How to collect autumn leaves

1

Buy yourself a lightweight pair of grabbers with long handles. Some gardeners find giant plastic handles adequate, but grabbers are more versatile and reduce the amount of bending down involved.

2

Choose a relatively gentle, flat-tined plastic or rubber rake for sweeping leaves off the lawn and gravel areas of the garden on a daily basis. A metal-tined rake is too harsh to use that often, particularly on grass.

3

For whisking large leaves away from delicate plants, use a besom, or witch's broom, made from a bundle of twigs tied to a handle.

4

A leaf blower - particularly one that also collects and shreds leaves - can be very useful (although some gardeners object to them on environmental grounds). Choose an electric one that can be switched from blowing to sucking. Leaving hedge bottoms and other untidy corners untouched will help provide essential shelter for garden wildlife.

5

Leaves have a habit of jumping out of wheelbarrows when they are on the move, so load them into a couple of large, deep, reinforced woven plastic bags with handles. These are lightweight and easy to lift when full of leaves.

6

Finally, the most useful tool of all is a rotary lawn mower. If you are short of time, simply sweep up as many leaves as you can into the middle of the grass and mow over them. This chops them up and, together with the added grass cuttings, helps to accelerate the composting process.