Farmall Cub

i let them blow away , then complain to the wife why she hasn't raked up what's around the walk. she rakes them up and i clean them up.

There is an Italian word to cover a situation like that and you got em in brass.

blow them into the woods.

beaconlight wrote:There is an Italian word to cover a situation like that and you got em in brass.

come on bill she needs the work and a family that works together stays together. i know i'm a light weight to some but we've sorted it out for thirty one yrs now.

I have a Cyclone Vacuum attached to my riding lawn mower. Leaves is the easiest thing for it to work with, but by no means easy in the end. It holds a lot and though I have only a tree line to deal with it refills quick and I am unloading as much as collecting. I can't imagine doing even an acre of leaves this way. I like the lawn vac, but I couldn't justify it given the size of your place. I compost my leaves and grass, but try turning that pile (around 30 feet long)!

Well, now I don't have to worry about the leaves...they are covered in about 25" of snow in my yard now! Honestly, living in the city does have its advantages....just move the leaves out to the front "boulevard" (grass strip between the sidewalk and the street), and the city comes along with a big vacuum to clean them up!

Mike in La Crosse, WI

Bill Hudson wrote:I use a Cub Cadet 1450 with a 42" mower deck to grind up my leaves in-place. I used expanded metal to make a block for the exit chute. No drilling needed, two holes are there in the perfect location. Then simply mow to your heart's content. This dramatically reduces leaf volume and virtually eliminates leaves blowing from one spot to another. The final result is, as the leaves decompose, organic fertilizer for the lawn. Works great for me, however, I don't have 5.5 acres.

Bill

We've only got a couple acres with leaf problems but my wife does the same. Just mows them till they ain't, or they become the neighbors problem.
Smiley

I was looking at this gadget. I saw one at the nearby Family Farm and Home store for $299. It looks like
you could chop up the leaves and then rake them with this "Estate Rake". It looks like a hay rake.
Have a look-see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u63pAl2cBz8

Curt

I just mow over them.

I've got 2 1/4 acres and lots of trees. Yes its a pain, and a learning process which is still going.
If the leaves are light I mow the lawn shreding and throwing them toward the center as each pass shinks the circle until its all mulched down and in a line down the middle of my yard. I'll then collect them with the grass baggers hooked up. This way I'll fill and empty the bags about 10 times instead of 50 times. The smaler pieces don't clog the shoot either.
If it heavy i'll use a backpack blower and blow it onto a 6x8' tarp which my wife and I flip and dump it onto a landscape trailer pulled by my cub. I have a hillside at the bottom of my property leading down to a river thats had erosion problems so I dump the leaves onto the hillside. Its far enough back from the river so it doesn't get washed away. I change the spot on the hill each year giving it a chance to turn to soil which it has done very well. The leaf litter has turned a ragged washed out hillside into an attrative vegitation sustaining park like setting. And you wouldn't believe the earthworms that the leaves produce!
Mike.