Clearing the Garden in Autumn

Autumn is that beautiful time of the year when the leaves turn into lovely shades of gold, yellow and red. If there are deciduous trees in your area, you will truly experience the beauty of Autumn. The color change is for a very brief time, just about a week. The metal rake is one such instrument that you can use. The classic rake is 20 to 30 inches wide and can remove a large amount of leaves.

Make sure that the handle is cushioned, or you will get blisters on your hands. Rake the leaves when they are dry, as wet leaves are heavier and consequently harder to draw together. Start from the left side of the yard or lawn.

Stretch the rake out in front of you, place it head down over the leaves, and pull the leaves towards you. This is done so that all the leaves can be gathered in one big pile. Rake the right side and pile the leaves in a separate pile. Then rake the centre.

Thus you have 3 piles of leaves. Open and lay a large plastic tarpaulin as close to the piles of leaves as you can. Flip over the rake so that the tines now face up. Use the rake in this manner to scoop up the leaves from the piles and put them in the middle of the tarpaulin.

Move in a systematic manner over the yard or lawn, working as described above filling the tarpaulin with the dried leaves, and slowly but surely you will have a clean yard. Leave enough room so that the tarpaulin can be folded diagonally. It is easier to lift the tarpaulin in this manner. You can now leave the tarpaulin for the garbage man or put the leaves in your own garden compost pit. If you have a very large yard, you might want to get a leaf vacuum /mulcher.

There is quite a variety available. The vacuum is attached to the leaf blower and the end is in a lined trash can. Thus you could vacuum the leaves, and these are them shredded to make a fine mulch, which would come in handy for your shrubs, flower beds and trees. No matter how carefully you try to collect the leaves, there will always be some left in the yard. Attach a bag to your mulching lawn mower and run it across the yard. The mower will collect all the remaining leaves and shred them into fine mulch.