that time of year - do you steal your neighbors' leaves?

Hi. We got a compostumbler from Craigslist this summer and have been pretty regularly putting in at least garden clippings and rotten vegetables. But now everyone in my town is putting their first batch of leaves (or maybe they're grass clippings) out on the curb in those big brown bags. I can't stand it! I want it all. I don't know how we could fit them in through the hole in the Tumbler - but I'd find a way... I saw someone across the street whose bag of clippings is already decomposing. I don't know if it's kosher to just steal someone's 'yard waste'; after all, the town will be composting it, right? But I could use it now. Do you steal your neighbors' 'yard waste'? Would you? Should I? All those greens... all those browns... Please note, we live in a respectable suburb, not a rural area.

Yep, I do.

It's probably best to ask people. They look at you as the wacko that you are, but most are happy to get rid of their "garbage". A few of my neighbors deliver them to my house.

If nobody's around and it's sitting at the curb, I just toss it in my trunk and go.

Only a few leaves are falling now, mostly from trees which are drought stressed. No one is raking/baging yet, and I sure wish they would. I used up the last of my straw bale yesterday, and I need browns.

Karen

We're not in the suburbs, we're in the rural ,and we're RESPECTABLE!

I mentioned the idea of snatching the already partially decomposed grass clippings of the neighbors across the street, and DH was horrified. Absolutely not, he says. Maybe I'll try to talk to the neighbors.

Mittsy, I'm sorry if you thought I meant I was saying that rural areas weren't respectable; that's not at all what I meant. In fact, I would enjoy living somewhere more rural. There are just a lot of laws around in my town - how much of your property can be paved; which trees are town trees and which are private trees; leash laws, how much trash you're allowed to have, how big it can be, what form curbside recycling has to be in, how short skirts my kids can wear to school, blah blah blah. I may have meant that this town takes itself a little too seriously. We've gotten letters (anonymous, of course) about mowing the lawn more often and we got in trouble for having an unregistered car stored in the driveway. I just don't want to get in trouble with the town. Maybe there's a law against stealing grass clippings!

LOL, I'm sitting here chomping at the bit for Monday night when the neighbors will put out their weekend yard waste. I will be driving around until I find at least two bags of grass for my tumbler! I take a cheap roll of duct type tape with me to close the tops over so they don't spill in the back of the car.

That half-decomposed grass across the street is calling me... but DH says ABSOLUTELY NOT.

You're kidding, right?

C'mon, Carrie - just ASK them!!! Don't let it go to waste - or worse, the landfill! Heck, call me on the cell and *I* will ask them!

>hug and a wink

I don't know them, or their phone number - but I'll ask them, I'll figure out a way. Trash day is Wednesday.

Where I live, once it is at the street and dark, it is free. That is how everyone cleans out their garage and basement. Friday is pick up day for larger stuff, so Thursday night is trash-picking night.

I think the dark part is so you aren't embarrassed. My best plant stand came from the trash, saw it it daylight, lurked until dark.

Why would anyone care if you took the grass? Wait until dark and they won't know it was you, lol. I'd get my trusty red rusty wagon that I found in the trash, wheel that baby over there and haul it home.

Go over, ring the doorbell, and ask. Worse they can say is no, and it isn't personal. They may think you are a bit goofy, but so what?? You might find a new friend.
My 2 cents.

Ha Ha- yes.
Last year I was elated to find two clear bags of grass-mowed-with - leaves in my neighborhood. I didn't ask, just took. Clear to ensure nice stuff inside. I worry that some people might sneak a few nasties in there.
Then my neighbor right behind put mown leaves into a Xmas tree disposal bag. 4 actually. They are huge and heavy when full!!! I drove my van to the next court behind me, and hauled it up in the back and drove it home. Those bags are not very tear proof either. It was pobably funny to watch. I couldn't let all that free mulch go to the county. So they would mix it up, and I'd have to go all the way to the dump to get it? It costs them to do the process so I am saving the county money by cutting the middleman. I say ask if you want, but take.
PS he noticed the bag missing and asked me. I have in the past raked his pine needles for him, for my blueberries.

Ask first, that's the proper thing to do. I don't have a leaf problem, as all the neighbors leaves blow into my yard. But I would think the neighbors would be happy to give you the leaves and grass clippings just to get rid of them. Anybody do woodworking in the neighborhood? Ask them for wood chips and saw dust. Adding a few shredded brown paper bags to the compost tumbler would certainly be ok, and give you a source of bulk.

Work out a barter with the neighbors, they give you the clippings/leaves, and you'll give them fresh produce next summer. And if all else fails, offer a plate of freshly baked cookies in exchange for all the yard waste. But, do ask them in advance, and don't take the stuff without permission.

I got "caught" taking some bags of leaves last year and the woman thanked me. Those folks would just as soon see it gone. Leaves in our area don't get picked up with the regular garbage and can sit around a while.
I can't wait for my husband to haul our garbage away.
I have a pickup this year (we are now a two pickup familyYES!) and I can't wait to pick those leaves up when I see them.

Well, the fresh produce idea is nice, but all I usually grow are flowers, in fact although I know some folks at church grow veggies, as near the city as we are, it's mostly the Farmer's Market or nothing. You have to understand, most of these people I wouldn't recognize if I saw them. I'm not shy, it's just that on my street, I'm the only one outside most days. My wheelchair makes it hard for me to go up someones front steps! But I will arrange to have conversations with the people with the grass clippings.

Actually, composting is the environmentally correct thing to do, so I don't see any reason to be embarrassed to ask for someone else's grass cliippings. It is they who should be embarrassed for not composting them!

That's right ! I agree, and we should all do our part re-cycle.

I think when the town picks them up, they probably do something like that with them - otherwise why the special biodegradable bags? LOL we never raked our own grass clippings, we just let them become one with the dirt. We also have an IMMENSE pile of old Christmas trees and brush in a back corner that's probably a fire hazard at least.

Here, you have to pay money for a sticker to have your yard waste taken, so people would likely be happy for you to take it instead.

But I have quite enough leaves of my own.

Wow, we have to pay for regular trash, but not for yard waste! Boy if someone would magically take my regular trash away.....

As far as I know, I can't even pay someone to take mine away - and if I did, there's a good chance it would end up in the woods, grr...

Here, we must pay to have them take our regular trash away - we used up our town landfill a couple of years ago, or more - now we (the town) probably pay someone big bucks to truck it to Statan Island, lol. We have no woods. :-(

Here, it is a crime to mix yard waste in with the regular trash, and there is an additional charge for yard waste.

Wow - do they turn it around and charge you for whatever they make out of it? A crime? Wow, here it's just dumb, you have to pay so much a bag for trash, so if you were so foolish as to call your yard waste 'trash', you'd then have to pay them to take it to Staten Island. Do they take your stuff to Staten Island too, LOL? It's hard to make jokes with no facial expressions.

They want the yard waste to be composted, not thrown in the landfill.

Landfills running out of room.

Ahh - we already RAN out of room. Maybe they should have tried that 15 - 20 years ago.

I think the county in which I lives charges a dollar per bag of leaves. Each bag must have a "tag" in order for the county to pick it up [curbside]. I do know that our landfill composts the leaves, and sells them very cheaply to people who want leaf mulch. But, the branches and limbs of trees are ground up, and those you can have for free. The mulch has a very unpleasant odor to it, and that is a drawback for most people. Our county is booming these days with top soil and mulch companies. I try not to take anything to the landfill, and Richmond does have re-cycle bins, for free, delivered to your door. Myself, I think most conservation efforts are running way behind.

Wow!!! SUCCESS! I did it!! I left a note in the mailbox of my neighbor across the street asking him to call me and tell me if it was ok to rescue his lwn clippings. (Not really leaf season yet.) All day... nothing. Then, while we were eating supper, he called!!!!! And said it was fine, any time, to take his 'yard waste'. My silly DH still objected so my daughter and I went over there, picked up the two bags without sticks mixed in, across the street, around the house to the Compostumbler, carefully in with the bags (which were half decomposed themselves already, a few turns, well actually many turns, and voila, the thing is full of greens and dried grass clippings which I guess count as browns (?). I'll wait a few days for it to settle, then I'd better start taking 'black gold' or something out, because that baby is FULL!

Wish I could mark this thread as "mission accomplished" because I got my question answered. Interesting conversations, 'though.

xx, Carrie

Carrie, way to go!! The note did the trick. lol

Excellent! I'm sure it made your neighbor smile, too. By whatever means necessary, Ms. Mission Accomplished.

I thought dried grass clippings were a brown, too, but it was pointed out to me on another thread (via another forum, lol) that they probably still contain a higher nitrogen than carbon content, probably for even quite some times (years???) afterward.

Worse comes to worse, you can always start leaving notes for other neighbors for more leaves ... >grin< ... and actually, it'll be ready for another helping quickly - you start out with a ton of stuff and get a 1/4 (approx.) of that amount at the end of the process, I'm afraid. So don't give up your notes yet!

Last year's haul: 75 bags. Plus about 6 trailers full from a guy around the corner. Plus my next door neighbor's.

I'm having bag envy.

75? I think you won, Juggler!

Carrie: Congratulations, that's great!

Most folks are delighted to give you their yard waste if you only ask. Moreover, if guys see you struggling to move that yard waste, they are likely to help. It might take your husband a while to be won over to the idea, but I'll bet he'll eventually give in. Mine has. He held his ground pretty well when I was physically capable, but since I developed this leg problem he helps more, God love him. He knows that I will struggle and get what I want one way or the other, I just don't quit, so he does it for me. Same for neighbor guys. If they see me struggling with heavy bags they come out and offer to do it for me. Some of the neighbor guys deliver bags of leaves to my house, leaving them in the driveway.

Chivalry is not dead.

Karen

Hurray! I'm just happy we got 2 bags of decomposing grass clippings!

Now, the neighbor next door uphill from us. He has a bigger yard and mows it himself at least 3 - 4 times a week. I think it's his only hobby. He used to have a really pretty shrub rosebush of some sort; he knew I liked it, and occasionally I picked flowers from it. Well, one day I came home and it was gone. Just as if it had never been there. His next hobby was a pit bull. Don't let's get started on that topic; let's just say that since the pit bull bit my daughter, we've been a lot less friendly. Then the pit bull disappeared, replaced by grass. Now he has tons of grass, and he mows it as often as possible. His yard waste gets put out in barrels marked YARD WASTE. So it's not a matter of just throwing a bag in a wheelbarrow - it would be much harder to manage. Plus DH still feels like biting HIM, so I can't see him caving in on this one.

I guess I'll just rest on my laurels for a while!

Hoo boy, sounds like it might be a complicated relationship.... at least he got rid of the pit bull. I've had neighbors who might have gotten another one....

Well, it had to be on 'house arrest' for 21 days after biting my daughter - to see if it showed signs of rabies, I think. That much close contact with it probably convinced Mr. Neighbor to try a new hobby. Although it was barking, incessantly, as usual, for a few months after the fateful biting incident, so his decision not to keep it wasn't a direct result. Glad as I was to see the dog gone, it's just typical of that idiot to get something like that and change his mind as if it were a rose bush! Now if he had said "o, that evil dog, it bit your daughter, I'll have it put down at once!" I might be ok with him, but the way it turned out, NO!

carrielamont,

No Debate

This message was edited Oct 4, 2007 2:10 PM

I wouldn't own a pit bull, but I do know some very nice people who do.
Recently there was a news story here about a pit bull who had been burned by some one who had some very bad misconceptions about that breed of dog.

When I bought my property some one of my neighbors (a 50 unit project) had a pit bull tied on the back of my property. My dogs went insane about that dog being there and if they could get to him they might have been killed if that dog was a fighting dog.

Many people here keep pit bulls for security. They think (rightly) that a burglar will think twice about robbing a house where a pit bull is on patrol. (I found that collies are useless against buglars).

I don't think anyone has a right to keep a vicious dog. But I don't think all pit bulls are vicious either. And children should know that they might get bitten if they put their hands anywhere near a dog they don't know.

Whew, I was hoping to avoid this topic... Dog owners should be responsible for their dogs, whatever breed; this particular Idiot was not. The PB in question had yanked all the way to the end of its chain and squeezed under the chain link fence separating our two backyards. DD went around to the front of Idiot's house to tell him his dog was stuck in our yard. Idiot and DD came around to where PB was stuck. Idiot undid PB from chain to pull it back into his yard. PB leapt out of Idiot's grip and attacked DD. DD cleverly threw herself on the ground, covered her face with her arms and lay on her stomach, thank God she was listening that day in school because I wouldn't have known what to do. She was ONLY bitten on the backs of her arms.

I wasn't trying to open the debate of pit bulls vs other dogs vs burglar alarms vs tropical fish or ANYTHING, just trying to explain out relationship with Idiot Neighbor. Both DDs 1 + 2 know to ask the owner if they may pet the adorable whatever-it-is on the other end of the leash.

No Debate

This message was edited Oct 4, 2007 2:11 PM

No debate intended. People are responsible. Not the dogs. Your daughter must have amazing presence to know to do that. I think the instinct of most people is to hit at or yell at the dog which would only make things worse.

Sounds like the best protection for your child is to file charges against this idiot neighbor.

The image of the pit bull on the news that was burned still looms large in my mind.