garden vacuums

So here is the question. Are garden vacuums just another garden gadget that will sit in the garden shed rarely to ever be used or is it a must have tool for the Gardner.

I guess this depends on several factors including the size of your garden and the number of trees and hedges you have which are inevitably going to be losing their leaves when Autumn approaches. The chances are if you have even one reasonable sized tree then leaves in the Autumn are going to be a problem an if you don't want to break your back raking them or picking them up one at a time then a Garden vacuum is going toe be your friend.

Petrol or Electric
If you decide its a tool you don't want to live without then the next choice is do you go for a petrol model or an electric one. Its a fairly easy choice to make actually based on your garden size. the petrol models are far more powerful and the main advantage of petrol is if you need to clear leaves form a very large space. If your garden is huge or you happen to be a landscape Gardner who is on the move working on multiple locations then a petrol garden vacuum may just make sense. Another key advantage of petrol is your wont need to worry about power points and extension cables etc. In reality though for anyone with a small to medium sized garden then an electric garden vacuum will have more than enough power to allow you to keep your garden leave free

How to choose a model
There are a range of makes and models from Flymo to Ryobi, Homelite, Black & Decker etc. These products are widely reviewed on Amazon and other sites which retail them so its always good to check some real user feedback on different models for comparison. Some of the key features you will want to check are as follows-

Weight: Weight may not bother you if you are a strapping, hardy gardener but for those of us who are not quite so hardy you will want a unit that you can easily carry around the garden. The electric models are all fairly light but you may want to look for one of the lightest models if you struggle to carry things around any way.

Comfort: Look out for shoulder straps which will make it easier to carry the unit around. Some models have a 'cruise control' type setting on the trigger which means you don't need to constantly hold the trigger down to activate the vacuum.

Mulching ratio: Is a measure of compaction which is how well the vacuum compacts the leave. The higher the better here. It will have an impact on how often you need to empty the collection bag.

Size of Collection bag: This one sort of speaks for itself. The bigger the bag the less often you will need to empty it