Every year when the piles of leaves appear along the side of the streets my family has to suffer through my complaints about the absurdity of this practice. I thought I'd post this blog entry to share the joy.
Generally speaking, if your yard is big enough to need raking, it's big enough for a pile for the leaves to sit and compost. My yard is approximately 0.2 acres and every year I rake the leaves into piles underneath the trees and bushes where they sit and compost. After a day or two or after the first good rain the leaves stop blowing around and I can forget them while they protect the tree roots from cold weather and decompose into new soil.
This board often discusses possible reductions in town expenses. Though it is a small line item, seems like someone should pick up the pen and line this one out. Am I missing something? Why should we not just stop the seemly silly process of sending out trucks and personnel to pick up leaves?
Issues:
Comments
Good idea
Back when I had a yard I didn't do a lot of raking, but I had my own compost bin which I knew would enjoy the leaves. Now I have neither (but am considering attempting to compost again).
Great Idea
The Council and Manager/Staff will begin discussing next year's budget soon and this would be a great suggestion for cost cutting. In addition to the cost to the Town, most people seem to leave their leaves in the street/gutter where they impede vehicular traffic (car and bike) and impede stormwater flows. I use a vacuum/shredder which not only gets the leaves up but shreds them quite a bit so they decompose faster. By the following year my wife has a pile of what she calls her "black gold" planting material.
Yes please compost your leaves
I think that leaving the leaves as is or where they are, is a great idea. I wholeheartedly support this. I think that either leaving the leaves under the trees or composting is the only way to go. I am not in support with the idea of a vacuum shredder because that increases noise pollution and adds to the air pollution. And raking them into the street is not a good use of natural resources and wastes city time and money in transporting the leaves to another spot. I totally agree with the idea of letting them compost in place or rake them into your compost bin as needed. Please no power leaf blowers.