Sounds like fun, but I hope you're cleaning around storm drains or asking permission of residents. Love the name!

Why are you collecting leaves? For use as mulch?

I have enough leaves and pine needles of my own, but if I didn't, and if there were bags of raked leaves curbside waiting for pickup where I live, I might.

Ah, I misunderstood. You're taking already bagged leaves, but how do you know what's in those bags? In my area, we have a yard waste bin, but I try to prevent DH from discarding leaves. I want to use them!

Sorry for lack of clarity... was suppose to post this to the soil, compost, mulch forum ... but this will do here too. Yes they are used for shredding... then mulching beds with. I don't have enough large trees in my yard… so I have to go elsewhere. In regards to finding the bags with leaves vs trash…. Most if not all people in my subdivision use the larger bins that the trucks can pickup with the hook thing. So during this time of year when people are raking leaves… the bags that are outside those cans are typically leaves. Some people us the paper brown bags too. And… you can feel them, pick them up, etc to make sure they are just leaves.

you can usually tell a leaf bag.. by weight ... if the leaves were dry when put in the bag ...

KEN

lol on mercury thinking you were doing some night time stealth lawn cleaning... lol ... ken

I appropriated leaf bags when we lived in Connecticut because my yard didn't have any large trees but stopped because the bags frequently also contained dog poop and trash. I also gave up on municipal compost because of the trash it included.

My name is Schoolhouse, and I'm a leaf hunter and have a leaf gitter 2003 Chevy Cavalier.

Three big plastic bags in the trunk, three bags in the back seat, one bag in the passenger seat. For the last four years or so, I have a go-to place that I get all seven bags that I need. The guy mows and mulches them, dumps them by the side of his lane for the town to pick up. He was my Mom's neighbor and knows I take some because I asked permission once. I re-shred them with my blow/vac and put that into 30g. paper yard waste bags. And, yes I have some leaves, but live on a slight hill and all of them blow down yonder into the field. Much easier to just pick up what someone else has done most of the work to. No nasty stuff in it either, except maybe a little bit of grass sometimes.

Then I take my car to the car wash vac and clean out any leaf bits on the floor and upholstery. ha

Nevermore44 - do you notice how warm the shredded leaves can get in the bags if there is even some dampness? I remember one year when I had the little neighbor boys gather bags of leaves for me (at $1 a bag - they were thrilled), unfortunately often they would be wet but I didn't say anything other than try to remind them to get as many DRY leaves as possible next time. Anyhow, I stacked the plastic bags out by my the retaining wall in back until I could process them further. The next day there was actually whiffs of smoke coming from a couple! That's hot compost! I wonder if there could be spontaneous combustion??? I currently store my bags in the old outhouse with the tops wide open.

Nevermore- A chance to bond with your son and a service to the community. Win-win.

schoolhouse- So, no need for a Sear's catalog, eh?

tj

LOL tsugajunkie!

If mercury were right, I’d invite you to my house. Lol. We mulch and mulch and mulch and mulch, but eventually, we have to give up! Then we gather and pitch it into our woods.

The new version of a joy ride! By the way, I noticed you have clear plastic bags for the leaves? I think when our municipalities started that's what we used / then somewhere down the line it changed to paper only.

I thought the OP said leaf GLITTER and wondered if this was some (tacky) Xmas thing.

Schoolhouse- I try and mow as much into the lawn now before winter sets in... but the damp bags i save over winter for next year's garden/lawn do start to steam when I tear them open in late spring. They get nice and hot.

It's nice when people use clear bags... but that doesn't happen too often. More people are using the paper bags... which in my area don't even get taken anywhere but the dump. People think they get taken to someplace special... so at least not put junk in them.

When we began a big garden years ago, we collected bagged leaves from the neighborhood. One of those bags contained Bermuda grass and we struggled (unsuccessfully) to get rid of it for the next 15 years. Beware!

I read the post title the same way as Campanula at first and second readings, but on the third look I actually read what was written. I initially clicked on the thread to find out what leaf glitter was. . .

We have been known to pick up bagged leaves at the curb, but at some point in the past the only nearby town that has leaf pickup started using a vacuum truck and so we no longer can get them. We used a more traditional vehicle, however, since we live in the country and find a pickup truck is a necessity. I still use the pickup or the tractor to move bagged wood shavings from the wood shop around to various gardens for mulch.

DH usually mows a couple of times to chop up the leaves into the lawn, but if requested will gather and set them aside for the garden.

Nevermore, I thought your original post was hysterical. Git 'er dun!! I love the "rendering" ( your original words) of your Gitter. I don't know if it was your intention, but it looks like a professional photo. Lighting is soft, yet crisp, colors are intense. Did you do a Glamour Shot for your Gitter?! True love...

I'm glad your boy goes leaf gittering with you. Probably safer than trash picking these days, although my brother got some gems that way. But, I guess both are ecologically advantageous. Glad he's getting a good education!

I did forget to add more apostrophes in the title to indicate accent.

The photo is a chop job in photoshop.... I did curve the parts a bit to give life to the nighttime scent. If it was true to life, there would be a long series of dings into the back driver's side door.... provided by years of my son opening his door into mine. Again... it's not that bad to have a old car where it doens't matter if it gets beat up.

Actually last week driving home from work... there was some road rage happening a few cars ahead of me... and the guy threw a can of Campbells soup out of his window to hit the guy ahead of me... which it didn't.... but it conveniently hit my front fender and made a nice dent. Again.... fun soup story vs dent tradeoff isn't so bad.

Well, that's nothing a good Glamour Shot can't fix. I'm glad she was hit by something so...Americana and traditional. I'm sure your gitter's glad to have such a faithful suitor to keep courting her.

If you are a story-teller, you can change the canned good depending on your audience. In New England it should be B&M canned brown bread, in the south it could be canned anything (just being honest here). Posters from other areas can post their regional canned specialty here just to help you out.

P.S. Might I add that both the word "glamour" and Glamour Shots using the English spelling always "tickled me to death." Just for you, Camp. See? We didn't completely leave the Commonwealth. It's one of the few -our words that kept its ending on this side of the pond, all proper-like.

Well I beat my record of bags carried in a single trip…. 17 bags. This weekend was a bonanza of brown bags (Yes I need to get a life.. But leaves keep me out of the bars and walking the streets looking for trouble). 2 bags in the trunk... 2 hanging out held down with the trunk bungeed down….. 3 crammed in the back seat. Then 10 on the top… running from the top of the trunk all the way to the windshield in the front. I did run into one guy walking his pekingese dog. I quickly said “Just collecting leaves for my garden”. The dog was at my feet before he was able to reply. I then just distracted him with pekingese questions and expressions of awe before I hopped back in the car and sped off at a singular mile per hour with my haul.

Do you think adding side rails on my roof made of old rotting wood and rusty nails would be socially acceptable?

I say you duct tape the whole perimeter to keep the bags safe, wrapping around the car starting at the top and then going down underneath the carriage.

Well...that might get expensive, I guess.

In past years I have sometimes grabbed neighbors' bags of grass clippings while walking home late. With all the oak leaves my compost pile is usually heavy on browns. It concerned me a little that they might be from Chem lawns, but back then I was turning the pile a lot and getting it really heated up. I figured that might potentially break down any lingering herbicides, etc.

HAHA yea, Spedigrees was right - you and I really should get together!