Wrong Tool for the Job

Cleared so I can prep the beds and get some compost out there

I have leaves all over the place, from the Liquid Amber, Crape Myrtle and Chinese Flame.  They've been accumulating for months and I don't have enough greens to just simply compost them at this time.  Of course I couldn't throw them away either, that would be too easy and leaves are valuable in a garden... when you need them.

The solution was to mulch/shred them up and bag for later use.  My shredder needs a replacement blade so I asked my Dad if I could borrow his Toro yard vacuum/blower which also shreds leaves as it sucks them up.  My Dad loves this thing, it's quite literally one of his most prized yard tools.  He loves it so much that he bought me one a few years ago (thanks Dad) but I was never happy with the tool and donated it to my family's vacation home (where he can use it).  Anyway, I thought I'd try it again because this seemed like the perfect job for it - it failed, again.  It's just not strong enough, I'd have to go over an area 3 or 4 times before it would pick them all up.  It's loud and requires a cord and it's just a pain in the ass.

I did this a total of 2 times

After 10 minutes I gave up and went to plan C (which should have been plan B): Lawn shredding with the mower.  This always works great, it requires a bit more physical work but it's worth it and in a strange way, fun.  You rake up the leaves in trash cans, spread it over the lawn and then run the mower over them.  Easy.  If you are lucky and your grass is still growing in the fall or winter it's also an easy way to pre-mix compost ingredients.

After an hour I had the worst of the leaves up, spread, shredded and bagged.  Leaves are still falling so I will need to do it again in a couple weeks, but to a much lesser extent.

With the leaves cleared I can torch the grass and weeds