On my half-acre residential yard, with three very mature oak trees, surrounded by a canopy of neighboring trees, there is no end to leaves from early October and even until now. I’ve completed the clean up of my yard leaves. There were several days’ work involved between blowing, raking and shredding the leaves. A few things I’ve learned worked well and a few that didn’t work as well.
Street Leaves Make a Great Base Layer for Mulching the Beds
My neighborhood has curbs. The downside of this is they collect piles of leaves, even before the yards have any noticeable leaf-fall. The upside of this is that the worms seem to thrive in this pile of moist, matted leaves. This year, I focused mostly on clearing the leaves from the grass first to prevent mildew or other issues later in the growing season. As the leaves on the grass dwindled, I shifted my focus to tidying up the surrounding street and curbs. I found so many worms, I just couldn’t bear to shred these leaves. I carted the whole, wet leaves – worms and all, if I could – and heaped them on top of the few remaining piles of shredded leaves that I haven’t yet used as mulch. In retrospect, I should have started my collections with these leaves to get that wonderful worm action at the base of my leaf piles.
Storage is Tricky
My yard is large, but very visible and I don’t exactly want rotting piles of leaves visible to all of the world. I found a few clever hiding places to stash my leaves. As the weeks wear on, the piles have already shrunk. Next year, I’ll plan a bit better on where to store the excess so that I can take advantage of the neighbor’s bagged leaves as well.
The Job is Never Ending
Even after my yard cleanup, I still have leaves in my grass. This is because my neighbors are all on different schedules and a windy day will quickly redistribute their unmanaged leaves back into my yard. Over time, it’s less and less, but it’s never-ending.
I’m still excited about seeing the beds with their natural mulch over the year. One of my shade beds on the north side of the house has been particularly difficult to grow in, as the prior owners seemingly piled treated wood mulch in thick layers for years. The soil is only now starting to come back as I’ve let it rest over the last two growing seasons, but it’s increased my weed battling quite a bit. My reserve of shredded leaves will hopefully help with this. And after this self-contained experiment with just my leaves, I’ll consider what else I can do next year with more found leaves from neighboring yards!
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Live in the Season 