OK, so much for the Stihl commercial. I have a lawn the size of this guy's with many more huge trees. Easy solution - go over the lawn first with the mulching attachment on your riding mower, then go over it again with the mower's bagging system. Then leaves being picked up are double-shredded so they take up less room when you dump them and decompose quicker. Now you know and it didn't take a 12-minute video.
No question, your yard looks wonderful. I use a similar process with a blower initially, followed by a CycloneRake attached to my lawn tractor, so I'm mowing and collecting the leaves at the same time. I do this only two or three times until all the leaves have fallen (mid-December for me here in Georgia), timing around when I plan on fertilizing and overseeding so that I won't be distributing material on top of a leaf bed. My CycloneRake is 25 years old, and has performed admirably with little maintenance required other than oil changes and bearing grease occasionally.
I tried this method for a while and ended up switching to a Little Wonder push-behind leaf blower. The results were much quicker and better. Start with your backpack blower a few feet around the house, switch to the push-behind and you're done. If your ground is soft or in an incline I'd recommend self-propelled since the regular one can be quite a workout. We also have woods almost all around which helps a lot, otherwise you may need to create a pile which adds work. They're not cheap, but for an acre+ it makes the job much easier.
"Mulchers go hard in the comments..." LOL! I guess I'm one of them. I have the same size property as you, or larger, that is also completely tree covered. As long as your mower is set up properly, and you mulch when the leaves are dry and crumbly, it's a no brainer. The mower will mulch the leaves down to something that is the size of frosted flakes, or smaller, and they will completely disappear in the grass. It provides nitrogen and phosphorous, avoids the unsightly piling, or the terrible bagging, and is good for the environment. Granted, if the leaves get wet, the mulching strategy becomes much more difficult, so it's not a one size fits all solution.
@@Max1616fire I've got tons of cottonwood leaves and great ideas often face the reality of 'accumulated Frosted Flakes' noticeably covering the ground...)
I have luck with my John Deere bagger. Chop up the leaves first and then come back with the bagger. Can pick up five times the amount of leaves before emptying the bagger if they are chopped first. Use the resulting chopped leaves as mulch in the back yard. Thanks for the video.
I do the same thing sometimes! Here’s a video of my process using a bagger and you’re 1,000% right about mulched leaves taking up less space. Reducing the airspace by running them over first SIGNIFICANTLY reduces the amount of times you’ll have to stop and empty the bags. Fall leaf cleanup using a bagger ruclips.net/video/OJ9gCcxJ5dA/видео.html
I’m in the same boat. Too many leaves to mulch. My neighbor bought a Cyclone Rake and when decided to move I was quick to get over there and buy it. It does a great job but is a much more expensive option. Your set up seems to work fine.
I like your system. It looks like you’re either on a granular or liquid fertilization program. Well done! There is something I love almost more than anything else. It’s roll spreading compost on my lawn. Getting my soil as black as you can get it with compost. That leaf pile up in the woods, don’t waste it up there. Mow it up from the piles using a push mower set to mulch. Now take your blower and round up all that mulch into piles. Turn it a couple times in spring and fall. That’s where I throw dog manure all fall winter and spring. You should get the type of compost, I call it black gold. Shovel it into the roll spreader and run it around your lawn. So satisfying! Your golf course Superintenda nt will probably ask you what you’re doing. You can go out and buy a couple pallets of black kow, but @ $7 a bag it gets pricey. With all your leaves and big dog you get the same for free! I promise you its satisfying and i’ve been doing it for so long my top soil is a foot thick in clay soil of Virginia. My ph is perfect and a little nitrogen and iron to it, gets that blue green color we all want.
Thank you for this video. After watching other videos over the last 2 or 3 years, this method is the only one that I think will work for me. I would guess that I have even more leaves than you, per square foot, and I have one more complication. My yard is on a slope. Luckily, where I dump my leaves is at the bottom of the slope. I have been leaf blowing for the last two or three years. Prior to that, I was mulching, which eventually killed much of my grass, except for the wild bermuda, which can't be killed. I have done some re-seeding and now need to cough up the cash to buy a riding lawn mower and a sweeper.
I have a similar yard with large mature hickory trees plus maple, oak, etc. I found raising the deck and running the blades to mulch the leaves as I tow the lawn sweeper saves me a ton of time with dumping. You can get 2-3x the leaves in the hopper when you chop them and remove that air space. I mentioned the hickory trees because they drop massive 6 lead bunches that curl up and sweeping them whole fills the hopper on one pass. Give it a try this season!
Cyclone Rake is a life saver. Well engineered, works great. If I knew it was this good I would have spent a little more and bought the top of the line model. I have the mid range and it is great
Good suggestion and everyone keeps talking about these things, might have to spend more money and pick one up. Top of the line huh? Besides the yellow tube, can you say what else the high buck one does that yours doesn’t?
My grandfather had a hand push lawn sweeper that he bought from Sears. The brush was a natural fibre (Palmyra, I think) that did a great job of sweeping up the leaves, or heavy grass clippings. He bought it when I was in elementary or junior high school and when we sold his house in 2010 when I was 63 it was still there and working. The canvas hopper was beginning to go but the brush was still in great shape. If you use a blower, get a curved nozzle that will direct the air almost horizontal. This will lift the leaves out of the grass rather than pushing them into it as happens when you blow downward at the lawn as shown in the video. Blowing this way will take less time and do a better job.
I blow down at a 45 degree angle and with the higher power backpack blower and it dethatches and blows the leaves off at the same time. The grass loves it after this treatment.
Mulching blades (Gator) work excellent if you’re using them on a commercial mower. My crew has switched to them this year and it cut down on hauling into and out of our trucks. We cut several different directions and the leaves disappear.
I use a champion HD push behind blower and it works very well. I can send leaves across my front yard and across the street into the neighbors if I’m not careful. Highly recommend these types of blowers for big cleanups
I've been using mulching on our small yard. We have sandy soil that's high and dry. It works but you're right about the negative side. By far the best way is to remove all the leaves and especially the pine needles. I believe I'll try the sweeper. I have a powerful garden tractor to pull it. My biggest problem is how to get rid of the leaves once I have them in one big pile. I could burn them. In this area we can do that. Thanks
@@suburbanacreage it was built like a tank and if you set the brush low enough it would easily comb the grass thatch up ! it lasted more than 20 years before I gave it away
My method that doesn't waste a lot of time. Mow and mulch leaves at the same time in the fall. Invest money in tow aerator and dethatcher to run during late summer to break up the mulched layer. It's great for the grass and works great on my 2 acres. I know you have a ton of tree coverage so i understand but most people waste a ton of time cleaning leaves just to have to do it next weekend and never make a dent until snow covers it. Also be careful mowing into big piles of dried leaves. I've known multiple people that had mower fires because of dry leaves getting stuck on the front exhaust and igniting.
Stand your ground! Mulch changes the acidity of the soil. Can be a lawn killer. And the wet grass mat will kill grass. I made an offset hitch for my mower. I mowed / mulched leaves and the discharge was shredded leaves. The offset hitch put the whirly brush catcher in line with the mower discharge chute. Very efficient.
Yup Cyclone Rake here too. I bought it after my 2nd year dealing with leaves on my very wooded property. I have had mine about 12 years now and it hasn't skipped a beat. Change mowers and they can accommodate that pretty well from the company. It was pricey but there is literally nothing left behind after the first pass most of the time. Awesome time saver!
@ Agreed! Had mine for over 25 years now and just used it today ! Great Company to deal with as well ! The Cyclone Rake is a bit pricey compared to the other Companies However, you get what you pay for and the CR is worth every penny and also built much better !
I use Oregon Gator high lift mulching blades, and then run across with the regular grass catcher. Whole yard fits in 2 bags - raked or swept would have been over 8 bags.
Set your riding mower to cut short and winrow the leaves as you cut the grass. When leaves get too heavy, do a half cut. Lawn comes out clean. Rake winrows onto a tarp and pull them away. Works good and inexpensive.
Great suggestion. I find that once the leaves start getting built up that it takes a long time to take up the rows. And the build up starts after only a pass or two in the thick areas.
I mulch the first couple of weeks of leaf season, but when the huge oaks surrounding my property start dropping everything, it's no longer an option for the same reason stated in the video. I then just throw on the high lift bagging blade on my mower - which turns it into a vacuum cleaner - I bag them, and then empty the mower bag into leaf bags. It's easy, quick, and the mower gets every leaf.
Oak leaves are the worst. They don't mulch well and take 2 years to decompose. I know because the neighbor's trees shed late in the fall season and the landscaping crews are gone by December 1st. At least Sycamore leaves disintegrate well, but they too shed later in the season. Correct about over mulching, and strange mushrooms have been getting worse each year. Oh well, running the Deere is somewhat fun.
Run your mower blades with the lawn sweeper in tow. You'll mulch up a good % and sweep up a good portion. Plus sweeping mulched leaves helps with less to dump at the end and blowing those smaller piles into the woods bc some of its mulched.
It’s a tough balancing act. Whole leaves sweep up way nice and leave less fragments behind so overall it does a cleaner job. However, whole leaves fill up the hopper much faster and that leads to more frequent emptying. Personal preference, but I like a cleaner sweep and don’t mind a few extra emptying trips.
suburban acreage 👍. I got 6 huge live oak trees that shed year round so I just bag mow every time, but also use the lawn sweeper here and there with bag mowing, especially when the acorns drop.
I have many many large maple Trees with wet leaves the size of Frisbee's here in Western Washington with a large yard The Mulching folks crack me up also
People with 1/4 acre lots and builder grade saplings in the new construction neighborhoods be like… “why don’t you just mulch them?” I’m glad you understand!
I understand what you’re saying about mulching. However, get a leaf shredder, set it up near that ginormous pile of leaves and have at it. It is incredibly satisfying to do and if you use those handheld big claws to load the machine it’s easy. The significant decrease in the volume will be amazing and then you can blow all that fine stuff into the woods. Pure fun
I mulch several oak trees that are 4 ft Plus at the base... The key is to use ultra high lift blades and keep going over it and distribute it over the top of the lawn if you use mulching blades with a closed chute it packs it down and smothers the grass
I cut down lots of giant trees and eliminated trees that were close to house. Opened up the property and eliminated lots of leaves from clean up. I added Autumn Blaze maple trees that only grow to 30 feet tall in some areas and added color for fall.
@82dupont trees are nothing but work! I do like the shade they provide but between sticks, leaves, branches, acorns, bark, etc man they just don’t stop! Your maples sound really cool!
For this fall I bought the Stihl BR800 and the RedMax EBZ9000, two of the most powerful blowers on the market. I’m doing a comparison video that should be out in a few weeks.
I have a similar size property, but don't want that much grass, so my approach is vastly different. I blow the leaves into several large curvy "leaf islands" around groups of trees. Acorns too. The biggest leaf island of all is the property perimeter. Advantages: 1) No leaf hauling. Just blow them to the nearest island. 2) No branch/stick hauling. Just throw 'em to the nearest island and let 'em rot where they land. 3) A next-gen forest springs up in the naturally mulched islands, increasing beauty and privacy. If desired, sprinkle in forest plants like mountain laurel, rhododendron, holly, etc. Resist the temptation to morph the islands into flower beds for non-forest plants. 4) Less grass to cut, fertilize, and clear of fallen branches, acorns, and leaves, as well as spring catkins and helicopters. 5) Low cost. Just a backpack blower and about an hour or two of work per week in the fall. It works for me!
Here in the south I’ve been advised not to pile leaves at the perimeter of the yard. The ticks and chiggers over-winter in the leaf piles and migrate back to the yard in spring.
Thanks for your helpful and comprehensive video. If you don’t mind my asking, how much lawn do you have? The layout of your driveway and land looks a lot like mine. I love the trees and land, but it’s definitely tons of work.
Beautiful property! But you're doing a final clean ups work weekly. You obviously have to blow out around the house, but rhe trips down the driveway, trees,.and fence line are overkill when you've got more coming. I'd just use the mower at transport height on the driveway and start pushing them towards the woods line. By the time you're at the woods, theyre good and mulched and easy to blow in. But I'm OCD and understand you wanting it done right every time. Cheers
Thanks for the tips, I think I'm going to go ahead and get the sweeper. I have a very large yard to take care of as well (second job) and this looks like it's gonna save my ass!!!
No mulching! No mulching! I have to bag my grass when mowing cuz all mulching does is leave huge piles of grass on my lawn that then turns brown and clogs up the lawn, killing all the rest of the lawn. It becomes thick thatch clogging up the grass. Then it takes 10 times the work trying to de-thatch my lawn. Apparently this has something to do with the type of soil that I have and where I live. It's not mulch friendly. I have tried mulching my grass as opposed to bagging it and then spent the whole rest of the next summer de-thatching my lawn so that it was not brown and dead looking. I also have to bag up my leaves. This would take weeks and I live in a neighborhood with a small to medium yard. My trees also don't drop all their leaves till mid December (I live in Michigan) so it's snowing and 10 below 0 by then. In the spring I have a huge mess to deal with all the leaves that drop when it is snowing and too cold to do yard work. I now pay a company to come and use blowers and machines to pick them up, it takes them about 2 hours when it would take me probably 40 to 60 hours of raking and bagging. I would rather work my job those 40-60 hours than spend that time dealing with leaves. The little money I spend for them to do it is well worth it. Mulching doesn't work for everyone. Kudos to those that are lucky enough to be able to do it cuz raking and bagging is a huge pain.
Some cities are talking about banning the gas powered blowers. Too loud I read and pollutants... ? not sure their other reasons. I got a battery powered electric with 3 interchangeable batteries and by Dewalt.I thin. and it is hugely powerful impressed. Ohhh the lawn sweeper. I want one, but we sold our riding mower when we moved to a lot less land.. from 3 acres, to 5000 SQ ft. Our mower is quick with that.
The old BR600 blows just under 700 cfm while the new BR800s blow over 900 cfm, it’s a fairly significant advancement. I’m testing the Stihl BR800 against the new RedMax EBZ9000, the two most powerful blowers on the market right now. My review will be out soon!
That works but I don’t like relying on the government for anything more than I have to. All those leaves would just blow back into my yard while I waited for a city employee to do a half assed clean up job anyway. No thanks!
@@suburbanacreage lol, I don’t blame you. Fortunately for me, my town is VERY strict with the times you can have leaves on the street. If you’re too early, you get letters/fines from code enforcement. If you miss the collections, you get letters and fines from code enforcement. The day before they say they’re coming, they already have their equipment in the cul-de-sac across the street from me. I’m always the second house for the entire town and always blow the leaves to the curb the day before. To the bad part-- I can’t agree more with you about the half ass job they typically do, but this year we got a new contractor and I was extremely pleased with the cleanup and I didn’t have to clean up the curb ONCE during the 3 scheduled collections 🎉🎉. Hopefully it stays that way, but who knows 😂. My town uses a massive claw to scoop the leaves and have 2-3 people on blowers cleaning up what the claw left. Previously, they had massive vacuum trucks and one guy blowing the leaves onto the property and one guy aggressively swinging the hose, also putting leaves back onto the grass-- thankfully they’re gone. (My mom would always go out and record them and to our surprise, once the camera was out, they took their time and did a better job, not perfect, but decent enough). The only reason why I have to blow the leaves to the curb is because I don’t have access to green acres to dump leaves (which is also illegal in my town 🙄). My backyard is fenced in so the only resort to remove the leaves, is to the curb. I also have 2X more leaves then what you have.
Yeah the br600 is a far cry from what's out now. But I remember when the br600 and echo pb-770 were the biggest in their respective lineup. Those blowers are rated 32-33 newtons of blowing force. But now the new br800 is rated 41 newtons. The echo pb-8010 was rated at 44 newtons and then was succeeded by the pb-9010 which does 48 newtons! Meanwhile redmax (and husqvarna) has the ebz8560 which is the third generation model of that series that does 47 newtons and their new ebz9000 which they claim to do 56 newtons! 🤯 at this point, blowers like the br700 and echo's new pb-7910 seem to be the new "mid range" blowers.
Because of your comment I went out and bought a BR800 and an EBZ9000 for a comparison video. Should be out in a week or two, thanks for nerding out on the stats 👍
It decomposed faster. Simple physics: more exposed edges to decompose faster. Think of how fast chipped ice melts as opposed to ice cubes. The surface area that is exposed by mulching is greater, so the leaves decompose faster. 😊 Also, depending on the type of grass you have and how thick the leaves are, the leaves may do more harm than good.... Which is why people mulch. Covering your grass in 6 inches of leaves can greatly harm your lawn. It is better to use mulch in your garden than the lawn. Perennials benefit the most from a nice hearty bed of mulch.
@@meech9309 He showed how he has way too many leaves to mulch. But I think he could absolutely do one round of pickup, then mulch the second round (like what you see at 7:56). This would be the best of both worlds and is also faster.
@TrainFlood if I stayed up on my leaf cleanup, you’re right. If I mulch on the weekend and could add one time during the week too, I’d be good. It starts getting dark so early in the fall though that all my yard stuff basically has to be done on the weekends. During peak leaf season, going a full week between mulching is too much for my yard.
Cut the lawn very short in the fall makes it easier to rake them every week. Don't be lazy. The best way to get rid of the piles of leaves is to burn them, smells great. Heated jacket you're kidding me? A young guy like you shouldn't be even a bit cold, modern folks. Go old school.
Preference is a rake and then mulch plug over mower. Mulched my parents yard for years, that included way more oaks than this guys yard, so, I know better than claim stated.
Oh yeah, I have a neighbor that blows them all into the street. I know of two other people that do it a quarter mile away. It makes for dangerous braking, that's for sure. I have had one neighbor - a guy, blow their leaves around a fence onto another lady's property making double the work for her. It's disgusting. Btw, it looks like you have plenty of oaks and oak leaves are like leather. They don't mulch well at all. They're not like maples or locust leaves that break down easily. What are you doing with your leaves, just leaving them in your more wooded area to keep down weeds?
I’ll mulch my grass into the street until the day the city stops charging me for street cleaning and then I’ll keep doing it because it’s grass. The things around us that grow, and we chop down for aesthetic, they still exist. We aren’t here to cultivate an aesthetic. Nature happens man I have shit to do.
You seem to be wasting a lot of time being meticulous when there's still a lot of leaves on the trees. Maybe a quick blow around the trunks and fence. It doesn't need 3-5' of clearing. I just run my ride-on with the bags off, like any professional mowing company does near me with a mulching blade. That grinds up the leaves, dries and scatters them. Then just come back and put the bags back on and mow it again. The super fine mulched up leaves stays on the lawn and the coarser ones get picked up, mulched again and bagged. You're not constantly making trips back and forth dumping fluffy leaves. Then when you drop them on the corner of the property, the wind doesn't blow them around and they break down much faster. Personalty I've never seen a professional company use a lawn sweeper. Have you ever tried this?
As long as you have a big property in a rural area, gas powered blowers are fine.... but please, please don't opt for the most powerful... look for the LOWEST effective power AND also the QUIETEST keaf-blower... which is probably an ELECTRIC model. When you have neighbors within a hundred feet, super-charged gas blowers make the most God-awful NOISE... so be considerate of your neighbors when selecting lawn equipment, especially leaf blowers. Imagine every house in a neighborhood with these Indy-500 blowers... it's insane!
I’d love to be wrong, but unless they’re mulched up, I’ve found a blanket of leaves with a bunch of snow on top over a winter is no bueno for the grass.
Leaves are only good if they are mulched up and spread around, and if you leave clumps you need to pick them up in the spring time other wise you are setting ur self up for grubs, slugs and anything else that will eat the root of your grass but it is a great weed bury for your garden and great greens for compost 😊
Here's a question: how would you feel dealing with this for 25-years and you don't have a single tree on your property but you're just surrounded by lousy pos people who don't clean or pick up a single thing?!?!? I got so sick and tired of killing myself, buying boxes of expensive black bags and having leaves all over my property that now I just blow them off my property and into the street and back towards the neighbors trees that they came from!!!! I'm utterly disgusted by this, I didn't sign up to maintain other people's trees and hedges, especially the rear neighbors pear tree that grows way over my fence and drops pears and leaves all over my newly grown in lawn, not to mention the Squirrels that it attracts!!!, they took the liberty to utterly destroying my new grass this year, even after trapping and relocating 15 of them in only 13 days, i had holes as big as softballs everywhere!!!😮
Dang dude, sounds like you’re up against some difficult situations. Neighbors can be a blessing and a curse. I’m lucky in that my neighbors are absolutely awesome and do a great job maintaining their yards.
just don't buy a Husqvarna - overrated and if you have any issues there customer service is non reachable - their online only virtual Teck will send you to the nearest service center. waste of time & money - very disappointed in Husqvarna - we learn from our experiences.
Not according to the company: “Our name is pronounced exactly like the metal “steel.” So I’ll probably just keep saying it the correct way and you can say it however you want…but you’re wrong, haha! www.stihlusa.com/faq/general/
The lawn sweeper I’m using is on sale right now, check it out here: amzn.to/48KVXzM
OK, so much for the Stihl commercial. I have a lawn the size of this guy's with many more huge trees. Easy solution - go over the lawn first with the mulching attachment on your riding mower, then go over it again with the mower's bagging system. Then leaves being picked up are double-shredded so they take up less room when you dump them and decompose quicker. Now you know and it didn't take a 12-minute video.
Exactly what I do.
This is exactly what I do too!!
Yup Been doing this forever
I go over the yard with the riding mower 3 or 4 times. Nothing to pick up. Beautiful lawn.
Oak leaves don't tend to decompose. They work like landscaping material. Speaking from experience.
I agree with you on the blower. Get the best one you can. It will make a world of a difference
No question, your yard looks wonderful. I use a similar process with a blower initially, followed by a CycloneRake attached to my lawn tractor, so I'm mowing and collecting the leaves at the same time. I do this only two or three times until all the leaves have fallen (mid-December for me here in Georgia), timing around when I plan on fertilizing and overseeding so that I won't be distributing material on top of a leaf bed. My CycloneRake is 25 years old, and has performed admirably with little maintenance required other than oil changes and bearing grease occasionally.
I tried this method for a while and ended up switching to a Little Wonder push-behind leaf blower. The results were much quicker and better. Start with your backpack blower a few feet around the house, switch to the push-behind and you're done. If your ground is soft or in an incline I'd recommend self-propelled since the regular one can be quite a workout. We also have woods almost all around which helps a lot, otherwise you may need to create a pile which adds work. They're not cheap, but for an acre+ it makes the job much easier.
I purchased the Fradan walk behind leaf blower, more compact and better balance, made leaf clean up super easy just as you explained.
"Mulchers go hard in the comments..." LOL! I guess I'm one of them. I have the same size property as you, or larger, that is also completely tree covered. As long as your mower is set up properly, and you mulch when the leaves are dry and crumbly, it's a no brainer. The mower will mulch the leaves down to something that is the size of frosted flakes, or smaller, and they will completely disappear in the grass. It provides nitrogen and phosphorous, avoids the unsightly piling, or the terrible bagging, and is good for the environment. Granted, if the leaves get wet, the mulching strategy becomes much more difficult, so it's not a one size fits all solution.
I have a dozen trees and have decided to try your method. It makes sense and am hopeful it works.
@@Max1616fire I've got tons of cottonwood leaves and great ideas often face the reality of 'accumulated Frosted Flakes' noticeably covering the ground...)
I have luck with my John Deere bagger. Chop up the leaves first and then come back with the bagger. Can pick up five times the amount of leaves before emptying the bagger if they are chopped first. Use the resulting chopped leaves as mulch in the back yard. Thanks for the video.
I do the same thing sometimes! Here’s a video of my process using a bagger and you’re 1,000% right about mulched leaves taking up less space. Reducing the airspace by running them over first SIGNIFICANTLY reduces the amount of times you’ll have to stop and empty the bags.
Fall leaf cleanup using a bagger
ruclips.net/video/OJ9gCcxJ5dA/видео.html
@@suburbanacreage Thanks for the response and link to your video. It was very helpful.
Leave your leaves whole so that bugs and butterfly larvae can survive.
If we don’t have insects, we are screwed.
I’m in the same boat. Too many leaves to mulch. My neighbor bought a Cyclone Rake and when decided to move I was quick to get over there and buy it. It does a great job but is a much more expensive option. Your set up seems to work fine.
I like your system. It looks like you’re either on a granular or liquid fertilization program. Well done! There is something I love almost more than anything else. It’s roll spreading compost on my lawn. Getting my soil as black as you can get it with compost. That leaf pile up in the woods, don’t waste it up there. Mow it up from the piles using a push mower set to mulch. Now take your blower and round up all that mulch into piles. Turn it a couple times in spring and fall. That’s where I throw dog manure all fall winter and spring. You should get the type of compost, I call it black gold. Shovel it into the roll spreader and run it around your lawn. So satisfying! Your golf course Superintenda nt will probably ask you what you’re doing. You can go out and buy a couple pallets of black kow, but @ $7 a bag it gets pricey. With all your leaves and big dog you get the same for free! I promise you its satisfying and i’ve been doing it for so long my top soil is a foot thick in clay soil of Virginia. My ph is perfect and a little nitrogen and iron to it, gets that blue green color we all want.
Thank you for this video. After watching other videos over the last 2 or 3 years, this method is the only one that I think will work for me. I would guess that I have even more leaves than you, per square foot, and I have one more complication. My yard is on a slope. Luckily, where I dump my leaves is at the bottom of the slope. I have been leaf blowing for the last two or three years. Prior to that, I was mulching, which eventually killed much of my grass, except for the wild bermuda, which can't be killed. I have done some re-seeding and now need to cough up the cash to buy a riding lawn mower and a sweeper.
I have a similar yard with large mature hickory trees plus maple, oak, etc. I found raising the deck and running the blades to mulch the leaves as I tow the lawn sweeper saves me a ton of time with dumping. You can get 2-3x the leaves in the hopper when you chop them and remove that air space. I mentioned the hickory trees because they drop massive 6 lead bunches that curl up and sweeping them whole fills the hopper on one pass. Give it a try this season!
Cyclone Rake is a life saver. Well engineered, works great. If I knew it was this good I would have spent a little more and bought the top of the line model. I have the mid range and it is great
Good suggestion and everyone keeps talking about these things, might have to spend more money and pick one up. Top of the line huh? Besides the yellow tube, can you say what else the high buck one does that yours doesn’t?
Screw bagging. Get some mulching blades and have a Chute Blocker on and mow it like you would normally. Free composte on your lawn or anyone else's.
it's alot of fun with all the toys! I get the music on the headphones and get to playing! Great therapy!
My grandfather had a hand push lawn sweeper that he bought from Sears. The brush was a natural fibre (Palmyra, I think) that did a great job of sweeping up the leaves, or heavy grass clippings. He bought it when I was in elementary or junior high school and when we sold his house in 2010 when I was 63 it was still there and working. The canvas hopper was beginning to go but the brush was still in great shape.
If you use a blower, get a curved nozzle that will direct the air almost horizontal. This will lift the leaves out of the grass rather than pushing them into it as happens when you blow downward at the lawn as shown in the video. Blowing this way will take less time and do a better job.
Did you inherit it? I love the old school stuff that stays working for decades.
@@suburbanacreage No, I live in an apartment. It went to my youngest brother.
I blow down at a 45 degree angle and with the higher power backpack blower and it dethatches and blows the leaves off at the same time. The grass loves it after this treatment.
Mulching blades (Gator) work excellent if you’re using them on a commercial mower. My crew has switched to them this year and it cut down on hauling into and out of our trucks. We cut several different directions and the leaves disappear.
I use a champion HD push behind blower and it works very well.
I can send leaves across my front yard and across the street into the neighbors if I’m not careful.
Highly recommend these types of blowers for big cleanups
I've been using mulching on our small yard. We have sandy soil that's high and dry. It works but you're right about the negative side. By far the best way is to remove all the leaves and especially the pine needles. I believe I'll try the sweeper. I have a powerful garden tractor to pull it. My biggest problem is how to get rid of the leaves once I have them in one big pile. I could burn them. In this area we can do that. Thanks
Yeah give it a try but you’re right, having woods to dump my leaves is a life saver.
Get a lead shredder. An electric one with string trimmer style strings does the trick amazingly well. Very satisfying too.
I listened to 12 minutes to hear a solution... but I hear this guy get the problem from one place to another 😂
55 years ago we had a hand push lawn sweeper... WOW it was FANTASTIC at raking up the lawn ! these days the hand push ones are cheap junk
I bet it was made out of metal and actually lasted more than one season too!
@@suburbanacreage it was built like a tank and if you set the brush low enough it would easily comb the grass thatch up ! it lasted more than 20 years before I gave it away
My yard is slightly smaller, but i have a huge amount of trees and leaves. Your strategy is great.
Leaf cleanup is part time seasonal work, gotta stay on top of it too. Good luck heading into the thick of it!
My method that doesn't waste a lot of time. Mow and mulch leaves at the same time in the fall. Invest money in tow aerator and dethatcher to run during late summer to break up the mulched layer. It's great for the grass and works great on my 2 acres. I know you have a ton of tree coverage so i understand but most people waste a ton of time cleaning leaves just to have to do it next weekend and never make a dent until snow covers it.
Also be careful mowing into big piles of dried leaves. I've known multiple people that had mower fires because of dry leaves getting stuck on the front exhaust and igniting.
He's right about mulching too many leaves. It's a waste of time. I much 1/2 of my leaves and compost the rest in 5'x5' wire bins. Then cold compost.
Stand your ground! Mulch changes the acidity of the soil. Can be a lawn killer. And the wet grass mat will kill grass.
I made an offset hitch for my mower. I mowed / mulched leaves and the discharge was shredded leaves. The offset hitch put the whirly brush catcher in line with the mower discharge chute. Very efficient.
My Cyclone Rake does a great job!
Bingo! Cyclone Rake for the win. Love mine
Yup Cyclone Rake here too. I bought it after my 2nd year dealing with leaves on my very wooded property. I have had mine about 12 years now and it hasn't skipped a beat. Change mowers and they can accommodate that pretty well from the company. It was pricey but there is literally nothing left behind after the first pass most of the time. Awesome time saver!
@ Agreed! Had mine for over 25 years now and just used it today ! Great Company to deal with as well ! The Cyclone Rake is a bit pricey compared to the other Companies However, you get what you pay for and the CR is worth every penny and also built much better !
The lawn sweeper is my favorite tool and I have a dedicated video for that tool here:
ruclips.net/video/H412KF3f-40/видео.html
life saver. i do lawn care and i been tarping them up but this seems like a good idea.
Want to try on my zeroturn
I use Oregon Gator high lift mulching blades, and then run across with the regular grass catcher. Whole yard fits in 2 bags - raked or swept would have been over 8 bags.
Set your riding mower to cut short and winrow the leaves as you cut the grass. When leaves get too heavy, do a half cut. Lawn comes out clean. Rake winrows onto a tarp and pull them away. Works good and inexpensive.
Great suggestion. I find that once the leaves start getting built up that it takes a long time to take up the rows. And the build up starts after only a pass or two in the thick areas.
I mulch the first couple of weeks of leaf season, but when the huge oaks surrounding my property start dropping everything, it's no longer an option for the same reason stated in the video. I then just throw on the high lift bagging blade on my mower - which turns it into a vacuum cleaner - I bag them, and then empty the mower bag into leaf bags. It's easy, quick, and the mower gets every leaf.
Oak leaves are the worst. They don't mulch well and take 2 years to decompose. I know because the neighbor's trees shed late in the fall season and the landscaping crews are gone by December 1st. At least Sycamore leaves disintegrate well, but they too shed later in the season. Correct about over mulching, and strange mushrooms have been getting worse each year. Oh well, running the Deere is somewhat fun.
I have about 200 trees and I clean the yard up the same way lawn sweeper game changer
I managed to mulch all season last year but it does take doing it multiple times a week at it's peak.
Run your mower blades with the lawn sweeper in tow. You'll mulch up a good % and sweep up a good portion. Plus sweeping mulched leaves helps with less to dump at the end and blowing those smaller piles into the woods bc some of its mulched.
It’s a tough balancing act. Whole leaves sweep up way nice and leave less fragments behind so overall it does a cleaner job. However, whole leaves fill up the hopper much faster and that leads to more frequent emptying. Personal preference, but I like a cleaner sweep and don’t mind a few extra emptying trips.
suburban acreage 👍. I got 6 huge live oak trees that shed year round so I just bag mow every time, but also use the lawn sweeper here and there with bag mowing, especially when the acorns drop.
I have many many large maple
Trees with wet leaves the size of Frisbee's here in Western Washington with a large yard
The Mulching folks crack me up also
People with 1/4 acre lots and builder grade saplings in the new construction neighborhoods be like… “why don’t you just mulch them?”
I’m glad you understand!
I understand what you’re saying about mulching. However, get a leaf shredder, set it up near that ginormous pile of leaves and have at it. It is incredibly satisfying to do and if you use those handheld big claws to load the machine it’s easy. The significant decrease in the volume will be amazing and then you can blow all that fine stuff into the woods. Pure fun
I mulch several oak trees that are 4 ft Plus at the base... The key is to use ultra high lift blades and keep going over it and distribute it over the top of the lawn if you use mulching blades with a closed chute it packs it down and smothers the grass
I cut down lots of giant trees and eliminated trees that were close to house.
Opened up the property and eliminated lots of leaves from clean up.
I added Autumn Blaze maple trees that only grow to 30 feet tall in some areas and added color for fall.
@82dupont trees are nothing but work! I do like the shade they provide but between sticks, leaves, branches, acorns, bark, etc man they just don’t stop! Your maples sound really cool!
Get the steel 800. It’s light quiet and very very powerful and it’ll save you a lot of time.
For this fall I bought the Stihl BR800 and the RedMax EBZ9000, two of the most powerful blowers on the market. I’m doing a comparison video that should be out in a few weeks.
I leave the leaves. It's good for the environment.
So is having a compost pile that comes from putting leaves in a pile.
I have a similar size property, but don't want that much grass, so my approach is vastly different.
I blow the leaves into several large curvy "leaf islands" around groups of trees. Acorns too. The biggest leaf island of all is the property perimeter.
Advantages:
1) No leaf hauling. Just blow them to the nearest island.
2) No branch/stick hauling. Just throw 'em to the nearest island and let 'em rot where they land.
3) A next-gen forest springs up in the naturally mulched islands, increasing beauty and privacy. If desired, sprinkle in forest plants like mountain laurel, rhododendron, holly, etc. Resist the temptation to morph the islands into flower beds for non-forest plants.
4) Less grass to cut, fertilize, and clear of fallen branches, acorns, and leaves, as well as spring catkins and helicopters.
5) Low cost. Just a backpack blower and about an hour or two of work per week in the fall.
It works for me!
I’ll have to get that Agrifab sweeper. I have very big old trees that drop all their leaves all at once and it’s just too many to mulch.
Here in the south I’ve been advised not to pile leaves at the perimeter of the yard. The ticks and chiggers over-winter in the leaf piles and migrate back to the yard in spring.
Thanks for your helpful and comprehensive video. If you don’t mind my asking, how much lawn do you have? The layout of your driveway and land looks a lot like mine.
I love the trees and land, but it’s definitely tons of work.
Beautiful property! But you're doing a final clean ups work weekly. You obviously have to blow out around the house, but rhe trips down the driveway, trees,.and fence line are overkill when you've got more coming. I'd just use the mower at transport height on the driveway and start pushing them towards the woods line. By the time you're at the woods, theyre good and mulched and easy to blow in. But I'm OCD and understand you wanting it done right every time. Cheers
dig your lawn stripes man, lmao on this video very enjoyable!!
Thanks for the tips, I think I'm going to go ahead and get the sweeper. I have a very large yard to take care of as well (second job) and this looks like it's gonna save my ass!!!
If im really naughty i drop the brushes & go for acorns 😂 👍🏾
No mulching! No mulching! I have to bag my grass when mowing cuz all mulching does is leave huge piles of grass on my lawn that then turns brown and clogs up the lawn, killing all the rest of the lawn. It becomes thick thatch clogging up the grass. Then it takes 10 times the work trying to de-thatch my lawn. Apparently this has something to do with the type of soil that I have and where I live. It's not mulch friendly. I have tried mulching my grass as opposed to bagging it and then spent the whole rest of the next summer de-thatching my lawn so that it was not brown and dead looking. I also have to bag up my leaves. This would take weeks and I live in a neighborhood with a small to medium yard. My trees also don't drop all their leaves till mid December (I live in Michigan) so it's snowing and 10 below 0 by then. In the spring I have a huge mess to deal with all the leaves that drop when it is snowing and too cold to do yard work. I now pay a company to come and use blowers and machines to pick them up, it takes them about 2 hours when it would take me probably 40 to 60 hours of raking and bagging. I would rather work my job those 40-60 hours than spend that time dealing with leaves. The little money I spend for them to do it is well worth it. Mulching doesn't work for everyone. Kudos to those that are lucky enough to be able to do it cuz raking and bagging is a huge pain.
Great video brother 👍 thanks for the helpful tips 😊
Some cities are talking about banning the gas powered blowers. Too loud I read and pollutants... ? not sure their other reasons. I got a battery powered electric with 3 interchangeable batteries and by Dewalt.I thin. and it is hugely powerful impressed. Ohhh the lawn sweeper. I want one, but we sold our riding mower when we moved to a lot less land.. from 3 acres, to 5000 SQ ft. Our mower is quick with that.
Redmax. Best blower on the market.
You had the top dog blower 10 years ago? Well, I don't think leaves have changed much in ten years. You should be ok.😁
The old BR600 blows just under 700 cfm while the new BR800s blow over 900 cfm, it’s a fairly significant advancement. I’m testing the Stihl BR800 against the new RedMax EBZ9000, the two most powerful blowers on the market right now. My review will be out soon!
I never have my leaves mulched-- all gets blown to the street. Mulching for me doesn’t work either. It’s easier to blow them for the town to collect.
That works but I don’t like relying on the government for anything more than I have to. All those leaves would just blow back into my yard while I waited for a city employee to do a half assed clean up job anyway. No thanks!
@@suburbanacreage lol, I don’t blame you. Fortunately for me, my town is VERY strict with the times you can have leaves on the street. If you’re too early, you get letters/fines from code enforcement. If you miss the collections, you get letters and fines from code enforcement.
The day before they say they’re coming, they already have their equipment in the cul-de-sac across the street from me. I’m always the second house for the entire town and always blow the leaves to the curb the day before.
To the bad part-- I can’t agree more with you about the half ass job they typically do, but this year we got a new contractor and I was extremely pleased with the cleanup and I didn’t have to clean up the curb ONCE during the 3 scheduled collections 🎉🎉. Hopefully it stays that way, but who knows 😂. My town uses a massive claw to scoop the leaves and have 2-3 people on blowers cleaning up what the claw left. Previously, they had massive vacuum trucks and one guy blowing the leaves onto the property and one guy aggressively swinging the hose, also putting leaves back onto the grass-- thankfully they’re gone. (My mom would always go out and record them and to our surprise, once the camera was out, they took their time and did a better job, not perfect, but decent enough).
The only reason why I have to blow the leaves to the curb is because I don’t have access to green acres to dump leaves (which is also illegal in my town 🙄). My backyard is fenced in so the only resort to remove the leaves, is to the curb. I also have 2X more leaves then what you have.
Yeah the br600 is a far cry from what's out now. But I remember when the br600 and echo pb-770 were the biggest in their respective lineup. Those blowers are rated 32-33 newtons of blowing force. But now the new br800 is rated 41 newtons. The echo pb-8010 was rated at 44 newtons and then was succeeded by the pb-9010 which does 48 newtons! Meanwhile redmax (and husqvarna) has the ebz8560 which is the third generation model of that series that does 47 newtons and their new ebz9000 which they claim to do 56 newtons! 🤯 at this point, blowers like the br700 and echo's new pb-7910 seem to be the new "mid range" blowers.
Because of your comment I went out and bought a BR800 and an EBZ9000 for a comparison video. Should be out in a week or two, thanks for nerding out on the stats 👍
@suburbanacreage that's awesome, I'm all here for it!
So you spend the gas to go around the yard three times?
nice lawn!!
Nice property, invest in a zero turn
amazing!!
I don’t understand why people just don’t mulch the leaves. It’s incredibly good for the lawn and requires 0 extra steps.
It decomposed faster. Simple physics: more exposed edges to decompose faster. Think of how fast chipped ice melts as opposed to ice cubes. The surface area that is exposed by mulching is greater, so the leaves decompose faster. 😊
Also, depending on the type of grass you have and how thick the leaves are, the leaves may do more harm than good.... Which is why people mulch. Covering your grass in 6 inches of leaves can greatly harm your lawn. It is better to use mulch in your garden than the lawn. Perennials benefit the most from a nice hearty bed of mulch.
@@meech9309 He showed how he has way too many leaves to mulch. But I think he could absolutely do one round of pickup, then mulch the second round (like what you see at 7:56). This would be the best of both worlds and is also faster.
@TrainFlood if I stayed up on my leaf cleanup, you’re right. If I mulch on the weekend and could add one time during the week too, I’d be good. It starts getting dark so early in the fall though that all my yard stuff basically has to be done on the weekends. During peak leaf season, going a full week between mulching is too much for my yard.
I like Stihl chainsaws!
Cut the lawn very short in the fall makes it easier to rake them every week. Don't be lazy. The best way to get rid of the piles of leaves is to burn them, smells great.
Heated jacket you're kidding me? A young guy like you shouldn't be even a bit cold, modern folks. Go old school.
Preference is a rake and then mulch plug over mower. Mulched my parents yard for years, that included way more oaks than this guys yard, so, I know better than claim stated.
Oh yeah, I have a neighbor that blows them all into the street. I know of two other people that do it a quarter mile away. It makes for dangerous braking, that's for sure. I have had one neighbor - a guy, blow their leaves around a fence onto another lady's property making double the work for her. It's disgusting.
Btw, it looks like you have plenty of oaks and oak leaves are like leather. They don't mulch well at all. They're not like maples or locust leaves that break down easily. What are you doing with your leaves, just leaving them in your more wooded area to keep down weeds?
I’ll mulch my grass into the street until the day the city stops charging me for street cleaning and then I’ll keep doing it because it’s grass. The things around us that grow, and we chop down for aesthetic, they still exist. We aren’t here to cultivate an aesthetic. Nature happens man I have shit to do.
While I don’t respect your practices, I do love the passion and reasoning! Thanks for watching and the great comment.
A cyclone rake would be better
I’d love to try one of those, they look awesome!
You don’t seem lazy at all 😅😅
You’d be surprised. I’m the best at starting projects and never finishing them.
You need the bigger blower.
I have a new blower video coming out soon. Spoiler: I bought two new top of the line blowers from both Stihl and Redmax and they are AWESOME!
no kidding. You make a video about this?
You watched a video about this?
I don’t understand how anyone has this much time on their hands… I’m happy for him, but I don’t understand.
You should leave the leaves on the ground. It will insulate the grass. And in the spring, the leaves will break down and fertilize the lawn.
You seem to be wasting a lot of time being meticulous when there's still a lot of leaves on the trees. Maybe a quick blow around the trunks and fence. It doesn't need 3-5' of clearing. I just run my ride-on with the bags off, like any professional mowing company does near me with a mulching blade. That grinds up the leaves, dries and scatters them. Then just come back and put the bags back on and mow it again. The super fine mulched up leaves stays on the lawn and the coarser ones get picked up, mulched again and bagged. You're not constantly making trips back and forth dumping fluffy leaves. Then when you drop them on the corner of the property, the wind doesn't blow them around and they break down much faster. Personalty I've never seen a professional company use a lawn sweeper. Have you ever tried this?
I would not wanna be his neighbor in the fall
Confirmed, I’m the worst
As long as you have a big property in a rural area, gas powered blowers are fine.... but please, please don't opt for the most powerful... look for the LOWEST effective power AND also the QUIETEST keaf-blower... which is probably an ELECTRIC model. When you have neighbors within a hundred feet, super-charged gas blowers make the most God-awful NOISE... so be considerate of your neighbors when selecting lawn equipment, especially leaf blowers. Imagine every house in a neighborhood with these Indy-500 blowers... it's insane!
i dont understand why people waste their time. the leaves are good for your lawn
I’d love to be wrong, but unless they’re mulched up, I’ve found a blanket of leaves with a bunch of snow on top over a winter is no bueno for the grass.
Leaves are only good if they are mulched up and spread around, and if you leave clumps you need to pick them up in the spring time other wise you are setting ur self up for grubs, slugs and anything else that will eat the root of your grass but it is a great weed bury for your garden and great greens for compost 😊
I let the worms deal with leaves in my garden.
Why remove the leaves from the lawn? I understand that leaves on the ground in the winter is beneficial
Here's a question: how would you feel dealing with this for 25-years and you don't have a single tree on your property but you're just surrounded by lousy pos people who don't clean or pick up a single thing?!?!? I got so sick and tired of killing myself, buying boxes of expensive black bags and having leaves all over my property that now I just blow them off my property and into the street and back towards the neighbors trees that they came from!!!! I'm utterly disgusted by this, I didn't sign up to maintain other people's trees and hedges, especially the rear neighbors pear tree that grows way over my fence and drops pears and leaves all over my newly grown in lawn, not to mention the Squirrels that it attracts!!!, they took the liberty to utterly destroying my new grass this year, even after trapping and relocating 15 of them in only 13 days, i had holes as big as softballs everywhere!!!😮
Dang dude, sounds like you’re up against some difficult situations. Neighbors can be a blessing and a curse. I’m lucky in that my neighbors are absolutely awesome and do a great job maintaining their yards.
Raking leaves is pointless unnecessary and harmful.
just don't buy a Husqvarna - overrated and if you have any issues there customer service is non reachable - their online only virtual Teck will send you to the nearest service center. waste of time & money - very disappointed in Husqvarna - we learn from our experiences.
Or leave them.
It’s where good bugs hide over winter.
You're wasting tons of time. You need to invest in a cyclone rake.
Still not steal
Not according to the company: “Our name is pronounced exactly like the metal “steel.” So I’ll probably just keep saying it the correct way and you can say it however you want…but you’re wrong, haha!
www.stihlusa.com/faq/general/
You had the top dog blower 10 years ago? Well, I don't think leaves have changed much in ten years. You should be ok.😁