Leaves lots and lots of leaves!

I have leaves, tons of them, from tulip poplars, oaks, maples, beech and probably some I am forgetting. I want to know the best way to use these as mulch on my flower beds. I can't convince dh to shred all of them and the mower doesn't chop them up enough. I am afraid to just leave them on the beds as they are all kinds of thick in the fall. I however see them as free mulch and a renewable resource, so what is the best way to use them?

Hm, both our rider and hand mowers seem to chop leaves into sufficiently small bits. Keeping the leaves intact might cause them to smother your plants, as they clump and go anaerobic. I toss mine into the compost pile alternately with "greens" (grass clippings, kitchen scraps, manure) and turn frequently and they rot nicely that way. :)

pam

Thanks Pam! My trouble is we have 5 acres of trees, so I have TONS of leaves. I never leave them on my beds as I am sure they would smother everything! I don't have compost bins large enough to hold them. I have been eyeing one of the Cyclone attachments to shred them into mulch!

Shredding's a good way to go.

I picked up 10 large (contractor) bags of leaves from a neighbor, and I just didn't get around to running over them w/ the lawnmower, so a couple of weeks ago I dragged them to our chicken pen (9 hens) and dumped them in. The pen was two feet deep in leaves, not that the hens were complaining. Now, there is a smallish pile of shredded leaves in there. The girls scratched the leaves into nuthin. Can't wait to rake that stuff up and spread it on the garden later...

I would buy me a lawn vaccum. It sells at Sears for under $300. That is a lot but you have a future market for the compost you would have using snow fence and piling the shredded leaves in between. Add grass to it and you wouldn't have to wait but 2 to 3 months for the best of all worlds. Lucky you! I have a forest of Ponderosa pines and Douglas Firs and I use all the product they drop and shred it with my vaccum. Note lots of times sears has returned (new almost) lawn Vaccums at under 160 bucks.

Soferdig, I have been trying to decide between getting a shredder or a lawn vacuum to give me needed compost from my acre of leaves. The lawn vac has the added benefit of "raking" for me but I wondered if they worked well even after leaves got wet. Will these make lawn clean-up easier?
Dave

I have been looking at these http://www.cyclonerake.com/sem/?referrer=googlecyclonegroup
and http://www.drpower.com/TwoStepCategory.aspx?p1Name=DRPowerHome&Name=LeafLawnVac2Step&BC=0%3aHome&LinkType=2 they have the option of getting a hose to vacum out flower beds and to shoot the shredded goodies into areas. If I just had a small amout of leaves something that you push wouldn't be so bad however even with the ridingJohn Deere mower at times in the fall you can't make one pass withouth the leaves filling it up and forget even attempting when the stuff is wet! It just kills me to see all these leaves not going to mulch in my gardens! I am pretty sure that I saw once that you can break leaves down faster by using blood meal or bone meal, does anyone know which it is? Does that only work on one certain leaves?




This message was edited May 2, 2006 2:09 PM

I wanted a hose to vaccum but too much $ for me. The lawn vaccum from Sears does a great job on dry leaves, if they are wet I still vaccum and then broom rake up what didn't get picked up. It will clean my drive way without picking up the 1/2 crushed rock base I have covering the road bed. It gets fir cones and pine needles and chops them to small pieces to place in the compost pile.

I was thinking of this: http://www.tools-r-us.biz/b/Blower_Vac/Gas_Blower_and_Vac_6_hp_B0001LF1UC.htm
or: http://www.store.yahoo.com/dolphinope/leafrecsys.html.
I don't have a tractor so these would be more affordable. Soferdig, the price you mentioned at Sears is much better. How do they compare?

Yeah that is the same thing I got at sears. (toolsrus) You must remember I looked for over 2 years to get one that was returned. It was origionallly about 600 bucks and I got it for around 3oo. The only thing I don't like about it is the plastic front gets caught in the grass as you go up hill. Then you have to raise the front wheels and miss a few cones. Please note I changed the price. I looked up my reciept. 324.00 not 160.00 sorry

This message was edited May 3, 2006 10:41 PM

Soferdig, Thank you for responding!
Dave

Ldy - your comment about the mower "filling up" suggests that you have a bagger on the machine. Bag the bagger. Get the leaves into a pile and mow over them 4-5 times.....you may have to stop and rake them back into a pile.

If you go over them a few times, they chop into 1/4 to 1/2 inch bits with a much smaller volume. They then work for mulch or to put in a compost bin without taking up too much room.

It works best to let 'em dry out before mowing...which means pulling them from the beds and turning them over so the damp part underneath dries out.

It takes my son about 15 minutes to chop a whole bunch of leaves into a small-ish pile using a hand mower with no blower. He has figured out how to do it so he minimizes the raking using the machine to blow the leaves into a new pile. If you have a leaf blower, a tandem approach would work...one on the mower and the other one blowing the bits back into a pile to be run over. Beers for everyone afterward. HM