garden blower/vacuum

[cmb]

Can anyone advise me on vacuum/blowers? Are they worth the money? I really need something that's easy to collect the leaves in my garden.I'm disabled so need something to remove the leaves from my drive and on the slate chippings around my greenhouse.

[lynda66]

i've got one my parents gave me, to be honest, it's very heavy, and doesn't work well on wet leaves, i have tried using it twice, and it's sat in the shed ever since, for the price they paid for it, i really wouldn't bother, unless you can get a really powerful lightweight one, and it hasn't rained.

i tend to use the lawn mower now, instead, rake the stuff onto the lawn, then mow, it has 2 advantages, it's got wheels, and it chops things up nice and fine, which collects in the box, then i can stick it on the compost, with the lawn mowings.

[Noirin]

I have one too and find it very heavy. It's also no good for wet leaves. I find the blower mode better. It's good for blowing out leaves from flower beds but then won't pick them up if they are wet.

[Nicos]

I have one and it's also very heavy. It works best on dry leaves.
I don't think I'd replace it if it conked out.
???more of a boy's toy IMHO. Nothing as good as a decent rake and brush I reckon
It'd probably work out cheaper to hire on to try it out first?
...... and then maybe pay someone to sweep/rake when necessary.

[vicky]

They work well for dry leaves on gravel as they don't collect the stones and really leave it looking great! I wouldn't bother if it's a small area though, a rake would be easier and quicker.
I agree with the others that a lawnmower is better - you can run a always mower over a driveway to collect leaves (if you have the right type - a hoover mower isn't much good!)
I have the very upmarket Stihl model which I think is one of the best but in a domestic setting with just a few trees I wouldn't get one as it's expensive, reasonably time consuming and kills your back after a while!

[burnie]

I rake them up and put them in a wire net tube to make leaf mould for potting on.

[Alice]

I have one CMB, and never use it. I find it heavy, cumbersome and not very good. I wouldn't waste money on it.

[beetie]

Mine is a black and decker. I bought it after reading an article in the BBC Gardening mag. I do use it as my lawn is quite big and it does the job much quicker than me raking it. It deals with wet leaves no problem, but it is heavy......

[digthatchick]

Mine is a Ryobi. Great with dry leaves as it shreds them as well. Quite heavy, especially when bag is nearly full, but with 30+ trees in the garden it saves all the raking and makes great Leaf mould. Rubbish with wet leaves though.

[Two_Sheds]

I used one last year, but it was so heavy and hard to use that I went back to a rake

[HeyWayne]

Our garden - whilst relatively modest, is overlooked by trees and in particular a ruddy greay oak.

We bought a reletively cheap blower/vac from one of those shopping channels to see how we got on. As has been said already, works fine on dry leaves and is rather heavy. Ours is electric powered and the flex is very short, so combined with the heavy weight you also have an extension lead banging against your leg - most annoying.

I've since reverted back to using a rake. Beforehand I was using a common garden lawn rake - which is fine for de-thatching the lawn, but useless at gathering the leaves (and acorns), so I went out and bought a leaf rake (made of plastic with thicker tines) and I have to say that it's miles better, even if it does take a while longer to do the job.

If I was asked would I buy another one - no. But then in my circumstances it doesn't work for me.

As Nicos has already suggested, it might be a good idea to see about hiring one first to see how you get on.

Good luck.