Fall Leaf Raking Tips To Make Your Life Easier

Before you purchase a rake, make sure it feels comfortable and easy to use. When you rake with bad posture, your back is going to hurt afterward. The pain will seriously undercut the amount of time you can spend on the job so you’ll find yourself raking more often. Rakes with a narrow spread gather fewer leaves so choose varieties with a wider tine spread. Also, look for rakes labeled “no-clog”- these have angled tines that won’t pierce the leaves and create blockages.

Remember to stand up straight and switch your leading hand on the rake frequently to prevent arm and shoulder fatigue. If you’re not used to this type of labor, raking can cause painful blisters on your hands. Always wear gloves which should fit snugly but not too tight. Fallen leaves are dry and dusty when you mow, mulch or rake them. So if you are sensitive to dust or have allergies, wear a dust mask, hat and protective eyewear while you work and save yourself a lot of sneezing. 

Early in the fall when the leaves have not yet blanketed the ground and the grass still needs mowing, you can save yourself time and effort by simply running a mulching lawn mower over the leaves instead of raking first and mowing second. By doing this, you’re cutting down on the work and, more important, the nutrients contained in the leaves will return to the soil, which will benefit the lawn greatly.

The wind and slope can work either for you or against you when you’re raking leaves, so why not let nature pitch in? Leaves might be light, but they do follow gravitational pull. Find out which way the wind normally blows in your backyard and start raking your leaves downhill with the wind—even if the pile doesn’t end up where you intended. You can always move the pile to where you need it, such as the compost bin/pile or the curb for municipal clean-up.

Leaves are light, so you can transport quite a bundle of them when you use the right strategy. Rake the leaves onto a tarp, then pull the tarp to take the leaves where you need them to be. Or you can tie the ends of the tarp together and transport the whole thing. This is a quicker, safer and easier way than constantly bending over to manually pick up piles of leaves to shove into smaller bags or a wheelbarrow.

Leaf blowers can greatly reduce clean-up time but only if you work them correctly. If you move all the leaves into the center of your lawn, you’ll be constantly running back and forth, wasting a lot of time and energy. Instead, separate your lawn into quadrants, then blow or rake all the leaves in each quadrant into rows, working from one end to the other. By raking and/or blowing the leaves back and forth in a grid pattern, you’ll save time and end up with a cleaner lawn.

Leaf season lasts several weeks, so there’s no rush to finish the job - especially when leaves are still on the trees. Know your limitations and don’t overexert yourself. If you feel yourself wearing down, stop for the day. You have plenty of time to get the job done.