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What to do with leaves:

Annual dilemma on what to do with fallling leaves.

3K views 43 replies 30 participants last post by  swampjeep 
#1 · (Edited)
Do you mulch them with a mower, or do you rake/blow them?

If you rake them what do you do with them?

I usually run over them with a tractor mower when there are just a few here and there.

When the foliage gets thick, I sweep them up.

I used to burn them, but now I'm thinking about making a leaves heap pile.

What is your method of attack on this annual nuisance?

*You can vote multiple times for different options, at least I thought that's how I made the poll.
 
#14 ·
Sounds just like my plan. :thumb:

For five years I had some weird maple tree disease. The leaves would turn brown with a weird fungus. I read online that this comes back because I was mulching the leaves. Now I fill the lawn sweeper, dump the leaves in the back yard compost area. The fungus / disease never came back.
I'm started my compost heap pile this spring. I can't believe how huge it is over the course of half a year. Leaves will substantially increase it.

Blow them into the neighbor on the east of your houses yard and blame it on the wind.
Before I put up a fence to contain my dogs and to keep out deer, the wind did the work for me, blowing it over to my neighbor and the furthrt into wetlands area. But n ow I haz a fence.:(
 
#5 ·
I own 3 acres with 3 maple trees that I planted ten years ago. What few leaves they produce are gone with the wind.

Our place up north has enough oak trees to coat the whole yard several inches deep. I used to rake and haul load after load into the woods. A couple years ago we started to hire it done. best idea ever!
 
#6 ·
I have a lawn service but they mulch it in most of the year until the last couple of mowings when it gets too thick in the backyard and they rake them up and then suck them up into a truck and take them away. When I was doing it all myself I did the same thing - except for the big vacuum truck... I just bagged them.

The first year I was in my house I just left them on the ground in the backyard thinking that they would decompose on their own but there were just way too many of them and they were too thick and I had huge bare patches of mud and dead grass all spring.
 
#10 ·
Fawk leaves! I've got 8 fully apple trees to tend with. Some bitchin apples.

When the leaves start falling I'll mulch and then dump in the woods behind my property.
 
#32 ·
That would be great for me if they did that around your road and Mason road. I often drive there and most people seem to burn the leaves in the ditch by the road, nearly suffocating the unsuspecting driver (me :) ).

This would not work for me though. I would have to drag my leaves over 1000 feet to the curb, I would rather leave them in the heap pile to make compost.:thumb:
 
#26 ·
We have 2+ acres with dozens of trees, I blow them into the woods on the edge of the property with one of these. Only thing we've found that can take care of the leaves as deep as they get. Gets rid of all the twigs and pine needles too, and throws a plastic lawn chair a hell of a distance.

 
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