My love/hate relationship with trees...

[Stax]

The hate side.

 

[firefighterjake]

I never bother bagging them up . . . in fact I didn't even bother raking this year . . . figure I'll just mow over them a few times come Spring time and turn the leaves into cheap mulch/fertilizer.

 

[Badfish740]

I guess I should consider myself lucky that my town comes around with the giant leaf vac every year. It's still a $#%&@ getting them all out to the road though. I get a pretty thick carpet of leaves so I tend to do one round of putting them out at the road then anything additional that falls just gets chopped up with the riding mower.

 

[shawneyboy]

Heck I just blow them back into the treeline. Then mow whatever comes back out in the spring.

 

[Delta-T]

i bet the leaves get very angry all cooped up like that. Set them free!! Let them fulfill their destinies.

 

[ColdNH]

Heck I just blow them back into the treeline. Then mow whatever comes back out in the spring.

Yep, same here, I am lucky to be completely surrounded by woods on all sides though. the back pack blower handles 99% of the job. dont even need to use a rake.

 

[basswidow]

In a neighborhood like that - I know you've got to rake. Man that's a bunch of bags. How much do each of those bags cost I counted 38? How long did it take you?

I live high on a hill with very few trees near the house. The wind takes mine away.

There are several things to consider when buying a house:

1) how much grass to mow / incline
2) how long is the drive for snow removal
3) how much raking of leaves?

I got blessed with no leaves - my grass cutting and snow removal is a SOB

I bet your elbows are hurting.

 

[Badfish740]

I got blessed with no leaves - my grass cutting and snow removal is a SOB

One day I'd really like to move to a house "in the woods" literally. One of the properties I cut on is like this-no grass except for a small patch in front of the porch-surrounding the house is a natural landscape of trees, laurel, native brush, etc... The guy just blows the leaves off of the driveway pad in front of the house and he's done. Mowing takes more time to pull the mower out of the shed than it does to actually cut grass.

 

[billb3]

You might hate the job less if you get a slightly bigger rake.



















Oh, and you missed a couple ...

 

[bogydave]

I'm a compost fanatic. I even mow/bag the neighbor's leaves to add to the compost bin.
Garden gold

 

[REM505]

The hate side.

but you just upped your house's R-value by 12

 

[CTYank]

I'm a compost fanatic. I even mow/bag the neighbor's leaves to add to the compost bin.
Garden gold

Similar here. Some neighbors think I'm nuts (separate issue) but I take whatever they toss my way, and mulch what doesn't go to the flower beds, right on the lawn with cheapie HF electric mower. Reduces volume to zilch and preps it for the worms.

Later, I spread this leaf-dust in the parts of the lawn where the soil most needs improvement.

Over a few years, the soil has mostly gone from reddish rock dust to deep brown. And the grass stays lots greener in August.

 

[jeromehdmc]

I put Gator Blades on the wife's mower. They work great. After she goes over the yard it looks like she raked it. The leaves are chopped up into really small pieces that break down nicely over winter.

 

[4fire]

I feel your pain. Last week I mowed them up on Wednesday and again Friday. I'm composting what I can and spreading the rest out on the deer trails out back just so the ground doesn't get as torn up.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I recall many moons ago when we wanted to try growing a vegetable garden on our yellow sand. Three things I used a lot of were sawdust, leaves and lime. It worked. At the time I was driving a full sized van and as I passed through any small town I'd find lots of bagged leaves waiting for the trash pickup. I'd stop and load the van day after day. Worked like a charm.

As for the leaves in the yard, around here they are very welcome as we do like having them. All I do is keep them from directly in front of the entry door.

 

[Stax]

Bass...I think they're $1.88 for a 4 or 5 pack at the Depot. This was my 3 or 4th time out. It was 38 in the picture but got up to 46 by the next day. Took a little there and a little here during the course of a week.

 

[fireview2788]

I don't miss that from living in the city. Although I now have 2 acres of woods around the house I have more leaves and it takes more time but I don't mind. I do several things:

1) rake what is against and around the house and take them to the garden to be tilled under
2) rake the second round from around the house and take them to the compost area under the big ash tree
3) mulch them with the mower (this takes about four times each fall to cover the different leaf drop times)



f v

 

[seeyal8r]

I burn them on the stumps from old trees in my yard. glories of livin out of town.

 

[basswidow]

46 bags..... my elbows hurt.

 

[rsvmille]

I can relate. I wish I could get all the leaves out of my woods. After that October storm, I hate them even more.

 

[woodchip]

The hate side.

Funny old world.

When I worked in a garden centre, we sold no end of leaf blowers for people to tidy up gardens and remove all the leaves.

The same people came back the following week to buy mulched leaves to put on the flower beds to protect the ground from the freezing weather......... ;-)

 

[Stax]

Not me woodchip. With 7 seven huge trees in my yard, I'd have a good 6" plus of leaves that eventually turn to a mushy muck that just kills the yard and isn't to nice to walk around in. No thank you.