How do you get rid of leaves.

EldoNixon · Sep 7, 2001

As I salivate over the purchase of my new tractor--debating snowblwer, FEL, mulching deck. rototiller, etc. I just realized that my oak trees are going to be a real pain soon.
Other than using a bagging system (which I don't want to buy) is there an easy way to take care of my 4 acres of leaves with my (hopefully soon) BX2200.
I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm a city boy in the country.
Thanks, Eldo.

huckflynn · Sep 7, 2001

There sure is -- mow them into mulch. If the leaves are not so abundant as to smother the lawn with mulch you can just mow them and leave them as lawn food. Otherwise, mow in a pattern to move the leaves into a heap and then rake them into your loader and spread them on your garden.

Huck

NYTrainer · Sep 7, 2001

You'd be surprised how many mulched leaves a lawn can "digest". The problem is you need to "mulch" it and not just side discharge it and leave it on the lawn. (Bigger wet leaves left on the lawn can promote fungus, rot and smother grasses) The other thing is that oak leaves are not the best leaves to mulch into a lawn. You might need to add lime to the lawn to adjust for the higher acidity of the oak leaves when your done.
David

cowboydoc · Sep 7, 2001

Basically you've got four choices. You can pick them up with a bagger unit, you can mulch them, you can use a vacuum attachment for them, or you can rake them.

Charlie_Iliff · Sep 7, 2001

Cowboydoc - You left out that all-important choice number 5 -- leaving them where they fall. I've had great success over the years with that one. Some blow away, some form piles and patterns of free-form mulch. Those on the lawn eventually get mowed when I (or a family member) have the time and energy.

Charlie Iliff

cowboydoc · Sep 7, 2001

/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Very true!!!

RPM · Sep 7, 2001

You should let some leaves be so that the earthworms can mulch them for you.

'tis a little known fact that earthworms come out at night and will pull leaves underground with them to chow on. This accounts for those leaves you occasionally see sticking vertically up out of the ground as if they had managed to impale the lawn.

Strange, but true ... so leave some leaves alone for them!

Patrick

frank_f15 · Sep 7, 2001

i mostly blow them into piles, pick them up and take them down to the burn pit and burn them, those i don't get , nature takes care of some of them tnen the rest i clean up in spring.

Boondox · Sep 7, 2001

Or number six. I blow them into the tree line and toss cracked corn on top. The chickens stir it all up and add fertilizer. I generate huge amounts of mulch that way!

Pete

www.GatewayToVermont.com

theboman · Sep 10, 2001

Leaves are great for gardens, till them in the garden (or lay them on the garden and till them in the spring). Leaves are great for the yard. Leaves sure are messy, but it's the a natural way to give something back to mother earth.
Compost bins are great places to start a leave collection. I am currently working on a bin for leaves/grass etc.

Bluegrass, Pick It Up!

Kelago · Sep 10, 2001

Oak leaves do indeed make great mulch, but even better is composted oak leaves. The boman is right, oak leaf-mould is amongst the best fertilizer you can find...

cp1969 · Sep 10, 2001

You're more likely to need the snowblower before you need to do anything with oak leaves. My pin oaks lose their leaves in the spring; I'm assuming other oaks do, too.

But when they do fall, don't even think about bagging four acres worth--you'd work yourself to death. Just mulch 'em up with the mower.

beenthere · Sep 10, 2001

There are many kinds of oaks, and some (such as pin oaks) normally do not lose their leaves until the buds push them off in the Spring. However, many of the oaks do lose their leaves in the fall.

EldoNixon · Sep 13, 2001

What about maples? We have a number of mature sugar maple and red maple trees as well. Do they make good composte and/or mulch candidates?

NYTrainer · Sep 13, 2001

It is my understanding (doesn't mean I'm right) that most leaves (including maples) are fine mulched right into the lawn but oak leaves are better utilized to make compost and then that can be best used with azaleas, ivy, rhodies and most evergreen, acid loving plant materials.

GlueGuy · Sep 13, 2001

is this option 7 or option 6a?

Let the wind blow them over to your neighbor's yard...

The GlueGuy

RichNJ · Sep 14, 2001

Many years ago I used a trac-vac like system. It was homebrew but worked for 20 years. It had a large trailer with a large screen top and sides and an engine that mounted to the tractor. The engine sucked up the discharge from the MMM and blew it into the top of the trailer. I would dump the leaves into large piles in the woods. Check out http://www.trac-vac.com/ for examples.
After many years of trying other methods I found this one to be the easiest and least time consuming for 3 acres with many trees. The key was a large trailer. The trailer I had was 3-4 times the capacity of the trac-vac trailer.

kerr · Sep 14, 2001

I hate it when that happens!HAAAAA HA!

wdn · Sep 20, 2001

Eldo, with my now defunct Craftsman I just used a cheap-o tow behind 38" lawn sweeper I bought from home depot. For leaf pickup I just tow it behind with the mower deck turned off.

I does a great job picking up leaves as well as grass clippings. It is the cheap, low tech approach but it works. I paid about $200 something at the Depot.

unaka · Sep 21, 2001

Here's my cheaper, lower tech method for getting leaves. It involves a little sweat, but is not back-breaking work.

Each fall my wife and I rake the leaves into sizeable piles, (gloves are a must with rake handles by the way, unless you like blisters)
then we get a king sized blanket or sheet, lay it on the ground, rake the leaf pile onto it, pull the corners together, dump it in the pickup, smash it down by walking on it, repeat. We usually can fill up a full-sized pickup bed and a 7'x4' trailer in one hour or less. Then we back up to the garden and dump it right on top. If we need more leaves, we go down to the forest service road, and get the leaves from the side ditches using the same approach. It is amazing how quickly large quantities of leaves can be gathered in this fashion.

I have my power mowers, riding mowers and such, and I love using them, and I'm still excitedly looking for my first tractor, but sometimes I think we all use these things simply for the sake of using them. In many cases, simple labor is faster, more efficient, cheaper, and in my opinion, more satisfying.

Unaka