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Where I used to live, one raked leaves into the street and the city had several scheduled days where they'd send trucks through to vacuum and mulch them up. That was great.
Where I live now, there is leaf pick up but a: the township is very vague about dates and b: all leaves and yard waste must be in bags. Last year they were so vague about the dates I ended up making a bonfire of my bagged leaves because I either didn't have bagged leaves out on the right days, or they simply never showed up. There is definitely no street-sweeping, so to be a good neighbor one ought to gather up the leaves that collect along the edges of the road or street.
For those people in regions where it doesn't get that cold: Multiple and drifts of leaves freezing onto lawns overwinter can lead to bald spots, fungus and other lawn nasties. And leaves left on your driveway and along the road will freeze and become extremely slippery!
I just spent almost three hours raking leaves and filling 20 leaf bags and have them all stacked along the curb...I sure hope the township plans on picking them up! Otherwise I'm going to have to have a bonfire again. I'm not concerned about fallen leaves in the wooded back 40...but I don't like to leave the front of the house and lawn blanketed with dead leaves.
Is your city clear about leaf pick-up protocol? Or do you have to dispose of your own? What do you do with autumn leaves?
I use my leaves for mulch. The county does pick them up, though. I see bags mostly in town where people leave them for pickup. I feel bad just sending them to a landfill. Before I had enough areas to mulch, I would dump them in the woods or on the compost heap.
Here in Toronto, leaves cannot be burned, so they are bagged in paper yard waste bags, and picked up by city trucks, taken to city parks, and dumped, to become compost material, that is used the next year, in the city parks. The city of Toronto also SELLS composted leaves, to companies that bag it and sell it to the public. Pickup days for leaves and yard waste are marked on the 12 month calendar, that is delivered to every home and business in the city, in January, each year. A quick glance at the calendar shows what is being collected that week.
Recyclable materials are collected on a two week cycle, alternating with the regular garbage and the green bins for household food scraps. The bins are free, and stay with the house, if you move to another address in the city.
Toronto recycles many different things, from pizza boxes, to computers, TV's , and appliances, tires and paint cans. We even recycle scrap cars, and that city project employs over 150 former welfare recipients, who now are making $16 an hour, taking cars apart, for the metal and electronic parts value. They work in a couple of Toronto city buildings, and the city makes a few million dollars a year, from the sale of automotive scrap metal, to private buyers. We also sell aluminium cans, newspaper, and glass, to industrial buyers, in bulk .
Here is a link to the city of Toronto recycling information website;
Why don't you run the mower over them and allow the now small pieces to fertilize your lawn?
We have a trash contract which specifies leaf pick-up. The problem is that many people won't bag their leaves (just rake them into the street. They also shovel the snow from their driveways/sidewalks into the newly plowed street) and the trash contractor has to be reminded every year that, yes, you have to take the bagged leaves.
Why don't you run the mower over them and allow the now small pieces to fertilize your lawn?
We have a trash contract which specifies leaf pick-up. The problem is that many people won't bag their leaves (just rake them into the street. They also shovel the snow from their driveways/sidewalks into the newly plowed street) and the trash contractor has to be reminded every year that, yes, you have to take the bagged leaves.
That's what I do. This last Wednesday......I went out to specifically mow the leaves! Round and round and round I go.......until......POOF......the leaves are gone!
Another benefit......the leaves scrub the mower deck sparkling clean!
I like breaking them up with the lawnmower also. Sometimes that isn't feasible though. Due to odd weather this fall, an incredible amount fell in the space of a day or two, and you can't do it if the layer is too thick.
In my current town, we rake them into the street. In my previous town, you could buy large paper bags, buy a $1 sticker for each bag, and the town would pick them up to be composted. You could also bag them and take them to the compost place yourself, and residents could help themselves to free finished compost. I liked that! Open burning isn't allowed in most towns around here.
Years ago, when we first moved "north" (from SW Florida, lol!) to Greensboro, NC, the city sent around a vacuum truck every Autumn. Not only was it very convenient to just rake or blow the leaves down to the street, it gave my then three year old son a thrill to watch the big vacuum nozzle suck up the leaves! Now that we live in N. Georgia, and have a yard about the size of a postage stamp, I just run the mulching mower over the leaves.
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