Drowning in yard waste- how to dispose?

CalG · Jul 15, 2021

dirttoys said:
True, I would rent one for this project. However, if he has another use case, or deals with this every year might be worth having one around. Mine is handy as a hoot owl And yes it was expensive.

Best,

ed

I would be more than curious to see how a harley rake handled 1/4 acres of foot and a half thick LEAVES!
Those rakes do well with 3 of 4 inches of soil in front of them , but leaves may well carry over the top, and then what?

Like I said, I sure would be curious to see...;-)

oosik · Jul 15, 2021

I had the same problem - but with Ponderosa pine needles. They were everywhere except right around the old homestead house. They were 6" to 12" deep. But the long 'ol pine needles don't compact so much. I was able to use the riding mower to lift, shred and blow the needles into rows.

Used the rear blade and moved the rows into gigantic piles. Used the bucket on the tractor FEL to move the piles to a nearby ravine. That was done in 1983. It took a good twenty years for them to completely rot down.

That's the way it is in and around all my pine stands. A fire hazard - you bet. But by keeping at it, I've reduced that "forrest litter" in and around all the pines stands near the house and out buildings.

Now I move all this material to an open pit where I burn it every fall during our rainy season.

jaxs · Jul 15, 2021

Do the TD9 and dump trucks in your sig run or just sit around giving rust places to sleep? You should have already buried it before now to improve soil.

stuckmotor · Jul 15, 2021

Shreding my leaves with a lawnmower greatly reduces their volume until they decompose. The sharper the blade and the more passes I make, the better.

workinonit · Jul 15, 2021

There's really only one way to get rid of the material. A match. Anything else is just relocating. Plain and simple. So let me get this straight, you live somewhere that you cant burn anything at all and you have 100 acres of land? What if lightning struck and caught it on fire? What you have there is a forest fire hazard.

lman · Jul 15, 2021

I've lived here for 23 years with a lot of trees and I've never burnt a leaf. I do mulch the leaves and it's a miracle they disappear.

pmsmechanic · Jul 15, 2021

Find a Lawn Genie flail mower with a hopper. They will pick up leaves in fall. In fact that's all I use mine for. The leaves get shredded if you clean up when they are dry.

dirttoys · Jul 15, 2021

CalG said:
I would be more than curious to see how a harley rake handled 1/4 acres of foot and a half thick LEAVES!
Those rakes do well with 3 of 4 inches of soil in front of them , but leaves may well carry over the top, and then what?

Like I said, I sure would be curious to see...;-)

Should have taken pictures for you. If straight they will push them, depending on depth it will work some into the soil. Yes if you drop the rake and push with no angle, and not stop when you have a pile, they will go over the top. If you angle and remove one edge stop, you will get a very nice windrow of everything it couldn't work into the soil.

Multiple passes will get some worked into the soil, all the rest to where they can be picked up with a bucket, and the ones you can pick up with the bucket will be somewhat (not a lot) reduced.

Best,

ed

plowhog · Jul 15, 2021

CalG said:
Use that mower and the cyclone if only 1/4 acre.

I use the mower in Fall, on the lawn, often driving over 1 foot of leaves and sucking them up. It pushes a "plume" of leaves in front. Once that plume gets about 30" high I can't get enough traction to push forward anymore. It fills the Cyclone Rake bag quickly but that's its job.

Max cutting height on my mower is 3.5 inches. That works over a flat lawn but I don't think it will work in this irregular rough terrain. My blades would only be about 1/2" above the thick mat of compressed leaves at the bottom, so my blades would be into that plus likely hitting dirt. Not to mention rocks and branches in the debris field-- but not visible. I think it would tear up my mower.