Last year between me and some friends, it took around 24 man hours to get up all the leaves. The yard is around 3 acres that I maintain. Surrounded by woods, the amount of leaves that I get is unreal. Just wondering if you all just mow over your leaves or blow them to the street?
by Uncle-Harrys-Pickle
21 Comments
I mulch them in as long as they aren’t too thick. If the leaves are thick on the ground I bag them.
Always mulch. Free fertilizer. If it gets too thick you can use your blower to disperse them around the yard. Go over it a few times if you need to
Depends on how bored you are
My yards smaller (1 acre) but similar situation. I mulch the vast majority of the leaves into the lawn. They tend to group up in certain spots due to wind so if those parts are too thick I’ll blow them more evenly to other parts of the lawn first. There are a few places that get extremely thick and I mulch and bag those with the mower and then dump over some of my large perennial beds and vegetable garden. Great mulch for winter and it breaks down pretty quickly the following year once it warms up.
With this many, you can easily mulch. Go over it a few times if you have to, just stay on top of it and go mulch once a week even if the grass isn’t tall enough to mow. You just don’t want a thick mat left behind, so if you wait for it to all drop, then I’d probably blow.
I live on 1.6 acres with plenty of leaves in fall. I mulch with my zero turn, using the mulching blades, and if heavy areas persist, I will cut across the grain a second time. The wind helps a lot too. I find this is healthy for the lawn.
I alternate. Leaves can be good, but too many can be bad. Some studies say you can much up tp 6″ thick, but I strongly disagree, as then you have a lot of material that still needs to break down, and chances are you’ll be adding even more mulched leaves before they can break down enough.
I use a blower generally, to clear from my front curb all the way down to my woodline, which is 150-ish’ away… But I don’t try to get every single leaf, especially if I plan to cut after I do leaf work.
For what I see in your pic, mulch is fine..
Are you surrounded by woods at the end of your 3 acres or is it someone elses property?
I would mulch this. But also depends on your mower. Some electric mowers have terrible suction, so you have to make 500 passes. I sometimes mulch on the grass, other times I blow into the driveway, mulch on asphalt and blow back onto grass. Just works much faster this way.
And if it gets really bad (both of my neighbors have massive Norway maples), I have to take it to the local dump.
Why either? Just leave them.
You dont have that many leaves rn. Mulch it baby, good for the soil
Mulch mulch mulch
Mulch all day
Mulch, thats free fertilizer right there
I mulch them and then blow them into my garden beds. I have a small yard though, so probably wouldn’t make sense for you
Stihl 600 backpack blower.. gone in minutes
I used to mulch, it was too much for the grass and parts would die off.. Bought a zero turn with bagger and would never go back.
Mulch the leaves into the turf . Very good for it . Run the mower often . Don’t let them build up . The mower doesn’t chop them up as small .
Mulch
Very interesting circumstances. It’s not every mulch/blow post on here is dealing with 3 acres. 100% mulching that. It’s fairly light cover and the leaves are light and airy. It’s not like you’re in an oak stand with heavy waxy leaves. So mulch all day and this “yard” will do very well.
I have a similar looking yard and I mulch but with the objective of getting most of it into the woods. I basically start in the center of my lawn and drive in a pattern that only ejects clippings and leaves towards the woods. I just work my way out ward mowing everything farther and farther out until it’s all into the woods. I do this with a tractor, if you use a push mower I imagine it would get bogged down trying this.