what about the opinion of the girls??

my hosta are planted at ground level .... the crown and mini pips above ground...

i SUSPECT that fire would not be advised ...

but FOR SURE .... i would wait for someone else to try it out first .. lol .. are you going to be the one to try it???

it would be my untested opinion that leaves frosted to the point of being blown off ... in other words all the plants are fully dormant .... i don't know how you can spread nem's ...

but the bigger question is... WHY ARE YOU BLOWING OFF ALL THE MULCH ..... that the hosta naturally provide ...????? it took me years to understand.. that all those dead leaves are a wonderful.. natural ... hosta provided mulch ...

why don't you leave them there .... and blow them off in spring when they are freeze dried.. and dry .. and brown ..???

when i was in suburbia... i 'cleaned' by garden every fall ... god knows why ....

on 5 acres ... who cares ...the wind will take care of what it will blow away.. and what ever stays.. is NATURES FREE MULCH ... some of my best soil is on fence lines where all the leaves accumulate and rot over the years ...

think about it ...WHY DO YOU CLEAN FREE MULCH OUT OF YOUR GARDEN?????

can anyone honestly answer why????

ken

Sassy~
Hard to imagine that fire wouldn't damage or destroy crowns and surface roots. Might also trick some of the surviving hostas into thinking an early hot spring had just arrived. And what if the fire got out of control? Seems way to risky.

Ken~
If you live in vole-ridden areas like mine, the voles just love the protection of fluffy leaves. I used to find all of their trampled paths under the leaf debris in the spring. Now I clean away all that I can. Some of the neighbors don't clean up much, so once the winds start howling I end up with their leaves. That's more than enough.

Having said that, we bought a leaf mulcher, and I'm going to try spreading some broken down leaf bits on one bed this fall as an experiment. I'm hoping the vole paths will be easier to spot in compressed compost. We'll send some of the leaves to the compost pile, others will head to the street for pickup. Just too much to deal with. If I didn't rake at all, the gardens would be covered in at least a foot and a half of oak leaves. That's one nasty wet mess to clean up in the spring, when I'd rather be doing ANYTHING else.

~Bunnycat (still waiting for a killing frost)

yep.. you are right.. i forgot about voles/vermin ....

if voles are a problem .... ignore what i said above ..

ken

and isnt it more properly .. or more betterly ...

you'S guys .....

dont mind me.. just being sassy .. wait.. thats you ... never mind.. lol

ken

Bunnycat, Been there/done that with the heavy, wet leaves each spring. Getting rid of them when they're dry is so much easier.

Ken, Another reason the leaves gotta go in the fall is because I don't like the looks of millions of leaves on my driveway. If I blow them into the garden they'll just blow back in the driveway, or worse, in my attached garage then in my house

I had just been thinking about the spread of nematodes.
Never thought about the fire damaging the crowns or surface roots.

So....where are those nematodes this time of year?

Sassy, I also use a leaf blower, an industrial type. The leaves come from the trees of my 1/2 acre lot. They have no nematodes as far as I know. I blow the leaves into several big piles, and then run them through my shredder. With the shredded leaved I cover various hostabeds. Don't worry about the hostas and their leaves until next spring.
on the left an oak with 4 trunks, to the right a hickory tree with 5 about a month ago. The oak is still green, but the hickory turned gold.

Good grief, Manfred--your pic. just made me shiver!! Brrrr!

I'm doing the gathering and running them through-the-chipper thing myself,
and after the ground freezes I'm going to pile them on the hosta, inground
and in-barrels! Hopefully, they'll do better than this past Spring!

I blow them into piles, but not the ones already on the hosta beds. The ground freezes enough
to prevent the voles easy access to my hosta over-winter---so far!

Now nematodes being spread that way--I don't know! If you can transfer them on your shoes, perhaps!
A good question!!! Hopefully someone will know the answer to that!

Two main reasons why I clean my gardens and remove leaves:
First, I have better access to each hosta and can kill slugs that have hidden under the leaves.
Second, I can see the numerous holes made by voles or moles and can eliminate as many as I can.
In past years I have lost 3 nice Hydrangea P.G....did not know why...thought it was by white worms...but this year I used a heavy water pressure jet into the holes and filled them with mud...I added some sand...then I compacted everything...to deter the moles and voles. Under one particular Hydrangea PG there were 4 or 5 tunnels leading to the center of the bush...but then deep down it was not a tunnel anymore...it was a CAVE!! When all was filled up, the soil surrounding the Hydrangea went down 6 inches for about 2 feet around the Hyd. No wonder my other Hydrangea died.

Papou

Concerning the burning of leaves, most Municipalities have Bylaws regulating (and prohibiting) the burning of grass and leaves. Check with your municipality, you may have to obtain a temporary permit. In any event burning the leaves where they have fallen is "playing with fire" IMHO. To me, this would be very harzadous and dangerous.

Papou

Ken! Everyone knows it's "yooz guyz" and it's gender-neutral in this context. ;) Maybe "youse guys."

Papou, I've got a recalcitrant hydrangea and if it doesn't bloom next spring, it gets yanked out and I'll check the underside for mole / vole / chipmunk habitation. I've had chippers undermine my mini hosta bed which is only about 25' away. Grrr! And I just learned the hard way that I have shrews, too. (No, they didn't bother my plants; they are carnivores. But one got in my house and I am not having that!)

Everybody:
Fire: no, no, no. No-no. Asthma (if your kids don't have it, they'll get it). Sterilizing the soil, including killing your hosta crowns. Annoying your neighbors. Maybe breaking local ordinances. Smokestains on any nearby surface, including your house. (We got white siding a year ago, and DH now has to drag the grill 12' out into the yard to avoid staining the new soffit!)

Vermin: a problem here. I can't leave leaves up against the house, but the new hosta terraces are 30' away and DH is just going to leave the leaves there for the winter. It worked well in the half we had finished last year.

Slugs: in heavy slug years, I yank out the dead daylily straps and hosta foliage. This year was nearly slug-free from the drought, so I'm leaving most of the hosta foliage and only cleaning up the daylily beds.

Leaves: DH hauls the leaves on tarps to the "back 40" and this year, the Summer Kid hauled six years' worth of the mulch they (and our grass clippings) made into various beds, including a perennial bed and the new hosta terraces. I recognize not everyone can do that; we're lucky in having an otherwise-unused easement behind our fence for long-term compost-making.

Papou,
No laws prohibiting much of anything where I live...except roosters over 6 months old.
There used to be a bunch of cock fights around here so now roosters are outlawed.
No, there's no such thing as getting a permit to burn leaves or garbage.
The smell of burning leaves is the norm this time of year. In the spring the farmers burn off the grass/weeds in their fields. Also the norm.

Like it or not, guess I'm gonna have to leave the leaves where they are since I'm not sure where the nematodes are.
Sure would be nice if I could burn em up without hurting the hostas...Now that's what I'd call a heat treatment!Guess not though.

The slimy part goes away if you run a mower over them or chip them with a chipper. If you feel you must burn then create charcoal, search "Terra Preta".

This will really turn on a bright bulb!

EO, You said, "The slimy part goes away if you run a mower over them or chip them with a chipper."

Back to my main concern...the spread nematodes.

I think that IF the nems are still in/on the hosta foliage and I run a mower over the tree leaves laying on top of the hostas, I might run a real good chance of throwing nematodes everywhere. That's why I decided against using the leaf blower this year.

Lisa, No kids around to get asthma & I always stay upwind of the smoke.... No close neighbors to annoy, closest is at least 500'.....No local ordiance to break (still have some good ol freedom here, except for them roosters I mentioned)....no worry about about smoke stains on my VERY dark brown house. Killing the hosta crowns? NOW THAT'S A CONCERN!!! I won't be burning only for that reason. I'm glad "you guys" - "you'S guys" - "youz guyz" brought that problem up. Guess burning a hosta could really be a test of their stamina.

Nobody mentioned "youins" (sp) PA slang, I think. LOL

When the hosta goes dormant the nematodes go back to the crown or ground, they are no longer in the leaves if they ever were.

If you chop them up they don't blow around or get slimy and decompose easily usually by early summer.

Fellow in Mi asked me and friend; "Youse Twos Guyese".

Too many words whe ya'll will do it so ya'll come see me now hear?