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The Staff of SOH
I hate raking leaves
- Thread starter hey_moe
- Start date
Brian_Gladden
SOH-CM-2025
My leaves are currently covered with two inches of snow....
I have a mulching blade on my lawn tractor. I usually just "Mow the lawn" with the deck on the highest setting in the fall and let the leaves fertilize next years lawn.
I have a mulching blade on my lawn tractor. I usually just "Mow the lawn" with the deck on the highest setting in the fall and let the leaves fertilize next years lawn.
Navy Chief
Senior Member
About three years ago, I was out in my yard, showing a delivery truck where to park to unload a clothes washer we'd just bought.
I slipped in a bunch of leaves that I should have blown off the yard, and when I fell down, my left leg turned the wrong way, and my weight snapped it, just above the ankle! I'd never broken a bone before, but the sound and pain was just what I'd imagined it would be, and worse......... I started screaming for my wife (the delivery man just stood there, looking at me). When my wife finally got me in the house, I told her to go get me a pain pill from the bathroom. I knew I had some leftover from some oral surgery a few months previously. My wife said, "You should wait until we get to the Emergency Room, to take any meds..." I said, "That wasn't a request,......GET THE PILL!"
Weeks later, after I got the cast removed, I said I would never let the leaves accumulate like that again.
Well, the leaves are piled up again!
NC
I slipped in a bunch of leaves that I should have blown off the yard, and when I fell down, my left leg turned the wrong way, and my weight snapped it, just above the ankle! I'd never broken a bone before, but the sound and pain was just what I'd imagined it would be, and worse......... I started screaming for my wife (the delivery man just stood there, looking at me). When my wife finally got me in the house, I told her to go get me a pain pill from the bathroom. I knew I had some leftover from some oral surgery a few months previously. My wife said, "You should wait until we get to the Emergency Room, to take any meds..." I said, "That wasn't a request,......GET THE PILL!"
Weeks later, after I got the cast removed, I said I would never let the leaves accumulate like that again.
Well, the leaves are piled up again!
NC
My place is surrounded by leaf bearing trees. When we first moved here years back I got out the rake like most do. That lasted one fall. That summer I picked up a leaf blower. Talk about getting the job done quick..er as I pushed them all to the corner of the yard. Slimey things kill the grass, stain the concrete and..yeah. Not only is the blower good for leaves and grass clippings, but good for cleaning the gutters. Fewer trips up the ladder. Since I got the blower I wouldn't be without one again. Makes the chore of sweeping quick too 
Curtis P40
Charter Member
Mulching blades are the way to go, just have to catch them before they get too wet. Then there gone, not in pile waiting for the wind to blow them around again or in a plastic bag headed to the landfill.
I bag'em with the lawn tractor
Years ago when I was a lawn and garden mechanic we sold Sandy's Father (another empoyee) a Snapper Riding mower with mulching kit and the bagger.
He used it all summer long and come fall he wanted the bagger put on. Well she came to me and said her Dad wanted the bagger put on his rider. I told her he should forget the bagger and just mulch them. Of course he was old school and believed you needed to bag them so he insisted that we put it on. To humor him I said OK but do yourself a favor and run the mulcher over the leaves one time. That way the take up less space in the bag. You will get more leaves in the bags that way.
I never did put the bagger on. He ran over them one time and they were gone completely. There was nothing to pick up and any spots that were not quite gone only needed another pass to finish them off.
As Curtis P40 pointed out you get them before they get wet and they just end up dust. They have no real mass when they encounter the blade.
mfitch
Charter Member 2015
Get a moose. They eat the leaves before they fall. Of course that's not very good for the trees. The trees in my yard and the neighbors all bear the scars to prove it. This is actually the first year one of the trees left enough leaves on the ground to be an issue. My neighbor and I agreed to ignore them until the spring (they are covered by multi-foot snow piles for the moment).
A
Aviator32
Guest
Vickie's horse Buddy keeps the leaves and twigs chewed off the trees that he can reach in the pasture. I'm getting ideas here.
On my Husqvarna riding mower, Vickie was using it last spring and bent the heck out of one of the mulch blades. I put the original straights back on and forgot about it. This fall, I put the mulch guard back on and started in on the leaves. It's doing pretty good with regular blades. Right now, I'm waiting on it to warm up a bit before I get back out there mulching leaves. We've had a run of highs near freezing for the past few days.
I like the shade in the summer too much. Besides these oaks are about 4ft thick at the bottom. Unless they die, they're not getting cut. Old growth trees are getting scarce.
