Do you rake leaves?

[HeatherC]

After the recent Nor’easter we just had here in MA, a lot of the leaves have begun falling. This got me wondering if people still rake the leaves in their yards? We don’t and haven’t for years. None of our neighbors do either. The yards are all large (over an acre). We all have ride on mowers we use to mulch them. I use a leaf blower for the flower beds and then dh rides over them with the mower. It makes such quick work of them.

What about you? Raking or mowing in your neck of the woods?

 

[Meglen]

Live in CT and we mow them. We have a ride on with a bagger so I cut the grass short when it gets cold and than I'm able to just mulch them and dump it. So much faster than rake or leaf blow.

 

[Sabeking]

The kids rake and I blow. With everyone pitching in it goes fairly fast.

 

[DuskKodesh]

Live in Ohio and we don't. The leaves are where moths lay their eggs and we don't want to disturb the incubation. They are leaves, we let them just break down naturally and if they're still their in spring then we mulch them up with the mower.

 

[kimblebee]

Rake.

 

[Hikergirl]

I do some raking and some mulching with the mower.
I also let the wind do some work for me too

 

[mjkacmom]

Our landscaper blows, but if you do have a landscaper, you rake or blow. Lots are around 60x100, you will really piss off your neighbors if you did nothing. There are tons of sidewalks that can get difficult to walk on with leaves. Leaves need to be bagged in biodegradable bags and the town picks up once a week.

 

[Biggen]

Fortunately I live in a new neighborhood and we don’t have trees. Hell I don’t even own a rake.

When Hurricane Michael came through last year, had we had trees in our neighborhood the damage would have even been worse for us.

 

[MarcIsMe]

I wish I could leave them be and mulch them, free fertilizer for the lawn. My wife is compulsive about them and we have to blow and rake every weekend in the fall.

 

[lovin'fl]

Used to. 2.5 years ago we lived in a house that had tons of leaves, sticks and acorns we had to rake up. Every year for 10 years. Was a pain and a ton of work. Hated it. Moved into townhome with HOA that now does it. Though it's irritating that they mostly re-disperse the leaves (blow them around instead of into a pile and removed) and they all gather in my gardens. The wind then blows them out and all over my porch and walkway. So I, inevitably, have to pick them up myself anyway. Got rid of our rakes when we moved here but may need to get a new one.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Used to when DS was little - so he and his friends could jump in them.

Nowadays, we have the lawn done, and he just mulches them in.

 

[L&Lfan]

Our landscaper uses a combo of rakes and leaf blowers. We don’t mow, rake or shovel. Just not our thing. When we were younger we did it all.

 

[kdonnel]

The neighborhood maintains the strip of grass between the street and the sidewalk, affectionately known as the tree strip by us residents. Every 40 feet or so trees are planted in that strip.

Every Tuesday during fall I rake the leaves that are in my yard back to the tree strip so the landscapers will deal with them on Wednesday morning when they come. The HOA sends out a letter each year telling us not to put OUR leaves on the tree strip property but I do not have a tree in my yard, all the leaves that arrive in my yard have come from the HOA maintained tree strip. I have no guilt in putting THEIR leaves back there for collection.

In the early part of fall they blow the leaves into piles and mulch them into submission by running the mower over and over and over. In the later part of fall they bring a vacuum truck and remove the leaves because there are too many to mulch.

 

[Toolulu22]

Yard work is my de-stress activity. I love it. We just a have few leaves down now, but lots of sticks and twigs from a recent storm that blew through this week. I pick up all the dried wood and we burn it in our fire pit. I’ll rake for hours, trim back all the rose bushes and grape vines, pull out old annuals, weed etc. I love being outside in the fresh air.

My husband goes out with the equipment that requires power- the mower, hedge-trimmer, edger, and blower pack (when the leaves are massive- we have a large piece of land and many trees).

We don’t send our leaves to the dump though, we have a place in the way back of the yard that they go to decompose. We’ll also leave some on the garden beds and among the hedges to protect the roots. We’ll amend our garden soil with some of the decomposed material.

 

[dish rag]

Wife does it. I quit doing any yard work years ago. Not my thing.

 

[Ellie008]

We have several large trees and a medium size city lot. There is nowhere for the leaves to go. I mow/mulch them in early fall when there aren't quite so many on the ground, but that wouldn't work when the bulk of the leaves fall. There are just too many. So we rake.

 

[DisLiss]

Only if the kids want to jump into them. We live in a rural area and the property is surrounded on 3 sides by woods, and the yard slopes downward towards the woods. We don't rake or mow in the fall for actual leaf removal. We find that Mother Nature does a lovely job blowing most of the leaves into the woods and then decomposing a decent amount of the remaining leaves under the snow & ice over the long winter months. Then in the Spring, the first time we mow the lawn, we mulch in whatever leaves are left.

 

[robinb]

We rake. Our house sits on a tiny lot and all of our neighbors rake and the city comes by and collects the leaves and composts them.

 

[disneychrista]

Nope. Just mow them. Or let them be. I hate yard work.

 

[firefly_ris]

No, we have 2 acres and an acre of it is lawn. I mow with a mulching blade. I rake leaves out of the garden beds around the house and then run them over with the mower.