Wednesday, November 16, 2011

We Need More Leaves - Really?

Really.
All of those pretty red leaves don't add up to much when you want to mulch all of the planting beds on our half acre property.  


So Tom gets more.  The man who inspects and flushes out our sprinkler system Spring and Fall has a yard service company.  His crew collects truck loads of leaves from the properties they service. They have to pay to dump them at the compost recycling plant, so they are happy to dump a couple of loads free in our driveway.


The leaves have been semi-shredded by the vacuum system that collects them.  Tom will let them "age" for a couple of weeks, and then haul and spread them around the yard.  


With a fresh layer of leaf mulch, the garden will be bedded down for the  winter. The mulch will keep down weeds, protect the soil from rain compaction, and the worms will go crazy digesting them and working them into the soil.
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12 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 16, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    When our palm trees were being removed, the guys left a layer of mulch on the site. At first, we thought it was a good thing -- until the mulch started blowing into our window sills! David had to rake it up and get rid of it all. Never again!

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  2. DJanNovember 16, 2011 at 3:59 PM

    I do hope you will be able to keep all that mulch in place during our windstorm. It's blowing a gale right now here in Bellingham.

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  3. Linda ReederNovember 16, 2011 at 4:04 PM

    Tom says they're too wet to blow around. So far it's not windy here. They might get a blanket of snow before we're done with this weekend.

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  4. Great Grandma LinNovember 16, 2011 at 6:24 PM

    wow, now I've heard everything. amazing!

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  5. Sally WesselyNovember 16, 2011 at 7:21 PM

    This is cool. I love how you compost all these leaves. No wonder your garden is so beautiful, lush, and healthy.

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  6. KayNovember 16, 2011 at 9:54 PM

    This is amazing! I'll bet that service company loves you guys. It's fantastic that you are both able to help each other.

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  7. KayNovember 16, 2011 at 9:57 PM

    By the way, Linda, did you know that if you go to Blogger Template Designer and then to Adjust Widths, you can fix your side bar size?

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  8. DaveNovember 16, 2011 at 11:27 PM

    That's a great idea Linda. Certainly explains why your gardens look so great! - Dave

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  9. Rambling WoodsNovember 17, 2011 at 11:23 AM

    We can get that for free here in our town, but what concerns me is that the area is so pesticide and herbicide happy so I don't do it..

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  10. ronandrosi.blogspot.comNovember 17, 2011 at 1:52 PM

    I love using leaves for mulch. We collect leaves from the neighbors in Georgia and they really do help keep weeds down and irrigation at a minimum. We used to be able to get mulch from Asplundh when they trimmed the roads in WA, but haven't been able to connect with them for years. It was the best - looked kind of like bark, but rougher when you were working with it.

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  11. Linda MyersNovember 17, 2011 at 2:14 PM

    We have bark delivered by a landscape guy for our garden area, but I hadn't considered doing the same for leaves. Good idea!

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  12. AnonymousNovember 19, 2011 at 9:44 AM

    See? I knew there was a reason I let the leaves in the backyard just lie there and become mulch!

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