Leaf fall has begun!

[DirtMechanic]

Making piles. This is about half I guess. More coming. We are usually done by late December and early January.

 

[Gail_68]

Good god it definitely keeps you on...no wonder we was both going mad

 

[roadrunner]

Around here, leaf fall lasts all winter and into the spring. We have a lot of live oaks here, my favorite leaf mulch, and the tree is not deciduous, but it's also not an evergreen, rather it's semi-deciduous and it starts losing its leaves this time of year, but very, very slowly and picks up as winter goes on, maxing out in late winter/very early spring. What's funny is that it generally only loses between 25 - 50% of its crown.

Then you got the Southern Magnolia, which is also semi-deciduous, but it doesn't start losing its leaves until early spring and it's very strange, because it drops tons of leaves, but if you look up at the tree it seems to have a full crown of leaves -- it never seems to be deficient in the number of leaves

You definitely want to mulch those leaves up with a lawn mower.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Around here, leaf fall lasts all winter and into the spring. We have a lot of live oaks here, my favorite leaf mulch, and the tree is not deciduous, but it's also not an evergreen, rather it's semi-deciduous and it starts losing its leaves this time of year, but very, very slowly and picks up as winter goes on, maxing out in late winter/very early spring. What's funny is that it generally only loses between 25 - 50% of its crown.

Then you got the Southern Magnolia, which is also semi-deciduous, but it doesn't start losing its leaves until early spring and it's very strange, because it drops tons of leaves, but if you look up at the tree it seems to have a full crown of leaves -- it never seems to be deficient in the number of leaves

You definitely want to mulch those leaves up with a lawn mower.

And watch out for the shooting seedpods while mowing! I mulch all of it in winter, but in summer we use them to hold back weeds on the trails in our ittle patch of woods.

 

[roadrunner]

And watch out for the shooting seedpods while mowing! I mulch all of it in winter, but in summer we use them to hold back weeds on the trails in our ittle patch of woods.

I've ruined two lawn mower blades on those Southern Magnolia seed pods, so I'm pretty good at sifting them out now.

I still like having them though, because they are very good for composting, I've seen on at least three occasions earthworms tunneling thru them, much like an apple. I also like them for making pathways....

 

[LouisFerdinand]

https://flic.kr/p/aJ1Lkr