RANT!!!!!!!!!!!Leaves suck!

[CocoGdog]

Ever had to pick up pine needles? I have a huge pine tree in my back yard and every fall weekend, I pick up a dandy. It scrapes and scracthes you all over the place. I have battle wounds.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Fallen leaves are beautiful.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Son of a N00b

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: shekondar

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: Ornery

1. Piece of cake!
   
   Been doing it 23 years now...

:Q

You probably have me beat. I just came in from working for 5 hours in my front yard, ALMOST finished with 20ish 39gal bags full of chopped and compressed leaves. my hands are still vibrating from the blower/vac.

Is that all? I've got 31 full bags sitting in my driveway (the heavy-duty 42 gallon size), and I'm only about 2/3 of the way done...not including the leaves still on my trees.

Please note: 20 for the front yard so far. I've got at least 2 more for up there. I havent even started my back yard... and yes, there are still leaves in the trees. Also note that my blower/vac chops up the leaves and compresses them down so if you're just shoveling them into a bag with a rake, I definately have you beat in quantity. 😉

I'll see your 40 or so bags with my 954298653937937 bags from two years ago when i first moved into my house (its a half acre extremely wooded lot) and the leaves hadn't been raked for at least 15-20 years...took me 3 years to get em all up and every summer I had bags lined up and down my driveway stacked ten feet tall until I could get them to the dump...

🙁 my hands still have the calluses (I used two rakes, I couldnt use any blowing or mulching device because they were all wet and rotted)

....

You know, you're probably doing your property a huge disservice if you're bothering to rake up the leaves in a wooded lot....

It's a natural process. Leaves do not last more than a year, yet alone "15-20" years... lol.

 

[BlueWeasel]

That's why I love my mulching mower -- I did my entire front and side yard today in about an hour. No bags and my yard is better off from the mulched leaves. Although, that's not really an option when you have a thick layer of leaves on the ground.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Son of a N00b
I'll see your 40 or so bags with my 954298653937937 bags from two years ago when i first moved into my house (its a half acre extremely wooded lot) and the leaves hadn't been raked for at least 15-20 years...took me 3 years to get em all up and every summer I had bags lined up and down my driveway stacked ten feet tall until I could get them to the dump...

🙁 my hands still have the calluses (I used two rakes, I couldnt use any blowing or mulching device because they were all wet and rotted)

....

You know, you're probably doing your property a huge disservice if you're bothering to rake up the leaves in a wooded lot....

It's a natural process. Leaves do not last more than a year, yet alone "15-20" years... lol.

3 years to get all the leaves up on a half-acre lot? Shens. :roll: :laugh:

 

[Ornery]

When I first moved here, the weekends in the fall were consumed with "leaf duty". The neighbors entire families would be out raking and packing bags Friday night, Saturday and Sunday for several weekends. I knew right away there had to be an easier way. I bought the Wheelhorse rider, which can handle a couple bushels, but that's just a few passes. A fellow I worked with had been a landscaper, and he told me to peak out the door of our shop, while their landscapers were taking care of the leaves. The main tool was a walk behind blower. I purchased one that same weekend.

So much for rounding 'em up in a hurry, but what to do with those piles? Bagging them takes WAY too long. Fortunately, we have a wooded buffer at the rear of our property, and that was all dedicated to leaf composting. So, it was just a matter of transporting those piles to the compost area. Tarping and dragging turns your legs to rubber in no time. Using a trailer with the tractor has been the solution for us.

You would think after twenty years there would be a HUGE mound of leaves at the back of the property, but somehow they always manage to decompose over the year. By the time fall rolls around, it's ready for more. What used to take weekend after weekend to accomplish, has been reduced to about 14 man hours. We've got about 8 in so far, but it rained last night, so we won't finish today. Bummer... :evil:

 

[shekondar]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Fallen leaves are beautiful.

Would you like some? I've got a few billion that you're welcome to come pick up...😉

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
That's why I love my mulching mower -- I did my entire front and side yard today in about an hour. No bags and my yard is better off from the mulched leaves. Although, that's not really an option when you have a thick layer of leaves on the ground.

i should have probably just used my mulching mower too instead of raking at all. i visited a fall lawn care site yesterday and it recommended "thatching" by raking it. it wasn't really worth it though. instead of raising my mower up 1/2", i might have just left it at the original height and simply cut it a couple times to finely chop up the clippings & leaves. next year, this will definitely be my plan of attack.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
That's why I love my mulching mower -- I did my entire front and side yard today in about an hour. No bags and my yard is better off from the mulched leaves. Although, that's not really an option when you have a thick layer of leaves on the ground.

i should have probably just used my mulching mower too instead of raking at all. i visited a fall lawn care site yesterday and it recommended "thatching" by raking it. it wasn't really worth it though. instead of raising my mower up 1/2", i might have just left it at the original height and simply cut it a couple times to finely chop up the clippings & leaves. next year, this will definitely be my plan of attack.

I should get a good mulching mower... mine mulches but not very well.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
That's why I love my mulching mower -- I did my entire front and side yard today in about an hour. No bags and my yard is better off from the mulched leaves. Although, that's not really an option when you have a thick layer of leaves on the ground.

i should have probably just used my mulching mower too instead of raking at all. i visited a fall lawn care site yesterday and it recommended "thatching" by raking it. it wasn't really worth it though. instead of raising my mower up 1/2", i might have just left it at the original height and simply cut it a couple times to finely chop up the clippings & leaves. next year, this will definitely be my plan of attack.

I should get a good mulching mower... mine mulches but not very well.

mine's a Troy-Bilt with a bagger attachment as well as the traditional side-exit as well. it's got a Kawasaki 6.5 hp motor though, and when they went on sale a couple years back they were snatched up very quickly. it's a great mower... than again, i enjoy cutting my grass so maybe that's why i like it so much. there was nothing like the feeling of being able to cut my own lawn for the first time last year. sigh, memories. 🙂

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Modeps
I bet I have more leaves than you, and I'm doing them all by myself. 🙁
My leaf blower/vac is making my job a bit easier, but it's still taking forever.

I'll take that bet 🙂
(looks out the window towards trees... nothing but trees for miles.)
I have quite a few acres of 1 inch deep leaves composting.

 

[Ornery]

My leaf blower/vac is making my job a bit easier...

What's the "vac" part used for?

 

[MrBond]

My parents have a Chestnut tree out in their backyard - you have to manually rake those leaves every year, otherwise the burrs from the chestnuts get broken apart by the lawnmower and scattered all over the area under the tree. This is what they look like:

http://www.silphium.net/images/nut.jpg

They will stick around into the spring too.

They've been mowing the leaves since only my sister lives at home (and she works full-time). It does a pretty good job. They bought a leaf blower this year that works pretty well with the chestnut leaves - we tarp and drag them once they're all blown into piles.

 

[funboy6942]

Our new town is great. Dont even have to bag the leaves. Just pile them all up near the street and and some point they come buy with a vac truck and suck them up and away 😀

 

[VirginiaDonkey]

heh...noob
the dump doesn't charge to pick up mulch, in fact... on Mondays, they will even load it into your vehicle with a frontloader.


next!