The county is getting tired of collecting leaves so they are on a big
campaign to have you mulch them. One of the statistics they are using is
that 90% of the nutrients taken out of the soil is returned back to the soil
if you mulch the leaves. I live in a heavily forested area and its not
uncommon to get 8 inches of leaves on the ground. I just run my mulching
lawn mower over them and they disappear. May take several passes but it sure
beats raking. OF course I try not to let them get that deep before I mulch
them. THere is a danger of matting down the grass under the clippings.
Haven't raked leaves in over 15 years. In the spring I use a rake to clean
up whats left.

"Ignoramus8649" wrote in message
...
We have quite a few trees on our property, including big oaks. Every
year we gather huge piles of leaves, like 20 cubic yards or so (wild
guess), and put them on the curb to be "vacuumed" by a giant machine.

Enormous quantity of stuff, simply enormous.

It stikes me as an awful loss of organic matter and something that
would surely lead to soil depletion. Is that correct?

If so, what would be a practical way to address it. I cannot have a
giant compost pile. What else can I do to keep the oranic matter and
yet have a good looking yard.

i