With the extremely dry summer that many parts of the UK has experienced so far this year, it will come as no surprise that many trees have begun to drop their leaves already.
This is a natural reaction by the trees to conserve their own moisture content. The process of photosynthesis causes moisture loss through the pores of the leaves in the form of evaporation. To conserve water, the trees have absorbed whatever moisture is in their leaves and with no water content, leaves become useless to the tree.
This results in an early leaf drop for many species of broad leaved tree, in some cases this can be before the end of August. The gardener and landscaper will of course want to remove these leaves, and, in many cases make some excellent compost into the bargain.
At LawnMowers Direct we feel we have the best selection of wheeled garden vacuums available to buy online at the lowest possible prices. When you visit our online shop you may notice one brand of wheeled lawn vacuum dominates our product pages: Billy Goat. There’s a very good reason for this. Billy Goat garden leaf vacuums offers by far the best range of leaf and litter vacuums on the market, providing not only quality and durability but also a machine to suit an individual’s specific application.
When you’re buying a wheeled leaf vacuum in the UK you have a number of choices. There are many other styles of machine available at the moment from a variety of different manufacturers, yet none match the performance of the Billy Goat vacuums. After 40 years of manufacturing ground maintenance machinery, the family run business based in Kansas City, Missouri certainly knows how to produce top quality leaf clearing machines for all applications.
If you have an undulating lawn or driveway a self-propelled vacuum will be a definite advantage, in which case the Billy Goat KV600SP Leaf & Litter Vacuum will be an excellent choice. Both machines utilise Briggs and Stratton 6hp engines and feature a large, serrated 5-blade impeller that creates fantastic suction and also helps to reduce the volume of debris 
collected.
Another excellent feature of the Billy Goat leaf sweeper is its adaptability to either hard surface work — such as clearing leaves from a patio — or leaf removal from lawn and turf areas. This is easily achieved with the built in height adjustment function, allowing the operator to alter the suction rate to suit the prevailing conditions.
There are two more very popular leaf sweepers in the Billy Goat Estate Series range of lawn vacuums. Both are very similar to the two previously mentioned models, yet the Billy Goat KV650H Leaf & Litter Vacuum and Billy Goat KV650SPH Leaf & Litter Vacuum are powered by top of the range Honda 6.5hp petrol engines. The functions of either machine are the same as with the KV600 vacuums, the choice depending on whether a Briggs and Stratton or Honda engine is preferred.
The Billy Goat KV Estate Series vacuums also have optimised front nozzles to improve suction and allow debris such as hedge clippings to be consumed. The breathable hard bottom mesh turf bag that is fitted as standard to the KV Series is excellent for use in damper conditions, leaf collection on lawns for example.
If you will regularly be using your Billy Goat leaf collector during the summer months in dusty conditions, it is worth considering the purchase of the optional felt bag that greatly reduces dust blowing into the operator’s face.
More optional extras available for the excellent KV Series of lawn vacuums include the on-board hose kit that will make light work of vacuuming hard to reach places such as flowers beds, between shrubs, under decking and the corners of patios and barbeque areas.
If you need to regularly clear hard surfaced areas of leaves, a tennis court or tarmac driveway for example, the caster kit and nozzle wear plate will both be excellent investments. The caster kit will greatly ease manoeuvrability when compared to the standard fixed wheels and the nozzle wear plate will protect the nozzle edges against scuffs and abrasions.
You may also be interested in the easily attached leaf shredder screen, capable of reducing the volume of dry leaves by a significant amount, lessening the amount of times you need to stop and empty your Billy Goat vacuum and also prepare the leaves better for composting.
Two further machines in the domestic range of lawn vacuums from Billy Goat are the Billy Goat TKV650SPH Leaf & Litter Vacuum and Billy Goat LB61 Little Billy Lawn Vacuum. The Billy Goat TKV650SPH offers the same performance as the other Billy Goat vacuums mentioned above, yet it has the advantage of a built in 2” chipper chute, meaning that you can pick up and shred fallen branches and twigs that will not fit through the main feeder nozzle.
The Little Billy is designed for smaller lawns, gardens and driveways where a full size lawn and litter vacuum is not necessary. It doesn’t lose out on performance though, with a powerful Briggs & Stratton 6hp Quantum series engine and a unique feature that allows the vacuum to collect leaves from gravel driveways without picking up the gravel at the same time.
Autumn is approaching quickly so don’t get caught out by waiting for the leaves to drop. Feel free to call us at Lawnmowers Direct on tel. 01245 383565 where we can guide you to buying the best leaf sweeper for your particular needs. If a wheeled leaf sweeper is too large for your garden, keep in touch, the next article will feature hand held leaf blowers and vacuums in readiness for the autumn clear up.