Leaves on lawn

[GT03ROB]

As it's that time of year & seems to be blowing a bit today, I am gathering quite a few leaves on the lawn. Whats the view clear the leaves then cut lawn or just cut & mulch leaves?

[dickymint]

GT03ROB said:

As it's that time of year & seems to be blowing a bit today, I am gathering quite a few leaves on the lawn. Whats the view clear the leaves then cut lawn or just cut & mulch leaves?

Mow and mulch for me. Quicker and your feeding your soil at the same time.

[OutInTheShed]

I don't leave masses of leaves lying on the grass for extended periods, the grass suffers.
I just pick up the majority of then every week or three and put them in a compost bin.
It's relatively windy here, so it tends to be the case that most of the leaves end up in a few areas, so you can collect plenty in 15 minutes or so.

[Monkeylegend]

I just open the back gates and they blow away.

[RGG]

Genuine reply -

Just leave them -

Your leaves will be stolen -


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/00GpoMJWt1s

[AdamV12V]

Last year (first Autumn in the new house with a decent sized 1.6 acre plot in a mostly wooded garden) we cleared them about once or twice a week but made it a rather huge effort every time. In total I filled all brown and black bins every 2 weeks for the 6-8 week period and in addition I filled over 100x 1 ton sacks and walked and dumped them in the woods beyond the end of the drive. A year later they have almost vanished into rotted leaf-mould compost.

However I managed to partially rupture a disc in my neck C7 carrying two sacks at a time and spent the next 12 weeks having physio and sleepless nights in a lot of pain recovering!

So this year I am adopting a different strategy! Do a little daily so that it doesn t become a big job.

I ve managed to blow and mulch them up until this week and they started coming down in earnest!

So now started clearing them daily off the drive and going to do every 2nd day off the lawn. I collected and cleared 3x 1-ton bags on Friday and 2x bags today but by mid afternoon today it looked like I hadn t t done anything. Each day Ive spent about 2 hours blowing and collecting them!

Will repeat tomorrow and onwards.

I suspect it s going to get worse before it gets better again.

Edited by AdamV12V on Sunday 5th October 00:04

[Wacky Racer]

Wait until it's a nice crisp dry day and blow them into a corner with a leaf blower, then scoop them up.

They are horrible to deal with when wet and soggy.

[ARH]

RGG said:

Genuine reply -

Just leave them -

Your leaves will be stolen -


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/00GpoMJWt1s

If I happen to be cutting the grass they will be picked up by the lawn mower if not I just leave them to the worms. The soil needs them to keep it fertile. They will all be gone by spring. They are never removed from borders. I do remove them from the paths though.

[POIDH]

This hugely depends on what leaves.
Something like birch = mow/mulch.
If it's the 7 sycamores our neighbour has, then they just turn into a solid wet mass of leaves which don't rot, don't even compost that well after being shredded and put on the compost heap...

[Chrisgr31]

We get heavy leaf fall from a Magnolia. If left on the lawn they'll swamp and kill the grass. So I either rake them or use the mower to collect them and put them in the compost bin.

[sospan]

We don't get leaves on the lawn that's to the rear so no worries there. The block front, however, gets leaves from trees and they get vacuumed regularly to prevent wet leaves causing staining. The vac mulches them as it collects and the garden waste wheelie takes them. It's a simple one action job versus a blower to pile them then scoop up.

[GT03ROB]

Well I've just cut the lawn without clearing the leaves. main downside seems to be the bag fills up too quick with all the leaves, so constantly seem to be emptying it!

[The Three D Mucketeer]

It's not the big dry leaves that do the damage , but the small wet green leaves that stick to the surface and eventually kill the grass .... A bit like Rail Track ... " THE WRONG SORT OF LEAVES"

[.:ian:.]

Go over the lawn/leaves in mulching mode, then again with the collection bag on. The bag still fills up quick, just not as quick.

[dirky dirk]

When my dad used to do his bosses garden when I was a kid
(How demeaning must that have been)
I’d go with him and they had a device about the same size a side by side kids buggy
And you would push it and it would sweep them up into a big fabric basket behind it.
Sorry can’t think what it’s called but they do exist.

[pacenotes]

I run the lawnmower on a higher setting about once a week at this time of the year.

Gets most of them up.

[MM]

The lawn mower is set to a high position with the mulch plug installed, and it works well.

[Audis5b9]

Get a lawn mower that collects and dumps them for you!

[Cheib]

AdamV12V said:

Last year (first Autumn in the new house with a decent sized 1.6 acre plot in a mostly wooded garden) we cleared them about once or twice a week but made it a rather huge effort every time. In total I filled all brown and black bins every 2 weeks for the 6-8 week period and in addition I filled over 100x 1 ton sacks and walked and dumped them in the woods beyond the end of the drive. A year later they have almost vanished into rotted leaf-mould compost.

However I managed to partially rupture a disc in my neck C7 carrying two sacks at a time and spent the next 12 weeks having physio and sleepless nights in a lot of pain recovering!

So this year I am adopting a different strategy! Do a little daily so that it doesn t become a big job.

I ve managed to blow and mulch them up until this week and they started coming down in earnest!

So now started clearing them daily off the drive and going to do every 2nd day off the lawn. I collected and cleared 3x 1-ton bags on Friday and 2x bags today but by mid afternoon today it looked like I hadn t t done anything. Each day Ive spent about 2 hours blowing and collecting them!

Will repeat tomorrow and onwards.

I suspect it s going to get worse before it gets better again.

Edited by AdamV12V on Sunday 5th October 00:04

Wow that's a lot of leaves.

I've got a ride on mower with a 450 litre grass collector (about the size of a ton bag)..I collect them all with that and compost them with grass cuttings and all the wood chips from work that's been done in the garden during the year. Will have a lot of compost/miulch ready to go on the garden come the spring.

Edited by Cheib on Sunday 5th October 20:29

[nute]

Just spent the afternoon clearing the first of this years .... I have a ride on mower with 2 large bins on the back, I just suck them up and burn them. Needs doing often because they are impossible to deal with when wet and if left to accumulate they never dry. I have about 40 trees in the back garden and I can make a heap the size of a car quite quickly. If they are not fully dry the fire takes 2-3 days to burn ... I try to do it when the wind isn't toward the neighbours house.