Hi IMoms! I am a stay at home mom, I have a toddler who keeps me busy. My husband has 2 jobs in order to support us and needless to say, he has no time to do the lawn around our house. The lawn is not big at all but it needs cleaning of debris and fallen leaves. I have to admiit first thing here, I have no experience whatsoever with cleaning the lawn and keeping it tidy. In the past we paid people to do this for us but cannot afford to do so anymore. So I wanted to give it a shot myself, my husband can't do it since he's working all the time and I am home with my son and need to do this, it looks bad. The grass does not really grow, but my main thing is to clean the debris and fallen leaves so it at least looks clean. What manual tools do I need for this? If I get a blower would that blow the debris to our neighbor's lawn? Don't want to do that! Please advise the most simple thing to do, I am not looking to grow the grass or anything, just keeping it clean from debris (lot of it!) and fallen leaves. It's a big task but I have to start somewhere, Is there special big lawn broom to use like a broom sort of to gather it and get rid of debris, is that the way to go or is there an easier way? thanks so much!
You moms are amazing, thank you thank you thank you. I managed to do a little raking this afternoon but it rained. But I see how it works and the difference that little work did already. Now I can care for my lawn. I am going to home depot tomorrow to get a rake for my almost 3 yo son, he'd love to rake for sure, he was trying to use mine :) Thanks again moms, I love this site because of moms like you, God Bless you all and your family.
You'll want to get a basic rake, the kind with long, skinny "legs." This should help you scoop up leaves and even small debris. You might even get a small kid version for your toddler to keep him/her busy while you're raking.
You'll want a leaf rake. You don't need a real expensive one, either. It shouldn't be more than $10-$15. You might also want to look for a kid-sized one and have your son help you with it. My boys LOVE helping rake leaves, and have since they could walk, really. We got our kid ones at Wal-mart for $5. They have themed ones that are twice as expensive, but if you look in the garden section, they usually have the plain ones. We bought plastic ones at the dollar store, but surprise surprise, they're garbage and fall apart. So I definitely suggest getting a "real" kid one.
Rake the leaves into a big pile and let your son jump into them! You'll have to rake them up again, but it's so fun. Make sure it's not full of sticks and such, though. Those can hurt.
Depending on your particular garbage service, you probably have to bag the leaves. There are giant paper bags for this, or the regular 30-gallon black plastic bags. Plastic is much cheaper per bag.
A rake & a bunch of lawn trash bags :)
Leaf blowers are nice, BUT not for a large amount of debris.
You will have to pick up the sticks/limbs before you rake, because they will just put holes in the bags. If your son is old enough, he can help with picking up sticks! You should be able to pick them up and pile them by the road for pickup.
Then rake small piles of leaves & put them into the lawn trash bags. You can fit a lot of leaves in a bag if you keep pressing down on top of the bag. Your son might also be able to help put leaves into the bags too.
Do a little at a time & you will get through it all!
rake a little each day.. using a rake.. if you buy a blower buy a small one that you can handle.. you blow the leaves towards the street not towards the neighbors.. maybe the neighbor has a blower you can borrow.. good luck..
I see that you have the rake thing well under way. One other suggestion... If you have as much to clean as you suggest in your post, then I recommend investing in a tarp (or you could use an old bed sheet) and some heavy duty trash cans. It is much easier to rake onto the tarp, then lift and dump into open cans than to try to jam it all into bags. Ideally, you can then just put the cans out to your curb (either fill them part way and drag them or ask hubby to do the heavy lifting once a week). The one time investment more than pays for itself without the ongoing expense of those lawn and leaf bags. If your municipality won't take the debris from open cans, then you can put the bags in the cans and fill them that way (so they stay open and make the lifting a whole lot easier). We have ten huge oak and maple trees in our yard, so we have plenty of leaf-raking experience ;) I completely gave up on bags several years ago and now we load everything into the bed of the pickup and take it to a drop-off location...
I personally love doing yard work...it gets me out of the house, my kids love helping me and it gives me a sense of accomplishment! i know...it's crazy :)
anyways, good olf fashioned rakes are great, but they have the lawnmowers now too that have the catchers in the back that you can just take off and empty out. you could mow the leaves :)
You could try a rake, and they can be bought at K Mart or most other stores, and you could buy a child size one so your son could "help" with raking up the leaves and other debris.
When I was married and had a home, our house was situated on a corner, so we had a lot to care for. It was a bit of a challenge to rake up leaves and "monkey balls" (sweet gum tree seed pods), but it got us outside in the fresh air, and having fun as a family.
M.
