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Leaves
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Posted by caseyj (My Page) on Wed, Jul 8, 09 at 8:51
| I have an abundance of oak leave every fall to pick-up. Last year I had over 100 bags to deliver to the recycling site. I have a vacumm blower on my tractor but my wife wants to grind them up for the garden. I've looked at several residential shreders, but they just don't seem to be that efficient. Your thoughts please? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Leaves
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- Posted by ericwi Dane County WI (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 8, 09 at 9:51
| I grind up our maple leaves, using a rotary lawnmower, with a mulching blade. The process is fast, and messy. The leaves are raked into a windrow three feet wide and about one foot high, and then I pull the mower backward through the leaves, two or three times. By trial & error, I found that pulling the mower resulted in more leaves getting ground, and fewer leaves being blown out the sides, still intact. The mess is raked up and put on the compost pile, or used as mulch immediately. We have some blueberry shrubs, and I mulch these with our maple leaves in the fall. Its the raking, and clean-up that takes some time. The actual grinding step takes maybe 10 minutes. |
RE: Leaves
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- Posted by baymee LehighValleyPA (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 8, 09 at 11:25
| Same as above. I block off the discharge and slowly go over the leaves with normal straight blades on my 42" deck. Better backwards, and better when they are damp. A few passes, even over wind-blown piles 6" deep and they are substantially reduced. After a few weeks, they disappear into the grass. Haven't raked a single leaf in 20 years in my heavily wood lot. Oak leaves are nothing. You should see the heavy mat my Chestnut tree puts down along with the 3" seed balls. |
RE: Leaves
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Mulched leaves will amaze you at how fast it turns to humus. Grinding up the leaves speeds up nature's process about 1000%. I find it convenient to first go over the lawn in 'mulching', then go back and bag. This accomplishes two things - it leaves some mulch on the lawn where it enriches the soil, and it reduces the bulk of the laeves so you get more square feet of lawn in the bag. Then you just deposit the leaf mulch where you want it. I have tried mulching in place, and like ericwi says, it's messy. If you have allergies, you'll find that the leaf dust will really mess you up - probably has some mold on the leaves. I still do mulch in place, but only in the wooded areas of my lot, which helps control undergrowth and makes it look great. I try to do this several times during the falling season so it's not too thick. On the lawn, since I'm retired and can get to it most any time, I will hit it as much as twice a day when the leaves are really dropping, to keep it from getting too thick.
Another thing about mulching windrows of leaves in place - with a self-propelled mower, quite often the wheel gears will get jammed with little pieces of sticks whether you are using the self-propel or not. The only mowers I have tried that seem to be immune to this are the Lawn-Boy Insight Series. This is because the plastic shield over the wheel gears does a better job on this series. The best bet for this other than a LB is a push-only mower. However, the self-propel really makes it nice when grinding stuff up. I sing the 'Panzer Lied' as the mower crashes into a pile of leaves, the engine strains and the dust flies. Last but not least, don't bother cleaning under the deck during the summer unless the build-up gets so bad it affects performance - when you mulch dry leaves in the fall, it will scour the deck clean as a whistle. Just in case there's some of that hard green film left, pile up pine cones and have at them - guaranteed to clean the deck. If you have walnuts, so much the better. Walnut shells are ground up and sold as gentle blasting media and tumbling media for cleaning metals. Make little piles and blast 'em with the mower to polish that deck!
Mind your air filters during this process - they will get clogged, but you can blow them off from the back if you have compressed air - turn it down to no more than 30 psi. Otherwise just gently tap the filter to get most of it off and put it back on. Most of what you're getting on there is not abrasive, just leaf dust. |
RE: Leaves
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| Wow! Good information. I have tilled a lot of these leaves into my garden, but they tend to decompose very slowly. I try to stay away from the ak leaves and stick to the Maples. The other problem I have is the acorns. I hand rake these but can't find a rake that keeps them from going through the tines. I've watched folks use power rakes on them but it leaves the lawn in bad shape and you still have to pick them up. Maybe a power sweeper? Now, I'm talking about an acre of property so I think that I need some power equipment? What do you think? Thanks again. |
RE: Leaves
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| Grind them, its natural fertilizer. You would have to buy 50 bags of Scotts Turfbuilder to do the same thing. I could never understand why people bag their leaves and collect/bag they grass clippings. If you mulch that stuff, your grass will love it. And it will save you money!! |
RE: Leaves
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- Posted by baymee LehighValleyPA (My Page) on
Thu, Jul 9, 09 at 16:54
| With an acre, just mulch, acorns and all, and forget about it. Don't rake or bag a thing. In a few weeks it will be like it never existed. My mower is not a mulching type at all and it works great. |
RE: Leaves
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| The honda HRB had a leaf shredded attachment. This works well also. It only allowed small pieces to be bagged. Then of course they were used for compost. |
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