How to Bag Leaves and Pine Needles
Raking leaves always seems never-ending: once you have finished the raking, you have to bag the leaves and pine needles in thick paper leaf bags. These compostable bags hold a lot of leaves and will biodegrade. Louisiana State University recommends using a standard garden rake on pine needles, although they can be challenging since they are so small. More aggressive landscape rakes may harm your grass and soil. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Rake the leaves and pine needles into small piles throughout the yard. Use work gloves to prevent your hands from blistering on the rake. AARP.org cautions against hunching over and using only your back muscles and suggests you think of raking as a whole body workout. When one hand gets tired, hold the rake in the other hand; this will prevent muscle fatigue. If you have a large yard, you may wish to use a leaf blower to get the leaves and pine needles into piles.
-
2
Spread a small tarp next to one of the piles. Rake the leaves and pine needles onto the tarp, moving the tarp back if you need to get those last few. It may take a while to get every last leaf off the ground and onto to the tarp, but keep at it.
-
-
3
Grab a yard bag and open it up. Ask someone to hold the bag for you; this makes it slightly easier. Grab the four corners of the tarp and lift the tarp up. Then fold the tarp into a U-shape, holding the center of the U over the bag. Tilt the tarp so that the leaves slide off the tarp and into the bag. As the bag gets full, have your partner compress the bag so that the leaves lose volume. If you are working alone, put the tarp down and do this yourself, then resume your work.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit man raking leaves image by palms from Fotolia.com
