Fall clean up

[lawn mower fanatic]

I have a 3+ acre yard with about 200 trees, most of which are pin oaks. When we first moved here almost 18 years ago we tried a mower and a hand held blower. That accomplished almost nothing, so we then purchased a 8 h.p. Little Wonder blower. Big improvement, but it was still a lot of work pushing it around on my slightly hilly property, so I then bought a self propelled 16 h.p.Giant Vac. That was another step up, but, at 265 lbs., it was still a handful on the hills. Then I discovered the JRCO Blower Buggy, which I bought and mounted on the front of my Scag mower to carry the Little Wonder around on. That was an immense improvement. I also had a custom made tow bar fabricated so I could tow the Giant vac around behind my J.D. yard tractor or the wife's zero turn, which was another improvement. biggest issue with those, though, was having the blowers blowing the wrong direction when turning around to go back for another run at the leaves without stopping every time to either throttle down the blower or shut it down till I got back to my starting point. I have now taken care of that issue. A couple of weeks ago I bought the ultimate leaf blower, namely a Buffalo Turbine KB3. 23 h.p., 10,000 cfm, electric start, and wireless remote control throttle and 360 degree rotating nozzle. Anybody want to but a Little Wonder or Giant Vac blower?

WOW...it looks like what you now have will do the job! It is huge!!

Hello, I have found a fast way to clean up a yard in no time.
I have a john deere JX75 6hp Self propelled with a bagger and a handheld echo blower.

First I blow the drive way down real good, blow ALL the leaves into the lawn, also blow all the junk in the road into the lawn.

Then quickly just run the rake through real fast from one side to the other if there is alot of leaves.

Then bag the lawn, but the trick is to leave the lawn mower a 1/4 inch HIGHER then the lawn then all the power of the mower goes to picking up leaves.
When your done bagging your bagger will only have leaves and there will be no mess in the road or driveway, saving you time so you don't have blow down again and it keeps more leaves from going back into the lawn.

Have a great day!

That is pretty much what I do....works great!!

 

[Perry]

Don't Let Anyone Take Away Such A Valuable Resource.

How long is the grass under those leaves? Good to see one poster
mention the potential for making compost / mulch. Composting
grass clippings alone is always fraught. But if the tedium can be
tolerated, catching a mix of fallen autumn leaves & grass clippings
is the stuff of par excellence in composting. It gets the C:N ratio
just about perfect.

Leaf mould is also an option, but it is trickier to make.

Waste not : Want not

 

[bgred]

Try this.....
I have a 1/4 acre lot so it may not work with larger propertys but it worked for
me. First (if you want) use the leaf blower or rake out behind bushes and flower beds and move
the leaves to the lawn. Second leave the mower to a higher summer setting and mulch the lawn
and leaves. Third (and lastly) set the mower a little lower and re-mow the lawn using the bag to
pick up whats left. During the last step cut the lawn in a clock wise direction starting with the
outside edge and moving to center. I use a Mulching blade with my mower and there is a little
discharge on the right side of the mower (hence the reason for a "clock wise" direction). It takes
some time but you will have a fewer amount of bags to fill and no leaf blowing and bagging leaves.
I don'nt have pictures but the lawn was as clean as it is during the summer.

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

Try this.....
I have a 1/4 acre lot so it may not work with larger propertys but it worked for
me. First (if you want) use the leaf blower or rake out behind bushes and flower beds and move
the leaves to the lawn. Second leave the mower to a higher summer setting and mulch the lawn
and leaves. Third (and lastly) set the mower a little lower and re-mow the lawn using the bag to
pick up whats left. During the last step cut the lawn in a clock wise direction starting with the
outside edge and moving to center. I use a Mulching blade with my mower and there is a little
discharge on the right side of the mower (hence the reason for a "clock wise" direction). It takes
some time but you will have a fewer amount of bags to fill and no leaf blowing and bagging leaves.
I don'nt have pictures but the lawn was as clean as it is during the summer.

That seems like it would work good! :thumbsup:

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

Today I did a huge leaf clean-up AND mowing....in one! The grass was super high, and if that wasn't enough, in the backyard there was a foot of leaves on the ground. I remembered they have lots of roots and rocks in their backyard, so I was not going to just suck it up with my mower, because I would have hit a big rock!! So I used my blower and made big piles on the end of the lawn that ended up being 2 feet tall! Then I raked them on to a tarp and drug them out to the street. Then I went over the lawn and bagged the rest of the leaves. It took awhile, but look at all the leaves I got. The far pile in the 1st picture is 8 feet long and like 3 feet tall!

 

[D2hornets58]

Today I did a huge leaf clean-up AND mowing....in one! The grass was super high, and if that wasn't enough, in the backyard there was a foot of leaves on the ground. I remembered they have lots of roots and rocks in their backyard, so I was not going to just suck it up with my mower, because I would have hit a big rock!! So I used my blower and made big piles on the end of the lawn that ended up being 2 feet tall! Then I raked them on to a tarp and drug them out to the street. Then I went over the lawn and bagged the rest of the leaves. It took awhile, but look at all the leaves I got. The far pile in the 1st picture is 8 feet long and like 3 feet tall!
View attachment 9359

Do you have any pics of the lawn?

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

Do you have any pics of the lawn?

The front....yes:

I will try to dig up some of the pics I took of the back yard from last year....give me a second.

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

Here is the best one I have. The branches of the trees touch the ground....so it is a pain sometimes:

Their yard goes past the second pole in their yard...you can see a leaf pile on the other side of that!!
Here is another pic of after I picked up the piles:

 

[D2hornets58]

The front....yes: View attachment 9360

I will try to dig up some of the pics I took of the back yard from last year....give me a second.

Looks good...Also looks like that car has a nice dent in the door haha

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

Also looks like that car has a nice dent in the door haha

Haha yeah I just noticed that! :laughing: