How do you deal with your tree's fallen leaves?

[Ed62]

We have 1/2 acre, with 5 mature oaks, 1 mature pine, 2 young magnolias, and several other young trees. We also have 8 mature oaks that overhang our fence from the neighbor's yard.

My wife has a flower garden, and I can't get the lawn tractor in that area. That area requires that I blow/rake the leaves out to the front yard, where they're put on a tarp, and dragged to the curb for leaf pickup by the county.

The back yard and the front yard are mostly taken care of with a twin bagger for my Cub Cadet lawn tractor. Those leaves are put in the compost pile, and they're chewed up fine enough that they'll be just about ready for use in the spring.


Ed

[JSUPreston]

I wait until the wind blows them into the neighbor's yard.

[pelligrini]

There's not too many trees on my small lot, two in front and two in back, plus the neighbors two oaks. I mulch them up with the mower. I'm usually mowing well into november anyways.

[charliex]

I have 2 large Maples that drop twice as many leaves in the fall as they sprout in the spring. I mulch and mulch and ... well you get the picture. Then I pick up the densest areas with the bagger. Usually only get two 40 gal bags full and most of that is cleaned off the sidewalk and driveway. This method definitely cuts down on the need for lawn fertilizer as dbhost indicates.
Chas

[MilDoc]

Mower mulches them very fine. Great fertilizer.

[herb fellows]

I have a very small property, but I use a Toro electric mulcher, blower, vacuum combo. I think it ran about $80. It vacuums up the leaves and puts them into an attached bag, then I just dump the bag into a garbage bag and start the process all over again. They claim it turns 16 bags of leaves into 1, I'd say more like 5-6 from my experience.

[SARGE..g-47]

I've got just over and acre and the house is surrounded with leaf bearers. I used to have to rake them 3 times each season here in Georgia.. mid Nov.. late Nov. and late Dec. to get the last of the last. They would take about 6 hours to rake and bag. Back breaker! So... I purchased a Stihl leaf blower.

I still have to do them 3 times but... it takes an hour to blow them into piles.. anothe hour to rake them onto a 20' x 20' tarp and drag to the front curb which is in a cul de sac. The city has a truck that comes by every Tuesday at my house that has a giant vacuum that sucks the leaves off the curb. So.. not so bad as the leaf blower.. tarp has changed the terms of engagement into very manageable.

[gerti]

I mulch year-round with my riding mower. I figure whatever I take out of the yard I have to make up in some way, so I prefer to leave the clippings. In fall I also use it to mulch the leaves under. Once the snow is gone 6 months later so are the leftovers from the leaves... That job has become a lot less unpleasant since I wear a Trend Airshield.

[docrowan]

I probably should mulch them, but I don't like the look and my mower doesn't mulch them very fine. Besides which I have two large magnolia trees, (state tree of Mississippi) and the leaves are notoriously large and tough. I have a bagger attachment for my riding mower. We've been having so much rain lately I haven't been able to get to it yet.

[dbhost]

I probably should mulch them, but I don't like the look and my mower doesn't mulch them very fine. Besides which I have two large magnolia trees, (state tree of Mississippi) and the leaves are notoriously large and tough. I have a bagger attachment for my riding mower. We've been having so much rain lately I haven't been able to get to it yet.

FWIW, I do mulch in my magnolia leaves, the spots where the leaves get mulched in, AND enough light gets through (That magnolia gives a LOT of shade) the grass is EXTREMELY strong, and fast growing, like having miracle grow on that part of the lawn...