Raking and bagging fall leaves can swallow your whole weekend. This year, skip the bags. With a cordless blower, an electric leaf shredder, and a chipper shredder, you can clean up your yard faster and turn the mess into free mulch for your garden beds.
While leaf mulch can help nourish your yard over winter, it’s important to recognize a thick layer can leave your yard looking messy and provide shelter for critters to thrive. Maintaining a regular leaf cleanup schedule can make the job feel easier and leave your yard ready for frosty days. The best time to get started is when you notice that first layer of leaves appearing in your yard, usually while the weather is still enjoyable.
Step 1: Move Leaves Quickly With a Cordless Leaf Blower
Rather than spending ages hurting your back with a manual rake, round up all your leaves quickly with the LawnMaster 24V Cordless Axial Leaf Blower. The 24V Cordless Leaf Blower doesn’t require a cord or gas; just click in the battery and start making that giant leaf pile.
For the most efficient leaf roundup, blow with the wind rather than against, and work toward a central pile in your yard. It’s also important to be gentle around garden beds to prevent mulch from flying everywhere.
The Leaf Blower shares the MX 24V battery system with your LawnMaster cordless mower, so one battery system covers mowing and fall cleanup.
Step 2: Shrink the Pile With an Electric Leaf Shredder
Once your leaf pile is formed and you’ve taken a jump (or two) into the pile, it’s time to shrink it. Instead of wasting numerous plastic bags, the LawnMaster 15-Amp Electric Leaf Shredder takes 18 bags of leaves and shreds them down to one bag of nutrient-rich mulch. The Leaf Shredder can handle wet and dry leaves, pine needles, and grass, making it perfect for those colorful leaves.
Step 3: Chip Sticks and Branches With a Chipper Shredder
But let’s face it, even the greatest of leaf piles is riddled with sticks and branches as the trees decide to drop everything that’s not serving them. For the heavier yard waste items that a leaf blower or shredder can’t tackle, the LawnMaster 15-Amp Electric Wood Chipper Shredder can handle them (up to 1.8 inches thick). The chipper shredder turns 16 bags of branch debris to 1 bag of mulch that can be reused.
How to Use Shredded Leaves and Wood Chips as Mulch
The Leaf Shredder and Wood Chipper Shredder are great tools for making mulch at home. Shredded leaves are rich in carbon and a mix of vital trace minerals, secondary macronutrients, and micronutrients that revive soil. Similarly, wood chips are rich in carbon and work great as a surface mulch.
The leaf and wood fragments work as a slow-release soil improver and food source for beneficial soil life. They are also great for aeration in clay soil and moisture retention in sandy soil. During the cold winter months, shredded leaves provide insulation to perennial roots and can suppress weed growth.
How to Put Your Mulch to Work
Spread shredded leaves or wood chips about 2-3 inches deep around garden beds, keeping them a few inches away from tree trunks and plant stems so moisture doesn’t collect against the bark. Use shredded leaves over perennial roots for winter protection, and save wood chips for paths and the surface of beds. Skip any leaves that showed signs of disease this season, since they’re best bagged or sent to municipal yard waste.
Fall Cleanup Safety Tips
For the best (and safest) results, we recommend:
· Wear eye and ear protection, especially around the shredders
· Keep a tarp or reusable bag handy for easy collection of the mulch
· Use an outdoor-rated extension cord for the shredders
· Store the tools in your garage or a weather-proof shed for the winter
The LawnMaster 24V Cordless Leaf Blower, 15-Amp Electric Leaf Shredder, and 15-Amp Electric Wood Chipper Shredder are an elite group of fall leaf cleanup tools for free mulch this fall. You’ll use fewer plastic bags, skip the trip to buy mulch, and run on electric and battery power instead of gas.
For more information and available products, visit https://us.cleva.com/pages/lawnmaster, where our full collection of wood chipper shredders and leaf blowers can be found.