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Fall Yard Cleanup for Busy Dads: Leaf Blowers, Rakes, Lawn Prep & Garage Gear That Save Your Saturday
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items Fall in Central Texas means oak leaves packed into every flower bed, fresh fire ant mounds after the first good rain, and a garage that somehow fills up with yard clutter by November. These are my picks for knocking out the whole fall cleanup in one ...
Sections
5
Blow, Vacuum & Mulch the Leaves
Rake, Scoop, Bag & Haul
Trim the Trees Before Winter (Oak-Wilt Smart)
Warm-Season Lawn Prep: Weeds, Disease & Fire Ants
Garage Reset & Hand Protection
Blow, Vacuum & Mulch the Leaves
Cordless blowers and a leaf mulcher that turn an all-day rake job into a one-hour cleanup.
Gas blowers mean pull cords, mixed fuel, and a two-stroke scream at 7 a.m.; cheap 20V blowers just push leaves around. The LB6504 puts out 650 CFM on turbo, runs close to half an hour on the included 5.0Ah battery, and is Wirecutter's top pick for po...
EGO POWER+ Cordless Leaf Blower 650 CFM
Not every yard needs the biggest blower, and a lighter one is the one you actually grab on a weeknight. The LB5302 moves 530 CFM, comes with a battery and charger, and runs on the same EGO 56V battery as the mowers and trimmers if you build out later...
EGO POWER+ Cordless Leaf Blower 530 CFM
Twenty bags of whole oak leaves at the curb is a lot of bags, and a lot of money if you buy them. The WG430 shreds up to 53 gallons of leaves a minute at an 11:1 ratio using trimmer-style line instead of blades, so jams and sharpening aren't an issue...
WORX 13 Amp Electric Leaf Mulcher WG430
Climbing a ladder to scoop wet oak leaves out of the gutter is the most dangerous part of fall cleanup. This kit attaches to EGO blowers and aims the airflow up and into the gutter, so you clear it from the ground. Its listing covers the LB6500 and L...
EGO POWER+ Gutter Cleaning Attachment AGC1000
Rake, Scoop, Bag & Haul
The hand tools, tarp, bags, and cart that get piles off the lawn without ten trips to the curb.
A fixed 24-inch rake is too wide for flower beds and too flimsy for wet leaves. The Tabor's steel head adjusts from 8 to 23 inches and the handle telescopes, so the same rake pulls leaves out from under shrubs, then opens wide for the open lawn. It a...
TABOR TOOLS J16A Adjustable Expandable Leaf Rake
Cheap plastic rakes clog with pine needles and crack the first cold morning. True Temper's 24-inch clog-free poly head sheds leaves and needles as you pull, and the hardwood handle with a cushion grip holds up to years of fall seasons. It's the wide ...
True Temper 24in Poly Leaf Rake w/ 48in Handle
Bending over to grab leaves by the armful is how backs get tweaked in October. These oversized hand scoops pick up a big pile in one grab and drop it straight into a bag or onto a tarp. They cost less than a fast-food lunch and save more time than al...
Original Leaf Scoops; 1 Pair
A plain hardware-store tarp spills leaves out the sides every time you drag it. This 9x9 tarp has a drawstring that cinches it into a bag, so you rake onto it, pull the cord, and haul the whole pile to the compost or curb with nothing left behind. It...
Rocky Mountain Goods 9'x9' Drawstring Tarp
Off-brand yard bags split the moment a stick pokes through, and then you are re-bagging on the driveway. Hefty's 39-gallon lawn and leaf bags are thick enough for sticks and wet leaves, and 38 in a box covers a full season for most yards. With 17,000...
Hefty Strong Lawn & Leaf 39 Gal Trash Bags, 38ct
A wheelbarrow tips over the minute you overload it with wet leaves or limbs. This four-wheel poly dump cart holds up to 600 pounds, rolls on pneumatic tires over a bumpy Texas yard, and has a quick-release dump so you tip the load out instead of shov...
Gorilla Carts 600 lb Poly Garden Dump Cart
Trim the Trees Before Winter (Oak-Wilt Smart)
Loppers, pruners, a pole saw, and wound sealer for fall pruning, the safe window for Texas oaks.
Basic loppers stall and crush green wood on anything thicker than a thumb. Fiskars' PowerGear2 uses a gear mechanism that multiplies your leverage, so 2-inch branches cut clean with far less effort, and the low-friction blade coating stays smooth thr...
Fiskars 32” PowerGear2 Garden Bypass Loppers
Stamped bargain pruners bend, loosen, and leave ragged cuts that invite disease. The Corona is forged steel with a 1-inch capacity, a replaceable blade, and a simple design that lasts for years. It's the everyday pruner for roses, salvias, and shrubs...
Corona BP 3180D Forged Classic Bypass Pruner 1"
Dead limbs over the roof and driveway are a safety problem, and a ladder plus a handsaw is a bad combination. This cordless pole saw has an 8-inch bar, an automatic oiler, and an aluminum shaft that extends to about 11 feet of reach, so you cut from ...
Greenworks 40V 8in Electric Pole Saw w/ Battery
In Texas, every fresh cut on an oak is an open door for oak wilt. Texas A&M Forest Service says to avoid pruning oaks from February through June and to paint every oak wound right away, any time of year. This aerosol seal sprays on in seconds and...
Spectracide Pruning Seal Aerosol 13 Oz
Warm-Season Lawn Prep: Weeds, Disease & Fire Ants
Fall treatments that fit St. Augustine and Bermuda lawns, not the cool-season advice on the bag at the big-box store.
Henbit, poa annua, and rescuegrass sprout in Texas lawns once soil temps drop to about 70°F, and pulling them in February is miserable. Barricade's prodiamine granules lay down a barrier that stops those winter weeds before they sprout, and Texas A&a...
Andersons Barricade Pre-Emergent Weed Control 18lb
Generic lawn weed killers can damage St. Augustine, and the winter weeds that already sprouted won't go away on their own. This atrazine concentrate is made for St. Augustine and centipede lawns and knocks out winter broadleaf and grassy weeds, and o...
Southern Ag Atrazine St. Augustine Weed Killer 32oz
Those yellow-orange rings that show up in St. Augustine every fall and spring are large patch, the warm-season form of the brown patch fungus. DiseaseEx is labeled for brown patch, starts working within 24 hours, protects for up to four weeks, and co...
Scotts DiseaseEx Lawn Fungicide, 10 lbs.
Poisoning mounds one at a time just moves the colony across the yard. Texas A&M's Two-Step Method starts with broadcasting a bait over the whole yard so worker ants carry it back to the queen, and Advion's indoxacarb is one of the bait ingredient...
Syngenta Advion Fire Ant Bait Insecticide 2lb
Step two of the Two-Step: the mounds by the swing set and the driveway that you need gone now. Orthene granules sprinkle right onto the mound with no watering in, start killing in about an hour, and one bottle treats up to 189 mounds. At about $12 wi...
Ortho Orthene Fire Ant Killer1, 14 oz
Fire ant bait and pre-emergent only work if they go down evenly, and dumping product by hand burns some spots and misses others. The Whirl is a hand-crank broadcast spreader with adjustable settings, and it's exactly the kind of hand-held spreader A&...
Scotts Whirl Hand-Powered Spreader
Garage Reset & Hand Protection
Gloves for brush and leaves, plus the wall rack, shop vac, and broom that put the garage back together.
Cotton gloves soak through on dewy leaves, and heavy leather ones are overkill for raking. These bamboo gloves have a nitrile-coated palm that grips rake handles when they're wet, they breathe on warm Texas fall afternoons, and the touchscreen finger...
COOLJOB Gardening Gloves, Touchscreen, Nitrile
Thin garden gloves are no match for cedar brush, rose canes, mesquite thorns, or a load of cut limbs. These are full cowhide with an adjustable wrist that keeps debris out, and with 11,000+ reviews it's a dependable leather glove at a fair price. Wea...
Wells Lamont Cowhide Leather Work Gloves
Rakes leaning in a corner fall over every time the garage door opens, and someone eventually steps on a tine. This 36-inch steel wall rack holds up to 250 pounds of rakes, shovels, the pole saw, and the blower, and frees up the floor for the cart. Ra...
StoreYourBoard Garage Tool Organizer 36in 250lb
Leaves, dirt, and grass clippings blow into the garage all fall, and a house vacuum won't survive it. This 6-gallon DeWalt handles wet and dry messes, converts to a blower, and is compact enough to carry out to the car or truck bed. It's sturdier tha...
DEWALT 6 Gal 4 HP Poly Wet/Dry Vacuum
A kitchen-style broom just smears damp leaves and grit around a concrete floor. This 18-inch push broom has stiff outdoor bristles and a long handle that move wet leaves, mud, and gravel off the garage floor, driveway, and patio in a few passes. It's...
Yocada 18 Inch Heavy-Duty Push Broom