"Phisherman" wrote in message
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On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 17:03:48 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:


"Joe" wrote in message
news:HtPfd.42899$Pl.30974@pd7tw1no...

"simy1" wrote in message
om...
Mark Herbert wrote in message
...
In article ,

I do the same. The earthworms love the stuff, and will aerate the
soil
beneath wherever you deposit it.

I use an electric mower to mulch quite a load of leaves, but if
they
are
dry and I take my time, I can completely powder them in a
reasonable
time. I always sharpen the blade halfway through the job.

yes. for the lawn, it is certainly a good idea to pulverize them,
though I find that even coarsely chopped they disappear by May. for
the garden, it is best not to chop them, so that they can suppress
weeds well into august the next year. and in fact it is best not to
put them on the garden during winter, but rather as far away as
possible, because they will attract rodents. it is still a good deal
work wise: to move half a ton of leaves twice (once now, once in May)
takes two or three hours. to weed the beds twice during the season
can
take days of work.

I rake my leaves, not much, and the neighbors, big pile, on my beds
after
they freeze up, which is very soon. Waiting like this gives less
habitat
to
the mice and more constant conditions to the bulbs. By June the leaves
have
vanished.

For my lawn I rake in black compost right after the thaw. My lawn is
nice
and green all year this way. (I stopped using chemical lawn amendments
three years ago.) In fact there is a sharp green line between me and
the
neighbor!



Isn't that fun? I had the same situation with the lawn at my prior house,
except I never had enough compost to share between vegetables & grass.
But,
I didn't bag the grass, and I mowed it as high as the mower could go. My
neighbor, on the other hand, was a ChemLawn addict, and mowed his lawn
like
it was a putting green. Mine looked gorgeous, and his looked like it was
close to death, except for 2 weeks in the Spring. He was constantly
coming
over and asking me what secret stuff I was using. He refused to believe
that
the answer was "nothing". This went on for 10 years. The dummy never
learned.



I have a similar neighbor. He asks how my lawn is so thick, green,
and free from weeds. I tell him I mulch mow high and often and
overseed in the fall. He continues to scalp his lawn, dumps the
clippings into the stream, it's full of crab grass, has bare spots,
etc. He bought the same kind of mower I use--still he doesn't have a
clue.

I should add that now that I'm divorced, my teenage son has taken over the
mowing chores. The neighbor now interrogates *him* about our deep, dark
secret. My son, who inherited my evil mind, has two ideas, both of which I
condone completely:

1) Come up with some sort of concoction that's harmless to people, plants
and cats, and give the neighbor the recipe. Tell him it's what we use, and
that when he used to see me out at night having a cigarette, I was preparing
to apply the stuff with a spray bottle. Sample recipe: A strained broth made
after boiling broccolli stems, dogwood bark and fill in the blank. Maybe
Band-Aids.

2) One part of our lawn consisted of 50% bindweed at certain times of year.
Awful weed, but when the grass was suffering in hot weather, the bindweed
was rockin', so at least it was soft and green. My son wants to give the
neighbor a few diggings of bindweed, and tell him it helps keep nitrogen
available to the lawn.

If you've ever inquired at a cooperative extension about getting rid of
bindweed, they'll tell you that you need to use chemicals which make agent
orange look like herb tea. :-)