So many leaves and no place to put them.

Ruth n Jersey

Ruth n Jersey

Well-known Member
Location
Northern New Jersey
We live in a rural area but when it comes to the leaves we can't dump them in the woods across the street, they are afraid it will lead to others dumping garbage,the town won't collect them and there are way to many to haul.

When I put new fencing around my garden early this fall I gave up half of it for the leaves. From the looks of it I don't think I allowed enough space.

When we moved here it was all farmland. The first thing I wanted were trees and lots of them. The photo shows my kids helping my Dad plant them many years ago. He is gone now but his trees live on. He is probably laughing at me now saying," you were the one who wanted so many trees, now you have to deal with the leaves." The other photo shows my son collecting them.Image (800x689).jpgRoy leaves (800x600).jpggardenleaves (800x600).jpggardenleaves (800x600).jpg

I'm thinking of ways to help them decompose more quickly. I do use some in the garden area but I can't use them all that way. I wonder how well worms work. I know you can buy them.
 

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Love the pictures Ruth. We have loads of trees too...and those we don't use as leaf mould or use the leaf blowr on, we bag up in huge construction bags, load them into the car, and drive them over to the huge woods behind our house and tip them off there...
 

I don't blame you for wanting trees Ruth, I love being around them. Such a nice photo of your children with your Dad. :) I have an electric leafblower that I use to blow the leaves off my volcanic rock in the front, then I sweep them up, bag them and put them out with the trash. Always have around 10 bags when all is said and done.

I did start a small compost pile in the back yard years ago, but never kept it up, the dogs would get into the leaves and drag them over my back lawn or the wind would blow them. Then I read about how it can aggravate allergies in dogs, so I don't plan to start it again any time soon.

When I put my blower in vacuum mode and attach the bag, it sucks up the leaves and grinds them into a fine form, almost like sawdust. Seems like something like that may work well for you.
 
Those are great photos Ruth. Great construction on the compost compartments.
We live amongst the forest. Up until this year I’ve raked the leaves , put them in a wheel barrow or trailer to the back of our this property to burn them. We have huge fires to get rid of them. This year we bought a Stihl leaf blower and the work is lessened by weeks. It’s incredible. It even cleans the gutters out in a fraction of the time. It’s one of those tools you wished you’d gotten years ago cause that raking stuff is hard work. The leaf blower makes this work fun. Stuff that’s not burned get composted in the back corner of our property. It’s a bit of work looking after it, but rewardingly so.
 
Doesn’t your yard waste guys take them? About the time the lawns stop getting mowed, the bins are filled with leaves, several weeks worth. This year I decided I could rake my own leaves. Called my lawn guy yesterday and asked him to finish the job, too much for me.
 
SeaBreeze said:
I don't blame you for wanting trees Ruth, I love being around them. Such a nice photo of your children with your Dad. :) I have an electric leafblower that I use to blow the leaves off my volcanic rock in the front, then I sweep them up, bag them and put them out with the trash. Always have around 10 bags when all is said and done.

I did start a small compost pile in the back yard years ago, but never kept it up, the dogs would get into the leaves and drag them over my back lawn or the wind would blow them. Then I read about how it can aggravate allergies in dogs, so I don't plan to start it again any time soon.

When I put my blower in vacuum mode and attach the bag, it sucks up the leaves and grinds them into a fine form, almost like sawdust. Seems like something like that may work well for you.
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What type of leaf blower do you have? Maybe ours sucks and grinds too. That means I’ll have read the directions.
We have too many leaves to be mulched by our tractor mower.
 
just burn them -i have too -leaves can carry virus for another plants if left =i have a orchard so plenty of them -or i can sack them up and send over to you lol....kidding_
 
We aren't allowed to burn here. I asked my hubby about the leaf blower we have and ours does not vacuum . I'm going to look into that. Mowing them first helps, but after awhile it puts deep ruts into the grass. Our garbage pick up only allows one can and after we have our household garbage in it there is little room for leaves. We may have to load them onto my sons pick up and take them to the dump. They weigh the truck and the load then on the way out they weigh it again and you pay for just the load. It is a bit far to travel and you have to dump them yourself.
 
Our city has a yearly pickup in the fall.

Everything like leaves has to go into paper bags. The bags go to a landfill where they are separated and allowed to decompose into compost.

Then when they are composted the city offers it free to anyone that wants to pick it up.

It's usually gone in a couple of days. The greenhouses around here love it.
 
I just sit on my mower and chop all the leaves into small bits that fall down into the grass rather than blow around. Powered hand mowers and smaller riding mowers work fine for this. Not sure how the city handles the parks. I do expect them to be powered to say the least.Maybe just large vacuum's for picking up the leaves. Then haul away in trucks.
 
cyclone-rake.png
we use a cyclone rake and pile them on our property.
 
When I was up in Vermont, we were supposed to bag our leaves in large heavy paper bags sold at the local stores for that purpose and then bring them to a dump or recycling center ourselves. But that could be a long haul. As an alternative, some of the local farms would accept yard waste at no charge. They would pile it up, let it rot a bit, and then use it themselves or resell it for mulch/fertilizer. In my case, the local farm was a lot closer and easier.

So you could do a web search on sites for recycling yard waste/leaves in your county and see if anything like that pops up. Or just pay a lawn service to pop by and take the leaves off your hands.
 
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