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Post by daylilydude on Oct 1, 2018 3:39:24 GMT -5
Do you pick up the leaves in the fall or leave them on the ground until spring?
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Post by coppice on Oct 1, 2018 7:12:22 GMT -5
Lawn mower sucks them up. Chops some, and bags the rest.
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Post by brownrexx on Oct 1, 2018 8:32:58 GMT -5
We don't get too many on the lawn but we mow over them and leave them on the lawn for fertilizer. We use a commercial sized zero turn mower and it does not have a bagger but it does chop the leaves into pretty small pieces.
I leave the leaves around my perennials and in the flower beds to provide mulch for the plants over the winter and also food for worms, millipedes, etc. Leaves also provide hiding places for things like toads or salamanders.
I rake and clean up the flower beds in the Spring and any remaining debris goes into the compost pile.
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Post by september on Oct 1, 2018 9:14:09 GMT -5
No raking for appearance, the lawn mower chops most up. We purposely planted some spruce and pines on our formerly bare front yard so we wouldn't have leaves to rake. But since we are backed by a forest of aspen, maple, oaks, we get leaves blowing around in strong winds. When possible, I rake up wind created pockets of leaves and put them through my leaf shredder for garden mulch.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Oct 1, 2018 9:18:42 GMT -5
I blow them into a huge pile, grind them up, and use that as some of the mulch for the garlic, usually just planted.
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Post by paulf on Oct 1, 2018 9:52:06 GMT -5
If the wind does not blow them off the yard, they get raked into piles, shredded and tilled into the garden or put on the compost pile. Whether right or not, the Black Walnut leaves get separated and not added to the garden or compost.
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Post by farmerjack41 on Oct 1, 2018 10:30:03 GMT -5
Picked up with the mower, then run thru the chipper/shredder and distributed on the garden. When 3 to 5 inches deep till them in.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Oct 1, 2018 11:07:23 GMT -5
Mulching mower at my house. Raked and tilled into the garden at Dads.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 1, 2018 13:02:50 GMT -5
Usually chopped up with the mulching mower, but when they are really thick DH will bag them so we can use them as mulch somewhere. We don't rake, though. (I used to have to rake a lot as a kid, and I dislike raking to this day.)
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Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2018 16:18:17 GMT -5
Sometimes I rake up the oak leaves to use as a mulch.
Thinking of raking leaves reminds me of burning huge piles of leaves in the cool fall, and always at the end of the afternoon time with Moms and Dads out there, and all of us toasting marshmallows and hot dogs on sticks we just picked out of the piles - no sanitation, LOL, and all of us healthy!! Charred marshmallows and hotdogs until we popped, parents raking the piles to burn them down to ashes and then,as it got dark and all of us kids were stuffed, some Dad would start with the ghostie stories or Sleepy Hollow.
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Post by brownrexx on Oct 1, 2018 17:26:46 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL, I hate raking leaves too. I always got a blister on the side of my thumb as a kid and I still do if I rake leaves.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 1, 2018 19:01:39 GMT -5
Yep, in that one spot. Always a blister, even if I wear gloves. If I put a thick bandaid on it and then wear gloves I might escape the blister. Maybe.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Oct 1, 2018 19:12:05 GMT -5
TBD. The last several years we've had windstorms that have literally blown away all but a few leaves. It will be interesting to see what happens here with our new yard! I love using leaves as mulch, but as we've got a lot of garden to build this year, if we get leaves they will be added to the compost pile. Some might get tilled in the ground if we get that far and start prepping some new spaces. SO many possibilities!
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Post by september on Oct 1, 2018 20:37:51 GMT -5
Sometimes I rake up the oak leaves to use as a mulch. Thinking of raking leaves reminds me of burning huge piles of leaves in the cool fall, and always at the end of the afternoon time with Moms and Dads out there, and all of us toasting marshmallows and hot dogs on sticks we just picked out of the piles - no sanitation, LOL, and all of us healthy!! Charred marshmallows and hotdogs until we popped, parents raking the piles to burn them down to ashes and then,as it got dark and all of us kids were stuffed, some Dad would start with the ghostie stories or Sleepy Hollow. @imp, I remember the fall smell of leaf burning that most everyone did in town when I was growing up. You raked your leaves into the street by your curb or in the alley ways by your garage and lit up. Most everyone had a burning barrel or cage for burning trash all year round. Now, of course there are ordinances against all types of open burning and I can't imagine what the fine would be for setting fires in the street!
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Post by guruofgardens on Oct 1, 2018 21:30:26 GMT -5
Hubby uses the mower for the leaves on the lawn. For the flower garden and dog run, we rake them up, then shed them and store them in bags for mulch in the veggie garden.
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Post by brownrexx on Oct 2, 2018 8:35:39 GMT -5
In the towns around here they send around a municipal truck that vacuums up and shreds the leaves that get raked to the street by residents. They dump them on farm fields.
I live outside of town so we do not have that here but I am glad that they go to farms instead of being burned like they were in the past. I actually like that smell though!
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Post by september on Oct 2, 2018 9:26:44 GMT -5
Our next door neighbor man has always raked his leaves into windrows and piles and burned them. It made me a little nervous, because I wasn't convinced he was watching the fires that carefully and all around us is a forest with dry leaves on the ground, wouldn't take that much for gusts of wind to carry some burning leaves elsewhere. Since this is a rural area, you do need to get a burning permit from the township, but I don't know how long the permits are good for. I think he just enjoyed his annual burns, because it would have been faster to just take his piles half way up our long shared driveway and dump them into some open clearings back there to rot down. In a way, it's sad that he won't be burning this year, he has developed a rare type of progressively debilitating muscle disease, needs a walker to get around, and long term prognosis is not good.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Oct 2, 2018 9:37:47 GMT -5
Rake some into the flower beds and the garlic bed for the winter. Others go into a composter until spring.
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