How To Get Rid Of Leaves Without Raking

Last Updated on August 27, 2021 by Duncan

As much as you love spending time under the trees, the trees drop leaves on your lawn. For you to keep your lawn looking great, you should get rid of the leaves as soon as possible.

In addition to the leaves giving your lawn an unkempt look, when you allow them to stay on the grass for long, they prevent the grass from undertaking photosynthesis; thus, it dries up.

Which further spoils the look of the lawn.

There are many ways of getting rid of the leaves. One of the most common ways is using a rake. Are you like me and don’t like using a rake? Here are some of the other ways you can use to keep the leaves at bay without raking.

Why shouldn’t you rake the leaves?

You should then work for hours to eliminate the leaves, which is usually very tedious and something you shouldn’t put yourself through.

The other reason you shouldn’t rake the leaves is that you might be destroying the environment by doing so. The condition is worse if you live in communities where you throw the leaves into the streets.

If you live in such communities, the leaves, in most cases, are washed into gutters where they find their way into waterways and streams. Here, the leaves release phosphorus and nitrogen—which encourage algae growth.

When there is excessive algae growth, water is depleted of oxygen. As a result, fish and other aquatic animals die.

How can you get rid of leaves without raking?

The cool thing is that there are plenty of options that you can go with. Some of the best ones are:

Using a lawnmower

Did you know that you can get rid of leaves from your yard using a lawnmower? To do it, you need to set a bagged riding mower blade a little bit above the leaves. Doing this makes it possible for the lawnmower to “suck” in the leaves from the blades.

When trying to remove the leaves using this method, it’s common for some of the leaves to get chopped up instead of disappearing.

When this happens, you shouldn’t be worried. All you need to do is place the best commercial lawn mowers in place and repeat the process.

When you do this several times, it will come a time when you will be able to remove all of the leaves.

There is a reason why it’s known as a leaf blower—you use it to blow leaves. To get rid of the leaves using this method, you need to put your unit into full blast. The cool thing is that you can use a gas or electric leaf blower.

When you are using the machine, the first thing you should think about is your safety. As a rule of thumb, have eye protection in place.

Remember, the machine blows the leaves at high velocity, and they will damage your eyes in the event they got in.

Some of the best eye protection you should go with are goggles or glasses.

You also should protect your ears—unless you are using an electric leaf blower. If using a gas-powered blower, you should wear earmuffs or soft foam plugs as hearing protection.

Just like when handling other lawn care chores, you should wear long pants, high-quality gloves, and a long-sleeved shirt. These protective pieces are to protect you from cuts, dirt, and burns.

You want to have the easiest time possible when getting rid of the leaves from your yard if you are like me, right? When blowing, avoid wet leaves as they will be hard to get rid of. The best way of going about it is to wait for them to dry out.

If there is a breeze, you should work with it. Start from the edges of the yard, beneath the shrubs, trees, and bushes. To have an easy time, break your yard into workable sections, and work towards the middle of the lawn.

For you to have an easy time hauling the leaves once you are done, direct the leaves onto an old sheet or tarp.

Are there some leaves on a hard surface, such as a driveway or walkway? You should note that the leaves tend to move more easily here; therefore, you should be careful how you blow them.

If your leaf blower has power settings, you should ratchet it all the way down. This reduces the chances of the leaves ending up in your neighbor’s yard or any other wrong place.

To reduce the chances of having hazardous dust clouds, avoid using the leaf blower on bare dirt, driveways, or other dusty surfaces.

You also should avoid using the machine after applying pesticides, fertilizer, or herbicides on your lawn.

Using a lawn vacuum

Just like you use the vacuum to clean your house floor, you can use a lawn vacuum to remove leaves without raking. All you need to do is to get a lawn vacuum. You can buy or rent one from your local store.

Just like when using a leaf blower, you should protect yourself by wearing the necessary protective gear. These include glasses, gloves, long pants, and ear protection devices.

Using a lawn sweep machine

I know not many people know about this machine. A lawn sweep is a machine that resembles a push lawnmower.

Instead of having a rotary blade inside it, it has a rotating rake that lifts the leaves and throws them into a collecting box.

There are many types of these machines on the market that you can go for. For example, there are the manual ones that you push to get rid of the leaves.

There is also the pull behind versions that you can pull using a tractor. All you need is to sit on the tractor and trail the lawn sweep up and down, getting rid of the leaves without raking.

Parting shot

You must have come across information that you are better off leaving the leaves on your lawn as they provide feed for the lawn.

While this is true, you should note that sometimes the leaves are too many that the yard can’t feed on them fast enough. The result is having an ugly lawn.

You can then use the compost in a vegetable garden. You can also use it for potting plants or place them around the roots of your trees.