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I don't have many leaves to rake, but a crap ton of pine needles. In the more open areas I run a big lawn sweeper, then dump them in a large pile in my back woods.
It's a part of fire mitigation for us. The areas I can't get with the lawn sweep we hand rake and put them in my tractor bucket and haul them to the pile. I do spread some of them into an approx 20x20 area near the house- my dogs tend to use that as a 'dump' station. When 'full' I rake it up and dump it into a seperate pile in the woods, grab a bucket or 5 of the 'clean' needles and replace their doody station. Works great for us- keeps the crap outta the gravel driveway.
Oh man, I wish I had access to your pine needles. When I bought my lake lot this year my helper raked up a ton of the pine needles and cones from the front of the lot, plus 5 years of accumulated leaves. Then the grass grew and he had to weed eat it a couple of times. So now I need pine needles to keep the grass down again (but no cones - they're a slip and fall hazard for me). Those needles are not cheap to buy!
Oh man, I wish I had access to your pine needles. When I bought my lake lot this year my helper raked up a ton of the pine needles and cones from the front of the lot, plus 5 years of accumulated leaves. Then the grass grew and he had to weed eat it a couple of times. So now I need pine needles to keep the grass down again (but no cones - they're a slip and fall hazard for me). Those needles are not cheap to buy!
Isn't that stupid? I can't believe they sell pine needle 'mulch'. I've got a pile 6' tall and 20'ft in circumference. It takes forever to rot down.
I let the wind take care of my leaves. Most of them are blown across the street into wooded lots. What doesn't get blown across the street I blow onto my partially wooded spare lot to let them dissolve naturally. Any leftovers are mulched into my lawn when I mow the last time.
I use a lawn tractor and just cut my lawn right up until Thanksgiving week. Our town has a vacuum truck, so we just dump the grass and leaves on the curb. We also get a ton of pine needles. If I didn’t cut and collect the grass, leaves, pine needles there would be no lawn, despite the statements above that the leaves simply disappear or break down into the soil by spring time. Lol. It’s more work, but only for about a month or so, four or five Saturdays.
Our town also has a recycling program. They collect all this yard waste and compost it. It’s available to residents, I believe for free.
Got about 6 acres filled with deciduous and pine trees. Massive amounts of leaves and pine needles. Use the tractor to mulch/ blow them from the driveway, walking paths and the 1 acre of lawn. Majority of the debris ends up in the woods.
I only rake the leaves along the path to my chicken coop and then use them as mulch on my strawberry patch-- great protection for the winter...Two horticulturists from the Uof I Extension discuss this, among many other things, here https://extension.illinois.edu/podcasts/good-growing They live in communities that bag their raked leaves, to be left by the curb for pick-up. These guys take advantage of that by beating the public works truck to the task and score loads of free mulch/composting material for their gardens.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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After a pretty severe windstorm Friday, with some power outages, we lost most of the rest of the leaves. So yesterday I cranked up the mulching riding mower, and mowed the lawns, turning the leaves into nice fine mulch that stays on the grass to help feed it. Of course, I did have to use the leaf blower to get the driveway clear first and blow that onto the lawn.
I mulch my leaves into the ground several times with an electric mower. That works at the beginning of fall, but at some point there are just too many leaves to mulch and if they stayed on the lawn they would smother the grass. I understand that there are environment reasons to have a completely natural and grassless lawn. But I can't afford to lose property value by destroying the lawn. It would be better to not paint the house either, environmentally speaking, but I can't afford that either. So it's a tradeoff between property owner needs and the environment. I try to strike a balance by mowing as many leaves as possible into the soil, but an electric mower also has an environmental cost.
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