Fall. It's more of a verb than a season for some people. In autumn, if you have deciduous trees in your yard, then you also have a front-row seat for their seasonal strip tease. First the leaves fall one by one, twirling and pirouetting with grace. Pretty. Inspiring. Almost poetic. Then, as if some sort of flag were dropped, leaves race to the ground with manic glee. Your lawn is transformed from a flawless green carpet to a multicolored mass of undulating shapes where your lawn furniture used to be.

We have a big yard with lots of trees. And if you count the deciduous shrubs such as lilac, serviceberry, dogwood, and viburnum, we have no fewer than 50 leaf tossers on the property surrounding the house. From the messy maples to the elegant oaks to the minimalist ginkgo, the trees in our yard provide soothing shade all summer and piles of leaves in the late autumn. (My favorite is the overachieving ginkgo who drops her green-turned-yellow leaves all on the same day . . . if only she could aim for a leaf bag.)

Because our yard is just under three acres, we use the two most commonly used pieces of power equipment for fall cleanup: the leaf blower and the chipper/shredder.

Leaf blowers do just what their name implies. They are electric- or gas-powered blowing machines that spew such gusts of air that leaves scatter like, well, leaves. Available in both handheld and backpack versions, these windy wonders blow from 140 mph to 210 mph. And for the multitaskers among us, there are models that also vacuum (with leaf collection bag) and shred, in addition to blowing. They are fast and powerful and make rakes look like something a caveman would use.

The big drawback of leaf blowers is their ear-splitting noise. We live in the country, so we have no neighbors to disturb. But in many areas of the country, particularly in upscale suburbs, leaf blowers are prohibited because of city noise pollution restrictions. They emit a sound that measures