What do you do with your leaves when they fall ?

[kevinkimers]

I heard that smoke is also good for trees. The carbon dioxide from it is good for them as they intake it. I don't know how true that is, but I do know that smoke also gets rid of a lot of pest that can kill a tree or plants such as caterpillars and such.

 

[grouie]

I heard that smoke is also good for trees. The carbon dioxide from it is good for them as they intake it. I don't know how true that is, but I do know that smoke also gets rid of a lot of pest that can kill a tree or plants such as caterpillars and such.

As long as the fumes are not poisonous all is well but some burn such as rubber and plastic which needs to be avoided

 

[DeborahJane]

This Ted Talk changed my whole perspective on composting leaves....I used to rake them into a forbidden corner and leave them there. I learned to take much greater care and put more value in them.

What a great video. A gardener told me a few years ago to make up a cage of chicken wire and metal stakes, one side opening up as a gate and fill with autumn leaves. I did so and found it does work. The sticks that get caught up in the mix don't break down of course and have to be weeded out and I don't shred because I don't have a shredder so it does take a bit longer. I also just rake them on to garden beds and they look quite colorful and plush. I feel quite thrilled I've been doing the right thing.

 

[LilAnn]

We always just take them up and add them to the compost pile. It's hells to make sure our compost pile is getting bigger and bigger, and makes the lawn a lot pretier

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Well, well, we have leaves, major lots of leaves. We have machines, tarps, hire help, blowers, trailers to hall them away, many rakes. We get them up every fall, sometime we are still raking in January. Do the lawns first, then the flower beds last. Leaves are dragged, and or driven to a huge pile down at the edge of the woods. Sometime I just burn a pile here and there. this past fall we were burning out some stumps, so I ran the riding mower, then emptied and burned. We have an alternating piles by the woods as it takes two years for the 5 foot high, 10 foot wide pile to break down. Yes, we remove the leaves, have to the grass will not look good with leaf mulch on it.

 

[LilAnn]

Oh wow! That's a lot of leaves. On the edge of our property we have trees, and a few trees scattered here and there. So we don't get anymore than what will go in the compost pile. I do not envy you having to deal with that many leaves

 

[Corzhens]

I don't want to say this but I want to be honest. In our backyard, we gather dry leaves and burn it for the benefit of our mango tree. The smoke from that pyre motivates the tree to bear flowers. But several years ago, there was that ordinance banning the burning of leaves and dried grass. What we do with the dry leaves now is to place in a pit for composting.

 

[LilAnn]

I don't want to say this but I want to be honest. In our backyard, we gather dry leaves and burn it for the benefit of our mango tree. The smoke from that pyre motivates the tree to bear flowers. But several years ago, there was that ordinance banning the burning of leaves and dried grass. What we do with the dry leaves now is to place in a pit for composting.

Most of ours goes into compost. We don't have that many leaves, though. We leave them a lot of times., though.

 

[Corzhens]

Most of ours goes into compost. We don't have that many leaves, though. We leave them a lot of times., though.

The dried leaves can fill a sack every other day. But now that the mango tree had been trimmed, our compost pit has some few dried leaves and grasses. Yesterday we did some trimming of the sugar apple and the macopa tree, that's a lot of leaves and it didn't fit the pit so we dug another pit in the nearby vacant lot.

 

[LilAnn]

The only fruit trees in my yard are crab apples. You having a mango tree is making me really jealous. I love mango, for cooking or eating fresh, (as fresh as you can get at a grocery store).
Seriously, though, I want to get more fruit out here. I only have melons growing, (watermelons & cantaloupe). I'm looking into peaches, strawberries, and grapes.

 

[Fernsdaddy]

I've been using a leaf blower/ vac for years and I love it because you don't have to bend as much, I put the chopped leaves in the flower beds and by the time most of my plants start to grow in the spring I just turn the soil over and I have lots dark rich soil that means I don't have to fertilize as much. I don't pull weeds as much and when I do I just dig them back into the ground, just more food for the soil.

 

[LilAnn]

I've been using a leaf blower/ vac for years and I love it because you don't have to bend as much, I put the chopped leaves in the flower beds and by the time most of my plants start to grow in the spring I just turn the soil over and I have lots dark rich soil that means I don't have to fertilize as much. I don't pull weeds as much and when I do I just dig them back into the ground, just more food for the soil.

I like the idea of not bending over. I've been having lower back for a few years now, and I cant bend over and stand back, repeatedly without eventually NOT standing up. I would really enjoy having a leaf blower. My son rakes up the cut grass from our yard, he would enjoy it so much more if he had a leaf blower to mess with.

 

[Fernsdaddy]

Its not so much my back killing me all the time its the knees that don't like the bending and getting up and down off the grown when I clear the from under the bushes, so the leaf blower / vac works out great.

 

[LilAnn]

Its not so much my back killing me all the time its the knees that don't like the bending and getting up and down off the grown when I clear the from under the bushes, so the leaf blower / vac works out great.

knees can make things a little less fun, too. What I wouldn't give to be 16 again... I could have been a gardening great!

 

[sixxup]

I do collect all the leaves that have fallen atleast every morning. This is to ensure that my compound is clean. I then take the leaves to the compost pit. I have never experienced such a problem since there is grass everywhere around my compound.