Strong winds and rain over the last few days have really sent to leaves skittering through the air and made a mess of neat flower beds and drives.
But they do need to be cleared away and once you’ve made your mind up to get on with the job there are loads of modern garden tools to help.
And remember they will rot down easily to make excellent compost and there’s no better time to start making a compost heap than now.
If you have old chicken wire make a three sided pen with it, using old post and the corners and intersperse layers of leaves with grass clippings.
To make sure the compost starts to work quickly use a good compost making chemical which will start the rotting down process and encourage the leaves and other garden rubbish to rot down more quickly.
With luck you could even have compost for dressing flower and vegetable gardens next Spring.
For clearing the leaves see these pages on our site, but let is draw your attention to these machines, the Mighty Mac Leaf Blowers.
These USA-produced machines are really easy to use with a castor wheel on the front and can clear leaves from either hard surfaces like drives and paths to lawns.
There are three Mighty Mac machines and all have 50 per cent off the recommended retail price.
Take the smallest of the machines, the Mighty Mac LB5-EX Leaf Blower which has a 5 hp engine and produces a 257 km/hour current of air.
Once you have blown the leaves into a pile they are much easier to move them into a wheel barrow (two pieces of flat wood about half a metres long are ideal to trap the leaves between them and transport).
This model has a castor wheel at the front and a pair of pneumatic tyres and is very easy to push along even on gravel paths and lawns.
This one costs £199, £300 less than the maker’s recommended retail price. Delivery is free the next working day and there is a two year manufacturer’s warranty.
