YOU ARE KIDDING RIGHT ...

LEAVE THEM LAY ... oopps ...

its how its done in nature... you will have less weeds ... better soil.. cooler soil.. more water retention .... but perhaps more slugs.. but we can take care of those without back breaking labor ...

might snap a pic for you later ... just to horrify the lot of you .. lol ...

i went from an anal retentive suburban garden [cleaner than my house]... to 5 acres... without a crew of about 20 peeps.. i could not 'clean' my garden like i used to ...

so what.. the hosta wont care ... and frankly.. over the years.. its the compost you are now paying money to ship in ....

when you get a little zen about it ... you will wonder why you worked so hard all those years ....

the time has come.. to enjoy the garden the way it is.. instead of doing all that hard work you used too ... and frankly.. you will enjoy it more.. for the lack of worrying about how to deal with it all

good luck
ken

I even go around the town and pick up bags of leaves so I have them to mulch with.......why buy when I can pick up for free.
I lay down newspapers between the hostas and top with leaves. Partially broken down is the best but I have used whole or shredded leaves equally well on top of the newspapers.
If I have a "new" bed with grass or a "weedy" trouble bed I lay down cardboard or parts of old magazines first then top with leaves. It breaks down slower that way and suppresses weeds for the gardening season.

We have a large wooded area about 200yds from the house heavily planted with hosta and we never do anything but pickup and move around large limbs that fall. When I say move around the large limbs that means move them off plants to rot and feed the soil.

We never do anything to the leaves period, just leave them to decompose.

One problem with leaves is blowing and mounding HIGH, if the lay of the lay causes them to collect in one area deep then you must do something.

If you can set up the beds so you can just mow the leaves right on top of the hosta in the fall including mowing dead hosta leaves in place it will all be easier. IÂm saying let the hosta go dormant, let the tree leaves fall then on a dry day mow the whole area and you are finished.

Here are a few photos of the wooded area, IÂm not such a great photographer so IÂm just trying to show the size of the area and the fact that leaves are never moved.

The neighbors won't like it much...

Like I said, we usually run the mower over them (big commercial mower) to mulch them a little faster than nature, so we don't bag or remove them. But clogging the storm sewer HAS been a problem the one time we didn't get that done, as the drain is is directly at the bottom of my small urban forest.

Perhaps putting some stone borders around to keep the storms from washing gobs of leaves down at once ?? ...

Indyrose

Perhaps putting some stone borders around to keep the storms from washing gobs of leaves down at once ?? ...

Indyrose

Rock unless placed very carefully like a wall causes more erosion than not. Earth berms will catch water and allow it to leach slowly after a rain is better than just putting down some rocks.

here is the pix i promised .. frankly.. i think it looks natural.. and pretty .. ken

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