# Best rake/leaf duty coming!!!



## bmw (Aug 29, 2018)

I'd like to get a really good leaf rake this year that is really wide with a cushioned grip. Does anyone have any suggestions? The Ames rake @ Home Depot looks pretty weak, it has some negative reviews.

Also, what methods do you find are best for cleaning up large quantities of leaves? I'm kind of dreading fall. I have to blow off my driveway every 2 days and I'm inundated with leaves/acorns/twigs from Oct-Jan. It's rewarding when it's cleaned up but it's covered again in just a few days. It's tempting to just let it all fall down, but it's an ocean of leaves everywhere and almost unmanageable if I do that.


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## DuncanMcDonuts (May 5, 2019)

To me, it depends on what leaves you're raking in what kind of grass. In my yard, I only have to deal with small live oak leaves in my bermuda grass. The typical plastic fan rake does nothing to rake the leaves. My 36" landscape rake does amazing to get through the grass canopy and pull the leaves so I can pile it together.


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## BobRoss (Jul 3, 2019)

I have 3 large oak trees and a bush hedge on my property so I just mulch my leaves and only use a rake to pull from edges or spread the leaves out. I get a lot of leaves from neighbors because they normally let me clean up their leaves by letting them blow in my yard. I don't know your yard and tree situation to say that it will work for you.

According to Milogranite website, if you are mulching the leaves to the point of still being able to see the grass through the leaf blades you are good to go. It is a lot of free OM for your lawn.
https://www.milorganite.com/blog/garden-landscape/6-fall-landscape-steps


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## ForsheeMS (May 21, 2018)

I own a leaf rake but it hasn't been used in years. I much prefer to use a blower to move the leaves off the driveway or out of the flower beds into the lawn where they are then chopped up with the mower. Overall it would take me longer to remove all the leaves than it does to mulch them into the lawn and it's good for the lawn. Many times I have mulched 18+ inches of leaves into the lawn at one time and never had an issue. Granted, if you look down into the grass you can see all the mulched leaves but by early spring that are all gone.


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## CPA Nerd (May 8, 2018)

Get a good strong blower, blow them onto the grass and mulch mow them every few days.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Get this for the acorns. I've never used one but they look cool.

http://www.nutwizard.com


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## Lawnguyland (Apr 25, 2018)

CPA Nerd said:


> Get a good strong blower, blow them onto the grass and mulch mow them every few days.


I too use my blower to even out the spread of leaves and mulch them in every few days.


pennstater2005 said:


> Get this for the acorns. I've never used one but they look cool.
> 
> http://www.nutwizard.com


I have the garden weasel version of the nut gatherer. I'm not sure how well it would work on acorns but it works great to pick up black walnuts. I usually just let my acorns provide more organic matter as they decompose into the lawn. Any trees that sprout can never survive mowing.


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## bmw (Aug 29, 2018)

CPA Nerd said:


> Get a good strong blower, blow them onto the grass and mulch mow them every few days.


I will try this and see how it goes. Instead of blowing them into a wooded area.

As far as rakes go, I've heard great things about the Groundskeeper II with the metal tines. It's also very good for getting lawn debris out of the root zone.


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## quattljl (Aug 8, 2018)

bmw said:


> I'd like to get a really good leaf rake this year that is really wide with a cushioned grip. Does anyone have any suggestions? The Ames rake @ Home Depot looks pretty weak, it has some negative reviews.
> 
> Also, what methods do you find are best for cleaning up large quantities of leaves? I'm kind of dreading fall. I have to blow off my driveway every 2 days and I'm inundated with leaves/acorns/twigs from Oct-Jan. It's rewarding when it's cleaned up but it's covered again in just a few days. It's tempting to just let it all fall down, but it's an ocean of leaves everywhere and almost unmanageable if I do that.


I know your struggle.

The first year in my house I tried raking. Couldn't keep up, it took forever to rake when I did, and I ran out of room to dump it all.

The second year I tried letting them all fall and dealing with them once the trees were bare. I had just gotten a new leaf blower as a Christmas present so I thought it would for sure go quicker. In the end, it was too much to deal with and I still had to rake up my piles into a large trash can and dump by hand. It also caused some other issues (smothering grass, safe haven for unwanted critters, etc.).

The third year I finally found a solution. I bought a new ride on mower at the beginning of summer and for the fall I purchased a bagger system for it. Now it's super easy to go out and pick up leaves. Takes me less than an hour vs a multi-hour/almost all day affair before. Picking them up with the mower has the added bonus of mulching them up so I can actually fit more in my burn pit also.

Last year, having done a reno on my front yard, I tried to mow as much as possible to mulch the leaves into the grass and keep the heavy rider off of the baby grass. When the leaves got to be too much, I would either blow them into a pile on the driveway that I could pick up with the rider, or I would quickly take the rider through the yard to pick up the leaves. This year I'll probably do something similar. Mulch as much as possible, but use the rider to pick them up if they get to be too much.


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## FrankMc (Jan 17, 2021)

quattljl said:


> bmw said:
> 
> 
> > I'd like to get a really good leaf rake this year that is really wide with a cushioned grip. Does anyone have any suggestions? The Ames rake @ Home Depot looks pretty weak, it has some negative reviews.
> ...


Thank you for that! Probably, I saved some years


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