Lawn sweepers

[Jared77]

I don't HAVE to have the clippings, I just don't want rows of cut grass lining my lawn and creating nice yellow stripes that I've seen before from leaving too tall on the yard. My problem is I don't cut often enough. My wife likes to cut the grass, and that's fine, I'm not opposed to it either. The problem is though having hours at a time to go jump on and go around and around. My FIL was kind enough to cut ours twice now since we've been doing the inside projects. He was out there about 3-3.5hrs stopping only to refill the gas tank. He may have been able to go a little faster but the faster you go the worse it looks.

And that't not cutting all of it. He left the width of the engineered drain field & the drain field itself uncut. He's got a 42" deck on a Craftsman lawn tractor too. And that's not with a string trimmer either. That's just going around the yard on the mower. So my lawn will get longer than I should let it. Plus with the baby here in July I'll have even less time to go buzz around the yard.

The width of the drain field that is uncut is going to be mostly veggie garden anyway, plus some blackberry bushes, compost pile and pumpkins creeping up the drain field berm. So its not like I'm decreasing what I have to cut by adding those things.

We have a pair of crab apple trees (I think they are crab apples they have a nice opal shape to their branches and were covered in small white blossoms. Those are out front and would be the extent of any leaves we'd get on the ground.

I kind of wondered about the pull behind sweepers since the mower we're looking throws clippings out the side. So I wondered about how well it would get the previous row that was cut. I just know I won't rake all that up. I know I should but I know myself and I know I won't do it. I'm just not a lawn guy. My buddy is and he's the one who suggested a sweeper in the first place. As I said it doesn't have to be perfect if I can get about 90% of the clippings up I'm a happy camper. Even 85% to be totally honest would still justify it.

 

[MontyJ]

I don't have a sweeper, but I really want one. They are much cheaper than baggers. I have been using the tractor to blow the grass into piles as best I can then raking it up and putting it in the trailer to haul to the compost pile. Saturday I gathered up about 30 cubic feet and mixed it in. That is the worst part. I spread out the compost pile so it's about 10" deep or so. Then it's a layer of grass, wet it down some, till it together...repeat until the grass is gone, then pile it all back up again. It does make for a well aerated, hot running compost pile though.

 

[thistlebloom]

Jared, that sounds like way too much mowing to have to keep up with! Maybe you could convert a lot of that to a wildflower meadow.

At least you're not kidding yourself about what you can realistically manage.

 

[Fred]

Lawn sweepers are pretty useful. I've got one.

You can sweep a lawn much faster than it was to mow.

Besides grass clippings, it's useful for leaves, evergreen cones and
even small random twigs (but not apples ).

They can get quite heavy when full, so make sure your machine has
the horses, especially if pulling uphill.
And if the wind's too strong, some grass will miss the target.

All in all, it's worth the investment.

Fred

 

[seedcorn]

Welcome Fred. I agree

 

[OldGuy43]

Lots of tow behind sweepers available:

Tow Behind Lawn Sweepers

Personally, I thought they were kinda pricey until I looked into tow behind lawn vacuums:

Tow Behind Lawn Vacuums

I've never had one, but I wonder how well either work if the grass is wet?

:/

 

[Mapdoctor]

We use one of the DR lawn vacs towed by a 21hp lawn tractor. It does well as far as picking up the grass and leaves as long as you don't let the grass get too high between cuttings or mow when it's wet. Even then, if you're careful to mow in a counter clockwise circle to keep the vacuum hose from bending too much, it will still work pretty well. Under those conditions, when the hose gets too much slack in it is when you have clogging problems.

The clippings work great for weed control between your plant rows and also help to keep water in the soil so you don't have to water so much when it's hot and dry.

 

[seedcorn]

I have my dad's old tow behind. While not perfect so get about 90% of leaves. I wire brushes flip it, it will pick it up

 

[Smart Red]

I've had one for about 3 weeks. It works well on wet or dry leaves and lawn. It isn't the easiest for an old lady to dump, but I can manage. The biggest drawback - for me - is where to dump them. I can't back my tractor up with the leaf rake on the back, so I'm dropping the leaves in piles near, but not on each other. Then later I add them to the large fenced leaf container.

 

[AidenGrayson]

Is there any tool from which we can cut out the grass properly i wouldn't find it.