14 Houses' Leaves!

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michchef

Fire Starter
Original poster
Aug 1, 2009
62
10
Flint, Michigan
The city of Flint posted signs last week that leaf pickup would begin in our neighborhood this week and from experience, I knew that they would hit my street the first day, so as soon as the sky started turning gray this morning, I put on some warm clothes and headed out for my yearly leaf collection. That early in the morning I couldn't use my riding mower with the bagger to pick any up, so I started raking folks leaves out into the street. By the time I got them all raked out, it was going on 9:30 AM (I only do front yards) so I went and got my riding mower with a trailer attached and also got out my 6 - 50 gallon trash cans (that I bought just for this purpose) and started shoveling up the leaves that folks had already raked out to the curb plus the ones that I had raked. I'd fill all 6 cans, set them on my trailer then haul them out to the garden. First I filled all 16 of my raised beds then started building a pile to mix with kitchen refuse and another seperate pile to use as mulch once my plants are in next spring. by the time I got all the leaves from all 14 houses gathered up it was 12:30 and I am whupped! The pile of leaves for mulch is over 20 feet long and taller than me. I actually ended up climbing the pile to empty the cans on top.

Happy November to all,
 
I wished I'd have known....You could have come got mine.....LMAO
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Here in KC we use the Religious Method of Leaf Removal...

"The Lord Giveth, The Lord Taketh Away."

PS: This method also works for Snow Removal...
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I just wait for a nice stiff wind to blow the leaves over to the neighbors acreage
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- put up a snow fence on the other side of our property to keep other leaves from visiting.

BTW you are more than welcome to come over and get all the leaves you want! We have alot of trees ( lots of wild cherry so I never have to buy smoking wood
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Now that's funny right there!

I'm sure your garden will appreciate all of your hard work. I'm wondering what the city does with all of them...maybe you could work out a deal with them for more?
 
I can't understand why people don't just mulch the leaves into their lawns. Your story brings back memory from when my grandfather did the same thing. All my cousins and I would play in the leaf pile and have a great time. After a few weeks you could dig down into the pile and it would be warm from the composting action taking place. I didn't understand at the time why grandpa would let us play on it, now I know we were his aerating his pile for him.
 
BBQ Engineer, I thought about that several years ago, but then I decided that there would be too many dog droppings in them. At least here on my street and only raking the front lawns I can pretty much eliminate that. The city has MEGA piles of old rotted leaves that they do nothing with. If I had a lot of non-edible landscape plants that I didn't work in the soil around with my hands, I would definitely consider trying to get some of that old compost.
 
I go buy a case of beer and fire up the smoker and when everyone shows up we set the yard on fire and just burn them, all the drunks get posted around the house for protection. Lat year we found a car as the grass burnt down, I got high hopes this year that we will find another as scrap iron is going up in price.......
 
My brain is trying to process this......
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I am 2 years ahead with my garden compost.All my neighbors use the riding mowers and i grab the shredded leaves and make piles.....before the recycle truck gets them....



All my yard leaves are vacummed and i shred again in march for a killer mulch.It must be 6 inches thick after all these years and full of nutrients/worms....Way better then wood mulch....

OH YEAH-Nicely done on the leaves!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I just mow our yard as usual cause my grass doesn't stop growing and the leafs just keep getting chooed up and back into the yard. Alot of our trees here don't drop leaves but all of those are in other peoples yards not mine we have all oaks and alot of leaves.
 
I have a large 20 foot wide gate used for only one purpose. I open it wide on a really windy fall day and every leaf in my yard blows out into the laneway and out of my life. I have no need for multch as I use the aquatic milfoil sea weed that the city cuts with their huge cutter. They leave it in huge piles on the beach in the spring gardeners like me come from all around to descend upon the piles and take most of it away. The stuff breaks down rapidly and makes great fertilizer. You do have to rototill it in well or it will stink you out of the place.
 
On our 4 acres we have more than our share of leaves... Best thing I ever bought was a DR vac.... use it with the 6ft mower and it shredds up the leaves great...the entire garden had 6" tilled into it this past spring....
 
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