GatewayRedbirds.com

Why do people do this? What does it actually do?

I understand the obvious: Get leaves off your lawn so your green grass is displayed for all to see. Wonderful.

But why are leaves on your lawn a bad thing? Wouldn't the decaying plant matter actually provide my lawn with nutrients? Isn't this simply an organic and natural fertilizer?

My 2 neighbors rake every leaf off their grass, so I have to get my rake out and make it look like I tried. And I make it look decent, but ain't no way I'm raking every freakin' leaf.

And it's pointless anyway, because more leaves are going to fall and the perptual winds of the Chicago area are going to blow oher leaves onto my lawn.

(Stupid raking with it's futileness and temporary effect.)

I hate it when neighbors get out their leaf blowers and blow all their leaves into a pile in front of my house.

My dad will just mow over them for the reasons that you state, mike- to create mulch for the yard.

RC21 wrote:My dad will just mow over them for the reasons that you state, mike- to create mulch for the yard.

Yeah, I see people mowing'em all the time. But I do enjoy the smell of burning leaves.

Yards are fine to keep them in, as long as they aren't making some thick leaf blanket.

I get a big build-up in front of my house on the sidewalk, right at my gate. Plus in the streets, which the city rarely cleans on my block. I rake those because they get wet and they stink.

--P--

One word.

Yard Vac.

Tambourine Man wrote:But I do enjoy the smell of burning leaves.

Tobacco leaves?

RC21 wrote:

Tambourine Man wrote:But I do enjoy the smell of burning leaves.

Tobacco leaves?

Those too.

If you keep them on your yard and you have a big tree get ready for some dead grass next spring (trust me we've done it before when we rented a house). That yard sucked so bad to rake we would have a raking party where we would supply a keg and have a bunch of buddies over to rake and get drunk.

I swear with 6-10 guys it would still take 8 hours to rake and bag the yard. Not to mention after it was done there were probably about 50 of the yard waste bags full of leaves.

Although I love nice big trees, I'm happy I'm in a new subdivision now and I don't have any trees in my yard.

RC21 wrote:My dad will just mow over them for the reasons that you state, mike- to create mulch for the yard.

I do too, as I cited in the environmental thread in social. I mow the lawn twice: once to chop it all up, then once to bag it and re-use it as cover for our bulbs.

But I've already got my 2 trash cans of mulch that I need.