NA why do people bag leaves and throw them away?

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

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And was driving through the neighborhood just now and saw at least three different people on my street raking and bagging up leaves to throw them away. One of my neighbors must have 15 trash bags full of leaves sitting on his sidewalk ready for the garbage man.

I never have and I'm not about to start.

Is there a benefit to getting rid of them? I mean they have to be the most biodegradable thing ever.

It seems to me there's no reason not to just let them blow around and let them dissolve on their own.
 
Paradigms my good man, paradigms.

Your neighbors are like “who would just let them blow around, ugliest thing ever…”

FWIW, I’m in your camp. The Lord giveth, the Lord can taketh away! Or rake em up, good exercise and transplant to the garden or flower bed.
 
Rake??? No. There are (still) some very powerful backpack blowers available which make easy and enjoyable leaf cleanup.
 
The leaves clog the storm sewers here, so people pile them up, and the city comes by and vacuums them up. Seems that they'd score more eco brownie points by pelletizing and sequestering them than by mulching them, but what do I know.

My mulching mower takes care of both square feet of my lawn. I do vacuum/mulch/bag the leaves that collect in the alley, otherwise they just pile up into a wet mess for months, and interfere with snow removal on the off chance that we get snow.

I don't see the point of businesses that hire a guy to blow the leaves off the sidewalk... every day... because the leaves just blow back.
Then again, I don't see the point of businesses that leave their doors open in the summer or winter, or try to heat up the outdoors in the winter.
 
some towns take leaves away on certain dates unbagged and others want them bagged. other towns don't GAF what u do with your leaves.
 
Down here we have live oak trees, which are "evergreen". However, they drop their leaves twice a year, with the biggest drop in the spring. The leaves are waxy and do not disintegrate or degrade quickly. They don't mulch well. They clog the grass during the spring growing season. We have to bag them up so the grass will grow.
 
FORANE said:
Rake??? No. There are (still) some very powerful backpack blowers available which make easy and enjoyable leaf cleanup.
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Oh, you’re a para motor guy? My son does that… looks difficult.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
And was driving through the neighborhood just now and saw at least three different people on my street raking and bagging up leaves to throw them away. One of my neighbors must have 15 trash bags full of leaves sitting on his sidewalk ready for the garbage man.

I never have and I'm not about to start.

Is there a benefit to getting rid of them? I mean they have to be the most biodegradable thing ever.

It seems to me there's no reason not to just let them blow around and let them dissolve on their own.
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What if he just blows them back into your yard....that produced the leaves? ;)
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Is there a benefit to getting rid of them? I mean they have to be the most biodegradable thing ever.

It seems to me there's no reason not to just let them blow around and let them dissolve on their own.
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Not all leaves dissolve or degrade very well. For example, magnolia leaves can take a couple years to decompose. In that time, your grass is dead and now you're left with mud. Live oaks are another and don't decompose.
 
Are they really being put in a landfill, or is it a special pickup for composting? Around here you use paper bags and they go to a composting facility.
Of course, we don't. My wife composts them on her own.
 
FORANE said:
Rake??? No. There are (still) some very powerful backpack blowers available which make easy and enjoyable leaf cleanup.
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It's not enjoyable for the neighbors!

I have neighbor, I swear leaf blowing must be his hobby. All day long, every day in the fall. It's impossible to enjoy a nice quite fall afternoon outdoors with the incessant noise. I would happily vote for a ban or restricted hours on leaf blowing.

Me, I let them mulch into the lawn or blow away. If they get too thick in the corners I rake them onto a tarp and drag them into the woods.
 
Leaves will collect thickly enough to choke out my grass. I bag them, the city collects them along with bagged grass clippings, then mulches and composts it and lets residents have as much as they can carry.
 
Dana said:
It's not enjoyable for the neighbors!

I have neighbor, I swear leaf blowing must be his hobby. All day long, every day in the fall. It's impossible to enjoy a nice quite fall afternoon outdoors with the incessant noise. I would happily vote for a ban or restricted hours on leaf blowing.

Me, I let them mulch into the lawn or blow away. If they get too thick in the corners I rake them onto a tarp and drag them into the woods.
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Sounds like you need to get ahold of an Echo PB9010t. 220 mph, 1110 cfm
 
We have compost bins. I'd imagine that's where bags of leaves would go for collection -- IF anyone around here actually owned a rake. Apparently the done thing is to get a leaf blower and toss them everywhere but your own yard.

I have no idea if the compost collection actually gets composted. It might just be some feelgood aspirational thing.

At least now the leafblowers are electric and only mildly annoying. The gas-powered ones gave me enough homicidal ideations to jeopardize my medical.
 
Because we can't burn them anymore. I remember growing up with leaves burning in the curb. I just rake mine, use them for mulch around the roses to be removed in the spring. The rest get moved into the woods behind my house for natural decomp.
 
At my old house, if I did not dispose of the leaves of a dozen live oaks and pines on a 1/3 acre of land, my entire yard would be a foot deep in 2 years. No exageration. They don't decompose anywhere near as fast as they fall. I think it depends on the kind and density of trees you have.
 
FORANE said:
Rake??? No. There are (still) some very powerful backpack blowers available which make easy and enjoyable leaf cleanup.
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Hideously loud and unpleasant, and not all that speedy.

I do rake and bag the leaves that fall near and on the street, because it's the most convenient way to get rid of them. There are two maple trees and a large oak there, and the oak leaves would take a long time to biodegrade. For the other leaves in the front yard, I rake them off of the grass and use and electric leaf blower to get them onto a tarp and drag it down to the gas pipeline easement behind our house. For the leaves in our back yard, I rake them onto the vegetable garden. When it's dry I cover them with a tarp, and when rain is forecast I pull the tarp back.

I see the pro landscapers blowing leaves off of mulched areas. I don't do that, leaves are free mulch, and provide a habitat for pollinator insects that live under them in the winter.
 
Our 12-home development is on the top of a hill; our back yards extend downward at a ~30 degree angle after the flat part. Most of us have a brick fence at the point where the yard tilts down. Easy enough to dump leaves, grass clippings, salesmen, etc.

Property line goes to the backyard fences of the houses on the right.
1701645595173.png
Ron Wanttaja
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
And was driving through the neighborhood just now and saw at least three different people on my street raking and bagging up leaves to throw them away. One of my neighbors must have 15 trash bags full of leaves sitting on his sidewalk ready for the garbage man.

I never have and I'm not about to start.

Is there a benefit to getting rid of them? I mean they have to be the most biodegradable thing ever.

It seems to me there's no reason not to just let them blow around and let them dissolve on their own.
Click to expand...
This is a topic near and dear to my heart b/c it's been a headache since I moved into my house 3yrs ago.

My neighborhood is covered in massive old, oak trees that adds a lot to the charm/personality of the area (there's about 100 trees on my yard and thousands in our neighborhood). Yet the second those big beautiful oaks start dropping leaves in autumn and actually make you feel like it's fall, my HOA goes full-fascist on anyone who doesn't promptly remove "yard debris" (either pay to have them removed or burn them on a very gestapo-like monitored hoa schedule). These trees shed leaves over the course of about 6ish week in my area, so that means you're doing multiple fall cleanups. And with a big yard it's a big headache. Yet if you don't clean up you're going to get a nastygram from the HOA and be the topic of the next town meeting.

Why these people launch a full on annual Jihad against leaves when they chose to live in a ******* forest will forever baffle me.

That, in a nutshell, is why I deal with my leaves. Path of least resistance with my neighbors who have way too much time on their hands and way too little sense.
 
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I don't know what kind of leaves or what kind of grass I have but I never pick them up and they seem to live harmoniously. I think they're oak trees?

20231203_161221.jpg
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
This is a topic near and dear to my heart b/c it's been a headache since I moved into my house 3yrs ago.

My neighborhood is covered in massive old, oak trees that adds a lot to the charm/personality of the area (there's about 100 trees on my yard and thousands in our neighborhood). Yet the second those big beautiful oaks start dropping leaves in autumn and actually make you feel like it's fall, my HOA goes full-fascist on anyone who doesn't promptly remove "yard debris" (either pay to have them removed or burn them on a very gestapo-like monitored hoa schedule). These trees shed leaves over the course of about 6ish week in my area, so that means you're doing multiple fall cleanups. And with a big yard it's a big headache. Yet if you don't clean up you're going to get a nastygram from the HOA and be the topic of the next town meeting.

Why these people launch a full on annual Jihad against leaves when they chose to live in a ******* forest will forever baffle me.

That, in a nutshell, is why I deal with my leaves. Path of least resistance with my neighbors who have way too much time on their hands and way too little sense.
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I'm the treasurer of our HOA. We don't care if or when you pick up your leaves.
 
I have at least 10 mature oak trees, a Southern Magnolia, a Black Walnut, and a few Birch trees that are all on my .75 acre lot, or on the perimeter. The yard becomes a solid carpet of leaves and it would kill off every blade of grass if I didn't clean it up. I bagged them the first year and had at least 50 33-gallon trash bags. I burn them now, lol.

The Magnolia leaves DO NOT decompose in any way over the course of a year. The Oak leaves aren't as bad, but still stay around for a year. I believe the Oak leaves are also acidic which can be bad for the soil over time.

It generally takes me 2 weekends of leaf burning to clear it all up each year, dragging a 10x20 tarp full of leaves with the Kubota mower to the burn pile.
 
I have about 1 acre, with trees/nature on 2 sides, a road on one side, and a neighbor on the other. 95%+ of the area I just the leaves sit until spring, where they get mowed over and the resulting leaf dust goes back into the ground. The 5% is under 1 big oak tree, I have to blow or rake the leaves off to the side, and pile them up at the property edge or they're so thick as to choke out the grass next season. I know...because I did that one year. The pile that I make each year, along with random sticks, brush, etc., around 8'x12' always stays the same height, year after year, as it breaks down. It's not noticeable or an eyesore, it's just a pile of branches and leaves between two trees, with trees and nature behind it.

I think those folks that don't have any land, and have lots of trees, may not have much choice but to bag them, but it does sound like a PITA.
 
We have green waste bins. And a lot of trees here. Leaves don't go away by themselves. They just make a big mess if not cleaned periodically.
 
In the dry foothills of California, where I live, more than a few inches = a pathway to your house for wildfire. We also have to clean them off our roof. We have a lot of very large trees on our lot so this becomes a PITA.
 
Raking leaves just not necessary for 3-4 months. Then they get mulched with the first grass cutting in the spring.
WinterTrees.jpg
 
Sac Arrow said:
We have green waste bins. And a lot of trees here. Leaves don't go away by themselves. They just make a big mess if not cleaned periodically.
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Millions of years of forests would disagree with you, however the timeframe might not be to your liking.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
And was driving through the neighborhood just now and saw at least three different people on my street raking and bagging up leaves to throw them away. One of my neighbors must have 15 trash bags full of leaves sitting on his sidewalk ready for the garbage man.

I never have and I'm not about to start.

Is there a benefit to getting rid of them? I mean they have to be the most biodegradable thing ever.

It seems to me there's no reason not to just let them blow around and let them dissolve on their own.
Click to expand...
Yea, you are the guy who constantly has people sweeping out my garage and the front door area because he thinks leaves blowing around are ok.

Yes, leaves will biodegrade if you at least mulch them with a mower. Otherwise a thick mat of leaves can kill your sod over winter.

The better plan is to make your own compost pile then spread the compost over the lawn.
 
To answer the OP, city folk. But in their defense, you can end up with a foot or two of leaves on your lawn if you have many trees. That's what I have, they need to go or they wreck the lawn, fortunately we just get rid of them into the woods. If you have a small lot that's not an option. Most municipalities that collect leaves, compost them and generally residents can get free compost.

As far as moving them around or raking them, a back pack blower is the first line, don't skimp if you want use one of these for leaves. I bought the biggest Husqvarna backpack blower I could find. It makes quick work of leaves. I do have a lawn guy who does it sometimes, he had a 13 hp little wonder push blower that ate a valve. He gave it to me, fortunately it was "barely broken". I pulled it from together, put a new piston, rod and head in it. Good as new. That is even faster cleaning up the yard.
 
They plug up my gutters and there's a spot behind the house where they'll pile up and just decay if I don't get rid of them somehow. I just blow them out into the yard and let nature deal with it. Otherwise I don't care. That said, I don't get the bagging. If they're really bothering you run them over with the lawn mower a few times until they're broken up and they'll just break down into the soil.
 
Ted said:
Millions of years of forests would disagree with you, however the timeframe might not be to your liking.
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Well, ya but us suburbanites need clean roads on which to travel to get our lattes.
 
Ted said:
Millions of years of forests would disagree with you, however the timeframe might not be to your liking.
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Forests neither agree or disagree with anyone, their age doesn't change that.
 
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