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Leaves are actually chock full of minerals, and good for the soil. Aside from composting which is excellent, it was suggested in one gardening article to leave the leaves where they are, and run the lawn mower over them to chop them into little bits. That way they can enrich the soil. Free fertilizer. They also make great mulch around your plants.
Depends on the leaves. Where we are the oak treas are abundant, and they make for a lousy compost. Left to decay, they increase acidity of the soil, so now we need lots of lime to have anything grow.
Depends on the leaves. Where we are the oak treas are abundant, and they make for a lousy compost. Left to decay, they increase acidity of the soil, so now we need lots of lime to have anything grow.
Oak leaves aren't too acid once they fall, but they should be shredded, per the Laid-back Gardener:
"That’s why it’s always best to shred oak leaves before using them. Run them under the lawn mower, vacuum them up with a leaf blower (it will chop up the leaves as it picks them up), pour them into a garbage can and shred them with a string trimmer, or whatever. The method is up to you, but when you do break oak leaves into small fragments, tannins will be largely rinsed out the first time it rains, reducing the so-called toxicity to almost nothing, and bacteria will start to decompose the leaves in earnest."
I used to compost a large amount of my leaves, but I also burned a bunch from the trees nearer my house in the ditch. It was a great way to clean out the weeds in the ditch, plus it made a lovely, 50 ft. long line of fire. If they hadn't been so close to my garage I would also have burned off my row of zebra plants every fall instead of having my garden helpers chainsaw them to a manageable level - that would have been a TRULY impressive wall of flames!
Quote:
Originally Posted by reneeh63
Pyro!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungalove
Actually, pretty typical for a rural neighborhood.
Uhm no...I'm not referring to the FACT of burning stuff, but the JOY of it. Or perhaps all rural people lllluuuuuvvv burning.
It's true as a kid I did enjoy having the big responsibility for setting the "burning barrel" on fire every week - ya know, getting out that box of big wooden matches. Yeh, a real fetish thing.
we lived in a home for a while that had 72 tall trees on a small-ish property. They all shed leaves. There was no burning. The city or county or whatever during leaf season had regular leaf pickup just like it had regular garbage pickup. We'd rake the leaves (or use a leaf blower) into piles on the edge of the street and the truck would pick them up.
I used to burn debris, mostly brush and tree limbs in my backyard in an open fire pit. Had a neighbor across the street that would call the fire dept on me. SO...... as they were walking around the corner to inspect the fire, I'd be walking out my back door with a package of hotdogs. They just laughed and said " OH, well your just cooking and to keep an eye on the flames.
The police and the fire dept were well aware of this neighbor as he was a chronic complainer and time waster to them. They knew him by name.
OH.......Yes, it was illegal to burn leaves and debris.
Burning may require a permit from the state forestry department for each occasion. Check that out probably on your county website.
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