Lucky you! I may have to resort to stopping in town when people put their bags of leaves out and asking for them. I wanted to do that last year, but DH didn't. I hate to have to rake myself.

glenda

That's what I normally do, gldno - go down to the retirement community where my Mom and Stepdad live and bag up the leaves they have raked to the edge of the street before their town pickup day. The only thing to watch for is that sometimes there can be other debris in there like twigs and stuff, esp. if they've raked them right off their spent flower beds.

I've never had so many leaves in my yard as this fall, normally they blow away to the neighbors or the field behind. Could be cause there's been rain off and on for a week. I always seemed to run out of shredded leaf mulch, though; so I still might go scrounging. I asked the town person in charge of leaf collection if I could have some bags from the huge pile they dump at the outskirts of town, but he said they were "already spoken for" the same guy gets them every year. He wouldn't elaborate. Hmph.

I like to rake leaves, but my back just kills me halfway through the job. Same with sweeping.

I've noticed bags of leaves on the streets here lately. The city comes through in November with a large vacuum and hauls all the leaves to the landfill. They used to let us have the leaf mould, but thanks to the state, they've discontinued the process for this year. Still the leaves pile up. I've been seeing a lot of tree trimming in the area too. One day I'm going to stop and ask if they will dump the shredded mess in my driveway. I might have to pile it up for a year in an out of the way corner, but eventually it would make nice compost and mulch.

I'll be raking my yard in a couple weeks, and the neighbor's, and the neighbor's neighbor's. My leaf blower has a vacuum/shred function and I use it to chop the leaves into smaller bits that break down over the winter and spring. Makes nice dirt.

Thanks to Token I got the blade for my mower. I have been raking the leaves into a long row and then I just mow right over with the bag on. Distribute them in flower beds etc and voila I have mulch. I am careful to keep it thin . So far so good and I am saving bags and backbreaking pick up of leaves, adding to my garden...so far it is all a +++ c