OT: leaf clean up in the upper Midwest; how many hours am I looking at?

[echappist]

First time living in a single family house and being completely responsible for yardwork. For mowing, we got an EGO mower, and it's relatively painless to mow the 0.2 acre yard (front + back), taking at most 40 minutes each time.

However, I'm completely at a loss as to how to evaluate the amount of hours needed. I live in a mature neighborhood with relatively tall trees. There's one maple in the front yard and one locust in the back yard, and neighbors have a few maples that are sure to have their leaves fall in my yard as well.

All I know is that i'd hate to rake all the leaves, b/c I think that may very well take a good 10-12 hours, if not more. I've heard that a back-pack blower would ease the burden quite a bit, but it would appear that I'd need to do this 3-4 times. Afterwards, there's the issue of collecting the leaves for each leaf blowing. I've also heard that one could purchase a leaf vacuum to collect everything, but that represents additional outlay on equipment (that aren't cheap) or that one may alternatively just use a mower to mow the leaves and mulch the remnant.

Anyone has a good rule of thumb on what I can expect (as in hours) based on the description provided?

Many thanks in advance!

[Louis]

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/mulching-leaves/

[saab2000]

Whatever you do, please spare your neighbors the agony of leaf blowers. They ought to be criminalized, and I'm only half kidding. They are incredibly annoying to anyone within two blocks.

Mulch. Mulch and then mulch until your lawn can't take it anymore. Then use actual rakes because the soil will appreciate it. It's called work for a reason and leaf blowers may blow away a couple leaves, but your neighbors will hate you and the soil won't know anything ever happened if it hasn't been toiled by a rake. Greener grass is the reward of actual raking.

Look at your municipal rules. You're probably looking at 10-20 hours of work, tops. It's part of living in the upper Midwest with mature hardwoods.

[Ken Robb]

Don't some people turn the leaves to mulch with a mulching lawn mower? When I was a kid in Chicago a lot of us went around the neighborhoods hiring ourselves out to rake leaves for homeowners. Of course back then we piles the leaves in the gutter and burned them and the smell of burning leaves still reminds me of those times.

[Matthew]

You're gonna hate life for a while!! Being a Michigander I feel your pain. As mentioned above, mulch as much as possible. I find it much easier to mow as long as the leaves and grass aren't too wet. My wife got me a leaf blower last year. Found it frustrating to use to be honest. And just when you think you're about done for the season the evil leaves will magically appear the next morning. You'll be done when they get covered in snow!

[Ken Robb]

Ask your neighbors what they do and how often they do it. I know some people start raking as soon as the first few leaves fall and others wait until the trees are bare.

[zap]

As noted, mulch as much as you can with the Ego mower. Then rake.....its cross training :banana:

[Louis]

In my experience, raking is the easy part. Bagging and disposing of the leaves is the annoying part.

[rwsaunders]

A backpack leaf blower changed my leaf blowing life for the good as I'm dealing with one acre of mature trees and one acre of grass...not a good combination in the Fall, as I'll be blowing leaves from this weekend through Thanksgiving...at least.

The home essentially sits in the middle of the property and I blow the leaves in the rear into the woods and the leaves in the front to the road, as our borough vacuums the leaves and mulches them. I can't wait to downsize and move to a condo and chuck all of the lawn tools and garden implements, not to mention rid myself of the herd of overfed deer that parade through my yard twice a day. I just need to convince my wife...

[FlashUNC]

Just pave it all.

[Louis]

Just pave it all.

One of the saddest books I've ever read:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51F2pWLZvfL._SX375_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

[SlowPokePete]

I know that book well.

A kid's book?

Not really...

SPP

[verticaldoug]

Wait until all your neighbors rake their yards. The wind will blow your leaves evenly over the neighborhood. That's the natural order of things.

[Tickdoc]

Waiting for the followup post labelled: "OT: driveway snow removal in the upper midwest; how many hours am I looking at? :)

Think of it as therapy, both physical and mental.

[oldpotatoe]

Don't some people turn the leaves to mulch with a mulching lawn mower? When I was a kid in Chicago a lot of us went around the neighborhoods hiring ourselves out to rake leaves for homeowners. Of course back then we piles the leaves in the gutter and burned them and the smell of burning leaves still reminds me of those times.

Yup, what my oldest son does. He has a YUGE tree in the front yard..he just 'cuts the grass' and makes mulch.

[TBLS]

Embrace the process - mulch/mow often or if you decide to rake I am a ‘let them all fall’ guy. Buy a tarp and use to consolidate to a big pile.

Just another chore on the list....bigger PITA is cleaning the gutters after they all fall.....

[thwart]

Embrace the process...

This.

We have enough trees (with sequential leaf drops) that the yard needs to be done 3 times or more every fall. Raking leaves on a cool fall day really isn't that bad.

BTW, you really can't mulch maple leaves that are 3-4 inches deep.

[buddybikes]

We have 1/2 acre with huge oaks and few maples. The acorns this year basically blanket the yard. My wife spent last Sat outside raking (I am still recovering from back surgery). We have a high school kid late season (november) come and bring "heavy" equipment. One challenge is to move the leave, another to get rid of...he filled 2 pickup truck full (with high cap that dumps).

Nothing wrong with supporting local economy finding a neighborhood kid...

[daker13]

One of the worst parts of suburbia. I tried to rake my own leaves for a few years but it was way too time-consuming, then hired local kids a couple times and they're either too casual about it or I have too many leaves. I finally buckled, and now pay for fall clean-up. I don't mind a little raking but it does get old after a few years.

[paredown]

Leaves! We have a lot of leaves (a few less now that we took down on big white oak that was cracking the foundation).

I will mulch the first lot with the mower, but for the remainder I will blow them into rows, and put them through an electric leaf mulcher, and them pile up the leaf mulch in one place for later garden use, and/or use them to cover flower beds.

It is not a fast method, but leaves will compost much faster if they are ground up. And I wish that the leaf chopper/mulchers were better constructed--I have destroyed two Flowtrons already, and I'm pretty careful. I've got one called Workforce' now. The problem is that the heavy chipper/shredders don't do leaves very well, and the light leaf shredders choke on twigs... These things work like an upside down string trimmer. (People used to use string trimmers in garbage pails of leaves to get the same effect.)

For me it is usually a three pass process--last lawn cutting/shred with the mower; one big clean up when most are down, and the third in the spring once they have all blown back...

[chiasticon]

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/mulching-leaves/THIS. mulch 'em up. just keep on top of it (even if the grass doesn't need to be cut) so you're not trying to go through piles of 'em. at most, you'll have to spread those out with a rake, or pull some of the leaves out of your flowerbeds, etc. mulching is WAY better than raking or leaf-blowing, and good for your yard too.

[tv_vt]

From a Vermonter - When the leaves are damp, just mow the yard and leave the chopped up leaves on the grass. Mow twice if you have to, but leave the mulch for the trees. Don't break the cycle by bagging them up.

[echappist]

thanks to everyone for chiming in.

How many mowing/mulching sessions would I be looking at? Is it something like once every week (or perhaps even every ten days), or would it need to be quite a bit more frequent?

If the mower mulching does the job, then i'd be happy to just do it myself, as it'll be 4 hours of time at most, dealing with the leaves. Unfortunately, I don't have the patience with raking and bagging, as that'd require 10 hours or so, and I'd much rather pay someone to get rid of the leaves in that case (blowing, vacuuming, or otherwise).

We aren't too concerned about how the grass fares, as we are renting and don't own the place (a bit expedient, but oh well). The last tenant/ landlord didn't exactly leave the garden in a nice condition, with a lot of weeds (tall shrubs, and not just crab grass) everywhere, and we don't particularly feel obligated to place that much care, especially as we'll be paying to get rid of the weeds ourselves.

Waiting for the followup post labelled: "OT: driveway snow removal in the upper midwest; how many hours am I looking at? :)

Think of it as therapy, both physical and mental.

that i'm perfectly happy and content to do myself :)

though i will have to hire someone to come in on an ad hoc basis when we travel though... not really amused by it, too, since we may have to hire people without workmen's comp to do this, and I'm concerned about falls. I might as well eat the fines from the city in that case...

We have 1/2 acre with huge oaks and few maples. The acorns this year basically blanket the yard. My wife spent last Sat outside raking (I am still recovering from back surgery). We have a high school kid late season (november) come and bring "heavy" equipment. One challenge is to move the leave, another to get rid of...he filled 2 pickup truck full (with high cap that dumps).

Nothing wrong with supporting local economy finding a neighborhood kid...

if it really is going to be 10 hrs+, we will likely go that route

[chiasticon]

How many mowing/mulching sessions would I be looking at? Is it something like once every week (or perhaps even every ten days), or would it need to be quite a bit more frequent?totally depends on what kind of trees are on/around your property, and when their leaves actually fall. I'd imagine it wouldn't be too bad though; likely two or three mulching-specific mows. just be careful not to let them pile up too much or get too wet; bad for your mower and dangerous for you.

either way, you're looking at maybe two hours worth of work versus 10+ for raking and bagging them...

[teleguy57]

BTW, you really can't mulch maple leaves that are 3-4 inches deep.

Actually, I do, but it can take 4-5 passes with the mulching mower, and there's sometimes a deep enough row of mulched leaf material that I'll rake it up and take it t to the recycling center. ut still much better than raking the leaves as the material is so much more compact in volume.

We're in a suburban town where we're responsible for our own leaves; when I lived in the city itself the municipality picked up leaves/mulch/yard waste from the curb in the fall.

FWIW, we have a large yard with 6 mature ash, 4 big birch (including one that towers over the second story of our house) 3 maples and a locust. Of course, each drops their leaves at a different time :eek::rolleyes: The locust leaves have those darn stalks that don't mulch all that well.

The biggest pain actually is getting the dropped leaves out of all the landscaped beds around the house and yard. I rake (or sometime blow) the leaves from the beds into the yard and mow them into mulch.

Ah, wait. The biggest pain is keeping the gutters cleared of all the dropped leaves. Thinking it may be time to spend money on one of those leaf/gutter systems, so if anyone has a recommendation for brand would love to hear it.

Saw somewhere recently about how much landfill space is taken up by raked leaves; it was a scary number.

edit: just saw the OP's question about how often. I'm a bit anal about it, but when the grass is growing fast or in the fall I'm cutting/muching twice a week to keep ahead of things. It does cut into my riding time! :)

[FlashUNC]

thanks to everyone for chiming in.

How many mowing/mulching sessions would I be looking at? Is it something like once every week (or perhaps even every ten days), or would it need to be quite a bit more frequent?

If the mower mulching does the job, then i'd be happy to just do it myself, as it'll be 4 hours of time at most, dealing with the leaves. Unfortunately, I don't have the patience with raking and bagging, as that'd require 10 hours or so, and I'd much rather pay someone to get rid of the leaves in that case (blowing, vacuuming, or otherwise).

We aren't too concerned about how the grass fares, as we are renting and don't own the place (a bit expedient, but oh well). The last tenant/ landlord didn't exactly leave the garden in a nice condition, with a lot of weeds (tall shrubs, and not just crab grass) everywhere, and we don't particularly feel obligated to place that much care, especially as we'll be paying to get rid of the weeds ourselves.



that i'm perfectly happy and content to do myself :)

though i will have to hire someone to come in on an ad hoc basis when we travel though... not really amused by it, too, since we may have to hire people without workmen's comp to do this, and I'm concerned about falls. I might as well eat the fines from the city in that case...



if it really is going to be 10 hrs+, we will likely go that route

Wait you're renting? Then just set the yard on fire and be done with it.

[oldpotatoe]

We have 1/2 acre with huge oaks and few maples. The acorns this year basically blanket the yard. My wife spent last Sat outside raking (I am still recovering from back surgery). We have a high school kid late season (november) come and bring "heavy" equipment. One challenge is to move the leave, another to get rid of...he filled 2 pickup truck full (with high cap that dumps).

Nothing wrong with supporting local economy finding a neighborhood kid...

Sure ya are..wink, wink...:)

[loxx0050]

One thing is for certain...unless you wait until every single leaf has fallen from every tree in the yard you'll have to take care of the leafs multiple times over several different days for a few weeks (or more).

I've got a mature maple and a paper birch in my back yard with the neighbors having another mature maple and other birches surrounding me (in the back). A mature ash and a still young ash (starting to get big) and another paper birch in the front (with neighbors having the same type of trees around me too). For Sept to early Oct I cheat and mow the lawn with a bag to get rid of those leaves. But it takes 2x as long because the bag fills up so quickly. When the maple finally decides to puke all it's leaves at once that takes forever to clean up (we're talking a few hours just for that one). It did that the other week while I was on a mini-vacation but haven't had a chance to work on that yet (rain and spending the last few warm days doing car maintenance since I don't have a heated garage).

I do use a leaf blower but only on the landscape to get them out of the rocks and flower/plant garden areas only. I do mulch it a little but probably not as much as I should honestly.

[saab2000]

Home ownership involves these travails. Snow removal is another part of living in the upper Midwest.

I recently moved from a single-family home in west Michigan to a townhouse in the soulless suburban wastelands of strip malls and chain restaurants southwest of Chicago. I can't say I loved the raking and snow removal but it was part of the deal I signed up for and at some level it was satisfying to see the results. Now I'm paying a monthly fee to not have to do those things. The snow removal was a bigger deal for me as western MI gets a lot of snow and I never could predict when I'd be able to do it and it needs to be done in a timely fashion. Leaf removal isn't an immediate need.

Here are some pics of my old place in Michigan, specifically of the joys of leaf and snow removal.

This one was taken in mid-November of last year. Probably the final raking of the year to get what I couldn't chop up with the mower. The next one was taken a year earlier after a number of passes with the mulching mower. The bottom one was taken in January of this year and shows what western MI is like in winter.......

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48942456847_4414ff57f2_b.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48941719353_173875f725_b.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48942264381_beebdbf613_b.jpg

[Ken Robb]

FWIW the payment to our HOA covers ALL exterior maintenance and it is the one we are HAPPIEST writing. :banana::)

[wc1934]

As mentioned, leaf blower, tarp and bagging - ugh - cuts into riding time for sure. If purchasing a blower it is the CFM's that matter, not MPH.

[Hellgate]

Our yardman bags as a part of his service. I happily pay his very reasonable bill.

[Ralph]

FWIW the payment to our HOA covers ALL exterior maintenance and it is the one we are HAPPIEST writing. :banana::)

That's our next move. In the long run it's cheaper also. I imagine your HOA reserves for the big expenditures.

[batman1425]

Def. mulching. Bagging (both grass and leaves) is a major cause of nitrogen depletion in soil, which you then have to spend $$$ on fertilizations to correct. Lawns can be surprisingly well balanced if you don't get in the way of the nutrient cycling too much. There are certain scenarios where bagging is better, but in general, it helps to return that biomass to the soil.

Also - don't skimp on the mowing in the fall. Your lawn will do better long term with shorter cuts before the winter months to avoid snow mold.

[Ken Robb]

That's our next move. In the long run it's cheaper also. I imagine your HOA reserves for the big expenditures.

YES, CA. law requires regular analysis of reserves/budgets and our limits annual dues increases to 10% max without a vote of all owners. We also buy Earthquake insurance. Many other HOAs do not. Leslie and I also buy Earthquake insurance for our home's interior and belongings which are not covered by the HOA policy.

Some of the best local Realtors can probably give you a general idea of how well the HOAs work in various complexes in any area you are considering. I guess you will be able or required to review the HOA rules and any covenants/ restrictions on usage prior to closing.

[Ralph]

Believe it or not....Here in Central Florida my yard is covered in live oak trees. And leaves, leaves, leaves in my yard. I just mow them in. Maybe once or twice a year....too many to mow and I have to rake. I would suggest you use the mower/mulcher as much as possible (even if grass/weeds not in growing season in your area), and only rake what you can't mow over. Here...we mow about all year anyway.

[benb]

Just say NO to bagging the leaves and trucking them off somewhere else to compost. That's a ton of extra work. In my yard it's probably 10X the work to rake & bag vs mowing + compost.

We just mow them up with the bagging mower.. they get chopped up and reduce in size like crazy.

Then we dump them in a compost heap. Leaves & Grass reduce in volume by > 50% in a few days. They compost down to nothing over the course of the next year and then can be spread back into the lawn.

We used to do the big paper bags... it'd take like 50 bags to clean up our leaves. I have a Subaru Outback, with the back seats folded down I'd maybe get 10 bags in and then have to drive to the town compost facility.

We have one area of our yard which can't be seen and doesn't get enough sun to grow grass so that's where we compost. Our leaf situation is bad. We don't have giant trees in our yard.. but the entire property is ringed by 75+ ft high maple trees & pine trees just on the other side of our fence.. they dump massive amounts of material into our yard. Ours is so much leaf material we can't just leave it and let it cover the grass.

[madsciencenow]

Actually, I do, but it can take 4-5 passes with the mulching mower, and there's sometimes a deep enough row of mulched leaf material that I'll rake it up and take it t to the recycling center. ut still much better than raking the leaves as the material is so much more compact in volume.

We're in a suburban town where we're responsible for our own leaves; when I lived in the city itself the municipality picked up leaves/mulch/yard waste from the curb in the fall.

FWIW, we have a large yard with 6 mature ash, 4 big birch (including one that towers over the second story of our house) 3 maples and a locust. Of course, each drops their leaves at a different time :eek::rolleyes: The locust leaves have those darn stalks that don't mulch all that well.

The biggest pain actually is getting the dropped leaves out of all the landscaped beds around the house and yard. I rake (or sometime blow) the leaves from the beds into the yard and mow them into mulch.

Ah, wait. The biggest pain is keeping the gutters cleared of all the dropped leaves. Thinking it may be time to spend money on one of those leaf/gutter systems, so if anyone has a recommendation for brand would love to hear it.

Saw somewhere recently about how much landfill space is taken up by raked leaves; it was a scary number.

edit: just saw the OP's question about how often. I'm a bit anal about it, but when the grass is growing fast or in the fall I'm cutting/muching twice a week to keep ahead of things. It does cut into my riding time! :)



The gutter guards get mucked up with leaves and pine needles and in my experience do more harm than good by rendering the gutter useless so the water rolls over the edge of gutter and rots your eave. The guards do keep leaves out of the downspout but you have to be hyper vigilant about keeping the top unobstructed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SlowPokePete]

I've got a half acre mostly lawn with maples and oaks around the perimeter.

We get a ton of leaves in the Fall and our town requires them to be brown bagged to be picked up, vs the vacuum method used by other municipalities.

There's NO WAY I'm bagging all those leaves.

I have a leaf pile in one corner of my yard...at peak it's 6-10 feet high.

By spring it's just a mound again.

SPP

[Seramount]

altho my city provides each resident with a 96-gallon bin for compostables that is collected weekly, I only use it for tree limbs.

grass, leaves are handled via mulching mower, kitchen scraps go to a compost pile.

[Buzz]

https://www.billygoat.com/na/en_us/support/videos/browse/wheeled-leaf-vs-backpack-blower.html

Get yourself a wheeled leaf blower. This is how we did it when I was a kid. I had a good business especially around the corner from our house in a neighborhood which had really big tree filled lawns. two teenage kids could easily do the work of a whole crew of guys with rakes in 1/4 of the time.even wet matted leafs would move. You just need a friend with a rake to lift an edge of leafs and away it would go. Also would pick up sections of grass if not careful. We blew them onto a tarp and dragged them down to the street curb. There would be long mounds running in the street curb that the city would then come by and suck up with a giant vacuum into dump trucks. Made a lot of money that way and the same in the winter with a really good snowblower.

[zmudshark]

Mowing is easier than raking. Mulching is easier than bagging.

Life long Michgander, except for recent Winters, because no one needs that, if it can be avoided.

[Mikej]

I just let them blow around- clean up is futile.

[wildboar]

benb said what I was gonna say, tho better. Find/use an old mower you don't mind getting dusty, then pile up the choppin's and watch them all disintegrate next spring. Cut the grass low before they fall, then mow them using a higher setting.

[GonaSovereign]

Whatever you do, please spare your neighbors the agony of leaf blowers. They ought to be criminalized, and I'm only half kidding. They are incredibly annoying to anyone within two blocks.

Mulch. Mulch and then mulch until your lawn can't take it anymore. Then use actual rakes because the soil will appreciate it. It's called work for a reason and leaf blowers may blow away a couple leaves, but your neighbors will hate you and the soil won't know anything ever happened if it hasn't been toiled by a rake. Greener grass is the reward of actual raking.

Look at your municipal rules. You're probably looking at 10-20 hours of work, tops. It's part of living in the upper Midwest with mature hardwoods.

Quoting this post because it is the correct answer. Half acre or less: get a rake. Get some bags. Rake and bag.

You'll be outside, you'll build a bit of muscle tone, and you're not belching single stroke engine garbage into the air.

[jghall]

I'll 54th the mulching suggestion. Good for the grass.

You'll need to get a different mower though, as that is the one flaw of the Ego.

[Mikej]

Oh the self righteous and OTHER people’s pollution....

[hartmmike]

[

[hartmmike]

https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2019/10/05

[commonguy001]

I mostly mulched until they got too deep, we lived in a neighborhood full of mature trees and you ended up with inches of leaves when they really started to drop. You usually had to clean up three times and I just bagged them with my rider and disposed of with paper recycling bags the yard recycling service would pick up. About 1/3 acre and maybe 4-5 hours in total.

Best thing about early snow was knowing I was done with yard work...

[benb]

For the size of yards we’re talking about an electric corded blower with a long extension cord works fine and isn’t running a 2 stroke. I would generally say FU to anyone who gave me a hard time about running a two stroke. I have a 2-stroke weed wacker. It’s used about 5 minutes every 2-3 weeks and I’ve gone through less than 2 gallons of gas for it in 10 years of ownership. A lithium ion battery electric one probably would have required disposal of a battery by now. Not everything is the same as cars.

The exception would be those a-holes who just blow all the leaves into the road.

[Mzilliox]

so nature purposely drops her leaves where she wants them but we have decided we know better? why? leaves are prettier than lawn, leave them. do the world a favor and stop destroying her soil.

or you know, spend fuel and time blowing around things which will rot in a bit and offer nutrient, then spend more money on fake nutrient. then buy some dyed bark in the name of mulching, and put it where you just removed those leaves from. rinse and repeat.

oh, and mow, always mow, and spray, twice per week, wouldnt want any diversity would ya? nope, just that overly useful grass.

alternative viewpoint rant over

[C40_guy]

The exception would be those a-holes who just blow all the leaves into the road.

Last Thursday we had a pretty big wind "event" in New England. Wind was blowing 30-50, with gusts as high as 90 recorded on Cape Cod. Didn't slow down until Thursday evening.

I woke up to the sound of a chain saw Thursday morning...Neighbor was cutting up two trees that had fallen across his driveway.

Shortly after I drove to an appointment, and saw a landscaping crew cleaning up a commercial property...blowing leaves. They were not winning.

[benb]

so nature purposely drops her leaves where she wants them but we have decided we know better? why? leaves are prettier than lawn, leave them. do the world a favor and stop destroying her soil.

or you know, spend fuel and time blowing around things which will rot in a bit and offer nutrient, then spend more money on fake nutrient. then buy some dyed bark in the name of mulching, and put it where you just removed those leaves from. rinse and repeat.

oh, and mow, always mow, and spray, twice per week, wouldnt want any diversity would ya? nope, just that overly useful grass.

alternative viewpoint rant over

This this is cool is if you just don't want to have a lawn.

"Yard" is not the natural state of a lot of the areas of the US we like to live in. A field of grass in New England is no more natural than a field of grass in Arizona.

In AZ if you leave a field alone the grass will die off and it will go back to desert.

In New England the trees will grow up, block the light from reaching the lawn, drop their leaves and block even more light, etc.. and turn the field into forest.

Nature will do totally fine but it won't produce a field of grass most places. My yard would get reclaimed by forest. Specifically it would very rapidly (on natures's scale) fill up with maple trees. We probably mow down 1000 maple shoots every spring.

Seems like some areas of the midwest nature will produce a field of grass but it won't be 3" high grass it would be feet high.

[FlashUNC]

In New England the trees will grow up, block the light from reaching the lawn, drop their leaves and block even more light, etc.. and turn the field into forest.

Nature will do totally fine but it won't produce a field of grass most places. My yard would get reclaimed by forest. Specifically it would very rapidly (on natures's scale) fill up with maple trees. We probably mow down 1000 maple shoots every spring.


This was the mistake the Ewoks made on the Forest Moon of Endor. Not enough mowing.

[William]

This this is cool is if you just don't want to have a lawn.

"Yard" is not the natural state of a lot of the areas of the US we like to live in. A field of grass in New England is no more natural than a field of grass in Arizona.

In AZ if you leave a field alone the grass will die off and it will go back to desert.

In New England the trees will grow up, block the light from reaching the lawn, drop their leaves and block even more light, etc.. and turn the field into forest.

Nature will do totally fine but it won't produce a field of grass most places. My yard would get reclaimed by forest. Specifically it would very rapidly (on natures's scale) fill up with maple trees. We probably mow down 1000 maple shoots every spring.

Seems like some areas of the midwest nature will produce a field of grass but it won't be 3" high grass it would be feet high.


Trees will grow in NE and block light and then bury everything in a thick bed of dead leaves. That is true. But, when natural cycles of fire come into the picture the result will be different. Settlers described areas of forest to be very "park like" when they arrived. The native population used fire to clear areas and in the aftermath natual grasses would grow. Obviously natural fires will do the same. Today many wooded areas of NE are choked with dead wood, thorny bushes, and invasive ivy which grows into and chokes out the trees. Fire is quashed asap so the forest are piled high with fuel.

Nothing more frustrating than spending the entire day raking/blowing and picking up leaves only to come out the next day and have it look like you did absolutely nothing. Now do that at least five or six more times. That's what it was like every Fall at our place in NE. If you didn't do it you would have ten inches of dead soggy leaves killing everything (that you would want in your yard) underneath them.

Everyone loves the fall colors, to me that just meant time for hours and days of clean up. Now I look at the Fall colors and think...glad I don't have to pick that up!!:banana:







W.

[echappist]

Quick clarification on things. Right now, my mower is set to the second lowest (so quite a bit of grass will be lopped off), is the suggestion then to have it on the highest setting then? What is the benefit here?

Also, I did my last lawn mowing of the season last Thursday and was remarking to my partner how surprised I was that the leaves on the front lawn got shredded up (this is with the 2nd lowest setting)

totally depends on what kind of trees are on/around your property, and when their leaves actually fall. I'd imagine it wouldn't be too bad though; likely two or three mulching-specific mows. just be careful not to let them pile up too much or get too wet; bad for your mower and dangerous for you.

either way, you're looking at maybe two hours worth of work versus 10+ for raking and bagging them...

is the danger basically slips and falls, or are you referring to something else?


I've got a half acre mostly lawn with maples and oaks around the perimeter.

We get a ton of leaves in the Fall and our town requires them to be brown bagged to be picked up, vs the vacuum method used by other municipalities.

There's NO WAY I'm bagging all those leaves.

I have a leaf pile in one corner of my yard...at peak it's 6-10 feet high.

By spring it's just a mound again.

SPP

as in, nature absorbs most of it?

I mostly mulched until they got too deep, we lived in a neighborhood full of mature trees and you ended up with inches of leaves when they really started to drop. You usually had to clean up three times and I just bagged them with my rider and disposed of with paper recycling bags the yard recycling service would pick up. About 1/3 acre and maybe 4-5 hours in total.

Best thing about early snow was knowing I was done with yard work...

that doesn't sound too bad

though i don't think i can get away with stopping next week (when the first snow will hit)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48942264381_beebdbf613_b.jpg

Nice wagon :)

Btw, who takes care of the snow when no one is at home to shovel? Do you just let a kid do it (and try not to think about what happens should the kid get injured) or do you hire a company with workmen's comp?

[Bostic]

Learn to Embrace the Rake! There are Japanese Zelkova and Liquid Ambar trees all over the block where I live. Every week around this time I rake up an impressive pile of leaves on the curb for the sanitation company to pick up once a week on garbage day. For a time we did have a bi-weekly gardener service but cancelled that as I still raked the week they didn't show up. I refuse to use a blower.

Liquid Ambar seed pods are nature's Lego's to step on!

[saab2000]

Nice wagon :)

Btw, who takes care of the snow when no one is at home to shovel? Do you just let a kid do it (and try not to think about what happens should the kid get injured) or do you hire a company with workmen's comp?

Thanks! It’s actually my 2006 VW GTI, with Blizzaks. They look much longer from above.

I no longer live in this house. But when I did I made all people who approached my sidewalk sign a waiver releasing me from liability if they slipped. I also required proof of insurance from all guests.

Actually, my neighbors helped shovel or snowblow the driveway when I wasn’t home. I’ve subsequently moved and now live in a townhouse. No more snow removal for me though I expect my OCD side will still try hard to keep my driveway and sidewalks dry and free of ice and snow in winter.

Western Chicago suburbs will get less snow on average than western Michigan, which gets significant lake effect snow that Chicago doesn’t get because of the prevailing winds.

[wallymann]

i get the dim view toward the din of blowers, but i'm in the same boat: 1.5 acres surrounded by mature trees...no f*cking way a single human being can rake that while holding down a real job. we dont have neighborhood vacuuming, so its either bag it up or hire it out. a backpack blower was a game-changer.


A backpack leaf blower changed my leaf blowing life for the good as I'm dealing with one acre of mature trees and one acre of grass...not a good combination in the Fall, as I'll be blowing leaves from this weekend through Thanksgiving...at least.

The home essentially sits in the middle of the property and I blow the leaves in the rear into the woods and the leaves in the front to the road, as our borough vacuums the leaves and mulches them. I can't wait to downsize and move to a condo and chuck all of the lawn tools and garden implements, not to mention rid myself of the herd of overfed deer that parade through my yard twice a day. I just need to convince my wife...

[benb]

Trees will grow in NE and block light and then bury everything in a thick bed of dead leaves. That is true. But, when natural cycles of fire come into the picture the result will be different. Settlers described areas of forest to be very "park like" when they arrived. The native population used fire to clear areas and in the aftermath natual grasses would grow. Obviously natural fires will do the same. Today many wooded areas of NE are choked with dead wood, thorny bushes, and invasive ivy which grows into and chokes out the trees. Fire is quashed asap so the forest are piled high with fuel.


I don't think this is terribly accurate.. that's west coast ecosystems. We have way way way too much rain & moisture for wildfires to have ever been the way stuff got cleared out by nature in the northeast. We have serious tree cover these days. It's amazing to fly over even the densely populated areas in Eastern MA.. it just looks like green everywhere, very forested. MUCH more forested than it was 300-400 years ago. I live & ride around a lot of the sites of the early revolutionary battles... a lot of the tactical stuff that happened could not even happen today. They could see great distances back then because everything was clearcut. There are some documented cases where the Minutemen or British were waiting on a hill and could see the enemy.. today they'd never have been able to see the enemy from that spot.

The plants in the west literally evolved differently due to the frequent fires.. our plants are not like that at all.

Here's it's just decomposition. Mushroom season!


Everyone loves the fall colors, to me that just meant time for hours and days of clean up. Now I look at the Fall colors and think...glad I don't have to pick that up!!:banana:


The flip side is the riding is pretty amazing at this time of year for us. Last 3 rides for me... 60 degrees, light wind, low angle sun flickering through a riot of color whether on the road or in the woods. The weather is so perfect you don't even need as much hydration as usual. It's like serious cycling mental therapy time. It might be my favorite season to ride in. It is 100% my favorite season to ride MTB in, especially when you get just the right amount of leaf cover and it decomposes just enough and yet is dry. You get great traction and it somehow softens all the hits on the trail.. yet not all the leaves are off the trees so it's still super beautiful.

[YesNdeed]

Paint, brushes, scrap wood, planters...small, creative projects, I’m in. Haaaate yard word. Best 60 bucks I spend all year, hiring the dude next-door to pick up leaves and pull weeds.

[William]

I don't think this is terribly accurate.. that's west coast ecosystems. We have way way way too much rain & moisture for wildfires to have ever been the way stuff got cleared out by nature in the northeast. We have serious tree cover these days. It's amazing to fly over even the densely populated areas in Eastern MA.. it just looks like green everywhere, very forested. MUCH more forested than it was 300-400 years ago. I live & ride around a lot of the sites of the early revolutionary battles... a lot of the tactical stuff that happened could not even happen today. They could see great distances back then because everything was clearcut. There are some documented cases where the Minutemen or British were waiting on a hill and could see the enemy.. today they'd never have been able to see the enemy from that spot.

The plants in the west literally evolved differently due to the frequent fires.. our plants are not like that at all.

Here's it's just decomposition. Mushroom season!





My point was just that the native populations used fire to change the landscape in NE. Not that it was part of the natural process like it is out West with Poderosa Pine and the like. I was pulling this from my Forestry program syllabus in college....

https://www.amazon.com/Changes-Land-Indians-Colonists-Ecology/dp/0809016346


W.

[teleguy57]

Also, I did my last lawn mowing of the season last Thursday and was remarking to my partner how surprised I was that the leaves on the front lawn got shredded up (this is with the 2nd lowest setting)

Really? I'm NE of you in Appleton and I'm usually mowing/mulching (I don't differentiate this time of year) until the first snowfall, maybe even once more after that. Otherwise there's too much stuff laying on top of the grass which can cause dead spots in the spring....

Oh, but in an earlier post in this thread I did acknowledge mowing twice a week most of the year:)

[echappist]

how long do I need to wait before I can mulch the leaves again?

I got in some mulching on Monday before a minor snowfall, which covered up all the leaves that fell after Monday. Now the leaves got covered up some more (with I guess 3 inches of snow)? Don't thinkt he snow will melt/sublimate much until next week, by which time more snow may be falling.

Thoughts on this? Should I mulch wet leaves (which are much harder to mulch) or wait until they get dried up? There's also the issue of while I wait, more new leaves will fall...

[kppolich]

How many leaves are still on the trees? Here in Milwaukee, 10 mins with the leaf blower got the ground clear, but i'm waiting for round II until the trees are bare.

[echappist]

A lot. The big maple tree in the front yard has barely dropped any leaves...