are a lot of varieties of rakes available. If you get the bigger rakes, it will make your task small. But it is not that easy, because big rakes are not suitable for all places. The plastic rakes are commonly seen in all areas. They are ideal for getting rid of dry leaves. If you want to remove those stubborn leaves stuck inside the grass, and for wet leaves, you need to get metal rakes.
2.Tips for Blower and vacuums
The rocks, twigs, and garden mulch can damage your impeller. So, before using your vacuums and blowers, lookout and remove those things. While shredding your shredder can pick up a lot of dust with leaves. Hence, use a dust respirator while shredding leaves.
3.Mower
If you have a big yard and many trees surround it, mowing is the best option for you. You can use the mower to collect and clean a lot of leaves. It makes your leaves cleaning job much more comfortable by shredding the leaves, and later on, you can use them to produce mulch or compost.
4.Use smart leaves collectors
If you need to collect a lot of leaves in a short time, it is recommended to use the leaves collectors that gather the leaves at once rather than filling the leaves in a lot of plastic bags. You can get good quality Bagster bags in the market to perform your task efficiently.
5.Use tarp as the trailer
You can also use a tarp to collect a large number of leaves and dispose at once. It saves a lot of time and effort. Another hack is, instead of carrying and wasting your energy, you can haul the leaves in a tarp and drag the same. It acts as a trailer, and small kids can also easily transport a large number of leaves with ease by following this method.
6.Clean your roof regularly
Often you can notice the leaves on the ground even after cleaning the floor a few minutes back. The main reason for this will be the leaves lying on the roof. When wind flows, they eventually land on the floor. The moss and leaves stuck in the top can stop water traveling and can cause your roof deterioration prematurely. Hence, cleaning the roof is essential, and you can do that by using a leaf blower if it is low-pitched. For the steep roofs, use the broom with extension poles or you can opt for the best way to remove leaves ,i.e. getting roof rakes. The chopping of the trees near your roof is the best way to prevent the leaves from falling on your roof. And to get rid of mold, you can use chemicals like diluted bleach and fungicides.
7.Get gutter guards
The blockage of gutters is one of the main problems we can face in almost all homes. The leaves and other debris cause this issue, to get respite from this problem, you can install gutter guards. They help to cover all parts of the gutter except a small room for letting the water flow.
8.Use yard vac
The frustrating thing in vacuums and leaf blowers is the need for emptying the bags every four to five minutes. But you don't need to reduce the speed of cleaning leaves, buying the yard vac gets you out of this problem with ease. It aids you by filling large quantities of leaves into a few bags quickly.
9.Make sure to zip up your bag
It may look like a silly tip, but if you forget to zip up your bag, all your efforts may go in vain. Because the leaf blower is powerful enough to suck a massive amount of leaves at once, and if you forgot to close the bag, within a minute it would create a big mess behind you!
10.Follow safety measure while using the leaf blower
There is no doubt that leaf blowers are the optimal choice for getting rid of leaves. But you need to follow the safety measures such as wearing hearing protection to get cover against the noise caused by the Blower. Since it picks up dust and small particles, use eye protection, and cover your hands with gloves.
Part 4: What is the need to clean the leaves?
Of course, cleaning the leaves around you is not a rule, and you can leave them as it is. But when winds start blowing, all leaves begin to fly, and it can trouble your neighbors, and you know what can happen next! However, some of the house owners require the removal of leaves if you become their tenants. If not, also, the dancing of a lot of leaves in front of your house will not do any good to either for you or for your reputation.
The regular cleaning of the leaves gives a neat and clean look to your garden and increases your place's beauty. You indeed can't clean leaf each time whenever a single leaf falls. But it becomes important if the leaves are more. Because sometimes, the fallen leaves can cause diseases such as anthracnose, a disease caused by fungus.
The leaves lying on your roof can clog your gutters. The small leaves and other particles remaining on the top can prevent the flow of water and reduce your roof's life. And most importantly, they can become the birthplace of mosquitos. Because of all these reasons, it is always a good idea to clean the leaf often, especially if you reside in high winds.
Conclusion
Indeed, the cleaning of the leaves offers more advantages rather than leaving the leaves as it is. To make your work easier and faster, we have provided the essential leave clean up tools, ten top tips for cleaning up the leaves. We hope all these tips and tools make the world of good to you.