what's best for leaves-lawnmower, leaf blower/vac, &/or

chipper/shredder? We have a .4 acre yard, w/ lots of large trees, bordered by lg trees on the park next to us. Leaf removal in the fall is crucial, but for a short period of time. I have a compost pile, & would like to add the shredded leaves to it, what's my best option?

This message was edited Nov 7, 2006 5:44 PM

My favorite method of making shredded/mulched leaves is to rake or mow the leaves in piles or strips and run a mower over them in reverse...try it. It makes the nicest mulched leaves that can be raked and hauled to your piles.

Yes, that's what I tried to do-my back yard was covered in leaves & hadn't been mowed in a week, so I just got out the mower, bagged it, & dumped it on the compost pile (alternating w/ greens-grasses, weeds & household compost)-I'd like to come up w/ a solution for when my husband is back (he likes to rake & bag leaves, & leave them at the curb), he likes things 'neat & tidy', while I'd like to recycle & add to the compost pile...

Yes, some men can be like that. Rather have the stuff out of the way than put it to good use on the plants.
My husband can't stand to see leaves blown around the house. I tell him it is the outside. Leaves do fall and blow. He'd rather have it organized and tidy.

I like to use the mulching mower as much as possible. We have so many leaves that I have several different methods of "processing" them. For most leaves, I rake them on to the flower beds and then run the mower (with the mulch attachment on) right over the bed - mulching in the leaves and mowing the tops off the perrenials at the same time.

Sometimes when the leaves get too thick to be mulched back into the lawn, I will mow twice, first with the mulch attachment on and then second with the bag attachment on. I try to mulch as much as possible back into the lawn or into the flower beds. But we have so many leaves, waist deep in some places, that we have remove some. The bagged leaves are placed in the compost pile, or piled on top of the garden bed.

We do have a chipper/shredder and sometimes we run excess leaves through the shredder. However its easier to do as much as possible with the lawn mower. The chipper/shredder leaves make a nicer mulch - so sometimes we will store those and use them to finish the landscape beds in the spring.

I use a whole combination of items. I mow where I can and rake and vacuum the rest into the lawn and mow over them. Then as I am mowing I have a leaf/grass sweeper and dump this in the compost pile. I also have a lawn vacuum and shredder. Most of my garden clean up of perenials I put through the chipper shredder. But when I get lazy I just pile them on the compost. The best thing about composting is when you are ambitious you speed up the process and when you are lazy you just add to the process.

joepyeweed what chipper shredder do you own? We haved an xmark mower that mulches grass and leaves but you can't vacuum. I can get bagged leaves from others to shred if I had a good shredder. I would love to have this free mulch. Anyone else out there recommend shredder brand or style. It could be a pull behind vacuum shredder or down to an electric leaf shredder. I am open to suggestions. Please advise me of ones not to buy.

The chipper/shredder that we have I bought used at a garage sale. We gave it a mini-tune up, spark plug, air filter, oil change and it works good.