Ah, the memories. I'm SO glad our messy Argentine hybrid blew over a few years ago.

As soon as our tree started dropping pods in late June, I'd go out every morning with a 5-gallon bucket and pick them up.

It sounds horribly tedious, but in reality it was maybe 5 minutes every morning, max - I made it my morning stretch-the-hamstrings routine. I kinda looked forward to it. The important thing is to do it EVERY day, otherwise it's like looking at a giant sinkful of dishes and not wanting to even start.

BTW, our tree was about 30' high and maybe 35-40' wide, so lots of pods. But that was nothing compared to the pollen, flowers, and especially those tiny leaves that ended up everywhere (including my underwear!)

I just finished that chore (for the time being) yesterday morning...also have landscape rock under my mesquites. I try to rake up what I can into small piles with a lightweight grass rake, but usually end up picking up most by hand. I try to think of it as exercise too. Someone suggested a very large plastic tarp, and you could pick it up after all the beans were off the tree...sounds good, but not too practical.

My dog eats the tasty native pods, but that is a different sort of cleanup....

-Ming

Ah, the joys of a "natural" landscape. We leave them for the birds to peck open, and only sweep them off the sidewalk.

A metal-tined leaf rake can usually collect them and not collect too many rocks. then you can take the pods off the pile and rake the rocks back into place.

Is that the tree that's creating all that yellow debris? My wife and I were just talking yesterday how messy all the trees are that they recommend for planting here. Our Texas ebony is currently in its second or maybe third bloom phase this year, Those fuzz balls cover the ground like snow. We removed a huge Jacaranda this year because of the continual year around mess. Makes me yearn for the male Mulbery we left at our old home in central Phoenix, Can't buy them here anymore.

Yup, I have the same problem every year. My hybrid mesquite, which came with this house, is enormous, truly enormous, and makes a huge mess in the front garden. I do what most folks mentioned: use a weak-tined grass/leaf rake and rake the pods up (I have rock mulch) without collecting TOO many rocks, then hand pick the rest. I sweep the sidewalk, and the street, several times a week too. Luckily it's over quickly, just 14-21 days or so.

It IS annoying though, hah. If I could snap my fingers and make my tree disappear without blowing over, hah, I would.

Happy gardening all!
Grant

We had one at our old house and I faithfully went out every morning like Juttah did and cleaned them up. Half over 3/4" rock, half over lawn. Rake the lawn, hand pick on the rock.

One morning while sitting at my kitchen table drinking coffee, looking over the backyard and thinking about that tedious chore, a coyote leaped over the metal fence into my yard from the golf course and proceeded to eat those pods! I was stunned! I left him in peace to enjoy his breakfast.

My neighbor at my newer home has one that covers half the street and it is a mess driving through the pods everyday. I think he either isn't going to clean them up or wait til they are done dropping.

To all the whiners, please feel free to leave the state anytime you like and never darken our lands again. No serious, just go!

We also have Mesquite trees in our yard, you know what? I'll take beans/pods any day instead of flowers from Desert Museum Palo Verde trees.

Yes, they are fast growing trees, they are easy care and disease free, they are beautiful, but boy they bloom 3-4 times per year, produce millions yellow orchid like flowers that are everywhere and anywhere including in the swimming pool.

When we write Christmas check for our yard guy, just the thought of cleaning these flowers will make us feeling generous.

Is there any way to make these trees stop flowering?

AZ-Mom To make the Palo Verdes stop flowering, apply a chain saw to the base of the tree.

Water them less ... WAY LESS ... and you can reduce the flowering by a bit.

They were not meant to be planted in lawns or near swimming pools, so go find the landscaper who did it. In a desert landscape they are awesome. But messy.

lazygadrens, you go girl! I was thinking of something similar. But chose to ignore as did others. If you can't help, keep quiet. Snotty posts aren't what we're about here. I know you've been around for a long time, as have I. Happy Gardening!

I know this post is old but I am new to the forum and rooting around for tips and tricks myself for various things so I thought I'd chime in. We just spent the ENTIRE morning raking and hand picking mesquite seed pods up off the ground in our front yard. Now my husband is attempting to get the rest with our leaf blower. I am with the fellow who first responded - I should have just spent five minutes every day picking up what dropped. I would love to have spent my Saturday morning doing something else! Love the shade the tree provides my yard and home here in Phoenix though. Oh, and we also have a mesquite AND palo verde that some previous owner thought would be awesome to plant by our pool. Ugh...

I'm in mid-to-late bean season AGAIN, recates, so I feel your pain, hah. I go out most mornings or evenings and sweep/collect from the sidewalk and street just to be a good neighbor, and I do what I can with the garden itself but I often end up not getting to it until bean season is over (I go insane when I've cleared an area and hear that familiar TINK of a new bean pod falling, hah). I wish there was a better way than hand-picking for sure, especially around agaves and aloes which love to collect them at the leaf bases, grrr. I keep long forceps and tongs for that job. I love the shade, but hate those beans, hah! Happy gardening!

those pods are a permaculture resource -- you know there are people in Arizona who will take them, grind them into flour for you. Try your google-fu on "mesquite flour"

Violet, they are South American species---taste like s@%t! Only the southwest varieties get ground and even then you should really taste the pod from any individual tree for agreeable flavor before deciding to collect and grind them.
http://www.desertharvesters.org/harvesting-processing/

good to know, thank you.

okay, I looked up mesquite trees on the internet, and don't see any that are south american species. Internet says there are 3 common types which are all native to Southwest US and Mexico, honey, screwbean, and velvet. What type of tree are you talking about?

I've actually been wondering about this, because mesquite grows around here as a wild big shrub, but also as a fairly large landscape tree, and I didn't know if that was a species difference, or just as a watering difference.

Argentine and Chilean mesquites are common nursery species and they are hybridized to produce varieties that are hardier, thornless, or have differing foliage, as the case may be.

Often, irrigation, better soil, and some judicious pruning are all it takes to motivate a mesquite shrub to become an elegant shade tree.

thanks!

To clean up mesquite beans I use a push broom and a square trash can, just lay the can on its side and push them in, this works surprisingly awesome very fast and the beans won't hang up, like they do in the rake, plus cleans up the fine leaves even in the dirt, my neighbors just looked at me funny at first but saw how fast it was and soon they to were using the push broom to.

Thank you soooo much Charles. i jus tried the push broom and OMG it works amazingly well.

Yes I’ve been using a regular house style broom too for the last couple of years. lt grabs the pods but leaves the rocks. Still get some rock to deal with in the pile but much easier than a rake. This year I’m going to fashion a sifter out of 2” wire fence and see if i can scoop up the pile and sift out the rocks. A little more work but may make it faster and more efficient.

PS…if that doesn’t work I’m going to remove the rock around the tree and fashion the dirt with some decorator covering