How to Dispose of Autumn Leaves

Ah, autumn, when the days are crisp and the weekends are filled with football, fun - and raking leaves for hours on end. Make raking leaves a little less work by getting smart and minimizing the effort. Your back - and your football buddies - will be glad that you did.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Blowers
• Compost Bins
• Lawn Mowers
• Leaf Rakes
• Rototillers
• Shovels
• Shovels

1. Call your city or county manager or administrator's office to find out what rules and special assistance apply when disposing of leaves and yard waste. Some areas have special leaf pickup days when the municipality doesn't charge for collection. Some areas use special heavy leaf collectors that allow you to simply rake leaves into the street gutters for collection. And still others have special rules about bagging and collecting leaves and other yard waste.

2. Check with your garbage-collection service, as well, if it's separate from the city or county. It may also have special yard-waste services or rules.

3. Equip yourself well. New lines of leaf blowers and shredders have come onto the market recently that are lighter and easier to use. Leaf blowers are best if you have an easy way to collect the leaves, such as putting them into a pickup truck for dumping elsewhere. A vacuum leaf shredder is great if you want to compost or bag the leaves and need to collect the smallest volume possible.

4. Get into smart composting, an earth-friendly way to get rid of a variety of yard wastes. Buy one of a number of compost bins on the market, or build one yourself out of wood or lightweight wire fencing. Or consider a compost pit: Dig a hole behind some shrubs or the garage and fill with autumn leaves.

5. Spread small amounts of leaves on your vegetable garden - no more than 2 or 3 inches deep. Dig or till into the soil to prevent blowing and to break down the leaves faster.

6. Mow over your leaves on the lawn to collect them in the bag attachment. The combination of high-nitrogen grass clippings and shredded, high-carbon leaves makes for a particularly good composting material.

7. Rake autumn leaves into shrub plantings and perennial beds. The existing plants tend to prevent the leaves from blowing, and the leaves also serve as a winter mulch. (Just be sure to remove the leaves come spring.)

Tips & Warnings

• If some of that power leaf-disposing equipment is too expensive for your budget, consider going in with a neighbor or family member to buy it together. Just make sure to specify what happens to it if one person or the other moves. Or consider renting the equipment from your local rental company.
• Don't just dump your leaves in a public area, ditch, field or landfill. You might get slapped with a fine for unlawful dumping or littering. Check with the property owner first.

[kenl123]

on 1/31/2009 The simplest solution is to just mow over the leaves with a mulching mower. It chops the leaves into small pieces that stay in place and fertilize the lawn when they decompose.

[SunflowerOcity]

on 10/19/2007 Good stuff! See also: http://www.ehow.com/how_2072035_do-easy-composting-garden.html

on 11/22/2005 My yard is completely surrounded by a wooded area (all part of my property). I mow and rake all the leaves that fall into my yard right back into the wooded area (on top of the leaves falling there naturally). No muss, no fuss.

on 11/22/2005 If you have a lot of leaves to dispose of, why not make some leaf mould. Leaf mould is an ideal mulch and earth conditioner. Put the leaves in a bin as you would compost (say 1 cubic metre), and make sure you add water as you fill the bin. It probably takes 18 months to become top quality leaf mould, but it is worth it. If the leaves are shredded using a vacuum leaf collector, before adding to the pile, the leaf mould will be made faster.

on 11/22/2005 If you don't have clipping collecting on your mower, mow in square sections with the output pointed inwards. It will, more or less, put the scattered leaves in piles. It will make raking quicker and easier. (Mower will have a tendency to clog.)