Hey Stone, Mulch These!

[Getmow]

One yard 1/3 acre with 10 very mature oak trees. The other is 1/2 acre with only 5. This was the second pick up on these properties and there is still more to come.
BTW the truck is dumping at the local recycling point and yes it's free. The truck had 5 properties worth of material in it when this photo was taken.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1248301&a=9224585

[Edited by Getmow on 11-23-2000 at 04:12 PM]

[MOW ED]

Nice work.
I see 35 quick bucks on the roof. It meets my 1 story criteria. About 4-12 , asphalt shingles, not wet.

[Lazer]

All those leaves could be mulched very nicely resulting in more money in your pocket, reduced customer expense, increased customer satisfaction due to more frequent servicings and less equipment required.

You look like you're doing a great job and working hard, but be prepared for your competion to use updated methods and out-compete you.

Vaccuming and hauling leaves is like a prop plane in the 1950's USAF: Still had a limited future, but basically had given way to the jet.

The same is true with leaf mulching today.

[MOW ED]

There is money to be made by hauling if you have the right situation. 60 an hour is more than gas money. Its not for everyone but those that are willing to pay and have the desire for leafs removed, get what they want and never complain. HAPPY HAULING;)

[Scag48]

I had a pile of leaves that big when I did leaves. The only thing was I didn't have to haul them anywhere. The customer I have lives next to an orchard and they had a fence all around the yard with a gate leading into the orchard. They just told me to blow them into the orchard. I said that was fine that way I wouldn't have to bag them with my mower. It worked pretty good but the whole job took about 2 hours.


P.S. Stihl Rocks!

[Runner]

Those leaves don't look like they had been mowed yet. Had they? It would be possible to turn that pile into a pile of dust ankle deep and and about 6 ft. around. If they were left on the lawn, they could have just disappeared altogether. I certainly remember those days of the tarps and large piles though!

[Getmow]

Lazer,
I have D/C's with mulching blades, double blades, mulching chains. When the leaves get thick on a small property you just can't do a good job. The material has to be removed. Blowing and tarping is the best way i have found. I have been doing these for 11 years so i have tried other means. If there is a better system PLEASE let me know.
MowEd - the roof gets done every other visit. I do have properties that i can blow the leaves in the woods but not these.
Runner, no they have not been mowed yet. Mowing dry leaves creates way too much dust for the neighborhood and my guys. The ankle deep pile could not be left on the lawn either.

[awm]

BELIEVE IT OR NOT. I can mulch them into
nothing but a brown dust.But it would
be a lot of brown dust until it rained.
With a murry no less. Some don t like
the dust.

[bdemir]

Yes they will probalby mulch into a dust but people who are picky and being such a small lot that it is it will look much nicer and impressive to the customer when taking them away. On small lots like that its good to take them away but i would still try to talk the customer into mulching them for cheaper. Like lazer said its less work and equipment. Although i must say you cant get the relusts of hauling leaves with such a small lawn.

[MJB]

I could mulch that down to dust in about 45minutes or so when it was still on the ground. But you have to have an enclosed mulching deck to do it that fast. Then I would bag the rest up with my Walker in about 1hr and be done.


Most of my customers like to know that the leaves are ground up and going back into the soil. They do not smother the grass when I get finished either. My customers have all liked what we are doing &feel good about it, and the finished product still looks great.

But thats the way I am setup. If I had a big leaf cleanup system I would use that too as long as I'm making money.
Those of us that have changed to mulching have seen the light at the end of the big piles of grass. lol

[Getmow]

I appreciate the views from the mulchers in the crowd. These people PAY for the removal of the leaves and that is what I do. Each of these yards were done in 1.5MH or less(including a prorated dump time). They both gross about 125. I can't mulch them in that time and get the same results or money.

[lawrence stone]

MJB some side discharge decks work better for in wide areas you can just open the discharge up let the grinding begin with little loss in ground speed vs. regular mowing.

What it needed for the 1/3 acre job that started this thread is to just close off the discharge chute with a
OCDC. I will have pics shortly of one I am making for the
52" decks using the exsiting wright mfg bagger bracket with the use of a universal manual choke cable.

Also the turf is very thin for it gets little sun under those trees and needs to be fertilized.

The trick to leaf grinding is to fertilize in early October vs. November so the grass has a canopy to hide the leaf dust.

[Getmow]

Thank you Stone for the advice. Like I said, it works for some properties and not others. Have a happy and work free Thanksgiving.

[ronslawncare]

nice job alot of landscappers over here still blow them on a tarp and haul them ehh beats what i had to do yesterday 53 bags of leaves .whatever faster for u .i uasually blow everything off the property if they cant be mulched thats only if the customer never pick up a leaf all fall.but i mulch them dont laugh with craftsman 22inch mower with heavydutymulching blades and a craftsman leafvac .i had a customer tell me they can eat off there lawn when i was finished and thats from a crapsman....i like them im not gona use them 4ever but every1 has to start somewere...

[Evan528]

getmow, that aint nothin! I have a 1/4 acre property i do. When i do the leaves i have a pile at least 6-7 times as big as the one you have, and that is with doing the leaves twice per fall. I challenge anyone to mulch the leaves on this propery! youll have 3 inches of "leaf dust" and a huge mess.

[accuratelawn]

I was able to mulch 90% of the leaves this season.
More frequent visits enable more of the leaves to be mulched.
On one small yard with thre very large Pin Oaks, we blew all the leaves to the street, mulched then with the mower several times, then blew back onto the lawn. The last step was two passes with the mower,(discharge open) to spread them out.
This yard was seeded in Sept. and has seen not any damage with the leaf dust.

[MJB]

Stone,
I've tried both ways on my Lazer Z and my grasshopper, and the mulching kit works best. I have the ocdc on my Lazer. But until I separated each blade with the mulching kit, the leaves would pile up on one side and bog the mower down, and not chew up the leaves as well.
Now with the mulching kit it works evenly,trappin the leaves in each blade chamber, and I can run just as fast and it turns them to dust better. If you don't have the HP then I could see wher I might go back to the OCDC only , so as to shoot out the clippings when they pile up.

Either way it works great. I just regret not putting on my mulching kit much sooner now.

[Getmow]

Evan, I didn't mention that these properties are done every TWO weeks until all the leaves are gone. This was the second round of pickup.

[Toddppm]

How do you'all figure it's less trips, less money for the customer and less work. To take care of something like that you are there every week at least, mulching. charging how much? Then blowing them out of the shrubs and mulching too. Doesn't sound like less time or money. I'm all for mulching but when you can haul them faster for less , why not?

[thelawnguy]

That amount of leaves if distributed over a 1/3 acre lawn would mean a 1 hour mulch, blow and go cleanup @75 for my customer, they would be happy and Id be finishing the next job while you are still waiting in line at the dump. Not to mention my fatter wallet due to the fact it would still be stuffed with the $1500 you spent on the leaf loader.

[landscaper3]

LOL, on mulching works in some areas but not here. LOL that mulching would have been quicker and less cost. It might work in your areas but not here. We maintain 80 cleanups a year large ones. Getmow good job we have a truckloader and a rack dump MUCH-MUCH-MUCH faster with loader and then extra money to dump out of our 80 cleanups 5 dont want hauled off. To date we hauled off 70 properties just short of 100,000 pounds of leaves according to scales. May haul another 30,000 by December. An extra $3,500.00 made from hauling off with my expenses made $3,200.00 in 70 Hours thats $45.72 an hr. Not including the clean up cost but figure we maintain professinal buildings, Condominiums, Estates, Municiple Facilities and residential homes. Our residential homes around 1/4 can be mulched but all commercial account we go by a spec sheet that includeds full cleanup and disposal. This subject is like flogging a dead horse everyone has there meathod in there area and probly wont work in other areas. If you live in a state you can mulch leaves by all means do that its good profit for you but those like us that live in Northern states like ours thats why they also call it the pine tree state Rack body dump and truck loader is faster and more profitable so areas do count after all!! We have tried all meathods over 8 years and about 960 cleanups in that time and this aproach is most profitable to our company and im in the business to make profit.

[Toddppm]

Your mower cost more than $1500 didn't it?

[tazman]

Getmow,

What vacum are you using on the back of your truck? Also, how much did it cost? Also, I don't care what people say, you do what is most profitable to you and works the best for your situation. Good job.

[Runner]

Getmow,
I kind of meant for them to be picked up after they were gathered. I just meant when you grind them up, you can get alot more on the truck without all the walking down and such, they are easier to handle. When I said left on the lawn, I meant as they were as they fell . (over whole lawn)

[Getmow]

Runner - most of the jobs it is quicker to blow them with the 11hp little wonder than to worry about reducing the leaves, I am still amazed how much will fit in that truck.
Tazman- that is a 16 hp Billy Goat that is in its'fourth season. I believe it cost 1800 new.
Landscaper3 - I agree with you, if it works in your situation use it, make a profit and smile while in line at the dumpLOL. (not too many lines here)

[Vandora Lawn & Landscape]

Mulching is great for those of us that don't have big leaf vacs or ways of vacuuming effectively. Also, on larger properties its much more effective becasue we spread the mess out more. I usually loop around the outside of the property and start making the gigantic pile in the middle. Then cut the pile into tiny pieces. Then I double cut the yard, at 90 degree angles. All the mulch is scattered evenly and the place looks great. However, on many properties, 20 minutes with a wb blower and 20 minutes with a vac would be quicker and look nicer.

[beck]

sometimes it depends on the customer. i was on my second pass of a double cut of the back yard when he gets home and tells me that he wants everything taken to the front where they have curbside pick-up.
so what would have been a two-hour job turned into a six hour job, but thats what he wanted and thats what he paid for.

[awm]

Isnt it wonderful how the customer knows
the best way to do your job.As long as
they pay.The only problem is uncle johns(or any acquaintance
service did a lot cheaper and then they are
checking into another service. Just a thought.

[curlawngreen]

Leaves are easy. Lets talk long needle pine trees.18 trees in a 125' x 225' lot. Trees are about 60'-100' tall and plenty of pine needles. Every other week a load of needles and leaves. Can't give em away.Will look at all ideas.

[cantoo]

curlawngreen, this the first year we have had a property with lots of pine trees on it, We did the rest of the property with the Walker and it looked great, the customer came out and asked if we could hand rake the area under the pines again to remove the needles so the grass could grow better. I said we would give it a try, then I used the back pack blower to loosen up the needles while my wife cleaned them up with the Walker, I was really surprised at the volume that we ended up cleaning out. It only took us another 20 mins and the customer gave us a bonus for the "extra" work

[Runner]

Just for reference, this is where a pitchfork(s) starts coming in handy!:)

[cantoo]

runner, what size of motor is on your "pitch fork"
If it don't have a motor I don't wanna run it.

[Runner]

LOL :)

[pete]

I was once told that leaving leaves on the lawn(mulched or un mulched) causes the ph of the soil to change(depending on tree type) and that it will also deplete the soil of nitrogen as the leaves decompose. My undersatanding is that as things decompse the microganisms consume nitorgen, many times needing more than what is available to them by the things they are decomposeing. I dont know if this is 100% on, but that is what i think i have read/heard. Does anyone have an opinon? I dont want to join the vac/mulch debate except to say that i vac.

[leeslawncare]

Well.since we are on this topic..I did a job took 1.5 hrs me an 1 helper charged 100bucks plus 10 to haul off i took it to a friends that lives in the city (18 55gal bags)for free paid my help 20 bucks..how bad was that?I take all my leaves to his house it is closer that the city yard plus it's free ! ......call me a scrub !!!LOLbut rember guys I do pay my taxes!

[landscaper3]

Hey I wish I could do that too, but we haul off more then 1000,000 pounds of leaves a year according to our average scale charges. Boy I love that 30minute round trip for disposal, we made almost $3,000.00 in hauling profit.

[leeslawncare]

Well. i only do leaf clean-up for the clients i have, an Most all of them live in the city except for a few . Since I'am a part time pro (SCRUB ) to most of you . but i do pay my taxes !!LOL We have a dump here an i do use it from time to time but it's outa my way !!!

[lawrence stone]

Originally posted by landscaper3
Hey I wish I could do that too, but we haul off more then 1000,000 pounds of leaves a year according to our average scale charges. Boy I love that 30minute round trip for disposal, we made almost $3,000.00 in hauling profit.

Brian is that a million lbs or 100,000 lbs.?

[landscaper3]

OOPS!!!!! thanks no we only disposed of 100,000 LBS hit to many 0's boy at a million got me thinking thats about $30,000.00 profit. boy thats alot of hauling LOL. Thanks stone for catching that for me.

[lawrence stone]

Originally posted by landscaper3
OOPS!!!!! thanks no we only disposed of 100,000 LBS hit to many 0's boy at a million got me thinking thats about $30,000.00 profit. boy thats alot of hauling LOL. Thanks stone for catching that for me.

How many lbs. of leaves is a truckload?

[landscaper3]

It all varys lawence, wet leaves weight more, sometime we have brush but average is around 1,500lbs sometimes lower and sometimes much higher as in spring maintenance from winter plowing and sanding that weight is much-much higher. 10foot rack dump.