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

[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]

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[hartmmike]

[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]

Originally Posted by benb

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]

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by benb

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]

Originally Posted by benb

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!!







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)

Originally Posted by chiasticon

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?

Originally Posted by 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

as in, nature absorbs most of it?

Originally Posted by 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...

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)

Originally Posted by 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?

[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]

Originally Posted by echappist

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.

Originally Posted by 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...