Comments on The Green Phone Booth: Make Like a Tree, and Leave

I have been seeing lots of bags. So sad! I'm g...

2009-11-17T20:07:14.214-08:00

I have been seeing lots of bags. So sad! I'm going to use some for my garden then my husband will be mulching the rest.

The crazy thing is that Raleigh has a great curbsi...

2009-11-17T19:58:16.151-08:00

The crazy thing is that Raleigh has a great curbside leaf collection where you just have to rake your leaves out onto the curb and a big truck vacuum thing comes by and sucks it up. Then they turn the leaves into compost and sell it back to residents, much like utahlawyer said. So it's not only a waste of good leaves to bag it up, but a complete waste of time since the leaf sucker truck won't take them if they're in a bag!

He was bagging his leaves? What a waste.

2009-11-17T16:23:06.930-08:00

He was bagging his leaves? What a waste.

We have large yard with a lot of leaves. For the ...

2009-11-17T15:03:28.230-08:00

We have large yard with a lot of leaves. For the last few years, we have been trying to use all of our leaves. We have a leaf blower/vacuum that shreds the leaves and compresses them. Last fall, we dumped bags of the shredded leaves on our garden beds and turned them into the soil. They were all decomposed or worm eaten by spring. We also made several large compost piles with them. However, I discovered that some of them didn't break down over the winter because I didn't have enough green material with them. I have a hard time this time of year finding enough green material.

This year, we will be turning leaves into the garden beds again and using to mulch an area where we want to improve the soil. I have also built a really big compost pile using many of our garden leaves along with my dead garden plants, halloween pumpkins, kitchen scraps, and scraps from canning apples and grape juice. I will see how that breaks down over the winter.

Although I have chosen to use my leaves, I do applaud my county for spearheading a leaf recycle program this year where residents can bag their leaves and drop them off to be composted. The county then sells the compost to landscapers and residents for $20 per truckload.

We used oodles of leaves when we laid down sheet m...

2009-11-17T08:02:49.372-08:00

We used oodles of leaves when we laid down sheet mulch - converting our lawn into vegetable garden. As we only have one big tree, we made like Greeen Sheeep and picked up some of those bags on the curbs. I also offered to rake up neighbors leaves and such. It always makes me so sad when I see piles of leaves blown up, wrapped in plastic and headed to the landfill.

I love leaves for my garden. My neighbors know th...

2009-11-17T06:56:03.588-08:00

I love leaves for my garden. My neighbors know this and I get their leaves each year. I like to run over them with the lawn mower to shred them and use as mulch over my beds. Any left overs get put in a bin and left to turn into leaf mold for the garden. Wonderful stuff.

oh, I feel your pain! We live in the midst of neig...

2009-11-17T06:32:00.940-08:00

oh, I feel your pain! We live in the midst of neighbors with big trees who rake and bag all of them, while we have no trees of our own...we do have one neighbor who mulches his trees. (He's the guy who built the remote controlled lawn mower--fairly cool guy!)

Next year we'll get our act together and ask some of our neighbors in advance if we can rake and take their leaves...flu hit our house and we lost a couple of weeks in there...I love this post! We're going to do the leaf crown thing after school tomorrow, I think.

I find myself eyeing the bags upon bags of leaves ...

2009-11-17T05:54:44.323-08:00

I find myself eyeing the bags upon bags of leaves set by the curb this time of year. Even with my half-acre-tree-covered lawn I want more. Next year I think I am going to snatch a few. That way I can leave mine on the lawn and let others do the work for my compost pile.

I definitely agree; I LOVE leaves, and I miss them...

2009-11-17T04:38:12.754-08:00

I definitely agree; I LOVE leaves, and I miss them now that we only have one tree in our yard (and it's an evergreen). Too bad he blew the leaves into a pile; it's so much more fun to rake them (and a better workout). I have very fond memories of us as neighborhood kids raking everyone's yard. I don't even remember if we got paid. Thanks:)