Do any of these "leaf vacuums" really work?
I'm in central Texas on about an acre of land. We have a LOT of trees (it's really beautiful) and many Live Oaks...which conveniently shed leaves twice a year instead of once.
I'm constantly chasing leaves around for a couple months each year. For the main yard, it's easy enough to mulch them into the grass, but I have a lot of areas where they are not easy to get at.
There are beds surrounding my house with white river rock that traps the leaves and requires some very slow and deliberate leaf blowing to get them all out. Additionally, they settle into all imaginable corners - they pack up against my retaining walls, against the wooden property fences where its too close to mow, under my carport and wedge in between the driveway slab and adjacent buildings and fencing. Leaf blowing "works" but a lot of time is spent as the leaves tend to go up and then just land elsewhere - its comical to watch me try.
My thought was to find a tool that will really be nothing more than a huge vacuum. If I can roll it around and do the edges of the fence, do the flower beds, areas where they get stuck between the slabs, decks, fences and against buildings so I don't feel like I'm just chasing them with the blower from one area to another. Plus, I do have to be careful, If I blow off the roof the concentration of leaves (even mulched) has suffocated my grass in a couple spots.
We have a LOT of leaves.
Do these leaf shredder/vacuum things work? Will they have enough pull to make this actually easier and I won't be spending similar effort I do with the blower, instead fighting with a weak vacuum? Any other suggestions or great ideas are welcome : )