Leaf Control - Recommendations
 

I haven't shared too much yet but we just moved into a small place in the country. Approximately 4 acres, lots of woods (maples, ash) which means....lots of leaves.

It looks like dealing with all these leaves is going to be a formidible task.

Any recommendations on how to do this, on a large scale? Suck 'em up? Blow 'em away? Small children with rakes?

What do you guys up in the Northeast do?

Lots of room, so if we can get them out of the flowerbeds/off the driveway/out of the lawn and gathered up, then we can certainly find a place to compost them/burn them.

Thanks in advance -

K

FIRE or wind.


Mike


BTW, congrats on the upward move. Glad you got it bought!

I live in a wooded setting. The last couple of mows of the year I just circle around the house blowing the leaves farther out with each pass until they're in the woods.

Best thing to do is get a yard vac, like a trac-vac that attaches to your lawn tractor, run it like yer mowin, take it and dump it where you can burn or compost. We have an acre we mow with about 6 big maples, saves our backs and shoulders this time of year.

I have a LOT of trees for a 3/4 acre lot (probably around 40-50 mature). I burn mine, but it's about a 3-4 day process to get them all.

For 4 acres, I'd look into a riding lawn vacuum.

I just sold a Little Wonder blower that I used to tow either behind my riding tractor or my ATV. These blowers make shot work of the leaves and have about a huricane force wind out of them.:)

lol that is what we did on the golf course. There was a small wood area and we would light them on fire and let them burn until all gone.

The first year I tried getting them in a huge pile. Don laughed and then explained what I was supposed to do.

Enjoy the quiet country Keith.

patrick

I would get some chicken wire and set it up like a hockey goal and blow all the leaves in there that way they wont blow away. Then pick them up or burn them, but atleast with the wire you don't have to worry about them blowing away. If its not too many leaves I would rake them in rows then get out the lawnmower that has a mulcher attached to it and run them over. They go right into the bag.

Easiest way to control leaves is with a backpack blower and a large tarp or 2. Blow the leaves into multiple big piles, rake them onto the tarp, pull tarp to intended burn\compost location. Do not wait until all leaves are off the trees because then you will probably have had some rainfall and the bottom layer of leaves will stay wet forever and be very hard to move. I have an acre and it usually takes about 30 minutes to an hour each weekend to move the leaves until all the leaves are off the trees. With 4 acres I would imagine 2-3 hours a weekend.

I mulch as much of them as I can back into the lawn with repeated passes of the lawnmower. Before I started doing that I would fill up 75 bags every fall, these days it's more like 10 bags.

^ Mulching. Start early and do it often...;)

I run my mower over them repeatedly and mulch them up as fine as possible and just leave the compost on the lawn. This was recommended to me by the chemlawn, (now trugreen) people many years ago and I never rake anything organic off of my lawn, grass clippings etc. I just run it over about 2-3 times and leave it and I have the greenest lawn in my neighborhood. I see people raking their lawns and gathering leaves and I always wonder why they're taking all the nutrition that comes from the ground and carting it off to a landfill. Leave it and it goes back into the ground and replenishes the soil lots less work too, win/win situation................:D

I have way to many leaves to mulch. If I tried mulching leaves and leaving it there, it would kill my lawn.

Good input, everybody (...and fast, too!).

Keep 'em coming -

K

Same as posts 10, 11, 12.
Have 60 some trees and bushes on little over an acre.
8-9 hugh trees over 50 yrs old. 5 are on death row...as soon as i get the nerve to climb 50-60 ft w/a chain saw...
Have to clean gutters 2-3 times each spring and fall too.

That's our approach too. Too many trees and acreage to pick them up w/o making a full time job of it. Mow them a few times in the fall (until they're tiny flakes) and by spring, they've disappeared. I've never had to fertilize.

Eric

best way IMO, cut all the freakin' trees down with one of these.
http://www.stihlusa.com/graphics/pro...s/MS192TCE.jpg
Next problem ;)

My last house was in the middle of 200 wooded acres in a virgin stand of timber and most of the trees were 80-100 feet in height, I did the same procedure I do today and mulched all the leaves with the mower by running in a circle and recutting them as many times as needed. I doubt you have any more leaves than I did Bob. It's surprising once they are mulched up how little area they take up and won't lay all winter on top of the grass and kill it. By doing this your also making the mulch into an ingredient needed for top soil. Just my past experience is all, and I saved myself a bunch of time and effort required to rake and burn them or bagging them and carting them off to a landfill.

BTW make sure the blades are sharp on the mower too, I just sharpened mine about a month ago and it makes a difference on how quickly the leaves get mulched. Also run the engine speed lower than you normally do to recut the leaves as many times as possible as opposed to throwing them out the discharge chute as far as you can.

I don't know, I have never seen anybody with as many leaves as I have. Looking at my property with Google maps, you cannot see the ground from above, all trees. All very large standing Oaks and Poplars. All of my trees are as tall as what you say yours are. I have tried mulching, it just makes a mess. Again, my best method I have found is to have a good backpack blower, blow the leaves into large piles and then carry them off with a large tarp to my burning area. I have used the ashes to fertilize the ground, and makes for a very nce lawn. I just take a couple of hours a week to do it.

Oaks are the tuffest. Need a man tractor for those.
Everyone round here burn'm.

Keith,
I have 5 acres with about 2 of them heavily wooded with large tulip poplar trees around the perimeter of my property. The middle 3.5 acres I mow with a zero turn mower with a bagger attachment for my wifes compost pile.It takes a Saturday and five gallons of gas.It normally takes an hour without bagging for cutting. The woods I leave alone unless the stickers or poison ivy start to get out of hand. This happens every 3 or 4 years.Then I break out the york rake and tractor and run it thru the woods and make a big pile of compost for next spring.We never have to buy compost or mulch. Blowing leaves around doesn't sound like a bad idea just picking them up does.
Hope this helps,
George

I have 3 acres of leaves. Every weekend for the past 5 I have mowed/mulched them. I have maybe 2 or 3 weekends left. It is ALOT easier than raking and burning them.
fF you have a thick layer of leaves now just raise the mower deck to high and hit them twice one high one low.

I only have 1 1/2 acres but most of my trees are pines and the only way to get pine straw up is with a rake. We use it to mulch the flower beds around the house.

YOU NEED A "CYCLONE RAKE"
This works well. My folks have a ton of leaves, this reduces the size by about 15:1 , easy dump cart, save HUGE time and money. For the price, if you add up all the hasles and wind, etc, this pays for itself in 2-3 years.. has its own engine...TOW IT!! CANNOT JACKNIFE!! FOLDS FLAT!! CAN unhook from mower and HAND vac your foundation or gardens! UNLOAD TO PLACES you CANNOT DRIVE TOO! ( over a stone wall) watch the video!!
http://www.cyclonerake.com/index.htm?campaign_code=bing

http://www.cyclonerake.com/index.htm?campaign_code=bing WATCH the video!! My dad hand vacs his landscaping around the house when unhooked from the tractor..

Xs 2. I did that up north in NY. Cut em up as fine as I could with the Kubota's 60" deck and then scattered them. When they got to be too much I'd blow the leaves into the woods behind me. With all the snow thru the winter they'd rot and decay in the spring. Best fertilize there is.

We can't burn leaves here in the Burbs. :mad: Here I do the same with all the leaves that blow into the backyard from the neighbors. Takes all of 15 minutes to mow it. :D I don't have a freekin tree in my yard but you'd never know it. Our lot is all fenced in in the back so leaves in there can't be blown out. :( The leaves that blow in under the carport get blown right back out and back to the neighbor's yard. :D

Ditto on mulching. I've got many leaves yet to fall, but already had about 8" of maple leaves on most of my acre- so I got most of it mulched today- eight inches down to nearly zero inches!

Move back to the desert, Keith! :)

I bought a yard sweeper, tow behind your lawn mower and has a "dump bed" style function. I have 3.5 acres of which about 2.5 acres are trees, so I get tons of leaves on my lawn and driveway. I can clear it in about an hour with the sweeper. I tried leaf blowers, rakes, mowing, etc. and none were anywhere near as quick and easy as using the sweeper.

Dead leaves offer lots of iron for the soil. It helps your lawn. Mulching them up is the best asnwer. We have tons of trees behind our house and they all dropped their leaves at the same time.

I have a small lot....between a 1/4 and 1/2 acre. We've been there 22 years. One time I raked and blew the leaves into a large pile and dumped them over into the woods. One time. After that I turned my $139 push mower into a mulcher with a scrap of wood and a couple of screws and mulched them. I gotta admit it did a fine job. When that mower died I bought an actual Toro mulching mower and haven't looked back. I foot deep layer of leaves will disappear nicely into a centipede lawn when run over with a mulching mower.

Thats exactly what I have. Works great

I have used the blower on mine at least 5 times this year, Had to cleane my gutters out for the 4 time this year, And you have to have a burning permint, From may-15 to oct 15, I use the blower often to keep the build up, Down. I wish someone would come and cut around 50-75 down.

?? Does not compute...
I mow 1.2 acres with a 36" deck, in third gear, takes a minimum of four hours.
Do you have a compact tractor and a 6' or 7' sweeper?

I used a sweeper and could run my stick shift lawn tractor in high gear wide open, but the wind........Then emptying the sweeper still wasnt that fast!

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ic/cyclone.jpg

Same here. In town I mulch my leaves the last two times I mow. I am left with a small amount that is simply too much for my yard. This small amount gets bagged and recycled by my garbage hauler. The amount I have recycled is about 1/20th the volume that I used to rake up. Lots less work this way.
At the lake I just use the riding mower and blow them into the surrounding woods. Still easier.

DR Power Equipment
 

This outfit up in Vermont sells some good equipment.... http://www.drpower.com/Vergennes.aspx

Link to their leaf and lawn vacs.... http://www.drpower.com/Leaf-Lawn-Vac...aPCjC4zbEj1bEL

Their clearance sale.... http://www.drpower.com/navSubDepartm...e=clearance_dr

They even sell reconditioned machines.

This will surely take care of leaves.... and just about anything else laying around in yer yard. :D LOL

PECO Brush Blazer .....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wI4A8idIho

.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdaSi...eature=related

.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=adl_cCF2k8U

But this one is even better...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOMeR...eature=related

I drive around on the riding mower and blow them toward the center of the yard.....then I rake them onto an old tarp, tie it to the back of the mower and drag them to the woods.

Just checkin' back in to say thanks for all the input -

My Chief Financial Officer (ie, wife) has given me "permission to buy" so I am actively shopping for a tractor, sweeper, etc.

K

Keith, for reliability and an engine that's easy on fuel, check out Kubota. I've had my GS2000 21hp 4 Wheel Steering Kubota since 92 and it's been great. 5 gallons of gas will take care 4 or more acres if you don't run full power. Get a snowblower too..... you'll be glad you did for up there. ;)

Keith,

I'm on 1 acre, with lots of surrounding trees.

I used to have a sweeper. It worked OK, but not as good as this.

What I do is a once over with the mulching plug installed. Then suck all the mulch into the bagger and dump into the woods or fire pit.

Mulching first allows more to fit in the baggers (more dense) for less frequent dumpings.



http://images1.americanlisted.com/nl...nd_8922274.jpg

If you read my post, only about .75 acres is lawn, the rest are woods (3.5 is total). I have a 4' sweeper, it works best if running at high speed (no gears, hydrodrive) as it thows the leaves to the back and fills more evenly that way so it is actually around the same if not a little quicker than mowing the lawn. I usually sweep it 3 or 4 times - about once a week once the leaves start coming down, but may mulch the last one or two times to give the lawn some fertilization. It's way quicker than any other method I've tried as I get a TON of leaves due to all of the woods.

Those are all great ideas...but.. takes way too much time and effort...

What to do is... borrow or rent one of these ....you can anchor it to a spot in the middle of your property and leave it running for a while. and you won't have any problems with leaves.. garbage .. little kids and lends a really nice breeze in the summertime should you need it.

take care all
NB

a lil robbie?? hehe thats about 250 and hour around here plus fuel.... Not sure but its not clearing more than 3/4 of an acre :P hehe

Keith, forget about a sweeper. They are a PITA. What Chris has is even better.

With 4acres it's a GREAT excuse to purchase a farm tractor with a 3 point PTO and one of these

http://www.dcsalescollc.com/turf-leaf_blower.htm

I feel your pain......

Raking leaves or blowing leaves whatever method you choose is like a never ending battle. Gets worse if your reside near other houses and wind blows your neighbors leaves on your property.

Its a thankless job.....

Hard enough to keep them from blowing into the garage.

My advice hire kids....

[email protected]

A three-point hitch and a PTO are two separate entities.

My JDX475 LAWN tractor would run that... BUT..Cyclone is cheaper and gets them gone. sometimes the mulch is so deep the grass gets killed. Has its OWN engine so anything can pull it, and can use as a lawn vac. in your gardens, about same cfm too.

http://www.cyclonerake.com/index.htm?campaign_code=bing