England is famous for being a green and pleasant land and certainly with out warm summers and abundant rainfall this is definately the case. We are by nature a nation of gardeners and love our manicured lawns surrounded by flower beds and trees. Thereby is a problem! Most of the trees are deciduous and consequently shed their leaves every year. In Autumn, the colours can be quite spectacular but when the leaves have dropped they leave a carpet of rotting material on top of the lawn which if left will kill the grass.
The old method of removal was to sweep the lawn with a lawn rake which was both back breaking and time consuming. It was a problem waiting to be solved and in the early 1970's the Japanese invented the garden leaf blower. They have become extremely popular because they make the business of clearing the lawn quick, easy and nowhere near as hard work. Garden leaf blowers have become very versatile and today are used to clean patios and remove lawn rubbish as well as clearing leaves.
Garden leaf blowers can be classified by their power source whether electric or petrol leaf blowers. Electric leaf blowers either have a power cord and plug into the mains which means a trailing electrical cord whilst you are using the leaf blower whereas some are battety powered. These come with a rechargeable battery and are suitable for the smaller garden. Petrol leaf blowers have either a two or four stroke engine. Two stroke units are generally back packed i.e. the backpack holds the fuel supply, the engine and the fan whereas the larger four stroke engines usually come as wheeled units or walk-behind petrol leaf blowers.
In the average household, the most popular types are the electric leaf blowers as these tend to be cheaper, more portable and "man enough" for the job of most small gardens. Having a hundred feet or more of extension cable following behind the blower is though not always convenient. The cable typically gets in the way. You may get caught up in it from time to time, and it always seems to have a knack of lying across the leaves that you want to blow away. Backpack leaf blowers are often seen in use by professional garden maintenance companies hired to maintain the verges in our towns and countryside.
Petrol powered leaf blowers are generally bulkier, but have the ability to blow much more air. On the negative side though they produce much more noise. If you look at a professional gardner using one they will nearly always be wearing ear defenders as a petrol leaf blower often sounds like a cross between a lawn-mower and a jet aircraft at a distance. Whoa betide you if you use one on a Sunday morning!
Walk- behind and wheeled garden leaf blowers tend to also have the ability to suck so that leaf debris can be removed from the area under maintenance. These usually come with a large hose for vacuuming the lawn. This is a good option as simply moving the leaves into another area such as the street or worse your neighbour's garden is not a good option. However with plenty of practice you should be able to push all the leaves into a nice hap to either burn or put on the compost heap.
If you have a small garden, or only a few deciduous trees you may not even need a leaf blower and can get away with using a lawn rake but remember that it may not be just your trees shedding leaves onto your lawn but also your neighbours trees. The wind doesn't care where it scatters leaves!
When selecting your leaf blower remember that the bigger they are, the heavier they will be. A few pounds can make all the difference especially when you have been using one for a couple of hours, so always check how heavy the garden leaf blower is going to be.
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