What do you do with your leaves when they fall ?

[sweetkymom]

My husband and I usually just leave the leaves on the ground every year. We mow over them unless we feel a need to take them up. I don't find a need to rake them up because they fall just as fast as you pick them up.

 

[Tigress]

I usually pick them up.. every other day. It's not fun but kind of therapeutic

 

[forextraspecialstuff]

My parents remove the leaves immediately. The neighborhood association where they live is pretty aggressive about leaf removal so they don't really have a choice. Regardless I think they would remove them anyway.

 

[Lostvalleyguy]

We rake them up and dig them into the compost. Where we have leaves, the cabin sits empty all winter so they have some time to sit around and decay. The main thing is not to just leave them in a pile where we are or they would dry out completely and just blow around in the wind.

In the city, people just get out the leaf blowers (which I loathe) and blow their mess onto the streets. Usually after they have turned to mush, the city gets around to clearing the roads. The city offers bags to home owners to send their leaves for composting but most people can't be bothered and just leave the mess for the city to deal with.

 

[Rosyrain]

I do not like leaves in my lawn as I think it looks messy. We rake them up and leave them in a pile at the edge of the yard all winter to break down and decay. During the spring, you can mix them with other compost and walaaa...natural fertilizer. I have heard it is very good for your plants as there are a ton of nutrients that remain.

 

[Cheesy Potatoes]

We usually just sweep them and put them in a pile in the corner and leave it to decay or something. We then use those as soil for potted plants or for our plant box since the dog always digs holes there.

 

[Pat]

We have 5 large trees in the backyard which at the end of summer drop loads of leaves on the yard. Those leaves are raked up and sent to the dump. I would prefer to compost them but it is not my choice.

 

[Dez97]

I rake them up. Sometimes I also keep them and crush them up in my garden as fertilizer.

 

[gmckee1985]

Usually wait until they pile up as high as they'll go. Then I start raking them. Usually takes a full weekend or two. Eventually I pile them all together and burn them. Seems like a pretty efficient way to do things.

 

[zigs]

What a waste when you could be making leafmold

 

[marlingardener]

We mow up the leaves and catch them in the mower's bag, then spread them on the garden and till them in. I have even been known to go to a nearby pecan orchard and rake up leaves and bring them home for the compost pile. Leaves are great for the soil, and they are free!

 

[Danyel72]

This year, I left the leaves on the ground over the winter to protect the lawn, so the rain does not erode the soil like it usually does. It does not look as nice as the neighboing yards where everything is all raked up, but my front yard slopes down to the road, and when the rain comes out of the rain gutters, it runs don over the lawn, and has taken off a lot of the dirt, leaving the tree toots exposed.
I am not able to afford having a load of topsoil put on the yard, so i decided to try and replenish it naturally by composting it with leaves, and grass clippings, and then making some raised flowerbeds to cover up the tree roots.
That way, it will stop the rain from just running straight through the yard, and hopefully divert it down the driveway, where it won't hurt the dirt.
How does everyone else deal with this problem ??

Well... we live in Florida now and the leaves don't really fall here. When I lived in NY though, when the fall season came and the leaves started to fall we would rake them and bag them in those huge black lawn bags and put them out to the curb. Our city would haul them away as long as they were bagged properly.

Danyel

 

[helagumamela]

I throw them away. I live in a tropical country, so there is no need to protect the lawn from extreme cold. Every Wednesday, the garbage collector that collects dried leaves and twigs comes, so I just give the leaves there. I think that the city makes them into a compost or something like that.

 

[Momhardatwork]

This year, I left the leaves on the ground over the winter to protect the lawn, so the rain does not erode the soil like it usually does. It does not look as nice as the neighboing yards where everything is all raked up, but my front yard slopes down to the road, and when the rain comes out of the rain gutters, it runs don over the lawn, and has taken off a lot of the dirt, leaving the tree toots exposed.
I am not able to afford having a load of topsoil put on the yard, so i decided to try and replenish it naturally by composting it with leaves, and grass clippings, and then making some raised flowerbeds to cover up the tree roots.
That way, it will stop the rain from just running straight through the yard, and hopefully divert it down the driveway, where it won't hurt the dirt.
How does everyone else deal with this problem ??

I live in an apartment now and only have a deck garden, however, before we moved we had a huge backyard that had lots of trees and so we accumulated so many leaves. The first year we bagged about 35 bags, not knowing the full benefit of how to use the leaves. After the first year, we found what worked best was to bag some, mulch the rest and use them for the flower beds and vegetable garden. The soil was always so rich and dark. Also, there were so many worms and I was always happy to see them. Anything I planted would grow so well. As long as you do not have so much in the yard that it chokes your grass out and it is just a layer of protection, why not?

 

[Sunny]

It floods in our area often, so we can't store enough dried leaves to turn into a compost pile. It is not illegal to burn leaves in our town; so, we just burn them under the fruit trees after sweeping the yard every morning. My grandma said that the smoke from burning leaves help the fruit trees bear more fruit. We just do it to keep the yard tidy.

Some of our friends who live in elevated rural areas use dried leaves for mulch for their garden plots and potted plants. I think it is an ideal way to use dead stalks and leaves.