Fall leaves- do you rake them up, or just leave 'em ? Pros & Cons : )

Eupher said:
You're a very smart cookie. I've always maintained that a 4x8 section of lawn is big enough for dogs to do their business on. Everything else is overkill. (There's a reason for concrete or flagstones, even gravel.) Trees are nice, but ya gotta get the trees that are like dogs -- the kind that don't shed. And DON'T plant them too close to the house. That's just plain stupid, especially when those trees begin to climb up the walls of your house and tickle the eaves.
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Dogs need room to run! We have a good size yard... just no trees in the back yard, which was perfect for my dog, since he was nearly completely blind for the last few years of his life. But he was still able to run around, since there were no trees to run into. He could tell when he got close to the fence by the smells. And he could still see light and dark, so he could fetch a ball to some extent, and he could tell when there was a squirrel on the fence.
 

HermitHogan said:
Dogs need room to run! We have a good size yard... just no trees in the back yard, which was perfect for my dog, since he was nearly completely blind for the last few years of his life. But he was still able to run around, since there were no trees to run into. He could tell when he got close to the fence by the smells. And he could still see light and dark, so he could fetch a ball to some extent, and he could tell when there was a squirrel on the fence.
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Ummm. Okay. Last I checked, dogs are perfectly able to run on concrete. Maybe not forever, since their paw pads might get chewed up some. But as a dog owner myself, I can definitely state that I don't depend on my back yard to exercise my dog. I take her places where she can walk and run and otherwise enjoy herself other than my back yard.
 
HermitHogan said:
We don't have any trees in the backyard and just one in the front yard that leans over into the neighbor's yard, so he cleans them up. Maybe that's why he glares at me when he sees me. :ROFLMAO:
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At least he's not the jerk who lived next to me who trimmed the trees and then threw the branches back into my yard. They were apple and cherry trees planted by the original owners.
 
jujube said:
I can remember as a kid when everybody in the neighborhood used to rake their leaves into the ditches between the yards and the street and then burn them. It smelled so good. I can't imagine anybody getting away with that these days.
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In my area, lotsa folks rake or blow their leaves in the ditches. But instead of burning, along comes a "suck truck". Some people still do burn their leaves here, and sometimes (not often) it gets pretty smoky. It's allowed, but sometimes they put out a "no burn" order when it's just too dry.
 
I have to rake them up, I just get far too many due to huge trees including neighbors' around me.

One year I didn't stay on top of this and it all but killed the grass in most of the yard. Worse yet that led to a beetle grub infestation the next year that brought in the moles which made a real mess with all of their digging.

We can't burn them any more, and there isn't much of an area where I can pile them to compost naturally. I tried composting bins for two years but that couldn't handle the volume.

Now I pay for yard waste pickup. However even then the limits make it tough. I have to pile and mulch leaves pretty fine to fit enough in the one bin and 5 paper leaf bags I'm allowed per week. Even then some weeks in the fall I have overflow to carry over. I don't know how people on a medium to large lot cope with this. Mine is tiny and I still have too much.

I'd probably pay to have it all done for me but (1) I'm cheap, (2) I'm stubborn, and (3) I can use the exercise.
 
All you people are raking, composting, and blowing away leaves. I can see doing that if you have inches of leaves on the ground. But if you have a layer of leaves, we've always just left them where they fell. Supposedly, this returns the nutrients back into the soil.????
 
I'll do that for a while..let them fertilize the lawn. But, after my 3 Pistache trees drop their leaves it's def time to do something about them. They're everywhere. 🌿 🍁 🍃🌱🍂
 
I'm on an acre with lots of trees. Raking would have to start late September and I wouldn't be done until early December. As another mentioned I use my JD 48" lawn tractor and mulch them as good as i can and some are blown with the mower around the base of the trees. When I first start cutting the next year I use the mower to blow them away from the trees and let them rot back int the lawn.
 
BeefStu said:
Raking would have to start late September and I wouldn't be done until early December.
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I'm in exactly this position every year.

I tried leaving them - disaster. I tried mulching and leaving them - disaster. I tried composting them - disaster.

I just get too many leaves.
 

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