From this perspective, the case for mulching instead of raking is pretty strong. While leaf blowers can seem like nice shortcuts, they are often quite loud, significantly louder than lawn mowers, and tend to upset neighbors. On top of that, unless you have a composting pile, youâre putting leaves into massive bags made of plastic. There were some years in the past when, as the person in charge of raking the leaves, I ended up filling up a dozen or more bags multiple times in a season. This year, I filled up some bags, but itâs been four, across two leaf-mulching sessions.
Sure, there are some downsidesâthe mower tends to push leaves around, and you canât really do this with wet leaves (moist to dry only recommended,Â
per home-improvement icon Bob Vila)âbut it is a case where the addition of a gadget makes everything just a little less awful and your back just a little less sore.
Now to spend the rest of my day not thinking about leaves.