i used to drag them to the street.. and mow then until they were about the size of my thumbnail .. and then pile them on 4 to 6 inches deep.. but applying them AFTER everything was fully dormant ... near thxgvg ... before the pile froze solid .. too early can be a big problem ...

then i bought a weedwhip type leaf shredder.. and burned that sucker out real fast...

then bought a stick/leaf shredder that allowed turning of the bin so that i could rake right into it ... and it took me about 4 years to burn that out.. and the sticks were a problem ...

regardless .... full leaves.. especially maple.. can form an impervious mat.. not allowing air to move back and forth ... which leads to anaerobic soil .... without air exchange.. things under it.. will swamp rot ... too wet.. no air ...

i also built a 4 foot square wooden thingee to age the leaves for the following spring ...

anyway.. you are correct... it is a waste to get rid of them.. w/o utilizing them some way ...

that is my history in my ZONE 5!!!! ... i am sure it may be a bit different in your z7

ken

Mowing them is a little too much work for me, so I tend to collect them all in a compost bin (mine doesn't have a lid) and let nature do its thing. Then I break up whatever is still chunky with a shovel and add it to the compost when I am laying it on the garden in spring.

Couple years ago someone told me a great and easy way to get some good leaf mold/compost (it is amazing what one will learn standing in line for a plant sale!). The guy said that he gathers up leaves in a garbage bag, adds some water, and then lets it sit and decompose until spring. He uses it on his lawn. Sounds pretty easy to me, though I haven't tried it yet ;-)
CMK

A couple of years ago, the old garden tractor died. The first thing I did after I got the new one, was to buy a bagger for it. I only use it in the fall, but it chops up the leaves, and collects them. Then I take them over to that year's designated pile and dump them. The bagger fills up very quickly, and clogs on wet leaves, but is by far the easiest way to move leaves I've found so far. The reason the leaves go on a pile is VOLES. The Mighty Hunters seem to have managed the fine art of chipmunk torture, but voles seem a lot trickier.

Connie, if you do a search here (and maybe on the New England forum) you'll find lots of discussion about this.

It is indeed a shame to waste those leaves! I shred mine - I have a Flowtron shredder which shreds them very nicely, although I don't like the way it handles (or doesn't handle!) sticks. The main drawback to the Flowtron, IMO, other than the stick issue, is that I have almost an acre of land with about 40 oaks, and it just takes forever to shred all those leaves with this machine. But I haven't yet been able to find anything bigger/more powerful that I can afford.

I have tried running the lawn mower over them, but didn't have much luck with this. But it could have been because the blades aren't that sharp. I know other people have had success with this method.

MG raises a good point if you have a vole problem, but I just wait till the ground is frozen and put the leaves down then. By that time hopefully the little varmints have found homes elsewhere.

:)
Dee

Thanks you guys! We don't have voles that I know of, but we definitely have chipmunks. Is it the same issue with them bedding down in the leaves?

I used to bag the leaves and take them to my back patio and run over them with the mower to shred. It was effective but messy and noisy.

This is my second electric leaf blower which shreds leaves as it picks them up. Think most any leaf blower works the same. I use a smaller lighter one. The first one came with a bag top which covered a large plastic garbage can. That was great as I would blow leaves into a big pile and shred them into the garbage can then empty it onto the beds or in a compost pile. Better than emptying those small bags so often. When I had to replace the blower it was redesigned and the bag top no longer fit. Bummer.

Best of all is getting shredded bags of leaves from my neighbors. Once I was parked next to a landscaper's truck. He was happy to load my car trunk as was taking them to the yard waste facility.

The bags with wet leaves make great compost but works best for me if the leaves have been shredded. Whole leaves can clump and not compost as well. Also too much water can make a slimy mess. Most of my leaves not used for winter mulch go into a large compost pile. Those in bags are used to cover some of my plants in raised beds in my vegetable garden.

I have been looking at something today that sounds similar to what you are talking about. What do you guys think about this:

Here is a link that might be useful: Toro Leafmaster 3-in-1

I think it kind of depends on what kind of garden you're talking about and what kind of plants. I have a mainly native (woodland plant) area and when it comes time to rake the leaves, I simply pile them all in this garden to a depth of about 2 feet. No shredding, no nothing. By spring the depth is greatly reduced and the plants growing here have no problem poking through the leaves. By July or so, there's absolutely no evidence there was ever a leaf pile there. I've been doing this for more years than I can remember and the soil in this area is amazing.

Kevin

Wow, I bet it is! That's really cool. I'd love to have that kind of soil too, eventually.

I grind up leaves in a chipper/shredder and put them on my beds. It makes for wonderful soil. But I never actually clean out the leaves that fall into the beds. Since all kinds of caterpillars, butterfly eggs, lizards, spiders, and hundreds of other predators live in the leaf litter that are necessary for the health of my garden, I have come to only raking and shredding leaves that cover the lawn and garden paths. They get added to the natural leaf fall on my perennial beds. I also spread whole unshredded leaves a foot or two deep in the woods where the duff protects and feeds native wildflowers. I suppose voles and mice also live in the the layers of leaves, but hawks, weasels, owls and foxes seem to keep the rodent population in balance as I never really have a problem with them.

I will be trying the garbage bag method of composting leaves. I already have 2 30gal bags filled from the leaf drop of a very dry summer. I rake them into a pile on the lawn and run the LawnBoy mower with bagger over them --- I tried doing it on the driveway but the mower blew the leaves away. I plan to use the lawn tractor (which unfortunately doesn't have a bagger) when the leaves get too much and then collect them with the mower after they've been mulched.

I would recommend against using the handheld Leafmaster method ... yes, the shredding is very effective, but the weight of the bag, the heat generated against your hip and the strength needed to maneuver even a half-filled bag can be extremely tedious.

I use the good ol' Toro leaf blower/sucker to shred them all. I pile them onto the beds in November and will use the rest to make leaf mould in a bin or two out back.
Just a note: Not every leaf blower out there will suck them back up. Some leaf blowers do just that, blow, but not suck lol! My Toro I used up to death last year and had to buy another one for this season. It is an electric one, not gas, but works great. Besides, leaf mould is one of the best soil amendments out there. Worms love the stuff too. Just make sure to shred the leaves and you're good to go.

We suck ours up with a riding mower that shreds them at the same time, and then dump them in a pile to compost and use for early spring. Still, we typically don't generate enough leaf mold to accommodate our gardening needs (have a rather large garden), so we get a trailer-load of free-for-the-shoveling leaf mold from our city's public works dept.

One of my goals is to reduce the carbon footprint of my yard and garden (and life in general). This means minimizing use of electric or gas-powered machines. So now I mostly use whole leaves, leaf mold, or compost the leaves. Occasionally put the bag on the mower in the fall, and mow the leaves up into the bag. This is a pretty easy way to chop up the leaves, as long as the grass needs to be mowed at the same time.

Generally I let the leaves that fall into the garden stay there. Also, rake the leaves from the lawn into the gardens, under shrubs, or into the woods. Sometimes let the wind blow the leaves into the garden or woods.

I rake or collect OPBLs (other people's bagged leaves) and pile them, to produce leaf mold by the Spring. Leaf mold is a very attractive mulch and so good for the plants. I also use the composting-leaves-in-a-bag method, collecting leaves in the paper leaf bags and leave them to sit over the winter with the top open.

It's a real score to find OPBL's that have also been chopped - imagine that - somebody else has chopped, raked, and bagged the leaves for you! Wonder if I could get people to deliver them to the house too?

FWIW, I simply mulch-mow my lawn. As for the garden, I also use the Toro vacuum method and I am very happy with it. I wait until the leaves are mostly all down, which usually happpens more or less in one fell swoop, and then I simply walk along, vacuuming up the leaves, and when the bag is full I dump and spread on the area I just cleaned. This is way easier when it is reasonably dry.

I also take my neighbour's bagged leaves and empty them with the vacuum, dumping the bags as they get filled. The shredding this way leaves bigger pieces, but lots of surface area and it is all devoured by late Spring.

Yes, it is a little tedious but it is more of a one-step process than with a mower, especially as regards the leaves that fall into your garden itself, and I actually find it relaxing and a good chance to really get to know my beds and plan out changes, etc., for the Spring. I also add alfalfa cubes (about 750 pounds a year) and composted manure (usually on top of the rest for a more finished look).

Even with all this on an urban lot, my soil will need a few more years at least of this treatment to be something other than sticky clay. But it is definitely showing improvement!

we collect DRY neighborhood leaves in paper bags only (plastic bags make them sweat; not good for shredder)and NOT after a rain. We have an inexpensive Sears shredder which is much faster than the expensive chipper/shredder we once had.We shred them into a large 3-sided bin made of wooden pallettes and use them to mulch and improve planting holes.best thing you can do for your soil.and they smell great and are easy to handle.

definitely do a search under 'shredded leaves'; MANY previous posts about this.
best,
mindy
www.cottonarboretum.com/

Terrene & Mindy, where do you get the paper bags? I asked at every store I could think of but they all use plastic to bag my purchases these days. I needed a small quantity for the bulbs, etc, that I plan to pull up & store in a cool closet in a paper bag. I finally found paper bags for sale at my local Kroger's grocery store: pkg of 5 grocery sack size, 30 gal "lawn & garden waste bags" for apx $3.69 and a pkg of 50 "giant size lunch bags" for $2 something. On the internet I see quantities of 250, 500, 1000, which is a lot for me, & there must be shipping costs as well. Thanks!

Oops, I meant to say the stores would use plastic to bag my purchases if I didn't have my reusable bags with me. Sorry!

I think the key to success with a lawnmower is having a mower with a mulching blade plus a bag. Since our grass needs mowing until after Thanksgiving anyway, we just bag the clippings plus the chopped leaves as we mow and dump them into our beds. Then spread them until they are about 3 to 4 inches deep. I only do it this way because my lawn is virtually weed free. If there were seedy weeds, I would definitely compost them before putting them on my beds. (Learned this the hard way.) If you don't stir up the leaf mulch by digging in it, it should last a year. If you do stir it up with digging (inevitable for me), you'll need to add more mulch during the year.

We, like others, never have enough leaves to mulch all our beds, so I rotate where I put them each year. All my other beds are mulched with pinestraw. If you have ever driven across the state of MS, you know that we are RICH in pines! :)

P.S. We have used the garbage bag method described above and it works. However, if you leave the bags outside much past spring, our hot southern sun will break down the plastic and you will have a colossal mess.

If you want to stockpile leaves over the winter in order to make leaf mold, tomato cages stuck in the ground somewhere are an easy way to corral them. Come summer, pull up the cages for your veggie garden and just scoop up the mold. Easy.

Putting them on as is probably wouldn't achieve satisfactory results. I have 2 large oak trees, and I shred the leaves with my leaf blower/mulcher. The nice thing about mulching with oak leaves is that they take longer to break down, so you're not having to replace them frequently. I put them on the beds in October or November, and they're not gone until the middle of the following summer. I store the unused ones in my garage and shed so they stay dry, and put another layer on when the previous shreds have almost disappeared.

Deanna

Oh, now that you bumped this Donnabaskets, I see River's question.

River I collect bags of leaves at the town compost site, that other people have filled and dropped off. People use those big paper bags that will decompose on the town compost pile. Amazing that people still see leaves as something to get rid of but it's their loss my gain! I have never actually bought the bags but around here they sell them at hardware and department stores, etc.

Thanks, Terrene. After reading this thread IâÂÂm planning to rake leaves & put them in my flower beds. I was previously planning to bag them & send to the town compost pile but now I donâÂÂt think thatâÂÂs necessary. I'll check the hardware store next time I need paper bags to overwinter my bulbs, etc. Thanks for your help.

River, in my town, believe it or not, the library sells the leaf bags. Sounds odd at first, but I guess if you think about it, the library is a city department, and so the public works dept just sends the bags over to the library to sell. I've also seen them sold at hardware, home supply, and even grocery stores.

While I shred my leaves, I do use the bags to hold the leaves after shredding. I re-use them till I just can't anymore - I'm on my fourth year with some of these bags! When the bottoms of them are just too worn to safely lift a bag of shredded leaves (now *there's* a mess when the bottom gives out, lol) I use the old bags as a bottom layer in a new lasagne bed. So I get my dollar's worth out of them, lol!

:)
Dee

I don't have the energy anymore to shred leaves. The mower bag filled up too quickly and leaf vacs take a lot of time. I would not leave them raked whole on the beds for the reasons mentioned above. Plus where I live they always blew into a corner which made things hard to clean up in spring. They will not break down over winter - you'll just have a soggy, heavy mess to clean up in the spring. I save as many as I can and compost them into a bin. You can buy or make a compost bin pretty cheaply. Then I wait for the leaves to break down (over a few seasons) and work them into the beds that way. I agree that shredded leaves compost better, but again, I'm not up for the task anymore. I try to garden the easiest way I can these days. They're a great nutrient, but you have to figure out the way that's easiest for you. It's not as simple as some would imply.

We've been mowing whatever we gather. But I noticed that it takes a long, long time and it is very noisy. Plus our mower is so old I don't even want to know the emission factor.

May try the flowtron again, but I'll have to learn to change the string cutter, and get the sticks out. It used to jam, it is no quieter than a gas mower. However at least I can start it myself.

What I really want to do is go to the town yard and get some already chewed up broken down leaves! I'd just rake upwhat
s here and corral it, and let it do its thing.

Marie

Leaves take forever to decompose. I don't even put them in my compost bins let alone flower beds for that reason. I compost them separately. You should check out the composting forum.

Here is a link that might be useful: Uses for Leaves

Gee, I don't think they take forever. We make big piles of leaves in the woods--many trees here, mostly oaks and maples--and add grass clippings, weeds etc. Nothing diseased or woody.

These are just piles--nothing fancy. We never turn them or touch them and within about two years, presto, compost.

Ginny, 2 years is a pretty long time, when you consider traditional compost only takes a couple of months. I guess if someone doesn't mind the appearance of dead leaves matting in flower beds for 2 years, then they should go for it.

I rake all mine into the grass, then mow over it with my shredder mower,rake up the shredded leaves,and put them in the garden, what stayes in the grass, is good for it as well,not a hard thing to do, fast,and easy.Plus, they smell good as they are shredded.

If you shred the leaves, they break down quite quickly. Sometimes I have to put down my leaf mulch a second time... actually, now that I think of it, I *usually* replenish it. I put some down in late fall, and again in spring.

:)
Dee