Top 10 ways I get rid of leaves
1) I let mother nature blow them away. Coincidentally, this made the neighbor's list of the top 10 most hated ways other get rid of leaves...
2) I crush small handfuls in my hands. You know which leaves I mean: the ones when you open the door and a bunch of them are packed into the corner of the door frame, just waiting to get in the house. If they're dry, and a broom isn't handy, I just grab them, rub them together in my hand, and toss them to the side. That's right; I let them know who's boss.
3) I sweep them out of the garage, the basement hallway, the kitchen, and any other place into which they've made their way.
4) I rake, and I rake, and I rake.
Ok, enough of the enviro-friendly leaf disposal stuff. I have a lot of trees, and sometimes I just need to bring out the big boy toys...
5) I use my leaf blower (gas; not electric) to move them into a small wooded area on the side of my lot. Overuse of this tool, though, was also noted on the neighbor's most hated list...
6) I mow over them, either discharging them into manageable piles, or mulching them into the lawn. This means, though, revisiting step 4. And 10.
7) I throw the baggers on the lawn tractor and suck them up.
8) I use the vacuum on the leaf blower to finely mulch them.
9) I pulverize them with the thermoplastic polycut blades on the mowing head of my grass trimmer! This was my favorite method this year, though one I'm not sure Stihl would endorse. "Thermoplastic" may really understate the cutting power, but plunging my Kombi into leaf piles easily cut their volume in half. Wet leaves or dry--it was not an issue; it was simply a matter of letting the tool do the work. Of course, safety goggles were on the whole time, and I was covered in leaf debris when finished, but it makes the next step much easier...
10) I get my wheelbarrow. You can mulch, pulverize, or whatever all you want, but you cannot make leaves disappear. I am lucky to have a wooded area where I can dump yard debris, but the leaves don't all neatly fall and blow into it. Nope, they get scooped up and carted in there.
Note that I did not mention using a chainsaw. Leaf disposal does tempt me to fire it up and get rid of the leaves at the source, but it hasn't come to that yet. Then again, for as much as I like my maples, it's more than coincidence that I've been planting lots of evergreens and smaller leaf trees like birches.
Finally, I note that tonight is the end of daylight savings time. That means an extra hour of sleep, and I am going to enjoy every single minute of said hour.
2) I crush small handfuls in my hands. You know which leaves I mean: the ones when you open the door and a bunch of them are packed into the corner of the door frame, just waiting to get in the house. If they're dry, and a broom isn't handy, I just grab them, rub them together in my hand, and toss them to the side. That's right; I let them know who's boss.
3) I sweep them out of the garage, the basement hallway, the kitchen, and any other place into which they've made their way.
4) I rake, and I rake, and I rake.
Ok, enough of the enviro-friendly leaf disposal stuff. I have a lot of trees, and sometimes I just need to bring out the big boy toys...
5) I use my leaf blower (gas; not electric) to move them into a small wooded area on the side of my lot. Overuse of this tool, though, was also noted on the neighbor's most hated list...
6) I mow over them, either discharging them into manageable piles, or mulching them into the lawn. This means, though, revisiting step 4. And 10.
7) I throw the baggers on the lawn tractor and suck them up.
8) I use the vacuum on the leaf blower to finely mulch them.
9) I pulverize them with the thermoplastic polycut blades on the mowing head of my grass trimmer! This was my favorite method this year, though one I'm not sure Stihl would endorse. "Thermoplastic" may really understate the cutting power, but plunging my Kombi into leaf piles easily cut their volume in half. Wet leaves or dry--it was not an issue; it was simply a matter of letting the tool do the work. Of course, safety goggles were on the whole time, and I was covered in leaf debris when finished, but it makes the next step much easier...
10) I get my wheelbarrow. You can mulch, pulverize, or whatever all you want, but you cannot make leaves disappear. I am lucky to have a wooded area where I can dump yard debris, but the leaves don't all neatly fall and blow into it. Nope, they get scooped up and carted in there.
Note that I did not mention using a chainsaw. Leaf disposal does tempt me to fire it up and get rid of the leaves at the source, but it hasn't come to that yet. Then again, for as much as I like my maples, it's more than coincidence that I've been planting lots of evergreens and smaller leaf trees like birches.
Finally, I note that tonight is the end of daylight savings time. That means an extra hour of sleep, and I am going to enjoy every single minute of said hour.
There's got to be an effective laser-based solution to this problem...
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