Tell me about leaf blowers

We are surrounded by big trees and every autumn all the leaves fall off into our garden. A leaf blower would be handy, but i wonder about the practicality. I don’t want a petrol motor one, and I wonder if an electric one is sufficiently powerful, particularly if battery. What do the STW experts advise ?

What do the STW experts advise ?

A rake?

Mains here. Use the vac attachment for when we get a significant accumulation in the corner of the garden (prevailing winds). Blower useful if you’ve been doing a load of gardening and you can’t quite pick up some of the cuttings, and can blast it into the border.

Its the most pointless task anyone could choose to do. Just leave them, its good for the soil.

Its the most pointless task anyone could choose to do. Just leave them, its good for the soil.

This, but if you must, just set your mower blades on high and hoover them up.

Not so great for the drive though. My flymo garden vac blows pretty well.

just set your mower blades on high

Also this with the added benefit of them being mulched for composting.

Rake ’em or leave ’em. Bloody planet is burning and folk are using leaf blowers ffs.

Just leave them, its good for the soil.

When I do that (usually through lack of time), they accumulate below a fence, stay there all winter, then the snowdrops and tulips I have planted there struggle and the grass all dies and struggles to regrow. Saying that, I just use a rake/lawnmower combo when I do get to do it.

Its the most pointless task anyone could choose to do. Just leave them, its good for the soil.

And bollox’s your lawn.

While I’ve an ancient main-electric blower, I only use it for clearing the main alley – for actually removing leaves I use the lawnmower on a higher setting.

Last week I ‘hoovered-up’ 5 barrow loads. and that’s an equestrian-sized barrow – and needs doing again…

Makita 40V is superb (UB001). Will be pricy if you don’t have a battery though. Then again, once you have a battery you can buy more Makita 40V tools…

I was wondering if a scarifier (most come with rake attachment) would be more use, but then I think my lawn needs scarfying.

I resort to lawnmower to pick them up and shred them, mainly into the compost (where we struggle to get them to compost) and occasionally to the brown compost bin.

Unfortunately we have a neighbours with a total of 7 huge sycamores. Thier leaves and seeds take hours of collecting. If I didn’t the garden would die and be covered in more sycamores. And for some reason, even when mixed with shredded paper and other things, sycamores refuse to compost easily.

Most blower/vac’s mulch the leaves. These go into the compost bin.

I find leaves get stuck in the blower/vacuum, particularly if damp. Consequently I use a snow shovel to lift them into the green bin. Job jobbed.

Makita 40V is superb (UB001). Will be pricy if you don’t have a battery though.

If you already have 18v batteries the single and twin battery makitas both have more than enough oomph (and I’m sure the other main brands are no different) and are light, quiet and fuss free compared to petrol ones

You can also strap them to an office chair

I wouldn’t buy a battery one if that the only use you have for the batteries – leaf blowers are pretty seasonal tools and some batteries can be ruined by infrequent use

Trees on all sides, including 2 big plane trees, doing nothing is not an option. I bought a bare-tool leaf blower when I bought a hedge trimmer and they share batteries.  It doesn’t replace a rake, but is a good compliment.  Also very handy for “sweeping” the patio and the drive, clearing dust out of a garage or van, blowing up a paddling pool, mucking about with hovering balls in the airflow. etc.

Battery power is plenty, struggles a bit with wet leaves on long grass, but then so do I.

Blower is always a misname, you will never use the blower only the shredder.

Get one with a all metal impeller and high shred ratio, the best part is just reducing the volume for removal.  I often rake into a pile, then shred the pile, makes it tiny to throw in the green bin.  If you need to get something that wont rake, like sycamore seeds, then you need to move around so think about weight.

Wear ear protection.

The horror! LEAVES! LEFT TO DECOMPOSE! Won’t somebody think of the lawn stripes! ?

I have the twin makita blower. Pretty effective though i get through a few batteries doing the whole lawn (1.5 acres – over 100 trees) – I just blow them into a big piles then put them in the trailer and dump them in a corner. If the ground isn’t too wet under foot (clay soil so turns into a shit show) and the amount hasn’t go ridiculous I just run the mulcher ride on over them.

Considering doing it this weekend as the leaf drop seems pretty early this year.

This is a bit timely, I was about to go out on leaf patrol when I spotted the thread. I have the standard Flymo mains thing with bag, which I only use for sweeping the decking, most of mine gets the mower on the high setting, anywhere else gets rake and scoops. Today’s haul (it was done last on Friday)

And an hour or so later mostly with mower and scoops.

If we left them I would lose the MX5 in about a weeks worth of drop this time of year.

If we left them I would lose the MX5 in about a weeks worth of drop this time of year.

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but that’s not an MX5.

that’s not an MX5

MX5 is under the leaves

Edit: my mistake, it was a dustbin

The people saying just leave them clearly don’t have dogs.

Trying to find the dog poo to collect it when your garden is covered in brown leaves is literally a minefield.

I just use the mower with the blades on the highest setting.

The leaves are mulched and used as compost for growing veg.

The horror! LEAVES! LEFT TO DECOMPOSE!

I do leave them to decompose – just where I want them to (as a mulch under hedges) rather than where I don’t want them to – my lawn has all sorts of flowering plants amongst it and I don’t mow it often (only twice this year) but also don’t leave anything to mulch on it (leaves or grass cuttings) because that would over fertilise the lawn and cause the interesting stuff to get out competed by boring old grass.

The blower is actually used for work purposes more than gardening – it probably only sees action in the garden one or two days a year max.

What it is really good for is cleaning your car though. Forget fannying about with hoover attachments trying to get into all the nooks and crannies- just open all the doors and give it a 20 second ‘luft’

We have a MacAlister mains one and it’s useless and never gets used.  The trouble is unless you do it frequently and after a couple of dry sunny days the leaves are too heavy and wet for anything short of a decent blower to shift.

I’m not sure what quirk of geometry causes it, but somehow despite a few trees in the garden, we don’t actually have much an issue with leaves. Most of them I presume end up in the backs of flowerbeds where they’re out of sight out of mind.

The people saying just leave them clearly don’t have dogs.

I do! I just taught him to shit in one place that doesn’t get any leaf cover.

If you have 18v DeWalt cordless tools already and a 5ah battery… This works surprisingly well..

https://www.buyaparcel.com/dewalt-dcm562pb-18v-xr-outdoor-garden-brushless-leaf-blower-bare-unit/

Use in bursts rather than flat out all the time.

The horror! LEAVES! LEFT TO DECOMPOSE! Won’t somebody think of the lawn stripes! ?

I have a leaf blower. To be clear are you saying I can leave the leaves on the lawn (Maple x 10) and next spring they will be disappeared without deploying the leaf blower?

No dogs but do get visit from deer.

Had a blower/vac thing but it was tedious to use and just took up shed space so I threw it out. As mentioned above, lawnmower set high,  run over the area and a quick rake of any hard to reach bits is way quicker.

I have a leaf blower. To be clear are you saying I can leave the leaves on the lawn (Maple x 10) and next spring they will be disappeared without deploying the leaf blower?

Nope, I’m saying they will eventually decompose because that’s what they do. It may take a while but that’s nature for you.