Leaves are an amazing free resource; they make a fabulous natural mulch and fertilizer. This bounty drops from the tree every fall to cover lawns, decks, driveways, and borders to the joy of gardeners in the know.
The most efficient way to harness the power of leaves is to chop them. However, running over piles of leaves with a lawn mower or chopping them up by hand takes a lot of time and effort. If you want a faster alternative to chop your fall bounty, I spotted a Worx electric leaf mulcher that can shred an impressive 53 gallons of leaves a minute, plus it has 25% off at Amazon.
This electric leaf mulcher has a 13 amp motor and can process 53 gallons of leaves per minute.
Why a Worx electric leaf mulcher makes life easier in the fall
An electric leaf mulcher comes to the fore in the fall when foliage drops from the trees. It offers a quick and simple solution for several fall gardening tasks, most notably mulching, producing leaf mold, or speeding up compost making. Even if you simply bag up leaves and get rid of them, it will dramatically reduce the number of bags you have to deal with – but you should use them, and here’s why.
Chopped leaves are a fantastic fall mulching material. This free resource can be used on flower beds, around shrubs, or on top of pots to protect plants from frost, suppress weeds, and boost soil nutrients to feed plants as they break down.
When using fallen leaves as mulch, you want to chop them up, as it allows rain to penetrate the soil. A leaf mulcher is the quickest and most efficient way to do this, especially for large piles of leaves.
Other than mulch, the other main way your plants reap the rewards of all those fallen leaves is by making leaf mulch, a nutrient-rich product you can use to feed plants or fertilize a lawn.
It can take 2-3 years to make leaf mold, but you can speed up the process and get usable material in a year by chopping the leaves before storing them, as they will break down much quicker. If you want to use leaves to make compost, it is also best to chop them up before adding them to the heap.
Many gardeners will routinely chop up their leaves by running over them with a lawnmower, or using a strimmer to break them up. It means collecting leaves together, going over them with a machine, and then raking them together again and collecting them.
There is no denying that using an electric leaf mulcher makes the process much quicker and simpler. It means you can gather leaves together, put them through the machine, and collect them into a bag attached beneath to use, doing the job in rapid time and turning leaves into chopped-up goodness in seconds.
The Worx electric leaf mulcher has a high 11:1 mulching ratio. It can turn 11 bags of leaves into one bag of mulch, making it an ideal garden tool for anyone with a medium or large-sized yard who needs to deal with a lot of leaf waste each fall.
This leaf mulcher can shred through 53 gallons of leaves a minute, thanks to its 13.0-amp motor. The higher amp rating than other machines allows it to mulch tougher debris without slowing down performance; it can handle small branches as well as leaves with ease.
It shouldn’t be relied on to mulch lots of branches or tough pieces of debris, though; its primary focus is leaves. The electric leaf mulcher has a heavy-duty string trimmer line to chop leaves. While such a system is less dangerous than a metal blade, it will wear faster than a metal blade if lots of sticks are put through the machine.
You want to be able to move such a machine around the yard, rather than having to bring all the piles to the machine. At 20lbs, the Worx electric leaf mulcher is sturdy enough to stay in place, but portable enough to take around the garden without any struggles.
It is also easy to assemble, with no tools required. It is the same for disassembling it at the end of the season, when all the parts nestle into each other so it can be stored away in a garden shed or garage without taking up too much space.
What shoppers say about the Worx electric leaf mulcher
The Worx electric leaf mulcher has received 4.2 stars from over 7,000 reviews and has been praised for its effectiveness at processing leaves and for ease of use, which are definitely aspects buyers will consider when choosing a leaf mulcher. For example, a recent buyer commended it for being ‘very easy to set up and dismantle’.
But, as its primary use is to chop leaves, it is positive to see its performance at that core task reflected in strong reviews from shoppers.
One shopper says: ‘It absolutely pulverizes leaves, chopping them up into confetti-sized pieces. I used to get about 15 bags of leaves on the first raking of the fall season, but with this device: 0 bags. I was able to spread all the minced-up leaves on my lawns and gardens to nourish them in the spring.’
Another described it as a ‘great tool’ for creating natural mulch and fertilizer. ‘I have two acres with mature trees, and this machine can clear about 50 bags of leaves in 2 hours,’ they add. ‘It is also electric, so it does not pollute.’
The manufacturer claims a bag can be fitted underneath the machine to collect the leaves as they pass through the mulcher.
However, it is worth noting that this bag is not included in this deal. It means you either need to buy a bag to fit the machine separately, or place a large bucket or trug underneath to collect the leaves as they come through the mulcher.
I mentioned earlier that the heavy-duty string trimmer line has benefits and disadvantages, and one shopper noted it ‘wears down rather quickly’.
‘When the line wears down, you start getting build-up on the sides and you need some way of agitating the load in order for it to chop back up again,’ added the reviewer. ‘The good news is changing lines is pretty easy and you are back in business pretty quickly.’
Electric mulchers aren’t always the first products that people think of when planning to clear their garden of fallen leaves. Many gardeners opt for leaf blowers or leaf vacuums, but what are the differences?
A leaf blower, unsurprisingly, blows leaves into piles to collect. A vacuum collects the leaves into a bag, but it often also has the function to blow leaves, making it a superior option. The best models will also mulch leaves and collect them into bags, ready to put straight onto your flower beds or lawn.
Shop alternatives for collecting leaves
This backpack is a blower, vacuum, and mulcher, and features a zipper-free bag to quickly and easily empty the leaves.
This leaf blower, mulcher, and vacuum is capable of mulching 16 bags of leaves into one and has two speeds for use in different settings.
A motor-free leaf collector with an integrated bag to push around the lawn or yard and collect debris.
An ultra-lightweight sweeper with a 21" brush width for collecting dry leaves from your lawn.
This manual hinged leaf collector features two broad scoops with toothed edges to grip onto and lift piles of leaves into bags.
These durable woven leaf bags have a dustpan-like shape and a capacity of approximately 100L. They also come with a set of garden gloves.
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