Just as you start to enjoy the fall colors of the leaves turning to charming shades of oranges, reds and yellows, they start dropping. And unfortunately, if you live near any trees, it's likely that those leaves are landing on your lawn.
Mine has become swamped in what feels like a matter of days and every year, I find myself with a rake and a dream hoping I can get the job done as quickly as possible.
But this year looks like it might go differently. I recently came across the 'tarp burrito', a hack that suggests that you can get your leaves cleaned up fast. So, I had to give it a try – and I have to say I was very surprised with the results.
How does it work?
On TikTok, @theblowmaster shares 'landscape industry secrets' to his over 40k followers. But it's his 'tarp burrito' method that caught my eye. While I've followed the 7 tips and tricks to raking leaves the easy way, one of which is using a tarp to load up your leaves, I never thought to try this.
It's simple. Once you've laid your tarp out, you need to tie up the one end in a knot to securely hold your leaves. He explains: "That way, when you carry it, it folds up like a burrito." He then demonstrates dragging it along the lawn, exclaiming: "You see? It's not going anywhere."
Here's what happened when I tried it
Thankfully, I already had a tarp ready to use (after a good shake of spiders from the garage). But, if you don't have one already, it'll only cost you around $10 to pick one up.
Firstly, I laid the tarp out flat on my lawn so that I could rake all the leaves onto it. And as I started to collect leaves, I realized the wind was working against me. So, I weighed down two corners and decided to tie up my 'tarp burrito' straight away so that I'd stop losing the leaves out the back.
It actually worked surprisingly well, keeping the leaves secure as I moved between the waste and compost bin. I also have side access to my house, so I was able to pull the 'tarp burrito' all the way round to the front of my house to gather more leaves on the front yard.
While I was concerned that tying up the ends would be difficult with the stiffness of the tarp, if anything it worked better. Sure, I still lost some leaves because it was a windy day, but I figure I'd have lost a lot more if I hadn't tried out this hack.
I'd recommend attaching a peg or two or tying up the knot with a rubber band to fully secure it if you're going to be moving the tarp around a lot. But, for a simple leaf clear up on my lawn, it certainly does the job. I'll be using it again every year.
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