Bulbs: should I remove or leave them?
4 years ago
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- 4 years agolast modified: 4 years agomazerolm_3a thanked nicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
- 4 years ago
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Removal of Leaves - Should I use a lawn vac?
Comments (13)I live on an acre in Western corner of CT surrounded on 3 sides by deciduous trees. We can't mulch mow our leaves; we'd kill off the grass with the amount of leaves we get. We've tried multiple tools over the years we've owned the house. Our mulch mower doesn't cut it on the leaves. We started with electric blowers, then gas powered, then a pull around Honda, then an electric leaf mulcher, and 3 years ago I bought my husband a DR Leaf and Lawn Vacuum for his birthday. It was a huge investment but it is a great machine and was well worth the money we invested in it. I can't tell you the time it saves us on leaf cleanup. What used to be hours, literally hours and hours each week, is reduced down to a half day once a week with both of us working on it. We collect about 3 dump loads per week. We use the leaves in a pile that is our sort of compost pile. We also clean lots more leaves out from our woods which cuts down on places for ticks to hide around here. My neighbor has the Cyclone Rake and likes it for his uses. His lawn is smaller, the machine is smaller, doesn't chop the leaves down as much as ours and it holds less, but he has less room for storage. We break our vacuum down and store it on shelves hung from the garage ceiling. Here is a link that might be useful: DR Leaf and Lawn Vacuum...See MoreShould I remove last year's leaves?
Comments (10)I'm a Master Gardener and checked with the UC Davis plant pathologist who advises our program. She is not aware of any studies that say that rust or powdery mildew spores die when the leaves die. (We don't have much black spot so I didn't ask her about that.) She recommended a very common-sense approach to the roses in the no-spray cemetery rose garden where I volunteer. If the leaves are diseased, remove them, and rake them up. If they aren't, leave them be. I can live with that. It helps, of course, that I have convicts from the Sheriff's Work Release project assigned to me, and THEY are the ones who pick off the leaves in the cemetery! Removing leaves does make it much easier to see where to prune. Anita...See MoreLeaves on Flowerbeds - do I remove them?
Comments (2)I would leave the leaves in place to act as mulch and decompose to add nutrients to the bed, unless you are talking about a thick layer. With a thin layer of leaves, the only possible downfalls would be aesthetics (if you didn't like the looks of the leaves) or disease (sometimes mulch can provide a place for fungal disease to reside), but, unless you are aware of a disease issue in your beds, the benefits should outweigh the negatives. If you added lots of leaves, they could form a barrier to proper drainage and aeration, and provide an even higher potential for disease retention. If lots of leaves are present, you might consider removing some of them. You don't want a thick, solid, impermeable mat of leaves. Finally, if you have woody plants in your beds, make sure the leaves are raked away from the base of those plants so as not to touch the bark. Leaves, or other types of mulch, should not be placed up against bark....See MoreShould I remove buds or let them get larger.
Comments (4)Don't see any buds. I do see fruit. We need to see the whole trees before giving suggestions on how many to leave. But a rule of thumb for citrus according to some university studies is 40 leaves per fruit. Give or take depending on fruit size and how long it takes to mature. Longer maturing needs less leaves but bigger fruit needs more....See More- 4 years ago
- 4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
- 4 years agomazerolm_3a thanked woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
- 4 years ago
- 4 years ago
- 4 years ago
- 4 years ago
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floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK