As you complete your fall cleanup you undoubtedly will find yourself reaching for the leaf blower to help clear the debris from your yard. If you’re anything like me, you may find your yard has needed to be blown a week or two ago, but you didn’t get to it. Unfortunately what happens in this situation is clumped up wet leaves underneath the newly fallen dry ones. So what can you do? Can you leaf blow wet leaves?
How To Avoid Leaf Blowing Wet Leaves
Choosing whether or not you can leaf blow wet leaves depends on a few factors. But first let’s talk about how you can prevent this situation. If you mow your yard once per week, it’s a good idea to get in the habit of leaf blowing once September comes.
Just grab the leaf blower, and after you mow blow the leaf litter that may be in your yard. It may not need it but this gets you in the habit of using the leaf blower. As the leaves start to build up you may find yourself mowing less as the grass growth slows, but blowing more regularly.
Can You Leaf Blow Wet Leaves?
Leaf blowing regularly is the best way to prevent needing to ask yourself can you leaf blow wet leaves. However, eventually we all find ourselves needing to clean up wet leaves. So what do you do? You could start by raking and avoid the blower all together. This is a tried and true method of cleaning up your yard. However, raking is exhausting and if you don’t need to do it for your lawn’s health, blow the leaves if you can.
Generally speaking you’ll be blowing the dry leaves anyway, so why not try and get the wet leaves to move while you’re at it? You may need to turn up your blower to maximum CFM power. Then, get awfully close to the leaves to get them to move. However, depending on the leaves you may be able to get them to blow. Once you free them from their initial location they’ll become easier to move.
How To Make Leaf Blowing Wet Leaves Easier
What if you can’t get the wet leaves to budge? Try raking them out of their initial location and then blowing from there. Sometimes all you need to do is break apart the compacted layer of leaves. What happens on the forest floor naturally, is wet leaves sticking together under a carpet of dry leaves. This helps germinate seeds in the spring and hold moisture in the ground. If you have leaves on your lawn, this is not something you want to happen!
You know you need to get the leaves off your lawn, so what are you waiting for? Get out there and practice your leaf blower skills. Like anything in life the sooner you can develop a habit you’ll find yourself with a cleaner lawn and less wet leaves to blow.
Can You Leaf Blow Wet Leaves Summary
So can you leaf blow wet leaves? Absolutely you can, but you may find yourself better off doing some raking first. The only way to find out is to try and move them and if it’s more effort to swing the leaf blower around to dislodge the leaves, get out the rake. A word of caution for when you use the rake: Wear gloves! It seems like every fall I forget this, grab a rake, and in an hour or so I’m left with a blister or two.
