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leaf vacuum recommendations?
QUESTION: I put a Toro 51591 leaf vac/blower on my Amazon wish list.
Is this a good one? What do people use that is a leaf vacuum (I don't
want a blower -- gathering and shredding leaves is the goal. I
haven't found a lot of comments on leaf vacs, like do they actually
work!
I have a BIG mulberry with a lot of leaves. I'm seeding the area
under it with grasses and wildflowers, so I don't want to leaves to
mat down. I also have some grass clumps that survived transplanting
that I want to keep happy.
ANSWER: I have a huge sweetgum tree that blankets the area underneath it with
leaves twice over and then some, so I build up a pretty big leave pile
for compost. I can't imagine a leaf vacuum being worthwhile for so many
leaves.
I have a 10x10 tarp. I lay it over half the lawn (or on the neighbor's
lawn, or in the street depending on which direction I want to work), and
a leaf rake that's more than 20" wide. In ten minutes I can put enough
leaves on the tarp that if I spread them out it would be 4 or 5 inches
thick. I pull-up the corners of the tarp, and drag the pile back to my
compost staging area, and repeat for the other half of the lawn.
Including getting the tarp and rake out, and putting them back, I'm done
in about 45 minutes. I'm breathing hard, but not exhausted.
Now if you look at my lawn after this raking, you're not going to see a
carpet of solid green. There are still some leaves out there -- maybe
even enough to fill a 45-gallon bag if uncompressed. But this is no big
deal except to perfectionists.
I'll admit that I've never used one of those leaf vacuums, but even if
you compressed the leaves until the bag was almost to heavy to lift, I'd
probably fill the bag 8, 10, 12... who knows how many times. I'd
probably use as much energy to empty the bag over and over again as I do
with my tarp, but I can't imagine this taking less than 45 minutes.
I'll admit it. I fantasize about automating leaf collection. But so far
every year I've decided that the tarp method is good enough. And I don't
really need another piece of power equipment that I only use twice a
year parked in my shed.
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