Printable View
I want to shred my leaves for the compost pile. I don't want to spend $100 on a leaf sucker. I don't want to stoop to putting a weed eater in a trash can. If I mulch them with a mower the majority are left on the ground and are lost in the grass.
I'm tolf that not mulching them would not work as well because they just form a moldy mat.
Any ideas?
Honestly, make sure they're dry, then run over them with a mulching mower but with a bag attached, works great for me. Sure, some bits are left on the ground, but no avoiding that if you don't want to do the two other options. You basically have mentioned the three options, if none of them work I don't know there is anything else.
My bagging mower does a really nice job........Actually bought it for the bag and that reason
Have to do it often as it will get overloaded sometimes.
Been using a rider lately....actually looked at a leaf sucker attachment for that....kinda spendy...so most likely not
Yep - bagging them is the easiest way.
I used to use a mulching mower but run it over piles in the side driveway, not on the grass. No bag. Detaching the bag every ten minutes gets tiresome. You might want them slightly damp too, to keep the dust down. Not too wet or they'll stick all over the underside of the mower.
Now I have a gas powered shredder chipper with a chute you can lay on the ground and rake leaves into. Way too powerful for leaves, blows em half across the yard if you don't set up a retaining fence (I just use chicken wire, again because emptying the bag every 5 minutes sucks,) but man, sure makes short work if the leaf piles. Noisy as a real wood chipper too. Bonus is paying back the neighbor for the summer of him banging on scrap metal parts.
This thing, but I didn't pay THAT price for it. Got mine on winter inventory discount for about half that at a local hardware store.
http://www.chippersdirect.com/MTD-Ya...er/p11533.html
Hear ya on the chipper shredder, very wise man, garbage to gold.......
On my 3rd one now and beat that all to heck over the last 15 years.
The welds on the sheet metal vibrated loose and has been patched.
I have never hauled anything out of my yard all the years I lived there....till last year....pulling over the 10 HP motor is getting harder and harder. (need an electric start)
They are the great machines....handle everything from leaves to branches.
Lusting after one of these.......
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...ps603eb1f3.jpg
Excuse my ignorance, but what is a mulching mower?
A mulching mower has a mulching blade. The blade is curved more than a regular mower blade and can have more cutting surfaces. They are designed to cut the clippings into much smaller pieces so the clippings can be left on the grass without damaging it. This allows the clippings to be used as "mulch" for the yard. You have to mow more often if you are mulching the grass to ensure no thatch is left on the lawn. Mine is made of aluminum and the body is higher than a standard mower to help suspend the clippings inside the mower so they can be clipped over and over cutting them into smaller and smaller pieces. My mower has no discharge when mulching.
Standard mowers on the other hand are designed to cut the grass and discharge the clippings.
Mulching mower is a slightly different blade and restricted outlet that allows grass clipping, and of course leaves, to be more finely chopped and returned to the lawn.
This builds allows the nutrients to be returned to the soil rather than carted away....as bagged clipping and leaves.
Some mowers just cut and blow out the side or back and laves down a laver like mowing hay.
Just a way of building soil and making use of fertilizer already spread as well as nutrients for the soil.
Gotcha, just never heard of one before.
People here in the US tend to over do lawns....billions of dollars spent.
Had a neighbor build a new house across the street for ours.....Had sod put down with a lot of prep work.
When it got going he would spend all sorts of time and money on fertilizer, weed and feed, crab grass preventer, and bug stuff.
Mowed his lawn with a bag on it, right to left, top to bottom and cross ways........carried his clipping off in bags.
Had sprinklers running every day....on a timer so watered even when it rained.
I would mow mine and just let everything lay.....the tree was much smaller then so I would just mow up the leaves.
On day he stopped over and ask way I didn't bag and haul off.......That his father showed him the PROPER way to keep a yard.
Claimed the clipping caused thatch.
Had just read an article in the paper by the collage horticultural Professor explaining why not to do as he was doing......
Went in the house and show him
Leaves contains trace element from deep in the ground as well a microorganisms that are beneficial to the soil.......cuts land fill, and helps keep fertilized out of streams and lakes.
He wasn't happy with me or "the right thing to do"....LOL....but did decide to try it.
Next time he got ready he took off the bag.....then couldn't get it started...(safety interlock)...till show him how to get it running....he cut the grass..........Looked like it drove him crazy.
He went back to bagging, but doesn't say anything to me any more.......Just make me laugh when I think about it.......each to his own.
For a smallish property with only a single sizable tree I've been known to spread them out to dry, throw them on a tarp, fold it over and trample them into near oblivion. It's not efficient, but it's nearly free.
Woman looking out kitchen window. "Honey, Canid is throwing some kind of a fit. He must really be mad. He's stomping all over his tarp."
"He's mulching leaves."
"Oooh."