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

 

[Jbeery78]

im curious to see how well the 54 inch deck on my new bx does with the leaves this year, my old ingersoll could barely handle it. Thanks for everyones input, definitely look into a cyclone rake, ive offered to pay my wifes cousins to do it for me, but those boys get about 1/4 the way thru and give up haha. love those trees when its hot out, but sure do hate the clean up! Hmm... Maybe ill fashion up a monster scoop attachment for my loader, and just scoop em off... give me another excuse to put hours on that new BX!

 

[Jbeery78]

The sweeper has always worked ok, but i always felt like it could be designed differently to fully take advantage of the hoppers space.

 

[DrRod]

Raking and blowing and mowing hasn't been my problem -- its picking them up. So I started moving them to the curb -- mostly with the mower -- early in the fall so there's not much volume at one time. Then I let them sit there a few week. They get wet and pack own so the volume isn't so great. Then I use a pitchfork to toss them into the pickup. Then I either go to the dump or head up the interstate -- they sort of trickle out and are pretty much gone in a couple of hours.

Incidentally, my town had the stupidest process for leaf pickup [just changed this year]. You had to bag your leaves [the hardest job] and set them at the curb. Then they had a crew come by and empty your bags into the recycling truck and then take the empty bags in a separate bin. Now they switched to paper bags and they take it bag and all which they then shred and turn into mulch or compost which they sell at the dump for $12 a cubic yard.

 

[oldballs]

Over the years, being a city and a country home owner, I've tried all the methods already mention.

Last fall I bought the top of the line Cyclone Rake and attached it to my B2620......50 year old Sycamores, Soft Maples etc.on three acres, and some great shade. It works great, but one still has to have a large area to dump the stuff. It even does a fair job on pine needles. Actually I use a Pine Needle Rake, yard rake, pitch fork and trailer to "harvest" the pine needles which are used in my garden path ways.

Conclusion: I'm ready to move into assisted living.

 

[coolreinfarm]

I have used my cyclone rake for 8 years behind a zero turn, cleans the yard better than any other method I've done in 32 years, well worth the money, and it folds up for summer storage.

 

[SJay]

Add me to the the list of Cyclone Rake users. Found it used - best thing for cleaning up leaves. Boys went off to college and I sure wasn't going to rake leaves by myself. :laughing:

 

[Gary Fowler]

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.

I agree. I don't have massive amounts of leaves (two sycamore trees and a few sweet gums) and I try to mulch them in and not collect them. I find that if I just keep mowing them over and don't let them pile up, I can reduce the leaves to almost a powder which is good for the lawn. I don't even bother working them till they all fall then mow them up and your are thru, no gathering, no composting, no nada.

 

[LD1]

Why do you have to pick them up?

Mow the yard, leaves and all. Done. Leave them there to decompose and put nutrients back into the soil. I have never raked or collected grass clippings or leaves. Although dad does have a bagger for his ZTR that he will use in the spring to mulch around the plants in the garden. But its for that reason only, and not because he wants to pick the clippings out of the yard.

 

[Ford850]

I usually just mowed the leaves, and blew windrows of them back into the woods that borders much of my lawn. Some areas get really deep in the yard, especially around the oaks and maples. Last year I got an AllFit HD 50" lawn sweeper from Home Depot. It has a 26cf capacity, and is made by Ohio Steel. It's a heavy sweeper, as you'll find out when you pull the box off the shelf in the store
I was hopeful, but was very surprised at the job it did the first day I used it. My son took over after that and we created a designated dump area for the leaves. We use Grasshopper to pull it and can fly through the leaves. I use the tractor FEL to push them together to pile and compact them. We used those in the garden around the rows of peppers and tomatoes, which it really working out well. It is all so easy, and the mulch works so well on the garden, we plan to collect a lot more this year to also use to mulch the blueberries and raspberries.

 

[Jbeery78]

Why do you have to pick them up?

Mow the yard, leaves and all. Done. Leave them there to decompose and put nutrients back into the soil. I have never raked or collected grass clippings or leaves. Although dad does have a bagger for his ZTR that he will use in the spring to mulch around the plants in the garden. But its for that reason only, and not because he wants to pick the clippings out of the yard.

ill have to take a pic this fall when the leaves are off the trees... been trying to mow them for 5 years and it just doesnt work. Way too many leaves. i can say our trees are in need of some thinning, which we are planning on for this coming spring, so hopefully that will help the massive volume of leaves some.