On Nov 2, 1:11*pm, Lawn Guy wrote:
Dioclese wrote:
Lazy people will leave them where they land. *Slightly less lazy
people will run over them with a lawn mower. *People that want
healthy lawn and trees will bag them and get them the hell outa
there.

The premise (which I think is not valid) is that all people are
under the notion that removing the leaves is the best solution
for a healthy and green lawn and rees. *

The corollary to your point would then be that people that do not bag
their leaves are under the solid notion that leaving them on the ground
*is better*. *There might be some of those, but I don't think it applies
to the majority of "non-baggers". *

It applies to me, because it is better. I'm a non-bagger. Just
the fact that you use the term "non-bagger" suggests you live
somewhere in an urban area with a lot of houses, parking lots and not
many trees. Because in most rural places with folks with lots of
trees and experience, bagging doesn't exist. If I had to bag, I'd be
down at the muncipal offices, bitching big time. Here anyone who
wants to have their leaves taken away, simply blows or rakes them into
the street. The township comes by every couple of weeks from Nov
thru Dec and vacuums them up. I pitty the guys wasting natural
resources, money and a lot of time stuffing leaves into bags. If I
did that, I'd have a hundred bags.




I happen to believe that those that don't rake them are lazy and it
probably shows in other ways that they take care of their grounds and
property all year round. *Maybe they're physically incapable of raking
and bagging - but in those cases they are presumably paying for yard
maintainence - or they are on the eve of moving out of their home and
into an apartment or managed care facility.


Wow, what a sweeping and inaccurate generalization. When the leaves
start to fall, I use a mulching mower to grind them up for as long as
possible. I probably get rid of 40% of them that way. When they
fall at a very heavy rate and/or accumulate in certain areas so that
mulching would smother the grass, I blow them either into the woods
(see no bagging there either) or out to the street.



Our city stopped collecting bagged grass during regular weekly garbage
pickup about 10 years ago. *Ever since then, if you bag your grass, you
either compost it on your own propery, or you drop it at specified
depots and pay $1 a bag. *By osmosis, every land-owner has come to
understand that the correct (or at least the politically-correct) thing
to do with cut grass is to leave it on the lawn.

If you did a little research, you'd find that there is widespread
agreement that mulching the clippings and leaving them is beneficial
to the lawn. The clippings decay and provide nutrients.
Actually, the folks who insist on bagging tend to be guys like you,
who are only concerned about having the lawn look so picture perfect
that an almost unnoticeable amount of mulched clippings can't be
tolerated.




Our city has been collecting bagged leaves in the fall for as long as I
can remember, and they still do. *By osmosis, every residential
land-owner is aware that raking and bagging leaves is the "natural"
thing to do and is supported by a service provided by the city. *The
big-box stores now have over-sized leaf rakes and leaf bags (paper and
clear plastic) visible front and center when you enter, further
reinforcing the concept that raking and bagging leaves is normal or
natural, if not a beneficial part of turf and property management.

Beneficial to the companies harvesting trees to make those bags,
companies making the bags, trucks hauling the trees and bags, big box
stores, the extra hours worked by landscapers, and municipal
employees. Factor in the gas/fuel wasted producing bags, hauling the
trees to make bags, hauling the leaves around, and I'd say there isn't
anything natural or good for the environment in the whole process.



Therefore (based on the premise), for everyone anything less
than that is an exhibition of some degree of laziness toward
that solution.

Yes, because as I've described, there are public "cues" that point to
leaf raking and bagging as something that's a normal, if not expected
part of property management.


And I'd say that anyone that just buys into the notion that because
bagging is the way it's always been done, therefore it's normal and
natural is engaging in monkey see, monkey do.



As well, leaves that accumulate in the gutters and curbs of residential
streets are a public nuisance that impedes the dissapation of rain and
snow melt until the city cleans them in the spring. *Those that rake
their leaves onto the road or allow their leaves to collect are
negligent and lazy in that regard.

Hmmm, what about on all the streets and roads in a municipality where
there are just trees and no homes? Like in the country? You don't
have any experience there, do you?

In conclusion, I'd like to see some credible reference that agrees
with your premise that mulching lawn grass clippings or mulching a
reasonable amount of leaves in-situ with a mower, is incompatible with
a healthy lawn. Quite the contrary, I've seen plenty of authorities
that say returning either grass clippings or other organic matter in
reasonable amounts is beneficial to the lawn. Also, if you have
something that supports your claim that leaf removal is necessary to
protect the health of trees in the yard, I'd like to see that too.