How to Clean Yard Leaves

If you have a home with a large yard and some trees, then you are undoubtedly dealing with the issue of cleaning up leaves. The simple fact is that to maintain a good-looking lawn, you need to clean those leaves up as they fall.

With that being said, there are of course various methods of how to clean up yard leads. Today, we want to take a look at all of the most common methods of cleaning up leaves from your yard, including using a leaf bagger, lawn sweeper, leaf blower, and good old raking.

Moreover, we also want to take a look at some of the very best lawn clean-up accessories and tools on the market, particularly a few from the popular VEVOR brand name. Let’s get to it and figure out exactly how to clean yard leaves.

The Best Ways to Clean Yard Leaves

What we want to do right now is to provide you with a comprehensive overview of how to clean yard leaves, specifically focusing on a variety of methods. These methods include the leaf bagger, a leaf sweeper, the leaf blower, and raking and bagging the leaves. Let’s start by looking at one of the most common methods, the leaf bagger.

Leaf Bagger

A leaf bagger is a simple yet effective attachment or accessory that collects leaves into, you guessed it, a bag. Leaf baggers are generally not standalone tools, but rather attachments for lawnmowers. These could be for push mowers or for riding mowers. A leaf bagger is simply a collection bag that you attach to the lawn mower, into which leaves and grass clippings go into.

As you use your lawn mower to mow the lawn, the blades of your lawn mower chop up the leaves into small pieces, which are then collected along with the grass clippings in the bag. Your lawn mower actually creates quite some suction as the blades move, quite literally sucking the leaves into the bag.

The leaf bagger is therefore an ideal method for medium and large lawns where there are many leads to pick up.

They’re very useful for people who regularly mow their lawns using either a push mower or a riding mower, and for people who want to combine grass clippings collection with leaf collection. With that being said, as is the case with any collection method, using a leaf bagger does have both its advantages and disadvantages, which we’re about to look at below.

Pros

• Leaf baggers are very efficient at collecting grass clippings and leaves at the same time.
• Leaf baggers quickly and efficiently pick up leaves.
• It can be easily attached to lawn mowers.
• Leaf baggers are great for use during the regular lawn mowing season.

Cons

• Leaf baggers require a compatible riding mower or lawn mower for use.
• These accessories are not suitable for collecting large amounts of leaves that have accumulated.
• Collection bags fill up quite quickly and require emptying on a regular basis.

Lawn Sweeper

Next on the list is the lawn sweeper, such as this model from VEVOR. Lawn sweepers are special tools designed to pick up a variety of lawn debris, not just leaves. Lawn sweepers feature rotating brushes that are able to pick up debris as they move across your lawn.

There are two main types, push sweepers and tow behind sweepers. Push lawn sweepers are manually operated, or in other words, you just push them in front of you.

On the other hand, tow behind lawn sweepers are attached to your riding mower, so you can easily tell them behind you. Either way, these tools are manual in nature, or in other words, they don’t have any power source such as electricity or a combustion engine.

Unlike leaf baggers, these are standalone tools, and they actually look like little lawn mowers. They don’t actually cut grass, but rather just use those rotating brushes to pick up a variety of debris, such as leaves, grass clippings, pine needles, and even small twigs.

If you have a lot of open space and plenty of leaves to pick up, then a leaf sweeper is likely suitable for you, which is especially the case if you appreciate lawn tools that do not release any emissions. Let’s now take a look at both the pros and cons of lawn sweepers.

Pros

• Lawn sweepers are very quiet.
• These tools are both eco-friendly and affordable.
• There are plenty of models that have large hoppers, so they don’t need to be emptied often.
• High-quality lawn sweepers are able to pick up many kinds of debris, not just leaves.

Cons

• Launch sweepers require a good deal of storage space, more than leaf baggers.
• Lower-quality models may require that you make multiple passes to pick up all of the debris.
• Leaf sweepers don’t work very well on uneven terrain.

Leaf Blower

Next on the list, we have a motorized tool, the leaf blower. Leaf blowers feature a motor along with a special system that produces a great amount of airflow. If you haven’t already guessed by now, leaf blowers are designed to blow leaves and debris into piles so they can then be easily collected. The motor of the leaf blower creates a high-velocity stream of air that is able to push around large quantities of leaves.

Now, leaf blowers can also generally reverse the flow and become leaf collectors. In other words, they can turn into giant vacuums affixed with leaf collection bags. These can be handheld electric blowers, battery-powered, or gas-powered. 

If you want the most power, going for a gas powered model is best. If you have a very large property with lots of leaves and obstacles, then leaf blowers are probably best for you. For instance, here we have a prime model from VEVOR, a very powerful and efficient leaf blower capable of taking care of large properties in limited amounts of time.

However, just as is the case with the other collection methods on our list today, leaf blowers also have their pros and cons.

Pros

• Leaf blowers are very versatile in the sense that they’re able to blow around many different types of debris.
• Leaf blowers are extremely quick and efficient, and require minimal labor.
• Leaf blowers are ideal for use around obstacles and on hard surfaces.
• Gas-powered leaf blowers especially, offer a good deal of power.

Cons

• May blow debris into areas that you don’t want.
• Gas-powered models release a good deal of emissions into the air.
• Leaf blowers tend to be extremely noisy.

Rake and Bag

The other method you have at your disposal for collecting yard leaves is the good old raking and bagging method. Here, all you do is use a rake to gather up the leaves and then manually scoop them into a bag. This is by far the most cost-effective method of all, as well as the most eco-friendly.

However, raking up your leaves is of course not ideal for large areas, because it’s a whole lot of manual labor. With that being said, if you need a bit of exercise, you want something that saves money, and you don’t want to impact the environment in a negative way, then raking and bagging is probably best for you.

Pros

• This method of leaf collection is extremely eco-friendly.
• This method is low-cost.
• Raking up leaves is great exercise.
• Allows you to easily control where the leaves are gathered.

Cons

• Not ideal for large areas.
• Requires a lot of physical effort.

What to do With Yard Leaves

If you’re wondering what to do with the leaves that you collected, the best thing you can do is to create a compost pile. Creating a compost pile will provide you with a steady supply of nutrients for your garden.

FAQ

What should I do with the collected leaves?

Once you’ve collected the leaves, no matter the collection method that you’ve used, turning them into compost is best. This is an eco-friendly solution that allows you to feed your garden. However, if that’s not an option for you, then putting them out on the curb on leaf collection day is the next best option. If it happens to be Halloween, then putting them inside of bags and turning them into scary little ghosts is also an option.

What is the most cost-effective way of collecting leaves?

By far the most cost-effective way of collecting the leaves in your yard is by using a rake. A rake barely costs anything at all, and also doesn’t require a constant supply of fuel. With that being said, rakes do of course require a good deal of manual labor and time.

What’s the easiest way of collecting leaves from your yard?

The easiest way of collecting leaves from your yard depends on what your goals are. For instance, if you are also mowing your lawn, then the easiest method is to use a leaf bagger, as you can collect the grass clippings and leaves as you know. However, if all you need to do is collect some leaves, using a simple leaf sweeper probably works best.

The Bottom Line on Cleaning Up Yard Leaves

At the end of the day, cleaning up your yard leaves is not very difficult. Moreover, between leaf baggers, leaf sweepers, leaf blowers, and good old raking and bagging, you have plenty of different methods at your disposal. Whatever the case may be, if you’re looking for high lawn and garden equipment, look no further than VEVOR.