On 11/6/2009 11:31 PM, sherwin dubren wrote:
David E. Ross wrote:

Why do you make a distinction between leaf mold and compost? Aren't
they the same thing?

My solution is to use the lawn mower as a vacuum cleaner with a bag
attached. This mixture of chopped up leaves and some grass is more
compact than the whole leaves. This gets dumped into my compost bins.
These bins can fill up initially, but very soon will natureally compact
even more from their own weight or from the rain. You ahould have
enough room in any reasonably sized bins to acommodate your entire
lawn. I only bag my grass clippings once a year after leaf fall to
clean up the leaves. Otherwise, bagging too much will remove too
much nutrients from the lawn.

Sherwin
Others made the distinction for me: Compost starts as 50% green matter
(e.g., grass clippings) and 50% brown matter (e.g., dead leaves). Mine
is about 95% brown matter.

My lawn is an ornamental grass. It grows 6" or more and flops over.
(Yes, I can walk on it; but it's not for children to play.) When it
gets mowed (only once or twice a year), the clippings are not fine. If
I add too much, I can't really stir the pile. Then the clippings mat
down and don't mix with the rest of the pile.

The lawn is mowed in October, before leaves begin to fall. With
different kinds of trees that drop their leaves at different times, I
would have to mow more often, defeating the purpose of planting red
fescue.

You must have some unusual trees in your area. In my area, you find
many of the common trees (Lower Great Lakes). I find that almost all
the leaves fall within a one to two week period. There are just a few
Hangers on, not amounting to be of concern.

The zelkova has started shedding now. The oak follows and seems to take
about two weeks. Only after the oak is bare, the liquidambar then drops
its leaves; that delay is nice because this tree is very colorful in the
fall. When the peach tree drops its leaves, I let them remain as a mulch.

When everything else is bare, then the ash dumps a load; see my
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_back.html#tree. This takes about
a month or more. If the winter is especially mild and the Santa Anna
winds are not strong (see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/index.html#santa_ana), it might not drop
its leaves until the end of February or the beginning of March.

The other trees are evergreen and slowly shed all year long. This
includes seven broad-leaf evergreens (four of them are dwarf citrus) and
three podocarpus.

Note my area in my signature below.

With only one or two mowings a year for a rather small lawn, I don't own
a power mower. Instead, I use a lawn service. I don't want to pay them
for extra visits just to pick up leaves.

Using a lawn service should not limit your leaf takeup. I would skip
a cutting as soon as the first leaves fall. Usually, this is in a
cool time of the year when the grass is not growing much anyways.
Then wait till the majority of leaves have falled (two weeks usually)
and have your lawn service bag their cutting. and dump it on your
mulch pile. I do the same using my own mower, but this should work
for you.

I don't think you understand. This is an occasional, infrequent
service. This is NOT a regular service that I can skip.

I use the lawn service only once in the fall and sometimes (not every
year) only once in the spring. This is not a regular service. The
grass is red fescue, an ornamental grass that grows 6" or more and flops
over. It would not need to be mowed at all in the fall except to make
it short enough to rake leaves. If I don't rake them, they will smother
the grass. The ash tree is in the middle of this lawn. If the ash
drops its leaves in December and not March, the one mowing in the fall
is sufficient. If it were not mowed in the fall, I would have it mowed
once a year, in the spring, to encourage fresh growth.

--
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