How to Collect Leaves from Leaf Blowing
It’s that time of year again. The leaves have all fallen down from the trees and are now covering your yard with a carpet of autumn colors. It looks pretty, but you know all too well that soon it will become wet and sludgy and much harder to clean up.
So you get out your trusty leaf blower and blow all of those leaves into a big pile. Now what? You have a couple of options. You can jump in them a few times, leave the pile there to rot, or gather them up and dispose of them. We recommend the third option. (Maybe after you do the first one a few times.)
You may wonder how to get rid of this giant pile of leaves that is now sitting in the corner of your yard. It’s not hard if you have the proper tools, and if you’ve done a bit of prep work. Read on for tips on how to collect leaves from your yard.
Prepare for Leaf Blowing
Before you even begin leaf blowing, do these simple things that will help make cleanup easier at the end.
- Chose a spot in your yard where you want all of the leaves to end up. This can be a corner that’s easy to access.
- Lay down a tarp on which to blow all of the leaves. Use a medium-sized tarp around 8×8 feet. You can find tarps with rope handles that make hauling easy. Weigh down the edges of the tarp with something heavy to prevent it from lifting up when you’re using the leaf blower.
- Get some leaf disposal bags. These are specially made biodegradable bags for easy leaf disposal, and most cities will have designated days to pick them up if you leave them on your curb. You can get leaf disposal bags at any hardware or home improvement store.
- If you don’t want to go the bag route, have a few large trash cans ready.
How to Gather up the Leaves
Once you’ve gathered all of your leaves into one or two piles, it’s time to get them off of the ground and into a receptacle of some sort. If you’re lucky enough to live next to some woods you can simply blow the leaves into the forest floor, where they’ll biodegrade with all of the other tree leaves.
But if you don’t have that advantage, here’s how to gather up the leaves in your yard.
- Separate the leaves from the big pile into one smaller pile at a time.
- Use the vacuum function on your leaf blower to pick up the smaller pile and put it in your receptacle. Some leaf blowers come with, or you can buy, an attachment that goes over the top of your trash can. The leaf blower picks up the leaves and deposits them into the trash can via the tube.
- If you’ve gone the tarp route, simply pick up the corners of the tarp to gather all of the leaves into the center.
Dispose of the Leaves
Once you’ve gathered up your leaves, make sure you dispose of them in the proper way. The easiest way is if you live adjacent to woods and can just dump them there. Check with your city for collection days if you want to use disposable leaf bags, or carry them in trash cans or a tarp to your local dump.