"David J Bockman" wrote in message . ..
I use a high capacity leaf shredder. The leaves make wonderful compost. Your
compost pile doesn't have to be enormous, you can really pile ina lot into
a small area as long as you turn in occassionally.

Dave

Yes, here is a twist: one of the advantages of having large islands of
ground cover/mulch around the trees (besides reduced mowing, and
reduced turning of the mower) is that it is where fall leaves can be
disposed. First I blow the leaves from the islands on the lawn part of
the yard, and then as I mow them (a couple of passes are usually
necessary, as well as sharp blades) all are thrown back, shredded,
onto the islands where they will be completely under the ground cover
by next May. I estimate that each year the leaves are removed one
millimeter of top soil goes. I usually mow all my leaves, and take
those of neighbors for the compost pile.

Leaves do three things for trees. They conserve moisture, they provide
most of the nitrogen inflow (via bacteria), and they provide humus for
better nutrient absorption. The fun (crazy) thing is that people are
willing to let grass and lack of nutrients weaken their trees, and
then they are willing to plop $1000 to remove a big tree near the
house. And all they need is their own leaves, and some extra wood
chips perhaps.


"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