Is this a good idea for getting rid of leaves?
The other day I noticed that some one had raked their leaves up around the base of a tree, like mulch. I did a double take. My first thought was, “That’s a good idea!”
My second was, “They’re all going to blow away, though…”
My third was, “Well, not if you wrap plastic around them, punch holes in the plastic and, viola! Come spring you have real mulch around your trees!” And you can save the plastic for the next year.
I wrestle every year with the idea of bagging leaves in non-biodegradable plastic bags and dumping them in the landfill.
We have roots showing around our trees, and if that mulch idea worked, in the spring, we could just rake the mulch over the roots. In a few years we’d have no more roots showing. It would be easier, too, than hauling in fill dirt.
It would solve so many problems…if it worked.
What do you guys think?
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18 Answers
I don’t understand why people rake every week, before the tree has dumped all leaves.
I wait until all leaves have fallen then give the yard one last mow, which mulches them directly into the bag.
Why not make a cage of chicken wire and turn the leaves into compost. Add all your vegetative househole scraps too.
A large pile of wet leaves adds nothing to the health of the tree.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies: Also a good idea. You don’t even need the bag. Mow and leave.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies? What makes you think all of the leaves haven’t fallen?
We don’t have a mower with a bagger. The would be the best solution though….
@gailcalled A large pile of wet leaves turns into dirt quite rapidly.
Moisture retentive mulches are not good around trees. It may cause problems in the future. The roots are also probably growing up for a reason, maybe the soil is a little heavy. Gail’s idea was good. Compost the leaves with an equal amount of green material, like grass or veggie wastes.
Agreed with @gailcalled
Besides, I have way to many trees and way to many leaves. I compost mine.
How do you make a compost big enough?? And exactly what kind of “trouble” might develop for the trees?
@Adirondackwannabe The roots are growing up because the trees are old and the roots are big, and the soil around the roots has blown away.
You bang in some supports and erect a three-sided cage (similar to the batter’s cage) of chicken wire; as big as you want it to be. Then you simply heave everything in..as leaves compact and age, they shrink (much like humans).
Another issue about all-deciduous leaves is that they are usually very acidic.
I’m with @RealEyesRealizeRealLies on this. I perform a final mow of my yard (though the grass doesn’t need it, the leaves do). For this mowing job I use a different sequence than at any other time when I mow my lawn. My front yard I proceed in serial rows from the front of the house out to the street. By the time I’m done there, I’ve blown “leaf clippings” into the road, where the passing cars disperse them in a few hours. (If I lived on a road with no traffic then I’d have a layer of leaf clipping in the road until the snow plows came by, the wind blew them away or the rain water carried them to the catch basins.)
In the back yard I mow alternating rows from the center and outward to both sides, blowing clipped leaves to the bushes at the sides of my back yard. By the time I’m done there the yard is clear and clean (as the front yard), but I’ve cheaply and easily mulched the bushes at the edge of the yard, too. (This year I first have to clear some branches from the back yard from last month’s snow storm damage.)
@CWOTUS But from what everyone is saying, blowing the leaves against your bushes as mulch will do more harm than good.
I don’t know about blowing them in the street….
@Dutchess_III: The mower chops the leaves into small bits. No large wet clumps laying about and breeding ticks and mold.
@Dutchess_III The roots need oxygen and the heavy mulch keeps that out. It can also hold in too much moisture. Each type of tree has different requirements.
The roots do not need oxygen, @Adirondackwannabe. Oxygen is a waste product of trees. They don’t need oxygen intake any more than we need to intake our waste products.
I can’t wait to move to the country! Get a couple of burn barrels and BURN the sunsabitches!
@Dutchess_III au contraire fair maiden. They do need oxygen. That’s why some trees don’t grow in wet soils. Oxygen is a product of photosynthesis and a “waste” product but the trees also need some of it too.
Well, you guys have me convinced on the leaf thing, but @Adirondackwannabe I strongly disagree with you on the oxygen! Plants evolved in the absence of oxygen. They created our breathable atmosphere.
Wet (H2O) soil would actually have more oxygen in it than dry If a plant or tree won’t grow in wet soil it’s because the soil is too wet and it rots the roots. Has nothing to do with oxygen.
I gotta go to work….post a question!
If you want to take care of the bare tree roots that are visible, bring in a truckload of topsoil and distribute over the root system.
Simultaneously plant many small bulbs for a spring display; squill, chionodoxia lilies-of-the-valley, harebells, grape hyacinths, mini-daffodils, crocuses (if you don’t have squirrels and rabbits in your “hood), or a ground cover of myrtle, which has lovely blue flowers in spring.
Or low-growing thyme which both blooms and emits an aromatic fragrance when stepped on.
@Dutchess_III It was the Cyanobacteria that produced the first oxygen, then plants came later, at least according to the last theories. See ya later. Have a good day at work.
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