At first glance, a leaf vacuum or lawn vacuum may seem like a one-trick pony: it picks up leaves and other lawn debris. But there are some other nifty tasks that you can do with these machines, too! These are the three most surprising tasks that we’ve found you can do with a high-quality leaf vacuum to make it a useful tool even after the leaves on the lawn are taken care of!

1. Clean up mulched areas.

Mulch-covered areas need leaf and debris clean-up, too! If you have mulch-covered walkways, woodlots, or sections of your lawn, they can likely be cleared of fallen leaves with your leaf vacuum. The DR Leaf and Lawn Vacuums work by attaching to your riding lawn mower’s discharge chute. Anything that would get sucked up into the mower and come out the discharge chute – grass clippings, leaves, small sticks, etc. – will be shredded and collected in the vacuum. So if mowing over your mulch areas doesn’t result in all your mulch coming out the discharge chute, then it won’t result in a leaf vacuum sucking them up. Be sure to test this before purchasing a leaf vacuum. If your lawn mower passes the test and can safely mow over your mulched areas without sucking up mulch chips, you can be confident about using a leaf vacuum.

2. Use as a towed trailer.

Towed behind your riding lawn mower, leaf vacuums often also work well as a simple trailer for hauling things around your property. Depending on the design of your particular model, you may have varying degrees of success with this. The new DR Leaf and Lawn Vacuums, for example, allow you to remove the top of the collector and use the bottom part as a trailer. It’s perfect for logs, rocks, building materials, and more!

3. Transport and disperse light materials.

With two optional accessories, the DR Leaf and Lawn Vacuums can also be used to transport lightweight materials such as sawdust or smaller mulches and broadcast them over a large area. Here’s how it works: say you have a pile of sawdust that you want to move across your property and broadcast out into the woods. You can use the optional vacuum hose to vacuum up the sawdust into your collector unit, then tow the vacuum to your desired location. Then, use the mulch discharge hose (which works in cooperation with the vacuum hose) to spray the contents of the collector unit out into the woods. Much easier than shoveling it into a trailer or schlepping it in a wheelbarrow! Note that this process does require the material to pass through the vacuum’s impeller, so it is not recommended for anything that you don’t want shredded!