My Nov. 22 post on raking leaves has drawn quite a response! In case you missed it, I shared comments from Allison Sloan, Co-Lead of Natural Habitat Evanston, a program of Citizens’ Greener Evanston. Manicured yards that hew to societal norms around lawns and landscaping are contributing to the problems facing bird and insect populations. I then shared my experiences in raking some leaves and in leaving some leaves.
Several people emailed me in response—more responses than most of my posts receive. The comments were mostly positive toward leaving the leaves. What are your thoughts? Do you rake or not rake? Use a rake, a leaf blower or a mulching mower? And why do you do what you do? Thanks in advance!
We only leave untouched leaves behind the house and down the slope. Even dump some downhill. Front leaves get mulched by mower and taken to garden to mulch the leeks and onions and for soil building.
I rake my leaves and place most onto my native gardens, some composted next to garage, some go into the bin. Leaving all my natives in place over winter, of course, and rewarded with sightings of goldfinch, house finch & juncos feeding on the seed heads.
Rake? Heck, I didn't even mow the lawn this year. It got long, fell over, thatched. Didn't go to seed, didn't look bad enough for the condo neighbors to complain. As for raking, I just scoop up the piles of leaves on the carriage walk and dump them into any areas in my Uptown native parkway and front-yard gardens that the Norway maple hasn't already dropped on. I came to terms with the non-native maple a long time ago--it's the shade in my shade garden, and it's a mature tree providing important ecosystem benefits; it gets the same care as my beloved old catalpa. The catalpa leaves decompose nicely; as mentioned by another person, the Norway maple leaves turn into a gloppy mat that has to be peeled off in spring once frost danger passes. I used to be able to get oak leaves, which I put through a leaf chopper for all the woodland natives. I leave the coneflowers, rudbeckia, liatris and other tall perennials as long as they're standing (or can be propped up to look presentable to the neighbors) to provide food and shelter for overwintering vertebrate and invertebrate wildlife. But it's not all hands-off. I spent the warm days this week watering one last time, especially the foundation evergreens that predate the native garden and mulching more.
We have 60 - 70% of our yard as natural woodland or in perennial/shrub beds and we don’t do anything with the leaves in those areas. Most of the grass portion is still under oak and hickory trees and they definitely need to be removed if we are to have any grass grow at all.
A shredding mower would be nice but I am still using a small electric battery mower which I purchased 17 years ago. I love it as it has never required any maintenance (except sharpening) and I never have to purchase, store or dispose of old gas.
We also love our four year old battery leaf blower which we use to blow leaves to curb for city pickup for composting. Much quieter than gas and no hassle with starting.
Our goals are to get to only about 15% grass and eventually get a mulching mower. Definitely by electric yard equipment if you can!
Has anyone worked with yard crews that have switched to electric equipment?
I used to mulch the leaves and use them on our flower beds. Now I merely rake or blow them into the flower beds or around the tree rings. I've become too aware of insect eggs and galls that live on the leaves over winter. I do keep them off the lawn because they will damage it, but I do not mulch any longer.
I used to mulch the leaves and use them on our flower beds. Now I merely rake or blow them into the flower beds or around the tree rings. I've become too aware of insect eggs and galls that live on the leaves over winter. I do keep them off the lawn because they will damage it, but I do not mulch any longer.
The problem I find is that MAPLE LEAVES glue together and eventually lead to very rough hillocky lawns. When there is a mixture of tree species, I just mow them into small pieces which fertilize the lawn by spring. But with large quantities of maple leaves, I rake them and pile them in non-lawn areas.
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We only leave untouched leaves behind the house and down the slope. Even dump some downhill. Front leaves get mulched by mower and taken to garden to mulch the leeks and onions and for soil building.
I rake my leaves and place most onto my native gardens, some composted next to garage, some go into the bin. Leaving all my natives in place over winter, of course, and rewarded with sightings of goldfinch, house finch & juncos feeding on the seed heads.
Rake? Heck, I didn't even mow the lawn this year. It got long, fell over, thatched. Didn't go to seed, didn't look bad enough for the condo neighbors to complain. As for raking, I just scoop up the piles of leaves on the carriage walk and dump them into any areas in my Uptown native parkway and front-yard gardens that the Norway maple hasn't already dropped on. I came to terms with the non-native maple a long time ago--it's the shade in my shade garden, and it's a mature tree providing important ecosystem benefits; it gets the same care as my beloved old catalpa. The catalpa leaves decompose nicely; as mentioned by another person, the Norway maple leaves turn into a gloppy mat that has to be peeled off in spring once frost danger passes. I used to be able to get oak leaves, which I put through a leaf chopper for all the woodland natives. I leave the coneflowers, rudbeckia, liatris and other tall perennials as long as they're standing (or can be propped up to look presentable to the neighbors) to provide food and shelter for overwintering vertebrate and invertebrate wildlife. But it's not all hands-off. I spent the warm days this week watering one last time, especially the foundation evergreens that predate the native garden and mulching more.
We have 60 - 70% of our yard as natural woodland or in perennial/shrub beds and we don’t do anything with the leaves in those areas. Most of the grass portion is still under oak and hickory trees and they definitely need to be removed if we are to have any grass grow at all.
A shredding mower would be nice but I am still using a small electric battery mower which I purchased 17 years ago. I love it as it has never required any maintenance (except sharpening) and I never have to purchase, store or dispose of old gas.
We also love our four year old battery leaf blower which we use to blow leaves to curb for city pickup for composting. Much quieter than gas and no hassle with starting.
Our goals are to get to only about 15% grass and eventually get a mulching mower. Definitely by electric yard equipment if you can!
Has anyone worked with yard crews that have switched to electric equipment?
I used to mulch the leaves and use them on our flower beds. Now I merely rake or blow them into the flower beds or around the tree rings. I've become too aware of insect eggs and galls that live on the leaves over winter. I do keep them off the lawn because they will damage it, but I do not mulch any longer.
I used to mulch the leaves and use them on our flower beds. Now I merely rake or blow them into the flower beds or around the tree rings. I've become too aware of insect eggs and galls that live on the leaves over winter. I do keep them off the lawn because they will damage it, but I do not mulch any longer.
The problem I find is that MAPLE LEAVES glue together and eventually lead to very rough hillocky lawns. When there is a mixture of tree species, I just mow them into small pieces which fertilize the lawn by spring. But with large quantities of maple leaves, I rake them and pile them in non-lawn areas.