How many bags of leaves will you get this fall?

Probably none--although temptation exists!

I collected about 30 trash bags-full last year, and have used only one or two. This year, the leaves are lying temptingly in neighbors' yards, the gutters, etc. (Please note that few cars park along the gutters on my street.)

Nevertheless, I keep having the impulse to collect more....

I will be out tomorrow to get more leaves.  Both my neighbors have been leaving me piles and I shred them up before putting them in a pile.

So far 4 cu. yards of leaves and hoping for a few more tomorrow.  Snow next week?

I managed about thirty bags this year and yesterday some wet snow fell so I think that will be it for this season. I can't believe how swiftly the leaves dropped this time. I think it was due to the dry and sometimes windy weather we had compared to last year when the weather was warm and damp.
My compost pile is being built with dried grass saved during the summer and lots of coffee grounds, kitchen scraps and some bags of horse and chicken manure. The worms should have a nice home for the winter. I just need a couple of half days to finish. the remainder of the leaves have been put on my SFG beds and covered with chicken wire to keep out the local cats,
Looking forward to next spring to see how the garlic and shallots have survived.

Floyd,  How do you shred them?

sanderson wrote:Floyd,  How do you shred them?

Fortunately my neighbors collect their leaves with their riding mowers with baggers, which shreds them to some degree   Then I do the same with my mower until they are about dime size but must admit my neighbor and I purchased a cyclone rake last year and we are seeing a great benefit as after collecting them, you can dump them and pick them up again shredding them in the same proceedure.

He has a 20 x 30 garden plus wants compost for his shrubs to so needs a lot of compost.  Built a temporary open bin 4x8x16 but will decide if it was the correct size and adjust next year. This pile will "cold compost" through the winter and put batches in smaller bins with more greens starting next spring.

Nice to have help.....

slimbolen99 wrote:The only problem with having that many leaves is keeping them wet enough during the winter, and turning them occasionally.

How about wetting them and then put a tarp over them and anchor the edges.

I still have some leaves from last year corralled but reading this post is getting me a bit excited to get more for this year.  Last year I put up a sign on my front fence and had people drop loads of bags of leaves off.  I didn't get anywhere near the amount LM got but it was plenty.  As I was using some of those leaves in the late summer to mix with my greens for my compost pile, the smell reminded me of my childhood at my grandmothers house.  I love the smell!  I was careful not to inhale the powdery mold stuff that flies off the leaves though.

Currently I have stashed up 7 cu.yards of leaves to date.  They are all shredded so my neighbor and I should be good for next year as he has a 20x30 garden.

The first time I tried composting it was spring and browns were hard to find so I figure better have more than I may need.

Good thinking Floyd!

So far I have 30 gallons (1/2 compost bag) of Chinese pistachio leaves.  I hope to collect enough this fall to have a full bag after running over them with the lawn mower.

The leaves have finally started to drop off our oak trees , it's a good job I have a decent net system over the pond.
 
Holly aka Munchkin  & I collected just over 1.5 cubic feet of leaves yesterday late afternoon . I hope to be able to suck them through eh garden vacuum mulcher some time tomorrow if it's not raining. 
 Best of all as I was raking them in to a heap I saw a bit of thin green plastic in the wet leaves .
Annoyed that the wind had yet again blown someone's rubbish into the back garden, I picked it up and put it in my pocket for the next time I went by the bin area..

T'is a good  habit I've developed , for when I walked over to the dustbin as I took it out the pocket after we had finished leaf collecting I saw it was some kind of money looking type plastic note. But as it was by now dark and tea was ready I put it back in my pocket to look at in depth after teatime.
 After tea with my glasses on my face  I looked at it carefully , at first I thought it was some sort of  Micky Mouse kiddies play money then I got a bit excited for there was the words Australia on one side and some figures. A quick check on the internet  indicated that it might indeed be one of the plastic  Australian bank notes , worth around £ 57.00

I had a pang of guilt about the origins of the note so went and reported the find to the police as lost property that been found. If no one claims it by UK law  in six weeks it's mine .


Who says it's an ill wind that blows no good ?  Where it came from is anybody's guess .

Boy has adding more carbon helped my very green-heavy pile. Now it's steaming all over the place, not just in a lucky small pocket here and there(or not at all). I'm letting some huge boxes soak in the rain to make them easier to tear up, and they're going in a little every day, too. Later in the day I'll take the dogs out and grab a couple more bags of leaves. Considering all the horse poop I get every day, it's all but impossible to have too many dead leaves or other carbon to help balance it all out.

Ir's all a matter of balance, marc.
Lasr year I had too many browns and only managed to add the greens when springtime came around and the grass needed mowing.
I have finally got the balance right, I save the browns until I get the greens, and when the greens are more plentiful I save them until the leaves fall. The browns are easier to store, but the greens can be a bit tricky which is why I dry the grass in the summer until it is needed.

Greens I've got year-round thanks to the horse poop(and we generate a surprising amount of kitchen scraps), but it's become apparent that I need to plan in advance, like you've been doing, for the browns. I need to keep bags of leaves on hand (or other browns) year-round, or I'll always have a balance shifted way too much toward the green. Which means I have to store up a kinda gargantuan amount of leaves now.

I use wire hoops for storage, instead of bags. Efficient and better for the pocketbook and environment.

The park service guy estimated he got '70' lawnmower bags full, or about 100 big lawn bags equivalent.

BEFORE:



DURING:



AFTER -- Do I win?:

You'll need to put GPS trackers on the kiddies!

Do check your kids & pets for TICKs if they've been playing in a deep heap of  damp leaves .

You do realize there is an aweful lot of work still to be done?
But it will be worth it. Eventually.

It's cheaper, and easier IMO, than having a truck load of compost hauled in!  Just have to have patience.

slimbolen99 wrote:It's cheaper, and easier IMO, than having a truck load of compost hauled in!  Just have to have patience.

I agree with that.

So far, one 60 gallon compost bag, one 33 gal can.  All I have is one pistachio tree:

I do like that little pvc greenhouse frame!  

I want to see more on how you cover it and with what.

Bob,  Thanks.  I will be posting a couple more photos under "The Winter Journey and greenhouse plastic topic."