A giant outdoor artwork created with a leaf blower and thousands of fallen autumn leaves has been unveiled today by leading home improvement and garden living retailer, B&Q.
The 15m long natural replica of the famous Mona Lisa painting was created by artist Nathan Wyburn using clusters of brown, red and purple leaves, to inspire the public to make their outdoor spaces a work of art and start the autumn tidy up.
Research from B&Q has found that clearing up the garden is the most satisfying job around the home in autumn, taking the top spot for over half of people (53 per cent) in a ranking of autumn upkeep jobs. This comes above throwing away clutter, packing away the summer wardrobe and cleaning out gutters. A fifth of people (19 per cent) said they like their garden to look better than their neighbours’ and one in ten (11 per cent) compared their aspirations for their outdoor space to creating a work of art.
To achieve the feeling of pride people will get from the job, it will take average of a full day (8 hours) to tidy the garden, with some people taking the best part of a working week to complete it. Clearing leaves is the biggest job with 44 per cent of people saying that it seems to be a never-ending task, something that even a quarter of those without trees in their garden experience.
In the poll, 68 per cent of people said they put off starting tasks around the home and almost a third (29 per cent) said they were time poor. Homeowners were especially concerned about having the time to clear up their garden in Wales, the East Midlands and East Anglia. However, around half of people admitted to raking up leaves (53 per cent) or picking them up manually (43 per cent) so not having the right equipment could be driving up this time commitment.
Steve Guy, Market Director for Outdoor at B&Q, said: “We know from our research that more than half of people will be tackling the autumn tidy up in the next month. We also know they need motivation to get started and ‘do it’ so we want to help inspire them with ideas for time-saving and affordable kit like the Bosch leaf blower, which can really help make the tidying up of leaves quick and easy. We hope our Mona Leafa will encourage people to get started!”
Artist Nathan Wyburn said: “Creating this artwork has been a really brilliant challenge for me. I’ve had a lot of fun with a piece of equipment that’s really versatile; I used it as a blower as well as a vacuum to blow into place and then clear up the leaves after the project – I’d say this is a case of ‘do try this at home’ if you have leaves in your garden and want to clear them quickly.”
The overwhelming majority of people polled (81 per cent) said they felt good about their garden or outdoor space when everything is clear and tidy and for some (12 per cent) the feeling lasts for a month or longer.
