Do you bag your leaves after raking or leave in a pile? (flower, tree)
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Just curious but how do you do that? Seems like it would be fantastic for growing vegetables and such
It takes a couple of years. I rake them up and leave them in piles behind the greenhouse and behind the garden shed, rotating piles every year. The soil it makes is amazing.
I used to blow them into piles and the blower I had, had an attachment bag that you then sucked them up and it chopped them finely. I then dumped them in the back in a wooded area, spreading them out. By spring the piles were fully decomposed. It worked well as a winter blanket for whatever was growing back there.
In our town the city does not want the leaves bagged. They want them in a pile at the curb and them come in and suck them up wit a vacuum truck twice during the season. The town we moved from wanted them bagged in a specific lawn bag that you had to buy at the local store and then put the bags out on garbage day.
What words do you use on those leaf piles so that they stay put until the vacuum truck arrives and don't blow away ?
My town doesn't pick up leaves but the former town dump has a compost area. My lawn-OCD retired neighbor makes a weekly pickup truck run or two to discard his yard debris. I'll rake and bag all the oak leaves in the driveway and front lawn. He makes them vanish. The rest, I just rake under evergreen trees for compost/mulch.
After taking a suggestion from a forum a few years back the only way I'll ever go is to rake into several rows and MOW the everlasting crap out of them. It takes several runs to get them down to confetti but it's nutrients that are returned to your lawn and no having to bag anything.
MULCH them. THEN they become natural fertilizer. Basically you set your mower at the highest deck height and run over leaves without raking them. Blades mulch leaves and then SMALL parts of them really disintegrate.
We have recently moved again a couple months ago from one side of our city to another. The first house had no trees anywhere on the property so raking wasn't necessary for us. And people in that area who did have to rake were allowed to just burn their leaves.
Where we live now is a section with LOTS of trees everywhere in people's yards. Well, the house Hubby bought had so many leaves that it took 2 guys most of the day to get all those leaves up.
But what I don't understand is that they put the leaves in piles on the side of the road for the city to pick up and I saw other folks all across town doing the same thing! I've never heard of that. Up North, we always had to bag our leaves after raking.
Today is Saturday. The truck won't be back around again until Friday. Those leaves will get blown for sure and have to be re-raked 1 or more times before Friday, I'm sure. And all that re-raking every time the wind blows seems like a lot of annoying, unnecessary work.
Is it the same where you live? Do u and your neighbors bag your leaves or leave them in piles?
I used to live in a town where they vacuumed up the piles of leaves from the sides of the streets. You weren't allowed to park on the streets overnight. Out street was Belgian block and the when the leaves go wet the streets became slippery. There were also some issues with dry leaves catching fire when people parked on top of them.
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Originally Posted by mmyk72
Pretty sure that depends on the type of leaves and climate. We have big thick maple and oak leaves that don't break down on their own - at least not in a year or two. If left alone, they just form a gigantic mat. They need to be broken down mechanically or picked up altogether. The landscapers charge $300-400 a pop for leaves clean up. It's a lucrative business for sure around here in the NE. A modest size yard with just 2-3 full size trees can generate a mountain of leaves... And it's too bad if the culprit isn't even your own tree. Some houses are lucky to be right next to a foresty type of lot where one can just blow all the leaves there. Otherwise the leaves have to be managed - nature just isn't good enough.
OTOH at our house in TX, the oak leaves are tiny and we just pile up whatever we collect from sweeping the driveway under the bushes and they disappear all on their own by the next season. What's on the grass just gets chopped up when the grass gets mowed. No extra effort at all.
My backyard in Pennsylvania is partially wooded and on the edge of a large wooded area. Many of the trees in my back and the neighbors are oak. The leaves take years to disintegrate. Plus the oak trees are the last to lose their leaves. Many of the ones around here will continue to drop their leaves all winter.
I have never raked leaves in the 20 years I have been in this house. I run the lawnmower over them until there is snow on the ground and even after if I get some decent dry weather. I could probably get by without doing anything with the leaves in my front yard, but they would kill the grass in the back. If you mulch a lot of leaves, you will probably have to add lime to your yard annually. Having the soil tested will tell you how much lime is needed to correct the ph level.
I used to live in a town where they vacuumed up the piles of leaves from the sides of the streets. You weren't allowed to park on the streets overnight. Out street was Belgian block and the when the leaves go wet the streets became slippery. There were also some issues with dry leaves catching fire when people parked on top of them.
My backyard in Pennsylvania is partially wooded and on the edge of a large wooded area. Many of the trees in my back and the neighbors are oak. The leaves take years to disintegrate. Plus the oak trees are the last to lose their leaves. Many of the ones around here will continue to drop their leaves all winter.
I have never raked leaves in the 20 years I have been in this house. I run the lawnmower over them until there is snow on the ground and even after if I get some decent dry weather. I could probably get by without doing anything with the leaves in my front yard, but they would kill the grass in the back. If you mulch a lot of leaves, you will probably have to add lime to your yard annually. Having the soil tested will tell you how much lime is needed to correct the ph level.
(regarding lime and ph)
I am a retired farmer and have limed many of my fields.
(I did that because alfalfa performs best at 6.7)
However, since it takes one ton of lime per acre to raise the ph just .1 points, I question the need for just raising .........grass.
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