Hello all -

I've got several trees (maple and apple) in my back yard
that produce piles of leaves in autumn. In previous years I
bagged them and carried them to the front of the property
for collection, but I'm getting on in years, that's a lot of
work!

I came upon these gadgets:
http://tinyurl.com/pm4hmrf
http://tinyurl.com/nowgocy

The price isn't too high, I was wondering if I could just
grind/mulch the leaves. I have a good-sized hole in the yard
where a weeping willow once stood (fell over 30 years ago,
pieces long since removed), and I could fill that hole up
with the mulch and let it sit all winter.

Are these leaf mulchers useful, or ....?

On 10/25/13 12:41 pm, John Albert wrote:
Hello all -

I've got several trees (maple and apple) in my back yard that produce
piles of leaves in autumn. In previous years I bagged them and carried
them to the front of the property for collection, but I'm getting on in
years, that's a lot of work!

I came upon these gadgets:
http://tinyurl.com/pm4hmrf
http://tinyurl.com/nowgocy

The price isn't too high, I was wondering if I could just grind/mulch
the leaves. I have a good-sized hole in the yard where a weeping willow
once stood (fell over 30 years ago, pieces long since removed), and I
could fill that hole up with the mulch and let it sit all winter.

Are these leaf mulchers useful, or ....?

I have no idea about leaf mulchers. I run the mower over the fallen
leaves, and the resulting shreds fertilize the lawn.

Perce

John Albert wrote:
Hello all -

I've got several trees (maple and apple) in my back yard that produce
piles of leaves in autumn. In previous years I bagged them and carried
them to the front of the property for collection, but I'm getting on in
years, that's a lot of work!

I came upon these gadgets:
http://tinyurl.com/pm4hmrf
http://tinyurl.com/nowgocy

The price isn't too high, I was wondering if I could just grind/mulch
the leaves. I have a good-sized hole in the yard where a weeping willow
once stood (fell over 30 years ago, pieces long since removed), and I
could fill that hole up with the mulch and let it sit all winter.

Are these leaf mulchers useful, or ....?
Hi,
I use yard vac. which does that. It reduces the volume a lot when
bagging the stuff compared to leaves as is. As a matter of fact today
collection truck took all the bags I left out this morning. If leaves
are not dry enough it does not work well.

I fenced off a small area of the yard and dump my leaves there, they naturally compost, and I add the rich compost to plantings each spring...

requires the least work all around, and the mulch is great.

I only add outdoor debris to the pile, no kitchen scraps so I dont attract rodents....

the fence keeps the stuff from blowing around

On 10/25/2013 11:41 AM, John Albert wrote:
Hello all -

I've got several trees (maple and apple) in my back yard that produce
piles of leaves in autumn. In previous years I bagged them and carried
them to the front of the property for collection, but I'm getting on in
years, that's a lot of work!

I came upon these gadgets:
http://tinyurl.com/pm4hmrf
http://tinyurl.com/nowgocy

The price isn't too high, I was wondering if I could just grind/mulch
the leaves. I have a good-sized hole in the yard where a weeping willow
once stood (fell over 30 years ago, pieces long since removed), and I
could fill that hole up with the mulch and let it sit all winter.

Are these leaf mulchers useful, or ....?

That looks like as much or more work than just raking to me...

As other(s?) have mentioned, I use bagger on the rider to just pick 'em
up. That chops them significantly in volume compared to whole so even
if have to bag (we've got large dumpster on farm so just empty into it
which is simple) they take many fewer and are easier handling.

Depending on just the size of the lawn perhaps a mulching kit on the
mower will shred them enough -- one says can get away with that but...in
VA where we were there were simply too many from a large number of oaks
that couldn't get rid of them that way w/o smothering grass--just too
much volume that would leave inches deep covering if didn't remove.

--

On 10/25/2013 12:54 PM, Percival P. Cassidy wrote:
On 10/25/13 12:41 pm, John Albert wrote:
Hello all -

I've got several trees (maple and apple) in my back yard that produce
piles of leaves in autumn. In previous years I bagged them and carried
them to the front of the property for collection, but I'm getting on in
years, that's a lot of work!

I came upon these gadgets:
http://tinyurl.com/pm4hmrf
http://tinyurl.com/nowgocy

The price isn't too high, I was wondering if I could just grind/mulch
the leaves. I have a good-sized hole in the yard where a weeping willow
once stood (fell over 30 years ago, pieces long since removed), and I
could fill that hole up with the mulch and let it sit all winter.

Are these leaf mulchers useful, or ....?

I have no idea about leaf mulchers. I run the mower over the fallen
leaves, and the resulting shreds fertilize the lawn.

Perce


Plant some rhododendrons and azaleas, then just blow the leaves under
the shrubs for mulch.

"John Albert" wrote in message
...
Hello all -


Are these leaf mulchers useful, or ....?

I've had a sears model I've used for maybe 20 years. Actually just an
inverted string trimmer. They don't work well on green, stringy or wet
leaves. On dry crunchy leaves they reduce\compact the volume by 1\2 to 3\4
of original. The back half of my yard abuts a wetland and in not developed.
I much the leaves from the rest of the landscaped part of the yard and
spread them in the back. Mulching them speeds the decomposition greatly. I
used this item mostly at my previous home where everything needed to be
bagged. It greatly reduced the amount of bagging necessary. I buy a spool of
the correct size line and cut my own to length....much cheaper than pre-cut
line.

On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 12:41:30 -0400, John Albert
wrote:

Are these leaf mulchers useful, or ....?

I used to rake the leaves in a garden in the Fall. Snow would compact
them down to a couple of inches and then turn them into the garden
(another home). Before that, I mowed them and left the mulch on the
ground for the lawn.

Since you picked electric units above; maybe take a look at this •Toro
Ultra 3-in-1 blower, vacuum, and leaf shredder makes completing yard
work fun and easy.

http://www.amazon.com/Toro-51609-Variable-Speed-Electric-Impeller/dp/B007POATV4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382727202&sr=8-2&keywords=toro+leaf+blower

The bag will shred and hold ~ six large trash bags of non- shredded
leaves AND it is less money on the ones you picked. ($69.97 & FREE
Shipping)

I own one

"Oren" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 12:41:30 -0400, John Albert
wrote:

Are these leaf mulchers useful, or ....?

I used to rake the leaves in a garden in the Fall. Snow would compact
them down to a couple of inches and then turn them into the garden
(another home). Before that, I mowed them and left the mulch on the
ground for the lawn.

Since you picked electric units above; maybe take a look at this .Toro
Ultra 3-in-1 blower, vacuum, and leaf shredder makes completing yard
work fun and easy.

http://www.amazon.com/Toro-51609-Variable-Speed-Electric-Impeller/dp/B007POATV4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382727202&sr=8-2&keywords=toro+leaf+blower

The bag will shred and hold ~ six large trash bags of non- shredded
leaves AND it is less money on the ones you picked. ($69.97 & FREE
Shipping)

I own one

I have a DR pull behind leaf collector. It mulches the leaves about 12:1 I
think. I have about 35 trees in my yard, so raking or bagging is out of the
question. I pile them in the back yard against the fence. For the past 5
years I have been piling them in the same spot and turning the pile a couple
times a year. The pile is just now turning into a substance that looks like
topsoil.

R

On 10/25/13 3:04 PM, Oren wrote:
http://www.amazon.com/Toro-51609-Variable-Speed-Electric-Impeller/dp/B007POATV4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382727202&sr=8-2&keywords=toro+leaf+blower

The bag will shred and hold ~ six large trash bags of non- shredded
leaves AND it is less money on the ones you picked. ($69.97 & FREE
Shipping)

Very nice, that one will get consideration.

On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 16:41:18 -0400, John Albert
wrote:

On 10/25/13 3:04 PM, Oren wrote:
http://www.amazon.com/Toro-51609-Variable-Speed-Electric-Impeller/dp/B007POATV4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382727202&sr=8-2&keywords=toro+leaf+blower

The bag will shred and hold ~ six large trash bags of non- shredded
leaves AND it is less money on the ones you picked. ($69.97 & FREE
Shipping)

Very nice, that one will get consideration.

Hey. They are even better when the wife operates it. The dog and me
hate work

The Toro has a two year warranty. Advice is to get the one with the
metal impeller.

the link

Per Percival P. Cassidy:
I have no idea about leaf mulchers. I run the mower over the fallen
leaves, and the resulting shreds fertilize the lawn.

+1

Started doing that about five years ago. I go in a circle, exhausting
the leaves towards the center so they are shredded and re-shredded. Once
I'm done, I'll disperse whatever is left with a few more passes of the
mower; but, surprisingly, very little is left even though one would
expect all the leaves to be concentrated.

Volume of leaves might be an issue. I tried selling the idea to my
son-in-law. He tried it, but there were just too many - and oak
predominated. Oak leaves are a lot harder for the mower to shred than
maple.

Sharpening the blades helps the shredding process.

Having the mower housing as low as possible (while maintaining blade
height as high as possible) helps with blowback of shredded leaves.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 14:31:30 -0700, Oren wrote:

The Toro has a two year warranty. Advice is to get the one with the
metal impeller.

the link

Oh. Video is on down on the left side with photos.

http://www.amazon.com/Toro-51609-Variable-Speed-Electric-Impeller/dp/B007POATV4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382727202&sr=8-2&keywords=toro+leaf+blower

Oren wrote:
On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 14:31:30 -0700, Oren wrote:

The Toro has a two year warranty. Advice is to get the one with the
metal impeller.

the link

Oh. Video is on down on the left side with photos.

http://www.amazon.com/Toro-51609-Variable-Speed-Electric-Impeller/dp/B007POATV4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382727202&sr=8-2&keywords=toro+leaf+blower

That's not going to work with damp leaves. I got two stihl gas blowers. One
has the vacuum with blade. The blade is not so great, but helps a bit. I
got to using both blowers to blow leaves around. At camp the leaves will
get to a mushy mess if left around in the rain, which happens since I can't
get there often. I still get results with two blowers, but I ran out of gas
last week. At home I often gather them on the side of the house. Used to
haul them down the property in a pile. The pile goes down to almost nothing
over winter. I quit doing that, and just blow them out back over the hill.
What works best for me, is when the wind distributes the leaves all over
the neighborhood and I do nothing.

Greg

On Friday, October 25, 2013 9:41:30 AM UTC-7, John Albert wrote:
Hello all -
I've got several trees (maple and apple) in my back yard
that produce piles of leaves in autumn. In previous years I
bagged them and carried them to the front of the property
for collection, but I'm getting on in years, that's a lot of
work!

snip

I put a mulching plug on the rider mower and just mow them. 2-3 passes and the lawn has a 'pepper/salt' look, Few hours or a day later their isn't a sign of leaves ever having been there.

Until I got rid of one Red maple (still have 2) I was using that method with leaves in drifts higher than the mower deck. Using a mulcher and disposing of the debris just adds extra work and removes valuable nutrients that benefit the lawn soil.

Harry K