On 11/5/2009 1:51 PM, Existential Angst wrote:
Awl --

You'd think so, the way homeowners/landscapers run around with leaf blowers
getting rid of every single last one of them.

Is eliminating leaves that important?
What would happen if people *didn't* blow every leaf off their property?

What I find strange is that people will blow leaves off of bare dirt --
seems to me you'd WANT leaves covering soil.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/public/46613.html says that shredding leaves and
covering the lawn with them is a good thing.
Basically anything you do with leaves except burn them is OK -- leaves
collected by landscapers eventually get composted by the municipality -- I
think.

Personally, I think my neighbors are just a little to fanatic with this leaf
blowing thing -- jmo.

First priority is to use autumn leaves to mulch my beds. After making a
layer about 3" thick, I lay out small branches to hold the leaves in
place. Around my oak, I actually anchored chicken wire to hold the mulch.

Next priority is to add them to my compost pile, which is more leaf mold
than compost. It has a large amount of oak leaves, which make a great
leaf mold.

In the end -- generally when my ash tree starts to drop its leaves --
they go in a bin for our county's composting program. Since the leaves
often exceed the capacity of the bin, I make piles of them on the patio
and back walkways.

No, I don't have a blower. I use a lawn rake. I just had my back lawn
mowed. It's red fescue, a tall ornamental grass. If it were not mowed,
I would not be able to rake leaves from it; the accumulated leaves would
then smother the lawn. I'll be adding some of the grass clippings to
the compost pile.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary