Leaves

I firmly believe that leaves belong on trees. When they end up on the lawn, that means 2 things. One is that winter isn’t far away. The other is that I have to do something with them. So, rather than gather them and toss them over the fence, this year we decided to clean them up.

Like any other kids, mine like to make a big leaf pile. Fortunately they are old enough rake and use the leaf blower, so that means less work for Dad. When they were done, I chopped them up with the mower and bagged them. I see lots of people bagging without chopping, and I guess that’s up to them, but it seems inefficient to me.

After chopping, which takes only a few minutes, they don’t blow around as much. Wind is the enemy. Also, they take less space and fewer bags!

In past years, I’ve spread the leaves around the garden and mulched in my roses for winter. I’ll probably do that with the next batch next weekend.

It’s hard to believe that that big pile fit into two bags! Granted, most were dry silver maple leaves. I don’t know that I would have had the same success with wet Norway maple or oak leaves.

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