Dumb question – how to use a blower

[albertshaw]

I’m new to the burbs.

So I got this blower for leaves. The thing works fine blows all the leaves away from it’s path.

However, it just seems like the blower redistributes the leaves and there is no way to herd the leaves into a pile so I can rake it up or vacuum shred them.

Am I missing something here? How am I suppose to use a blower. Am I suppose to blow everything to one side of the yard? Do I just blow things off the flowerbed and use a lawn vac?

Sorry for the dumb question. Any detailed insight will be appreciated. I am clueless here so please provide careful instructions.

[tomh]

I think I’ll take a stab at this. I have had a Stihl backpack blower for about 5 years now, and therefore, do not have to hire a gardener like all my neighbors. I can create my own nuisance. Blowers are great for removing leaves from planting beds, mulch, stones, yards or whereever. The throttle setting will determine whether you remove the mulch, stones and plants in addition to leaves. The trick is to use enough throttle to lift off debris, without removing the underlying desirable material.

Now on full throttle setting, you could remove all leaves and trash from your yard and conveniently blow them over to the neighbors. It unlikely they will attribute the intrusion to natural occurance and you may hear about it. The preferred method is to corral the debris into a pile by surrounding it. As the pile gets tighter, you decrease air flow. This make the pile higher without distributing it. The final step is manually picking up the material and disposing of it.

Have fun!

[Giddaymate]

Hi Albert, After complaining to my husband about how much I hate racking up the leaves he bought me a vac/blower for a present.(not jokeing he really did) and “I haven’t complained since”. I was having the same problem as you are with your blower Then I thought of an idea and being the handing-man mum around the house I wasn’t going to let this thing beat me.

I had some spare timber left over from a job I did and decided to put it to good use. So I built a leaf catcher. Its looks a bit like a soccer goal nets. The fame has two sides a back and a roof and its a light weight timber. The opening at the front is about 5-6ft wide about 4th high and about 4ft deep The timber is joined by hinges so I can fold it away and store is the the shed.

When I need it I set it up in the yard then cover the sides back and top with flywire mesh. I hold the flywire on with large clamp style paper clips so its easy to put on and off and store the frame.

Sorry for my long story, but I had fun building it. My husband thinks its great but has a good laugh when I bring it out. All I do now is aim the leaves towards my leaf catcher and it works great. Regards Noelene

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