[blue goats]

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

[theYman]

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.

[fyrffytr1]

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.

[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

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

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

[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by Bob Rutledge

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

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..

[GT182]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

I run my mower over them repeatedly and mulch them up as fine as possible and just leave the compost on the lawn. 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................

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. 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. 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.

[Jack Gifford]

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!

[mzbk2l]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

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?

Move back to the desert, Keith!

[bobzdar]

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.

[Old Blue 66]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

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................

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.

[David Jones]

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.

[Old Blue 66]

Originally Posted by David Jones

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

[cuz68]

Originally Posted by Bob Rutledge

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.

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.

[Jack Gifford]

Originally Posted by bobzdar

... I have 3.5 acres...
... I can clear it in about an hour with the sweeper...

?? 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?

[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by pontiac jack

?? 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!

[Richman]

Originally Posted by Stuart

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.

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.

[GT182]

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.

[GT182]

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

[Colin]

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.

[Keith Seymore]

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