First Bags of 2010 Autumn Leaves! What Have You Scored Lately?

13 years ago

I was late to work this morning because I stopped to pick up my neighbor's *8* bags of *shredded* leaves & take 'em home!

(You might be a compost wacko if you're late to work because you stopped to pick up leaves.)

& what have rotten/dead/decayed/carbonaceous materials have *you* rescued lately?

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Comments (35)

sandhill_farms
13 years ago
I pick-up horse manure on a daily basis but as far as dead and decayed browns the fall leaves won't be available for a few months. In the interim I use some of the over (50) bales of straw that I picked-up for a song several years ago.

Greg
Southern Nevada
namfon
13 years ago
Our leaves are just starting to turn now but dead twigs and dried grasses are already starting to be discarded.

We got a Chipper / Shredder especially for FALL browns this year.

Nam
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greendesert
13 years ago
ah, here in Phoenix there's a period in the middle of the summer when a lot of trees kinda go into a coma because of the heat, so my African sumac trees have been shedding leaves like crazy. Last week I raked up a pile of dead leaves and spread them on the aviary floor. The chickens do an awesome job of eating some of the stuff and breaking down and mixing the rest of it with manure. In a couple of months, I dump the compost tumbler contents into the garden, then I just rake up the stuff on the aviary floor and dump it into the tumblers. And the cycle repeats. The only problem will be when I decide to buy another house a bit farther out of the city, I won't be able to take my nice fertile soil with me and will have to start over from scratch. But I know exactly what I would do then... Put the process in supper high gear. Get a whole bunch of chickens and livestock and make an even bigger compost pile.

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goren
13 years ago
Do you know whether your neighbor used any herbicide or pesticide on the fallen leaves. Do they have any disease that was apparent during the season.
If so, taking them and making them part of your compost or mulching program might just be inviting trouble.

Leaves that have had applications of insecticides are good examples of what NOT to put into your compost bins....it might come back to bite you in the ***
Lloyd
13 years ago
Ah yes, the time of year when we get the bags of perfectly mixed grass clippings and leaves. May we all enjoy this most euphoric of seasons and may we all have a bountiful harvest.

Don't tell others this stuff is good, they might want to keep it to themselves. Let's keep it our little secret.

;-)

Lloyd
tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
13 years ago
The neighbors are just now starting to put nice windrows of leaves curbside for me. Soon...very soon...

tj
kqcrna
13 years ago
A few local trees are shedding a few leaves, without and pretty color in the process. Result of the drought.

This happy camper is still using last year's leaves. I got a little carried away last year. I don't think I can get away with that many garbage bags sitting around the yard again all year. If I try my husband is going to compost me.

Karen
curt_grow
13 years ago
Not yet, darn it, and my pile is starved for carbon. My local supply was shut down by the MNDNR for poor burning practices. Now the hunt begins.

Curt
kentstar
13 years ago
Leaves are just starting to turn now. Yes, soon, very soon...
I bought another shredder/vac leaf blower just for my leaves. It takes a while, but it works lol. Can't wait to scare the neighbors with my CRAZY behavior of bagging up and keeping my leaves and theirs!
tiffy_z5_6_can
13 years ago
What I don't understand is how can someone in Texas be picking up shredded leaves on the road when mine in Nova Scotia have yet to show their pretty colours and make themselves available to those who will unknowingly shred them for me and leave them for me to grow great gardens with???
sandhill_farms
13 years ago
Just scored a new source for horse manure. They have a huge pile that's accumulated and will even load it in my trailer for me. Just can't have too much...

Greg
Southern Nevada
batyabeth
13 years ago
Put together my first lasagna garden yesterday, and good thing the neighbors didn't see me bringing a whole bag of carob leaves INTO the yard, which I scored by raking out the unused parking corner under the trees half a block away. Emptied out both of the compost piles for the lasagna layer and it gave me barely an inch all around, but that's what I had, so that's what I used. Now starting two new piles.
We wait for our first rainfall since Easter....... Batya
sylviatexas1
Original Author
13 years ago
Tiffy, I think it's the summer dormancy here;
we had a record-breaking heat wave ("hottest since 1980"), combined with a matching drought, & many trees went dormant & lost their leaves.

We always *think* we have a long growing season here, but really we have 2 short ones, spring & fall, & 2 dormant seasons, winter & summer.
nancyjane_gardener
13 years ago
2 of my neighbors have poplars that drop their leaves early. I was given one of those leaf suckers at a yard sale last year, so I'm good for leaves! I'm getting a couple of gallons of UCGs from the grocery store every day!
Need to work on grass clippings next.
curt_grow
13 years ago
Wow sylvia; I survived the heat wave of 1980 in Dallas. I might have a t-shirt around here somewhere. I was living there then. Hot!

Curt
sylviatexas1
Original Author
13 years ago
"How hot was it?"

I worked downtown, & the asphalt street surfaces got so hot that the stripes melted & got wavy.

It was so hot that when the air conditioner repair service asked me what temp my home was & I said 93, they said that that meant that the ac was working fine;
ac can lower the temp by about 20 degrees, so if it's 113 outside...

It was so hot that grocery stores started staying open until midnight (they usually closed at 7 or 8 PM in those days) because no one could bear to get out to shop before about 10 PM.

ahem.

The office ordered a bunch of signs that came in Friday, so Saturday I scored a huge amount of cardboard.
namfon
13 years ago
We got close to 50 bags of mixed stuff, leaves and twigs, due to some unusually windy weather last week I believe.

The new chipper / shredder does require some extra effort to feed it but the resulting material is awesome.
User
13 years ago
nam, what brand of chipper/shredder did you get?

I knew I had gone wacko when I bought a new Merry Mac 12p. What a beast!

- Paul
thecompostnerd
13 years ago
I felt kinda guilty tonight when I cleaned the sidewalk in front of my house...not to please the neighbors, but to put the leaves in my compost.
docmom_gw
13 years ago
Our leaves are just starting, but my two favorites (locust and white pine needles) are early shedders. I found a school two blocks from my son's karate class that has piles of locust leaves piling up along its curbs. I brought along my rake and some bags to "help" the maintenance staff keep the parking lots neat.

Martha
vermontkingdom
13 years ago
I'm the only serious vegetable gardener in my neighborhood so I've been given leaves from other properties for a number of years. They have always been gratefully accepted by me since neighbors want to do something in response to my generosity of sharing so many tomatoes ( I have 50 plants this year) and other goodies with them. Unfortunately, additional neighbors want to "help me" as well and I don't really need or want all these extra lawn clippings and tree leaves. However, as a crazy composter, am inclined to accept all offers. I think, and my DW would agree, I need therapy!
sylviatexas1
Original Author
13 years ago
Nah, you don't need therapy;
people who throw away leaves need therapy!
esteban_2009
13 years ago
I was considering using grass clippings on part of my garden this fall.
One of my neighbors said the mold / mildew would ruin my garden.
Please give me some sound advice.
Thanks
sylviatexas1
Original Author
13 years ago
Mold & mildew eat & digest grass clippings & turn them into yummy compost for your garden plants.
Lloyd
13 years ago
The stuff coming out is just beautiful this year! I hope the leaf season goes on for a couple of weeks!

Lloyd
esteban_2009
13 years ago
sylviatexas, thanks.
Steve
User
13 years ago
Lloyd, I wish I lived closer to you, that's looking good. But I have my newish chipper/shredder and I'll be getting some time off from work, so I'll be making a really big compost pile this fall.
kqcrna
13 years ago
My maple tree is gorgeous now, but leaves are falling fast. My husband mowed under the tree yesterday, bagged the leaves, and threw them in my tomato beds. Little to no grass in them as grass is barely growing due to drought. The lawn was completely covered with leaves again in an hour.

My neighbor delivered his first three lawn bags full of leaves a few days ago. He gets a lot of leaves from many big trees in his yard and always delivers all to me. He collects them with his mower, so they are shredded somewhat. Great neighbor.

I got carried away in my leaf collecting last year and I'm STILL using last year's leaves.

Karen
sylviatexas1
Original Author
13 years ago
Karen, you can add any sort of sugar to your excess leaves & they'll break down very quickly.

As the car dealers say, you gotta make room for this year's model!
Lloyd
13 years ago
"Lloyd, I wish I lived closer to you..."

I'm glad you don't...I don't share well.

;-)

How nutso are we that we take time off from work to do composting? I took 8 days of leave for October for the leaf season! I got 2726 bags of yard trimmings delivered last week (mostly leaves)!

Lloyd
User
13 years ago
Speaking of leaf piles, when I helped my sister set up her raised beds, we took a trip to a local country club (in Greenwich, CT) to fetch some leaves. They had about a half acre pile of mostly oak leaves. Yes, it was hot-composting without any visible help from grass clippings, etc.
kentstar
13 years ago
Sucked up my first bag of leaves today. Boy, that felt good lol! Soon, yes, very soon, more and more to come... Yay! I am going to put them all in my 3 bins to make leaf mold out of. Yipee! More good stuff to stuff the beds with next fall.

Cathy
aka_strawberrygoat
13 years ago
I'm really glad I checked in here this evening...
I live less than a mile from a 23 acre piece of property, that was a horse arena/lounge/restaurant/stables.... it's for sale and it's vacant.
by the light of the full moon tonight, I could see clearly just how much there is, of long time composted horse poop, in the cement open bins...soooo much out there.
I hadn't even paid any attention to it before but recently I've been craving compost for the yard.
I do believe I found my source and don't know if I want to bother to call the realty company for permission.
I don't want them to say to stay out of there.
maybe I could just go ahead and fill buckets and haul some home, each evening.
taking care of grandkids, I always drive right by it..
what started as a surprise that it was for sale in the first place..eventually led to this latest discovery of "black gold"..of course a lot of it is sawdust, from the arena itself.
that should be even better, shouldn't it??
I know it's been a couple of years now, since anyone has been in there.
tiffy_z5_6_can
13 years ago
Finally starting to fall like dominoes here. Filled the Yaris with 21 bags of shredded leaves mixed with lawn clippings. Don't you just love it when the greens are already mixed with the browns and all you have to do is dump and walk away until next spring?????? BONUS!
dlangend1120
13 years ago
My teenage daughter can't help but roll her eyes watching me drool like Homer Simpson as we see stashes of leaves around the different neighborhoods. I try to exercise every day, early a.m., and my Monday routine is to walk the block once to scope out the leaves put out for pick-up and then to go around with my wheelbarrow to collect them. I have a neighbor two doors down who has a mini-botanical garden in her little yard and gives me all of her exotic clippings and "trash" (that's how I ended up with elephant ear's for the first time and then also a couple nice canna.

First Bags of 2010 Autumn Leaves! What Have You Scored Lately?

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