Leaf sweeper

[Dave Fritz]

We've been chopping and windrowing leaves with our riding lawn mower, then using a push mower, chopping them further into a bagger on the mower. The bag on the push mower is fairly small so we make frequent stops. At one time we had a bagger on a Cub Cadet and it was not very good in that it was hard to assemble and mount and had numerous leaks that allowed leavers to shoot all over. We now have a Simplicity Broadmoor. I'm wondering if anyone has a way of picking up leaves that works for them. We're 79 years old and the usual ailments so appreciate the task being as easy as possible. We use a lot of leaves for mulch in the gardens during the year.

[Stan Calow]

I use the much-maligned gas-powered leaf blower to move the leaves into rows, and bag with the mower as you do. Yes you have to stop a lot to empty the bag, but it's still better than raking. My complaint is that we have trees that drop early, and then trees that drop late, so we have to do it twice.

This year there's been a local push for people to leave the leaves on the lawn or just run a mulching pass over them, for the benefit of wildlife and plant fertilizer. Saying that the myth that leaves are bad for grass is wrong. I'm going to see how that looks.

[Doug Garson]

Probably a much smaller property than you are maintaining but I use a mulching corded yard blower/vac to collect and bag leaves. Mulches to about 1/10th the volume but only works well on smaller dry leaves. We have an evergreen Magnolia which has big tough leaves and it struggles to handle them, usually plugs up frequently.

[Bill Howatt]

Run over the leaves (and pine needles) with my John Deere lawn tractor with a regular non-mulcher blade. I found this reduces the bulk of the leaves compared to untouched leaves and I also try to guide them into loose rows. I then run my 42" Brinly sweeper, similar to the John Deere model, and collect the leaves. Empty the sweeper in suitable location on my lot and then shovel them into my trailer and take to the yard waste section of the local dump for composting. Don't have a huge lot, typical 100x150' so whipping around with the sweeper is fairly speedy. Volume collected this year is about 50 cubic-feet but the #$%$# oaks still have about 50% of the leaves still.

[Bill Dufour]

I block off the bag on the mower then run over the lawn to chop all the leaves first. then do it again with the bag. this reduces leaves to less then 1/3 as much. So less dumping of the bag.
Bill D

[Steve Jenkins]

May be more than you need but check out the cyclone rake. I’ve had one for years and it works great

[Lee Schierer]

I used our 48" lawn sweeper this year to remove the fallen leaves. It did a decent job, but filled up quickly. I had to make more than 12 trips across the yard to my lawn clippings/leaf dumping site on the back of our yard area. It snowed two days later, so I may have to run around the yard again.

[Brian Tymchak]

This year there's been a local push for people to leave the leaves on the lawn or just run a mulching pass over them, for the benefit of wildlife and plant fertilizer. Saying that the myth that leaves are bad for grass is wrong. I'm going to see how that looks.

Too much leaf litter can smother grass. Some is good to mulch up into the lawn, especially if you have heavy soil (clay). I mow back and forth, so as I mow the chopped up leaves get spread across the lawn. However, there are times to rake. I have a maple that dumps its entire load over 2 weeks. That's too much to try to mulch into the lawn.

[Brian Runau]

I have a cub cadet. I go over the yard with no bagger cutting everything up, then come back and go over the yard again cutting and picking up the leaves. I do use a leaf blower to get them out of the landscape beds first. Might be time to pay someone to do this for you. I have reached a point at 66-11months I am starting to have to pay people to do stuff I can't do anymore. I am not allowed in the crawlspace or on the roof anymore, martial bliss is involved. Won't be long I can cut grass, but leaf pick up in the fall will be my landscapers job. Brian

[Earl McLain]

I think that what works depends greatly on the type of trees and leaves you have to deal with. What works for one property may not work at all for another. For example...

I'm just under 2 acres with 25-30 trees--fortunately mostly maple & wild cherry, so our Dixie Chopper chews them up well enough that it looks no different than yards that get raked and bagged. Grass hasn't suffered in 30 years. On the other hand, 2 of our sons have mostly red oak and white oak trees--so they are forced to get them off their lawns.

Glad we only have to rake out of the areas right next to the house, and then only far enough to be able to mulch them!!

[Ronald Blue]

I can't praise "Gator" mulching blades enough. I mowed yesterday and the west side of my property is lined with soft maples and other junk trees. We have had several hard freezes so everything is dropping. While I mowed because it needed it the ground was covered with leaves on the tree line. After running over with my mower you could scarcely tell there were ever leaves there. The leaves are pulverized to such small pieces they all but disappear. Look into trying such a blade on your push mower. It won't be fluff in the bag. I run them all the time because the heavy wet grass discharges so much better without clumping.

[Tom M King]

Yes, commercial mowers make leaves disappear. You can't let them get thick enough that the mower pushes them, but two passes takes care of everything here. I save othewise pretty worn Gator blades. Doing the leaves here in the Fall finishes off the mulching teeth on top.

We have one acre and a half piece that is completely covered with hardwood trees with grass under them. It's maybe 120 feet wide the narrow way. I wait until I have a strong wind coming off the lake, start on the side towards the lake, and blow the debris with the wind. By the time I get them to the ditch it's one pass down one side cleans out that side of the ditch. I make another pass on the other slope of the ditch throwing them in the road, and then blow it all out of the road into the woods on the other side of the road. This whole process might take a half hour, mainly because of having to navigate around all the trees.

I have several different corded and cordless blowers, and a Billy Goat 13hp blower on wheels that we used to use. Since buying this 72" commercial mower, the only one of those needed is one of the cordless ones to get the leaves out of the flower beds next to the house where I can get to them with the mower.

[Jim Becker]

Tom, that's very true. My SCAG Freedom Z which is a "less commercial" version in their line made quick work of ALL the leaves dropped by the maple trees on our property this past weekend. They were pulverized after a few "thoughtfully planned" passes, both with deck raised and then lowered to normal cut height. There's almost no evidence they were there at this point.

[Ole Anderson]

I have the JD 425 48" zero turn with the bagger which includes a vacuum attachment (no separate motor). Still spits a few leaves out the opposite side, but it really chops them up to the point the bag is almost too heavy to lift. (pic not mine but close)
https://www.tractordata.com/ltphotos/F004/4128/4128-td4-b01.jpg

[Bill George]

I also have a John Deere zero turn but with just mulching blades and the cover for the discharge side it does a decent job on the leaves. Two or maybe 3 passes and its done.

[Ken Combs]

I can't praise "Gator" mulching blades enough. I mowed yesterday and the west side of my property is lined with soft maples and other junk trees. We have had several hard freezes so everything is dropping. While I mowed because it needed it the ground was covered with leaves on the tree line. After running over with my mower you could scarcely tell there were ever leaves there. The leaves are pulverized to such small pieces they all but disappear. Look into trying such a blade on your push mower. It won't be fluff in the bag. I run them all the time because the heavy wet grass discharges so much better without clumping.

Another Gator fan. I have used them on several mowers and they work well on all.

[Alex Zeller]

The local Tractor Supply had a Agri-Fab leaf sucker. It must have been at the store for 3 years or more. I got a 15% off coupon and decided to get it. The SKU number on it didn't even work anymore, that's how long it had been there. The price was already $350 less than the current price so I got it for a steal.

It's a boxed trailer and has a 5hp Briggs on the tongue. It works well and doesn't fill up too fast. It doesn't bag the leaves though. But with lots of land I just back up, remove the rear cover and dump the leaves in the woods. It has a flex hose that attaches to the mower deck on my Deere. The only issue is the sound. It's a very low frequency. This year I got some noise cancelling headphones that solved that problem.

[Tom M King]

These Cub Cadet Extreme blades work some better than the Gator blades for shredding leaves. They have a high lift wing, as well as the shredder/cutter. It seems like they wouldn't shred as well as the Gators, having less shredders, but I think the lift wing helps. The trouble is that the cutting edges don't have the carbide pellets bonding under the bottom of the blade like the Gators do, so they don't last as long between sharpenings. They are also more expensive.

One set came on my mower, and I ordered an extra set when I bought the mower. I'm keeping the second set just for leaves.

The Gator blades work almost as well, but sometimes require an extra pass whereas the Extreme blades clean the ground in one pass, probably due to the lifting wings.

https://pandpsmallengines.com/products/cub-cadet-742p05179-x?variant=38058749493441 The $45 is per blade for the 72" deck. Gators are significantly cheaper, but don't come with a 3/4" hole, so I have to drill out ones with 5/8" holes. I mostly run the Gators in spite of having to drill them out.

[Rich Konopka]

I have an Agrifab lawn sweeper and it works miracles. It is towed behind my john deer lawn tractor. The sweeper is very thorough with leaves,grass pine needles , and pine cones. I cannot recommend it enough!!. It’s a $150 more than what I paid for it 4 years ago.

https://a.co/d/8vTSaIG

[Doug Colombo]

I have an Agrifab lawn sweeper and it works miracles. It is towed behind my john deer lawn tractor. The sweeper is very thorough with leaves,grass pine needles , and pine cones. I cannot recommend it enough!!. It’s a $150 more than what I paid for it 4 years ago.

+1. Love mine also ! Just used it today. At 71, it still is easy to handle.

[Dave Cav]

+1. Love mine also ! Just used it today. At 71, it still is easy to handle.

+2. I don't know if ours is an Agri Fab but other than the color it looks just like it. I think I got it at Tractor Supply. It does a great job on our .95 acre of pine needles and mixed hardwoods. If someone stole it I would buy another one tomorrow.

We had a Cyclone Rake at our last house, but it was several acres of hardwoods. The Cyclone Rake was great. One pass and done. It and the Kubota mower stayed with the property. Wish I had kept both.

[Tom M King]

It's been too dry here to shred leaves with the big mower without being inside a dust storm. We have several different cordless leaf blowers but even the strongest one is just for small jobs like getting leaves away from the house so I can shred them with the big mower.

Yesterday we had a light wind from the best direction for blowing leaves, but still not as strong as I like for using the big mower. A heavy rain was expected today, and I wanted to get the yard mostly cleared.

This is the tool for this job. It moves a lot more forceful air than even the largest EGO battery blower. I keep a 100' 14 ga. cord attached to it with a small web of zip ties so the cord stays attached. I cleared about a half acre away from the house yesterday with the help of the light wind. I have piles pushed up with it that I will just push over in the woods with the tractor.

This thing is lighter than the battery blowers, but is a beast and will run as long as you want to run it. I keep the cord on a reel so it's really not that much trouble to use. For a lot in a town, I could get by with this alone.

https://www.amazon.com/TORO-PowerJet-Electric-Handheld-Blower/dp/B07VVDYYBF/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3D01T03UDPWG5&keywords=toro+leaf+blower&nav_sdd=aps&qid=1700614180&refinements=p_n_power_source_browse-bin%3A492227011&rnid=492225011&s=lawn-garden&sprefix=toro&sr=1-4&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.17d9e15d-4e43-4581-b373-0e5c1a776d5d

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000BYBVT?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details