I have some vacation time to burn, so I took off today and tomorrow. I have been pulling weeds off and on all day. You are right, it seems like if you pull one weed two more come back in its place. I'm just hoping to get quite a few before they go to seed. Wish me luck!

Good luck!

I have oak trees and although you will have to rake them out of the beds you can run your lawn mower over the leaves to break them down to smaller pieces. The smaller pieces can be then put back on your beds if you want as mulch unless you have acid hating plants. Depending on how many you are the grass could easily cover the rest in a couple of weeks. By the end of the summer most will have composted. If you worry about being unsightly simply add a small layer of regular mulch over them.

My beds are under burr oak. I rake a berm almost three feet high all across the back each fall. When the snow goes the leaves will have disappeared. I am anxious for the ice to let go of what's left of them so I can get my back pack blower out and start the berm over again. I much prefer spring clean up over fall but this past year I actually got out the trimmer and cut all the hosta/ferns/astilbe down and so when I blow this year things should be fully detached and ready to FLY!!

Tell me about it. With it being muddy since the end of September, I am so far behind. The lawn should have been mown a few weeks ago. It’s mostly weeds and a lot of them are flowering. There are so many I have never seen before! Asked about some on the Name that Plant forum, but I could keep them busy for weeks. Did get my first load of mulch on Monday. One woman and her trusty pitchfork. I am really sore by now.

Great job, DawnInCal! You are right, it is very satisfying to see results. Even if it is a bit slower going than I would like. My older daughter was here over Christmas break. She always gets a day she just wants to prune/ chop down something while she is here. Never did when she was still living here. Wish I would still go at that speed and with that energy.

Oh my gosh Dawn, sorry you had to experience that. I hate to see trees go down. That is quite a job you're taking on.

Thanks, Iris! You too!

schoolhouse, I hate to lose trees too. We were going to do some thinning this year for fire safety/defensible space and just because it's good for the forest to not be overcrowded with trees. I'm looking at it as nature having decided which ones were going to go rather than us deciding. I figure the ones that came down must not have been 100% healthy or they would have withstood the storm as the ones still standing did.

Schoolhouse, we don't rake the oak leaves from our gardens. Today was dry enough and warm enough to do some work outside. My husband blew the leaves into the lawn and then picked them up with the bagged lawnmower. It saves a lot on the back.

I have two old large trees, a Maple and a Siberian Elm. Over the last four years they have shown some dead pieces and distress from ice and wind storm, plus age. I opened my bank account and hired a "tree doctor" and his very high end expensive tree service to come for a consultation. He agreed to just trim out the bad and then prune up the entire trees, as he said they are otherwise healthy. Lots of buds, new growth, etc.

Wow, what a difference. The trees look nice, even healthier, hope I'm not fooling myself though. But even if they decline suddenly or over the next few years I least I tried.

btw, don't worry about using oak leaves as a mulch if you grow acid loving plants. Fresh oak leaves are acidic but as they age, dry and fall, they become pretty much neutral in pH and will have no impact on soil pH or on acid loving plants. Same with pine straw - pine needles (or any other conifer needles) used as a mulch. Neutral pH.

We’re in the same boat...sooo many leaves, so little time. I got a quote to have someone else do it and it was almost four hundred for the front and back. Is that about normal? Has anyone else hired it out?

KB, it is almost impossible to comment on landscaping costs :-) They tend to be very regional and also very site related. Get a couple of other quotes and compare. Landscapers are eager to get new business started right now so you shouldn't have trouble finding others to respond.

I worked out in the flower beds for 3 days off and on, doing what you all are doing. Getting wet, oak leaves out of the beds. And my yard was professionally cleaned last fall. It looked perfect. Good thing it is raining today, cause I woke up and am limping and sore. Friend called and wanted to go to the mall to walk. Ummm... not a chance!

My rental house Before:

I got an estimate from a landscaping company of $3800 to sod the yard, putting it back the way it was. There's a sprinkler system on ALL of this.....which is now raw dirt! The deposit was $2500....sooooooo.......I can buy a LOT of flagstone and put in bubblers with that....and a NEW rose pillar! But it's going to be a LOT of work. The new tenant takes his dog to work with him and is gone ALL day.....soooooooooo......

The house is in perfect shape. The dogs were practically wild....unsocialized....fighting through the fence with the neighbors dogs. They put up boards on the fence. What an eye sore! I can take the boards down.... now they're gone.

Nicole, that is terrible!! I hope you had a big security depost to defray some of the expense.

Since I sold my house and downsized, I am a renter myself. But the gardens in the places I have rented look better after I leave than they did before I moved in!! But then, I am an avid gardener (and a landscape designer) so my outdoor space is just as important to me as the indoor spaces. And I am not reluctant to add more plants to a rental property at my expense if I plan to be there long term, although I do not get very carried away and most are donated, leftovers from design projects or recycled from my big collection of container plantings. All my landlords have been delighted with this and have even knocked off some of the rent in return!!

I also have a dog as well but he has zero destructive tendencies, never even barks much, and all I do is clean up after him outside :-) The deer that visit are far more of a hindrance to happy gardening than he is!!

gardengal.....I plan on xeriscaping the backyard....myself. The last one I did this size cost me $375. The deposit I kept was $2500. I will be paid for my time....but it will take me at least 5 days of very intense work and heavy hauling. The professional landscaper gave me an estimate of $3800.....so .......I won't be making what a professional charges....still....going to be OK.

Wow, nicole, The dogs really made a mess of that yard. It's not surprising so many landlords won't rent to people who have dogs. They have no way of knowing who has well behaved/trained dogs and who lets their dogs run amok.

While you're doing that hard work, just keep telling yourself that people pay good money for those kinds of workouts!

Dawn...lol Yes. ....and if I xeriscape then there's no grass to ruin next time. The front yard is still NICE. There's a hedge of tree rose of sharon, 3 HUGE rose bushes & a plum tree. :0) I just trimmed the hedge last week. The shrubs are soooooo healthy!

Thanks for the feedback Gardengal. I figured as much but thought I’d ask.

Nichole, that is quite the difference! Renters can sure be a nightmare, glad you were able to just not renew and get rid of them.

I have 2 giant pin oaks in my backyard. I just leave the leaves alone. I may get some up that have fallen around the house and use for my raised beds though. I'm looking forward to planting flowers out front this year. Only the second year I've had a front flowerbed!

Spend five minutes in a small garden, and one will see hours of work needing to be done, not matter how much was done last fall. Winter leaves "stuff" behind...

My yardman spent 3 hrs in just my front garden on Wed, getting all the leaves from the red oak and pin oak trees that came down over the winter. Next Wed, we'll tackle the back.

It's never ending this time of year. And the race is on to tackle as much as possible before the humidity kicks in. My back and neck are complaining, but have to keep on moving. At least the veggie garden is in. Finished pruning the azaleas today. Have lots of weeding yet to do, but that's at the bottom of my list.

I don't have any leaves to clean up but I do have two large pine trees that needed to be trimmed and one had a couple of larger branches on the ground. I trimmed the two trees using a 8 ft. Step ladder and large pruners and only going as high as I could safely go. The two larger branches I ended up using my pruning saw and was able to get it trimmed enough so I could pull them over to the tree line. I should trim the two apple trees but keep putting that off!

I was hating all the rain the past 2 days, but now I am really kind of grateful to put the yard chores off for a bit longer.

The big windstorm blew over both of my trellises, but they won't be hard to set upright, unless they are broken (they are at the back of the yard, and I haven't slogged my way back there yet -- still so wet).

I don't worry about leaves in the flowerbed since they are very "natural" anyway. But I am behind on pruning already, and I have a rather large quince that I want to take out; the paver patio needs to be scrubbed, it is time to start spraying the fruit trees, I need to make a better trellis for the grapes, finish adding to the height of the fence (#@&* deer), and the garage is a mess. Not to mention that I didn't get the work in the basement done that I had saved for this winter's project.

I will spend much time dealing with dead fall and tree limbs too. No trees fell but DH will no doubt be cutting some. I get rid of much of the natural mulch i.e. because it harbors slugs and they do a number on my hosta.