Spring clean-ups are a great way to spruce up your property and get your lawn prepared for the upcoming year. The best time to clean up leaf debris is in the fall so that the leaves do not sit and compact all winter. Most deciduous trees drop their leaves before November. Oak trees will gradually lose their leaves over the winter. Any leaves that can be removed from the lawn and landscape before winter will benefit your property. Leaves left on the grass may cause it to yellow and die out. Leaves left in landscape beds will get stuck in bushes and may need to be removed by hand.
The job of removing leaves can be simple if you have the right process to tackle the project. Cut back any perennials or dead plants before attempting a cleanup. Doing this will reduce the number of objects that your leaves can get stuck on. Cutting back plants will make your landscape bed clean and prepare it for spring. With any cleanup job, it is essential that you work with the wind. Wind can be your enemy or your friend. When you are cleaning up leaves, make sure to blow them the same direction as the wind.
Use a leaf blower for your clean-ups
Most cleanups should begin by blowing out landscape beds with a hand blower or backpack blower. To get leaves trapped in shrubs, quickly move your blower side to side at the base of the plant. Keep your wind line aimed at the bottom of the plant. Use the wind from your blower to lift the leaves off of the ground. When you have them freed from the ground or suspended in the air, blow them away from the plant. If you continue this process several times, you will get rid of most of the leaves without having to remove the leaves by hand.
Once the leaves are out of your landscape bed and into the yard, rake them into a pile or bag them with a mower. If your project has a large number of leaves, it may be necessary to suck them up with a leaf vac. A leaf vac is usually mounted to a trailer or truck and can significantly reduce the labor involved with the cleanup. Many professional lawn maintenance companies and municipalities offer leaf vac services.
