I have my lawn service blow them into a giant pile and then run the mower over them many times breaking them down into tiny pieces. We then shovel up the pieces and use them in the surrounding flower beds to protect all of the perennials for the winter season. Its a lot of leaves but it works.

Here are some photos of the wooded area. I also included a single photo of the inspiration behind my idea.

3 - 4 feet of leaves? I've never seen that in woodland. Normally each years leaves is taken back by the earth by the time next year's come down. Has someone been piling them up? Your pictures look normal for a treed area. I wouldn't be removing healthy, natural mulch and buying in a replacement.

I don’t see a build up of 3’ feet of leaves anywhere in your pics so not sure what you are talking about. As for your inspiration all that mulch is going to make getting rid of leaves a real problem I think you need to think about another type of cover if you don’t want decking or patio.

Yea it's not 3-4 ft of leaves throughout. Just one section.

In any event, I am going to clear out all the leaves. Exposing the dirt below. I want the entire area walkable without a layer leaves below our ft.

As for Leaf removal - is a simple rake the best option? Is there a tool/ Machine that would make tre project easier? Thanks

@patricia - not going to use mulch. You make a good Pt

Shop vac! Lol.

If you rake the leaves won't you be walking in mud?..I don't see why you can't go ahead and arrange your stones and chairs etc using the leaf litter as a base..a pic of my backyard..I probably have as many leaves as you do..it's not difficult to walk around..I have lots of paths and use them everyday..agree with floral that 3-4 feet of leaves doesn't happen naturally..just when humans make piles..

Leaf blower them into the "woods" you won't be using. I have acres of Oaks and the leaves seem to last forever...but they DO eventually decay. Don't rake them from lawns, just mow the heck out of them, they will be incorporated into the soil by the following Spring. Your inspiration photo isn't very practical, a wood deck set "one step high" off the ground level will afford a stable platform for chairs etc.

The leaves will come down again every year. Are you prepared to fight nature annually?

Thank you everyone for the great responses. I am learning so much...

OK, so it seems removing the leaves now and each and every year seems like a bad idea. I do want to make that area more usable. I want my kids to be able to roam back there. But with all the brush and the leaf buildup (it may not be 3-4 ft but its deeper than a season worth). I am also i CT which means TICKS. and ticks love to hide out in fallen leaves.

Any suggestions on what I can do?

(Thanks again for knocking some sense into me)

To be honest, I think my best suggestion is to let your kids roam free in the most natural environment possible. In other words, leave the leaves and let the kids own those woods as a wild playground. They will have the time of their lives.

Ticks are problematic and quite frankly disgusting but there are ways to mitigate the risk, as you may know. Tall socks, bug spray, careful nightly checks before bedtime.

Are you planning to remove any large trees (or smaller ones/other smaller plants)?

Hi Biondanonima - Yes we are removing a few large trees that have been deemed a danger. I would like to clear most (if not all) of the plants/brush.

I asked simply because clearing some trees may alleviate some of your leaf issues, although I'm sure you'll always have some to deal with. Taking the area down to bare dirt is just going to invite weeds, though.

nicholsworth55- How do you create and maintain your wooded area? How do you create the paths? what do you enjoy about your space? thanks!

How about consulting the kids? If you remove all the shrubbery where are they going to make dens? Play hide and seek?

Sounds like you need to establish some paths to start with? A meandering path through the space with some destinations along the way could be quite charming. You can use natural materials for the path, including leaf mulch. I've read that having wider paths where you're less likely to brush up against undergrowth can help reduce exposure to ticks, but with kids, I'd do a tick check every night they've been playing outside.

Here are some articles I found that might be helpful:

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+make+paths+in+a+woodland&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

I also recommend talking to your local nurseries. Often staff are very knowledgeable about different garden types and how to start them, and they could certainly point you to other resources to help you.

Dj..the way I see it - we're blessed to have our own personal parks..love the shade..the wildlife..if you look at my user name photo (or whatever it's called) it's an owl..I took that pic in my backyard..start removing brush..I never removed anything and then had regrets..was awkward to navigate the yard when we moved in..12 years later after clearing brush..planting understory trees, shrubs and perennials..setting pavers and rocks - it's so much nicer..I'm 62 husband is 66 and we're retired and still active..I love this kind of work and have time to do it but I have neighbors that do much less..you can get by with less but I enjoy tending my bit of earth and making it as pretty as I can..I do it for myself not for others..will post more pics in a minute..

husband made boardwalks out of neighbors old deck boards..used a huge fallen limb as edging..no time now for more pics (we're leaving)..get some loppers and get to work haha..

nicholsworth55 thanks for the pics. I love it! How do you maintain the leaves each season? It looks like that's just one seasons worth. What's so you have under the leaves? Is it simply dirt/soil? Thanks

pic#1..we mow (sometimes rake) the small bit of ground where we don't have trees or plants and clean the driveway....pic#2..see the ground?..leaf litter on top of native soil..not always but have mowed the paths in the back..pic#3..a spring pic..the 2 pics above that were taken today you can see that the leaves have started to fall..the boardwalk is covered..we still end up with a truckload of leaves that we've raked and these we chip..we own a chipper..it reduces the volume tremendously..then we compost them and use it everywhere..

It's woods; it's not a family room. You need leaves on the ground and Floral_uk said, if you clear it out where the kids let their imagination roam free? I remember building of finding 'secret' spaces created by shrubs in the woods at our place in the Adirondacks.

And I remember many times roaming through the woods behind an aunt and uncle's 300+ year old house in a CT shore town--the woods were filled with ledge outcroppings for climbing. And neither of those places ever had any leaves cleared; I can guarantee that. And we never had ticks.

Nicholsworth: your woods look great!

Dj: You don't 'maintain' the leaves. They just go away, naturally. Until they do, they form a nice mat covering the ground acting as a mulch to stop the weeds..

My guess it that you may have oaks, whose leaves are slow to decay. And the leaves may not be able to be well distributed by the wind if there is too much undergrowth. Get rid of any deep piles (or just run a lawn mower through them to break them up) and let nature take its course after you thin out the trees.

I've actually dumped leaves on some of my paths..as mentioned they break down and smother weeds..my neighbor hires people to blow all of his leaves and debris to the street and haul it away..he has mud and weeds..then spring comes and the people come back and throw mulch everywhere..which gets blown to the street with the leaves in the fall..vicious cycle!..my yard is prettier and healthier..we removed poison ivy, stinging nettle, honeysuckles (shrubs), weeds, and unattractive and dead trees..pruned broken and dead branches..we love privacy and planted many shrubs and small trees..now we're waiting for everything to grow..

We used to live in NY state with a back yard much like what you picture. Ticks were a real issue....so was poison ivy. And the mosquitoes were lovely.

I couldn't stop my dog from going back there, but we mostly stayed in cleared out back grass area.

Until they bring back a Lyme disease vaccination, I would enjoy the view and leave it at that.

Yeah, where is the Lyme vac?? If my dog can get one, I should be able lol.

we haven't had any ticks..but we do think about it..

Just make a stepping stone pathway through the area and only trim back selected shrubbery that impacts the path. Fighting Mother Nature's natural mulch is just short sighted and ignorant of what the leaves are doing for you. Hauling off leaves interrupts the nutrient life cycle that feeds the trees from the decaying leaf matter. It's bone headed and will result in an unhealthy ecosystem.

Thank you everyone again for the comments....

I am surely going to reject my "leaves removal" idea. I like the idea of creating pathways.

As for removing the brush. What tool would make that job easier? Also, how do you keep the brush from returning once they are removed?

thank you!

I live on a standard city lot in Toronto, but we have plenty of trees ourselves and my one neighbors has an enormous maple that drops a lot of leaves on our property. We used to rake and bag the leaves, but now we just rake them onto the flower/shrub/raspberry beds. They seem to disappear since the worms pull them into the soil and eat them. Healthy worms = rich soil. Whatever the worms don't eat, seems to just compost in place on the beds.

We don't go crazy raking every leaf either. We just mow over them if there isn't a really heavy layer, and they break up and enrich the lawn too.

Less work, better for the environment, and healthier lawn and plants. Win, win, win.

Essentially, DJ, you want to make a small patio -- enough for a seating area -- in the woods and a paved (stone/stepping stones) pathway to it. Bases on pictures, as others have noticed, areas of deep leaves are not evident. It is just the normal matted leaves as one would expect. There might be an area(s) in there somewhere because leaves blow around like snow and can end up in drifts, or people may have created piles of them. But that means that somewhere else, there are fewer leaves. At any rate, leaves are not the main problem and as others have pointed out, they would be an ongoing part of maintenance, so would need to be accommodated regularly if the patio was build. Keep in mind that the inspiration photo, being a snapshot in time, might be a real chore to keep up with. The owners might have a battery powered blower that they cart out there every two days. We couldn't know. But leaves are definitely going to come down, heavier some times than others. If I was creating such a patio, I make it somewhat elevated ... like the first layer of cake, so that leaves could be swept or blown off easily.

A main feature of this woodland patio area is a clearing. Large trees are limbed up (have their bottom branches removed) and small whole trees in the designated area are removed entirely. Scrubby brush is removed in favor of attractive, lower height plants. One could achieve this with a durable, single, low groundcover, which would be the easiest, lowest maintenance way. Or one could use a mixture of low plants. They could be spaced out as shown in the inspiration photo, or they could be solid, like a groundcover. If as the latter, it would not be intended for walking in. It is actually easy to create a clearing with simple hand tools, with the exception of if there are large trees to be removed. Limbs and branches can be cut off with a manual pole saw. Once they are on the ground they can be cut up for removal with a pair of heavy duty loppers and a small folding saw. (I like the 10" Corona (or equivalent) the best since it can be tucked in the pocket and whipped out whenever needed. It will cut through a 6" trunk like butter. Paint undiluted herbicide on the stubs of fresh cut saplings so they will not regrow. It would probably only take a Saturday or weekend to clear out whatever you wanted gone. Presumably, you have somewhere out of sight nearby where you could dump cut brush.

Following

Glad you have decided to let the leaves remain. If removed your weed issues would become a major problem along with the other issues mentioned. Your inspiration photo has bark mulch, not bare soil.

For removal of limbs and brush to create paths and openings in the woods, I use a variety of tools. For the smallest woody plants, I use pliers and pull them up. I have some heavy duty, long-handled loppers that can adjust the jaw size to remove things up to about an inch in diameter. Larger than that, I have a power brush cutter that looks like a string trimmer, but can switch out the string roll for a brush blade. Anything larger than about 3" diameter requires a saw, usually DH with a chain saw, though I do remove some limbs that overhang the paths with a hand pruning saw.

You are absolutely right to be concerned about ticks. What applied years ago is no longer valid as there has been an explosion in the tick population and they carry a variety of diseases, not just Lyme. I have seen ticks on bare soil in the veggie garden and have gotten more than one walking across mown grass. The only way to avoid them is to dress for them (tuck pants into socks and shirts into pants, wear a hat, and spray all of them with DEET based insect repellent, though I don't put repellent on bare skin.) You also have to get in the habit of doing a tick check every time you come into the house if you have been off pavement, and put clothing straight in the washing machine. Plan 10 minutes every evening at bed time to strip down and check for ticks, including in hair, belly buttons, ears, and other crevices. It is not uncommon for me to find 10 or more ticks on me over the course of the day at the height of tick season, so we keep a small vial of rubbing alcohol by every sink in the house to drop them into. The key is to find and remove quickly so they haven't had time to bite.

Deer ticks like rodents, so anything you can do to reduce rodents helps. Another method to reduce the tick population in rodents is via tick tubes, either commercial ones or homemade. They provide nesting materials for rodents that are impregnated with a pesticide that kills ticks. My memory is that it is toxic to cats, so you don't want to use if you have an outdoor cat.

NHBabs... Thank you. so what is your best method in preventing shrubs/brush from growing back? I have been saving toilet paper rolls for our homemade tick tubes.

Yardvaark - would love to hear your thoughts on this too :)

Weekly maintenance is the only way to keep an unnatural ecosystem from reverting back to a natural one.Its why the lawn gets mowed and trees get pruned.

A woodland cleared of understory plantings is not natural. You can clear the indesirables and plant desirable ones, but there is no such thing as a maintenance free landscape. Even concrete painted green needs repainting eventually.

Where weedy brush has been removed, there will be "stumps." The largest diameter ones should have been treated upon cutting with undiluted herbicide concentrate (by disposable paint brush) so they won't regrow. Ground level weeds should all be killed with herbicide and later cut down and removed to the brush pile. Once the area is cleaned, a layer of mulch could be placed OVER the already existing layer of leaves. The total mulch (of which the leaves are part) should be thick enough to suppress sprouting seeds. Perennial weeds/shrubs likely will not die from a single application of herbicide. As they regrow, they should periodically be resprayed (when they are no more than 2' tall.) Eventually, they will die and you will be left with a cleared area that is mulch only. (The natural fallen leaves are still an underlying part of this.)

I don't think it's practical to maintain mulch-only areas in a wooded environment. It could be done if one patiently waited for leaves to semi-decompose and then covered with a layer of better mulch. But that's a long wait, some expense, and some effort. It's easier in the long run to establish a groundcover(s) that will "eat" fallen leaves and then there is much less work to do.

Loppers and weed eater for that level of brush. Not hard.

^And safer for the kiddos and wildlife than herbicides.

What time of year do you think is best for this project? I'd prefer the cold months mostly because I won't have to deal with tick season. Does it natter when I do it?

A lot of people do it when there aren't other gardening chores. However, it isn't a once and done thing. Keeping the underbrush under control is a continual task. In the northeast, you either mow or you weed. It is just the way it is. Personally, I agree with Floral that the kids probably much prefer it the way it is. Clearings are for grown ups who don't know any better.

BTW, for some totally unknown reason, I haven't seen a tick here in years. Fleas, OTOH, have been a nightmare.

Herbicide spraying can only happen when leaves are actively growing on plants so ASAP. Cutting & hauling can happen anytime. Mulching can happen anytime clearing is ready. Re-spraying of recurring weeds can happen anytime they recur.

It would be useful to identify this 'brush'. You might have some good shrubs in there, whether native or not. There may be saplings of attractive trees. You might also have some native ephemerals which will only become apparent in the spring.

Instead of struggling to create paths on the ground, consider a canopy walk! You can see an example of one at the Milford School (?) in NY not far from CT.. It's part of their science program. I've been on many others, each one fabulous. Experiencing trees from a higher elevation is an indescribably intimate encounter with wildlife and the trees themselves.

DJ if it was my property I would not wait to start clearing. Based on your inspiration picture you only need to clear a medium sized area. I suggest doing as Yardvaark described earlier. Cut brush to the ground and apply Glyphosate undiluted on the fresh cut. This works much better than spraying and waiting. Furthermore, I always feel it is safer as I do not risk spray drifting on to anything desirable.

Follow directions above to ward of ticks. I think you can do the clearing in one day.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Repel-Permethrin-Clothing-Gear-Insect-Repellent-6-5-oz/49662589

I live in BIG TIME Tick Land. The above product works extremely well...please follow the directions...not for use on skin. The Vet available monthly dose flea and tick killer is a blessing for dogs and cats.

I just bought 11 acres of all woods. I must admit I see all these leaves everywhere and I too have wondered how to handle the situation. I get that yall love you some leaves but ticks spiders snakes and every other woodland creature love leaves to hide under as well. I will be creating a yard space for the home so I'm definitely not trying to take away the whole Woodlands property beauty but realistically having a nice lawn around your house has its appeal and a good safe buffer zone. I'll put up a fence and include a snake fence along the bottom to keep the kids and pets protected and if they want to go explore the wide open woods its a simple matter to open a gate. So what I am asking is what would be the easiest way to get up all the leaves and pine needles without all the constant raking every year. I don't think a leaf blower would be realistic for this task. Maybe a lawn mower with bag collection? Any other possibilities other than buying a 3-5k machine? Just toss out ideas and ill do my research on them individually lol thanks in advance everyone

You likely won’t have a space larger than a half acre to clear of leaves, so hire someone with one of those $3-5K machines each year in the fall when all the leaves are down if you don’t want to do the work yourself.

@Jay Skeen Congrats on your purchase, it will be two years before you need to worry about leaves and needles on the future lawn. When that time arrives - start your own thread for better help.

You will be creating a never-ending chore for yourself. Not just the leaves, but the numerous weeds that will spring up once exposed to sunlight.