To Rake or Not to Rake... that is the question...

Actually, no. By the time they've sat all winter to breakdown, we till them into the soil and the veg do fine. (also then the weed seeds get a chance too!) It seems it's leaf to leaf contact, plus the rain on top that kills the grass in the fall.

I rake them whole in huge piles towards the barns and corrals. We fill up the barns with them for bedding for the horses and goats. It is so neat to crunch, crunch in there, 2 feet deep! The animals love them in there. They last for quite a while. I have only about 5 giant trees in front yard. Goats love to eat the leaves too. Our barns are all close the the front yard. Saves allot of $ on straw.

In Feb, March, the barns get cleaned to the garden rows.

I love the idea of bagging up 2 acres of lawn!

Growing up we had a small city plot and that took a ton of bags, I couldn't imagine bagging up our couple of acres. Thank fully out here fall also means 50mph winds next month so all out leaves vanish very quickly. Depending on how much free time you have, do what you want. We do what's easiest.

__________________
Geek.Farm.Life -- http://www.geekfarmlife.com/
Got a job in Australia, selling the farm and going down under!

I Mulch them up into little tiny pieces with the mower.

__________________
Oh my, dishes yet to wash and dry

See My Pictures at
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/0903/arabianknight/

I always raked mine because they would cause bare patches in the lawn where they piled up. I think the green grass is pretty in the fall and early winter too. Like some one else said use them for bedding. My dogs,goats and chickes loved them and come spring all I had to do was rake up the shredded leaves and manure and put it on the garden.

__________________
"Whose woods these are I think I know
His house is in the village tho...."

I rake them into my compost pile. (but not walnut leaves tho- everything else). We had SUCH a healthy pile when we did that. In the spring, there were a TON of worms in there.

Cindyc.

__________________
Mom to 5 cool kids and wife to 1 great guy. Life is good!

if you do decide to collect the leaves, grab a tarp, either rake them on and haul too a compost pile or attach a pole to the front of your mower and drag the tarp beside the chute (can't take credit for the idea, was in the last issue of farm show!). i get them from particular neighbours and bed the chicken coop! (then the garden!!)

__________________
àigeach carnaid
chaora dhubh
"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

cruachan

Only the black walnut leaves, the others don't kill the grass chemically, but simply from shading it too much

i gather many of them for the garden but other than that i mow

i have never had a problem with themm burning the grass , smothering is the problem if they are left over winter and not removed by early spring.

if you have black walnut trees they will kill near everything and may not want them in any quantity in the compost or garden

yes for the rich people my freind bags many acers i have a freind with a fairly succsesfull lawn care buisseness they have baggers for the mowers that hold several bushel and the mowers chop it so fine it is drasticaly reduced in volume

i had an elderly neighbor a few houses down in the town i used to live in i watched them do fall clean up on her yard one year the lawn service came with a scag zero turn mower with self unloading bagger there was a thick carpet of maple leafs
in 10-15 minutes he had mowed / bagged the hole lawn emptied twice and had left a pile of leafs mulched not more than 6 bushel

by the way the comecial mowers turn their blades much faster than those sold for reidential use in most cases.