I don't, Louise, but I'm not convinced it'll work anyway - nice idea, but I suspect the leaves will just crumble as you spear them and not collect up the spike as you go, unlike paper bags, etc. How about buying yourself a garden leaf vacuum or blower? I see Robert Dyas has one at the minute for about £50

Yes, it's an idea Bamboo, the blower might be too big though because i'm only talking of borders 3' deep by about 18' long and they're packed with perennials.
The blower might marmalise everything in its wake !

The one they've got looks pretty small anyway, I thought - sometimes they're too heavy to use anyway if they're larger

I'll go and investigate ;-)

I've used a long handled hand fork especially for stabbing in borders where I don't want to walk i.e. amongst wallflowers.

I poke our leaf vac in amongst the plants. It doesn't seem to hurt anything.

Louise a leaf vacuum wont affect your plants in the ground, just suck up all the leaves. Mr MB uses our over the beds with alpines in and they are always fine.

If you are getting leaves off a lawn or the like a springbok, lawn, rake works wonders.

Best lawn rake for collecting leaves is a plastic one - it's brilliant, much better than an ordinary wire lawn rake, cos it doesn't snag.

I've got a lawn rake, which i love ! Use it regularly !
(Haven't seen a plastic one but sounds good because the wire ones 'do' snag sometimes)

What size is your leaf vacuum Mg, is it heavy and unwieldy ?

Details of Robert Dyas offer: Flymo Twister 2500, £49.99, blows vacuums and shreds, 45L collection bag, mains operated, 12 m cable length. Not sure how good a deal that is, nor how heavy it might be

The vac itself is not very heavy. Trouble is, as the bag gets full of leaves then that can become heavy!!!!
Having said that, I still prefer using ours rather than hand picking.

Thanks Bamboo, just had a look and it looks perfect being 3 in 1.
I'll see if our DIY places have them instock, the RD website states they're out of stock !

I saw a thing like a lawn scarifyer recently in my local GC but it was less then 1/2 the normal width and was metal I bought it to do just this job where my leaf hoover is too big.

If you mean something like a note paper spike, why not try taping a sharp nail to a brush stale, It may take a while but you wouldn't have to bend and it could be therapeutic.

'Therapeutic' he says! 1 leaf; 2 leaves; 3 leaves .......1001,1002,1003...... how many before I lose count and run out of the garden screaming :-)

It is alright B you keep using the leaf vacuum...

......but Louise is a perfectionist B, mind you I'm assuming she has large maples rather than hawthorn. Lol
Anyway, women are multi-taskers so she could have one in each hand.

Heron... stop baiting Mr MB!

Yaaaaaah!

Children, children - BEHAVE!

he.he.he....I like a man who knows a woman's worth.:))))))))))))))

Heron, that's a good suggestion and i'll try it because it sounds perfect.

The leaves i'm picking up are small,
they're the dropped 'black spot' Escallonia leaves so not large ones and yes, i'm afraid i probably would find it therapeutic ...... here is the woman who painted each weed in her front lawn with that brilliant 'paint on' (with a small brush) weedkiller that got discontinued a couple of years ago.

Patience is a virtue Louise. I too pick leaves up, blackspot rose leaves but I don't think a spear would help as they are a bit brittle. Maybe 'Spear & Jackson' sell them (S)

:-))

had a good laugh at your contribution, Heron!

Hi Louise I have a 'Challenge' garden vac as retailed at £19:99 from Argos and is quite light
# Size (H)92, (W)23.5, (D)35.5cm.
# Weight 3.3kg.
The bag holds quite a bit too.

I like the sound of that Bobg, just the job for sucking up rose leaves with black spot. No more getting prickled.

There you go Heron we've converted you :-))

Just so long as you remember to put the bag on properly, I did'nt, it fell off and spent a half hour sucking up leaves and wondering why my wife was falling about laughing. :o))

Thank you for all these suggestions, i'm looking into it !

Bobg That would get record 'hits' on Youtube if someone had filmed it. I've just been chuckling at the thought of it.

Yes Heron and probably £250 on 'you've been framed' :o))))

I'm aso looking for a leaf leaf 'spear'. Your 'bamboo' name made me think about using a thin bamboo pole with the end sharpened with a box cutter knife and taping it to a longer, thicker bamboo pole. I tried and it works well. Better than leaf blowers and leaf vacuums which send the cat 'gaga'

'Improvise, adapt and overcome' is the key to human survival, Mjglover - that's exactly what you've done, brilliant idea...