As an avid gardener, I encourage anyone reading this to consider keeping their leaves to use as mulch and/or compost. In these lean economic times, it doesn’t make sense to throw away leaves, only to go out and buy mulch, compost and fertilizer.
An easy way to cope with this gift from Mother Nature is to go over the fallen leaves with a lawn mower (if you have a bag attachment, all the better). You can then use the minced leaves as mulch, add it to your compost pile, or work it in to your vegetable garden.
An added bonus is that the leaves will provide a haven for earthworms and such, and a place for beneficial critters like toads and frogs to overwinter in your garden, as well as providing winter forage for songbirds.
This may be the last year for leaf collection, based on the city budget forecasts, so Stephanie’s suggestions are very good. The only thing to remember is that oak leaveas have a high tannic acid content, great for azaleas, not so great for grassy lawns.
I also found that our leaf blower doubles as a leaf vacuum with bag attachment and as the leaves are sucked up they get chopped pretty finely which also works to mulch flower beds for winter and makes the leaves take up a lot less room if you have to send them to the landfill.
David, will they keep the 6 bag leaf pickup by garbage cans if they lose the pickup?
They are not even admitting they might cancel leve collection, although it was much discussed in the 2009-10 budget deliberations. If you add the fact that they are changing collection methods for solid waste, all bets are off. It looks like our neighborhoods will be minimally affected by the changes, but who knows. They are scheduled to give the full presentation with Q & A at our district meeting November 11 at 7 pm, St. Luke Lutheran Church.
Six bags is a scary thought with our yard. If I composted the leaves from our three huge oaks I’d need bins the size of the garage. That doesn’t even consider the fifty-foot &^(*$% magnolia tree.
Leaf piles flatten out and shrink considerably in a short period of time. Shredding them beforehand expedites the process: much of the initial volume is just air, after all. A three foot high pile drops to three inches pretty quickly, then rainfall flattens things even more.
Jennfier,
I have three large red oaks (late leaf fall), three large hollys (spring leaf fall) and a poplar and hickory. I have always raked and blown leaves to the street. Last year, I cut and composted the back yard, bagged the front yard, and it really worked. DPW will pick up 6 bags at a time. Sometimes they will pick up all the leaves. The leaf collection people will pick up 10,000 bags if that is what you have. Good luck with this.
[...] Hills and Heights has some speculation in the comments that this may be the last year for leaf collection: They are not even admitting they might cancel leve [sic] collection, although it was much discussed in the 2009-10 budget deliberations. If you add the fact that they are changing collection methods for solid waste, all bets are off. Posted by Ross at 8:39am [...]
This is the only city I’ve ever lived in that does leaf pick-up, and I’ve often thought that it was a colossal waste of funds. This is one ‘service’ I’d gladly do without.
Stephanie has a good point too: I know of a couple of enterprising farmers who have the leaves dumped at their farms, where they mix it in with the cow manure and sell it back to the public a few months later as organic compost. Just think, people are buying back their own leaves!!!
Why bother with the middleman? If you fear being engulfed by leaves, just look at any wooded area and ask yourself why decades of accumulated leaf litter is only a few inches deep.
You’re right, Lesley, a lot of the street cleaning during the summer here is wasted. Perhaps it’s more needed downtown but on the streets of H&H it seems to provide little benefit at colossal hassle. You never know when the city will actually tow cars, people get complacent and then wham! they get towed.
You would be surprised by the number of residents who expect street sweeping and complain when it is not on schedule. Thereby confirming my belief that the worse job in the world is Director of Public Works for the City of Richmond.
I’ll never forget one of the first things on a neighborhood blog that got me to comment…some guy was upset about a traffic/street light being out and called the MAYOR’S OFFICE to complain about it. Because that’s who you call when you’re entitled, not all those silly middlemen who actually change the bulbs.
On the flip side, there should be a certain level of accountability and expectation that doesn’t get met in local government (hello, RPS administration). I do pay taxes, so please don’t ignore my reasonable requests for service.
[...] dates as wells a good discussion on alternatives to having the city collect the leafs can be found here. Posted by Richard.H at 3:16PM under RVANews-news | Tags: Leaf [...]
[...] Most of our piles are no quite flat and half-way to compost. There was a good discussion on the original post about compost check it out if you want to help out your garden and the environment. Full Leaf [...]
As an avid gardener, I encourage anyone reading this to consider keeping their leaves to use as mulch and/or compost. In these lean economic times, it doesn’t make sense to throw away leaves, only to go out and buy mulch, compost and fertilizer.
An easy way to cope with this gift from Mother Nature is to go over the fallen leaves with a lawn mower (if you have a bag attachment, all the better). You can then use the minced leaves as mulch, add it to your compost pile, or work it in to your vegetable garden.
An added bonus is that the leaves will provide a haven for earthworms and such, and a place for beneficial critters like toads and frogs to overwinter in your garden, as well as providing winter forage for songbirds.
This may be the last year for leaf collection, based on the city budget forecasts, so Stephanie’s suggestions are very good. The only thing to remember is that oak leaveas have a high tannic acid content, great for azaleas, not so great for grassy lawns.
I also found that our leaf blower doubles as a leaf vacuum with bag attachment and as the leaves are sucked up they get chopped pretty finely which also works to mulch flower beds for winter and makes the leaves take up a lot less room if you have to send them to the landfill.
David, will they keep the 6 bag leaf pickup by garbage cans if they lose the pickup?
They are not even admitting they might cancel leve collection, although it was much discussed in the 2009-10 budget deliberations. If you add the fact that they are changing collection methods for solid waste, all bets are off. It looks like our neighborhoods will be minimally affected by the changes, but who knows. They are scheduled to give the full presentation with Q & A at our district meeting November 11 at 7 pm, St. Luke Lutheran Church.
Six bags is a scary thought with our yard. If I composted the leaves from our three huge oaks I’d need bins the size of the garage. That doesn’t even consider the fifty-foot &^(*$% magnolia tree.
Leaf piles flatten out and shrink considerably in a short period of time. Shredding them beforehand expedites the process: much of the initial volume is just air, after all. A three foot high pile drops to three inches pretty quickly, then rainfall flattens things even more.
Try it and see. :o)
12/28-12/31? Looks like I know what I’ll be doing during the holiday break. *sigh*
Jennfier,
I have three large red oaks (late leaf fall), three large hollys (spring leaf fall) and a poplar and hickory. I have always raked and blown leaves to the street. Last year, I cut and composted the back yard, bagged the front yard, and it really worked. DPW will pick up 6 bags at a time. Sometimes they will pick up all the leaves. The leaf collection people will pick up 10,000 bags if that is what you have. Good luck with this.
[...] Hills and Heights has some speculation in the comments that this may be the last year for leaf collection: They are not even admitting they might cancel leve [sic] collection, although it was much discussed in the 2009-10 budget deliberations. If you add the fact that they are changing collection methods for solid waste, all bets are off. Posted by Ross at 8:39am [...]
Hummm, since we’re becoming more like the counties in lack of services provided, do you reckon we can expect the same real estate tax rates ?
“since we’re becoming more like the counties in lack of services provided, do you reckon we can expect the same real estate tax rates ?”
City will be forced to support Center Stage and Convention Center, so no, our taxes will continue to rise.
http://www.vagreenparty.org/richblog/?p=18
I just want to burn them……
and I want to lose the street cleaning that happens at the most ridiculous times of the year.
This is the only city I’ve ever lived in that does leaf pick-up, and I’ve often thought that it was a colossal waste of funds. This is one ‘service’ I’d gladly do without.
Stephanie has a good point too: I know of a couple of enterprising farmers who have the leaves dumped at their farms, where they mix it in with the cow manure and sell it back to the public a few months later as organic compost. Just think, people are buying back their own leaves!!!
Why bother with the middleman? If you fear being engulfed by leaves, just look at any wooded area and ask yourself why decades of accumulated leaf litter is only a few inches deep.
You’re right, Lesley, a lot of the street cleaning during the summer here is wasted. Perhaps it’s more needed downtown but on the streets of H&H it seems to provide little benefit at colossal hassle. You never know when the city will actually tow cars, people get complacent and then wham! they get towed.
You would be surprised by the number of residents who expect street sweeping and complain when it is not on schedule. Thereby confirming my belief that the worse job in the world is Director of Public Works for the City of Richmond.
I’m always surprised by the level of entitlement people feel. “I PAY TAXES SO I WHEN I SAY JUMP, YOU JUMP!!!”
I’ll never forget one of the first things on a neighborhood blog that got me to comment…some guy was upset about a traffic/street light being out and called the MAYOR’S OFFICE to complain about it. Because that’s who you call when you’re entitled, not all those silly middlemen who actually change the bulbs.
On the flip side, there should be a certain level of accountability and expectation that doesn’t get met in local government (hello, RPS administration). I do pay taxes, so please don’t ignore my reasonable requests for service.
[...] dates as wells a good discussion on alternatives to having the city collect the leafs can be found here. Posted by Richard.H at 3:16PM under RVANews-news | Tags: Leaf [...]
[...] Most of our piles are no quite flat and half-way to compost. There was a good discussion on the original post about compost check it out if you want to help out your garden and the environment. Full Leaf [...]