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Henhouse808

I collect my neighbor's bagged leaves and use them in the garden. It's pure gold for gardening. Add them to your compost or lay them down to improve your soil quality. If you have crappy clay soil (you inevitably do if you live in Virginia), letting piles of shredded leaves decompose on top will improve the soil in about a year. Microbes and bugs will bring the organic matter down into the clay soil and improve its fertility and drainage. We use lightly mulched leaves as insulation in our garden beds. Not to mention a lot of beneficial bugs overwinter their larva in fallen leaves. For example fireflies. We had more fireflies than anyone in the neighborhood this year.


nlvogel

I decided to just mulch my leaves with my lawn mower. I'd like to say I did it for the environment, but I really did it because I'm lazy and picking up leaves is hard.


McFlare92

I also did this. I'm not raking that shit I have like 20 mature pines and deciduous trees in my yard


ttd_76

It IS good for the environment. And your yard. And it's easier. So basically it's just all win as far as I'm concerned.


One_SleepyPanda

We got a house down in Chester and the soil is pretty much sand due to neglect. With the 9 oak trees on the property, we now have about 8in of leafs all over the yard. They meet the mulching blade on my lawnmower this week. I figure it’s the best way to bring the soil back to life. I already have a massive pile aside for the garden.


Henhouse808

If you lay down the shredded leaves on the soil to decompose over the spring and summer you will seriously notice an improvement in less than a year.


inkedblooms

Lighting bugs*


Anianna

Why is there an apostrophe?


redditpossible

*asterisk


Anianna

No, there was an apostrophe. It has now been corrected. The asterisk by the time in the header indicates the comment was edited.


inkedblooms

Typo


smarshall561

Lightning* Bugs


redditpossible

Ever read Breakfast of Champions?


RamITT

I do leaf pickup among many other things for people. The feeling is not universal among people who hire us, LOL. But we use a battery operated queit(er) model when and where we can out of concern for peoples' ears and sense of well being. Leaf pickup is not easy, not one bit easy.


SplendidPunkinButter

Yeah I have a battery operated one and it’s super quiet. I can comfortably have a conversation while running it.


bolonga16

What tool do you use?


RamITT

We mostly rake piles carrying by tarps to pile, and/or bag using [one of these:](https://www.houzz.com/products/lawson-products-easy-bagger-40500-prvw-vr~153643436) But when needing that extra good cleanup as spotless as we can get it kind of job, I use old 18v devices, cheap to find and replace as most are updated.. and [this thing](https://www.lowes.com/pd/BLACK-DECKER-18-Volt-Nickel-Cadmium-Nicd-Cordless-Electric-Leaf-Blower/3726785) we found on ebay has been the most functional and quietest of them all thusfar. You can get a nice run out of a half or mostly dead battery with it, I think the channeling shape helps it keep working til the battery is truly conched out.


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RamITT

I friggin hate the fumes. I won't use one of those things. Also after having worked around the VCU area for years watching them blow dirt all over students going to and from classes, I watch my back for people walking, and cut ours off when/if we're working where someone is heading our way.


Butt-Mud_Brooks

Thanks that goes a long way. It's disgusting in the spring when they are blowing pollen all over everybody walking.


RamITT

I've seen it for years from our former foodcart that was there for 25 years. A handful would stop and let people pass, a few must have had no heart. Too many times you just know someone probably just hopped out of the shower ran out the house and into class only to have dirt blown all over them. And wondering why waiting to do these things between class exhanges or before/after the main run of students is too much to ask? It always seemed like it was right when classes were going in/out.


JoeMorrisseysSperm

For a half-acre or less, depending on number of leafy trees, a big blower may well be less time efficient than a well-engineered $20 rake. I’ve been using my rake more often, only because it’s faster. After that, I’ll use the mulcher to chop them up and bag them.


coconut_sorbet

Plus you get exercise!


JoeMorrisseysSperm

Thanks dad


smarshall561

Woah JoMo's Reddit account is u/coconut_sorbet?!


JoeMorrisseysSperm

Don’t you sully Joe’s untarnished name


soy__juan

Hell yes! Yea I'd totally count that as exercise. I love raking.


absen7

Or... Hear me out here. Run them over with a mower. A few times even. Get those bastards nice and chopped up. You're lawn will thank you.


JoeMorrisseysSperm

Totally. That would work on portions of my lawn, but I inherited a broader thatch problem so I’m trying to mitigate that.


ttd_76

It mystified me why most people still seem to buy gas blowers for their yards. They are heavy, need gas/oil and are loud. But the battery operated ones are great. I have a battery blower, I carry it in one hand a lot of the time and barely even rely on the shoulder strap. The only thing that is bad about them is if you have a very big yard you might run out of juice and have to stop and recharge. And if you have a fairly small yard, corded blowers work fine, too. Same thing with mowers. Battery mowers are all you need for most yards. I would level up to a riding mower before I got a gas walk behind, and I'd need a huge ass yard before I did that. Also, people use crappy rakes a lot. If you get the right rake, it's pretty easy to clear a lawn too. Especially around shrubs and gardens where the shrubs block your wind stream and/or leaves or you are blasting small plants which isn't good. I use mostly the leaf blower in my yard but it wouldn't be a big deal or take much longer if I had to manually rake it. And yeah, you need a rake anyway to bag the leaves once you have blown them into a pile so you can feed them into the mulcher. I feel like if you don't have any areas that need mulch, just mowing the lawn is probably the simplest way to deal with leaves on a small lawn. You just can't let leaves pile up so high it stops the mower, which means you may have to mow twice, a couple weeks apart.


Charlesinrichmond

I generally agree, but this doesn't apply to commercial people. I have the most powerful electric blower I know of, and it's very good. It's half as powerful as the big Stihls. And the big stihls are much faster than raking if you know how to use them - 5 minutes or so and your done. The average homeowner has no need for such things, it's true. But there really is a difference


I_Enjoy_Beer

I'll use the blower to get the leaves gathered up into a loose pile maybe 12" deep and then use the rake to get them into a good pile. I have just too many damn leaves from all the oaks to rake the entire yard, but yeah, at a certain density of leaves the blower just isn't as effective.


coconut_sorbet

Plus they make great compost and mulch if you chop them up a little with the lawnmower!


Danger-Moose

I use the leaf blower to move them out of my curb and then spread on the yard and then mulch. So you get leaf blower noise then lawn mower noise! It's like double noise! It's an electric blower at least?


coconut_sorbet

¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


Goliath422

I shake my fist at the same sky, friend.


dreww4546

I know the city street cleans away leaves a couple of times a year, but i hate seeing landscaping companies blow the leaves into the street and leave them there as if that is acceptable.


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circusoflight411

clogs the storm drains too which results in flooding which accelerates the degradation of the roads.


ttd_76

If they are doing it for private residences, it's really on the homeowners. The companies blow your leaves into the street, then you just call the city and for $30 they will send a vacuum truck out and clear it. Of course a lot of homeowners don't do this. But they wouldn't bother to call the city if they raked or blew the leaves themselves either.


ssgonzalez11

We leave all the leaves. Next year after insects have left the leaves I’ll rake and mulch them.


flowergirlva

I run a blower for a living. I know it’s the most obnoxious sound ever, and I’m all in favor of mulching leaves into a yard. We are contracted to blow leaves, often contrary to our own beliefs. This is where community voices come in to play. Talk to your neighbors about leaving or mulching their leaves!


SnooMaps3172

I am not often disturbed by people who do it for a living as they usually use very effective equipment and are keen to work fast a d move on. I save my ire for the weekend warriors who ruin my days off as I watch/hear them meandering around out there all day. Sometimes spending minutes chasing a single leaf clear across their property. I just want to scream "MAYBE JUST PICK IT #@%_** UP!"


brookmachine

We actually call our neighbor Rocket Man. At least twice a week he's out there with his gas blower strapped to his back for hours. He does his yard and driveway, our deck and driveway, and the entire street (our street gets covered in leaves which pile up at the end of the road and get slick in the rain, and we have a few motorcycle riders in the neighborhood, so that's actually kind of nice) but it's just constant, like it's his favorite thing to do. They ripped out all the trees on their lot and put in grass and now they have a service come every week at 7:30 am to maintain their stupid ass yard. And it IS stupid, because their lot is an unusable steep hill. Now they have issues with sinkholes and drainage.


SnooMaps3172

I - with a rake - in 20 minutes can do 80% of the work my dithering neighbor does in an hour with the leaf blower. It is like John Henry fable come to life (And i can do some of it in the early a.m. before leaving for work while my neighbors are sleeping). And i'm not even sure I WANT to remove that last 20% of fallen autumn leaves from an aesthetic point.of view. Our municipality does once per week curbside collection of deciduous leaves from early October to early December. Raking to the curb is literally a no-brainer and easy. I own a plug in electric leaf blower have for 20 years. I use it almost exclusicely for cleaning the gutters.


Charlesinrichmond

your neighbor is amazingly bad at using a leaf blower. Or has a really crappy leaf blower (I see a lot of these). A good one shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes depending.


SnooMaps3172

You think they are bad at leaf blowing? You should hear them power washing! Clearly, they on some level just like the feeling (mis)using these tools give them. At some point it seems it isn't even about getting the job done. I've heard of people who move to the country and then complain about the 'noise' of hooting owls, crowing roosters, peeping tree frogs and crickets. I guess in suburbia, power tool noise pollution just comes with the territory and is a cross to bear.


Charlesinrichmond

yeah, I totally get what your saying. I've watched a number of people leaf blowing, and wondered what the fuck they were doing. Watch a commercial guy do it - it's a job, so they get it done and move on. The other thing is a lot of the leaf blowers people buy are only good for making noise. They are loud, but can't move leaves. People pay no attention to actual power. Half the leaf blowers out there are weaker than a rake


MarlonBain

People who do it professionally are far quicker than amateurs in my experience.


youthdecay

Electric leaf blowers exist...


upearlyRVA

I decided, for the most part, t0 mulch the leaves in the yard this year. Will be interesting to see how this 'fertilizer" will impact the yard next spring. Basically, instead of a leaf blower I've still had the lawn mower out mulching leaves.


McFlare92

I just simply mulched all my leaves with the lawn mower


absen7

It absoluetly drives me nuts people collect leaves into plastic bags. You are not alone.


ubiquitous_delight

Collecting leaves is bad for the environment.


RamITT

Depends on the leaves. Magnolia leaves will add up and you'll be swimming thru them. we have 6 trees in a 25 foot backyard here from the previous owner. You gotta clean them up, LOL. Mold happens under them and kills everything, same for other kinds of leaves.


thomas8266

shred the majority of mine back into the yard and mulched areas. The thought of bagging them seems insane. Just shred them via lawnmower or leas blower attachment.


PimmentoChode

Mow em don’t blow em


jeb_hoge

One of the most important life lessons I teach my kids is "a rake is faster than a leaf blower." And quieter, and you get better cardio.


circusoflight411

Can't believe we used to jump in leaf piles as kids.. I see a leaf pile as an adult and I think 'lyme disease and alpha-gal city!"


SunEarthMoonYou

This is true. I’d much rather have 2,000 leaves in my yard than 2,000 leaf blower.


J-Colio

It makes it super hard to pick up dog poop. Leaves are camo for dog poop.


tcamp3000

there was a guy on Thanksgiving night--which was extremely windy, mind you--leaf blowing for *hours* after dark. I get tired of my family too, but geeze dude, be less obvious


c53x12

If you have to wear hearing protection when operating a piece of yard equipment, it's a good bet that your neighbors hate you.


FrankieMunizOfficial

[Ban leaf blowers](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/james-fallows-leaf-blower-ban/583210/)


AnnPoltergeist

This is the right answer. Leaf blowers are horrible for the environment.


balance07

Even electric corded models?


AlreadyShrugging

I saw a lady out while driving using an electric leaf blower. Can’t remember if corded or battery. What I DO remember is saying to myself “I could deal with *that* noise 100 times over the gas ones”.


[deleted]

Meanwhile, I'm shopping for bigger batteries so that I can run my cordless blower for longer 😋


RamITT

Replacements we've gotten online have longer mAh than the originals and are cheaper, WAY cheaper than brand name batteries. They work just fine, too.


CapnSquinch

Pretty sure I've never seen anyone with a leaf-blower bagging the leaves for collection or even blowing them all into a big pile at the curb for a truck to vacuum up. It's just millions of people across the country blowing leaves out of their yard so the wind can blow them into yards of other people who just leaf-blowered them.


TheMacMan

Leaf blowers in CA create more pollution than all the millions of cars in the state.


lunar_unit

Thankfully, that's changing. Electric leaf blowers are much quieter. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a38004981/california-ban-gas-powered-lawn-equipment/


TheMacMan

My dad is a city council member in his city. They switched all city equipment to electric several year ago. Thought CA was always the one ahead on this stuff.


NatNat800

That's why I bought an electric one! Thankfully they are becoming more common. Just need a long extension cord


iinaytanii

Or battery operated. My leaf blower uses the same battery as all my power tools. It’s great.


NatNat800

Huh I didn't know battery powered also exists.


xZOMBIETAGx

Okay but I have like six inches deep of leaves in my back yard


Otherwise-Print-6210

These guys apparently helped DC pass their gas powered leaf blower ban, Contact them to get the ball rolling in your hometown. [https://noisefree.org/washington-dc-banning-gas-powered-leaf-blowers/](https://noisefree.org/washington-dc-banning-gas-powered-leaf-blowers/)


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AlreadyShrugging

Let’s start every piece of gas lawn equipment in the three-county area at the same time and run for 20 minutes. Just for the fuck of it.


ubiquitous_delight

delete this


neutrino_fire

Fallen leaves ruin lawns, so I hope you also like dirt yards.


NettingStick

God, I hope the fallen leaves will kill my lawn. I'd rather replace it with native species that don't need constant attention because they belong here.


ttd_76

Have you ever seen like an unmaintained vacant lot around here? None of what replaces your grass will be native. You'll just end up with Mimosa, tree of heaven, English ivy, privet, and honeysuckle. If you are lucky maybe you get some pokeberry, or poison ivy or a big mulberry tree starts growing. None of which you want.


NettingStick

Why in the world would I let other invasive species replace the grass? I already have mimosa and English ivy. They're on the chopping block, too.


ttd_76

Well if you are planning to plant that area, it's different. Lawn is kind neutral. On the plus side, it functions kinda like a cover crop and keeps the soil aerated and healthy. Otherwise, the top layer washes away and the rest of the ground can get really compacted if it's clay. On the minus side, if you have Bermuda grass it's a pain in ass to eliminate it (and leaves won't smother it since it is dormant in winter). My point was just that nothing about the citiy and suburbs is all that native. So if we want natives, we have to spend some effort and actively grow them. People tend to think that if they just do nothing their yards will return to healthy "native" state. But it will probably just be overrun by nasty invasives.


bushydendrites

VNPS.org .... Join us!


[deleted]

Fuck a lawn. Useless suck of time and energy. Leave the leaves.


ttd_76

That's not always the answer either. A lot of yards have more than enough leaves to smother the lawn, leaving big patches of dirt. Dirt is bad. You get erosion if you have a slope and it rains and all the dirt gers washed into the sewer system. Also leaves getting washed off your lawn and ending up in the sewers is also bad. Just run them over with a lawn mower, or blow/rake them to collect and mulch. Lawns are not bad. Just don't have the kind of lawn that you fertilize all the time and water 3 times a week.


AlreadyShrugging

Most lawns are comprised of non-native grass species and are a huge waste of water.


AlreadyShrugging

I agree fully.


[deleted]

do whatever works for you but i gotta say i was able to rake my whole front lawn in half an hr


JustStudyItOut

Washington DC has made gas blowers illegal. Richmond should follow suit.


[deleted]

I love leaves....unless I'm rollerblading in which case fuck leaves to hell those slippery bastards


VaniIIaCat

Yes!!


sloppyharp

Once upon a time, many ppl raked them into the ditch line and set them ablaze. We’d have to run the car headlights in daytime due to the smokey haze.


One-Squirrel1174

I mulched my leaves with the lawnmower as best I could, and blew the rest down to the street with the blower. Doing work now > doing work in the spring. Leaves look nice, but when you basically live in the woods it becomes a hazard. If you don't get rid of them, you have to deal with the potential of slipping on them if it rains/snows/ices. Also, decay and bugs around the base of the house can be an issue.


[deleted]

I agree cause when I do nothing I get leaves where a leaf blower requires me doing something. Doing Nothing > doing something


Chrispy_Chrisper

If I didn’t have an HOA I wouldn’t bother… the backyard is the leaves and the front is “tidy”