Fall's Garden Gadgets
Will Blow You Away

One thing that is inevitable about November is the leaves fall; flowers wither and the garden goes fallow as the weather turns cold. In California, where I live, that shift is a lot gentler, of course, but there is still plenty to do to get things tucked away for the winter.

That includes sweeping leaves, hauling away debris, deadheading flowers and getting down in the dirt to plant bulbs. Surprisingly, there has been little that has changed in the arsenal of products to make life easier for gardeners. There is not much, I suppose, you can do to improve on a basic rake or a trowel.

But this year, there are a number of new products that hold out some promise of helping get the outdoors in shape more quickly (so we can go indoors and hibernate as soon as possible). My mulching assistant Ed and I tested a sampling, including: a nonelectric spinning sweeper from Hoover that managed to suck up leaves like one of its most powerful vacuums; a collapsible wheelbarrow; a small wireless debris blower from Makita; and a pair of "bionic" gardening gloves. While some items performed better than others, it was nice to see a bit of innovation in the arena nonetheless.

Collapsible Wheelbarrow Price: $60 Comment: It folds away neatly and looks cool, but isn't sturdy enough for serious hauling. Our favorite item by far was the Hoover SpinSweep, an outdoor sweeper introduced earlier this year. Hoover is not the only one making this kind of device, which is essentially a way to sweep up many kinds of ground debris from any hard surface, such as a pool patio or a paved driveway. Hoover's model, which costs from $60 to $90 depending on the features, manages the job via a simple but nifty bit of physics, using a worm gear attached to a pair of rotating round brushes under the hood of the sweeper. With one turning clockwise and the other counterclockwise as you push the sweeper forward, debris is then trapped in a large bin that can be emptied.

Bionic Gardening Gloves Price: $30 Comment: It won't make you the $6 million man, but it will make the aches and pains easier to bear.

To put the unit to the test, I had Ed run up and down the sidewalks of San Francisco, aiming to clear them as quickly and completely as possible of twigs, leaves and various pieces of trash. The SpinSweep made a clean sweep of the surfaces without a lot of toil. In fact, we were both surprised at how easy the 13-pound sweeper, made of a heavy plastic, was to push. There is no electric, gas or battery-powered motor on it. And after we were done, it conveniently folded flat against the wall, out of the way.

That is the most attractive feature of a foldable wheelbarrow. We tested one from the Sahalie.com Web site, costing about $60, although there are many available that are essentially similar. The Sahalie.com unit weighs 12 pounds, although it can carry about 10 or more times that. With the carrying area made of canvas, it had one heavy-duty front wheel with two long arms for lifting flush from the ground. When not in use, it can be easily folded much like a baby stroller for flat storage.

Hoover SpinSweep Price: $70 to $90, depending on model and retailer Comment: A simple but superb (and enviromentally sound) way to scoop up leaves.

Ed and I liked its lightness and portability, as well as its easy maneuverability compared with a traditional wheelbarrow. But the collapsible wheelbarrow isn't as attractive a proposition if you are carrying anything that spills easily or is heavy. Because of its portability, the wheelbarrow's holding area is much slimmer and shallower. And because it is canvas, it is more unstable.

Light weight was an important issue in testing Makita's cordless blower, a tiny but powerful (up to 18,000 RPMs) unit selling for about $115 to $200, depending on where you purchase it. Most blowers are cumbersome, noisy and filthy affairs. Ed and I were looking for a more discreet solution, with some power but less of a profile.

In many ways, Makita's small blower, which is about 19 inches long with its nozzle attached and weighs just over four pounds, delivers with a handsomely designed device. Like most Makita products I have used, it is well-made and operates without a hitch. Also nice is the fact that the blower can be made into a vacuum.

Makita Cordless Blower Price: $100 to $200, depending on retailer Comment: Handsome and compact, but it doesn't pack enough punch to move more than the smallest leaves.

And, for such a small unit, the power of that blowing is a nice surprise with an ability to move most light objects, like leaves, easily. Unfortunately, once we moved to a large space, the cordless Makita was nearly useless, unable to budge larger leaves without effort and without any chance of moving twigs or heavier debris. Because of the small nose of the nozzle, we had to bend down too much to really get any traction. In fact, we got tired before the blower's charge ran out.

Keeping our old, creaky bodies in line is the aim of Hillerich & Bradsby's Bionic gardening gloves. The company also makes the famous Louisville Slugger baseball bat, and its substantial gardening gloves look a lot like those seen on professional athletes. There is padding on the glove to relieve fatigue, webbed sections for better movement and a strong wrist holder that keeps the sheepskin gloves in place. The gloves are aimed at people with arthritis or other orthopedic issues. Having had my fingers poked by thorns and exhausted from weeding out roots when using less substantial gloves, the bionic ones were a relief and I never tired of wearing them. But the price -- about $40 -- is much less comfortable.

Email your comments to rjeditor@dowjones.com.