Photo: hectorir / Flickr

Depending on your inclination and your likes, gardening ranges from being extremely boring to moderately fun. For those who don’t like it, it is a necessary evil, and for those who are fond of gardening, it’s well noted for its ability to relax us. However, not all gardening need be boring, especially when you add in by far the most fun item in any person’s ‘yard maintenance toolkit’ – a leaf blower. Leaf blowers transform gardening dramatically, by being significantly more fun than they should be.

Goodbye, rake!

Leaf blowers work by doing what their name suggests they do – blow leaves. Effectively, they’re a substitute for rakes, and similar tools, by allowing you to blow leaves that are dispersed across a garden, courtyard, front porch or wherever, into one easily manageable pile. Once in a pile, you can then pop all your junk into a waste bin or recycle.

What makes them cool, though, is they’re tons of fun to operate, with their trigger-like design, and depending on what kind of leaf blower you have, they look like they’re one modification step away from being flamethrowers. Which is awesome.

Which leaf blower should you buy?

While there are several options on the market, most everybody knows that for consumers, Ryobi leaf blowers are unparalleled in quality and design. From as little as £30 you can purchase one of the Ryobi leaf blowers that packs a 190km/h blow speed.

As you move up in the product range, and spend more money, you can also purchase one of the bi-directional blowers that that also works as an electric leaf vacuum with built-in leaf shredder. Oh, and if you’re looking for power, at the top end, some of Ryobi’s products blow at 320km/h and have a power rating of 1,000 watts.

Do it!

Again, when it comes to Ryobi leaf blowers, and blowers of any type, actually, some are of the belief that they’re overkill. We believe the opposite. They’re a ton more fun than raking leaves together, as well as notably more efficient, which is a good thing for those who despise gardening and enthusiastic gardeners alike.

If the assistant at the store you buy the blower is unhelpful, or you want to explore other buying considerations, eHow has a fantastic guide for you.

Tags: garden care