Mulching Leaves

[hammmerhead]

I have to bag 90% of my work due to upscale residences. However, I do have many leaves to deal with on some of the established homes with large trees. I have tried mulching and it doesnt ever get the job done to my standards. I picked up an old chipper shredder and it has cut down the volume of my leaf removal volume by at least 500% I can pack huge amounts of leaves in my shredder bag because it shreds it so small. The only issue I have is covering the the shredded leaves on the trailer, because in the end its almost dust and make make a mess when transporting if you dont get it covered good.

[orangemower]

I did a leaf clean up yesterday in Penn National. I had them all cleaned up bagged and loaded in my truck in 2hrs. Quoted them $200. When the lady opened the door, her first word was wow. LOL They moved up this way from down south and said they never seem so many leaves. hahahaha To me, it was a small clean up. I have others that take 4 trips to get them all.

[evergreen70]

I mulch the leaves on most of my properties using my Kubota z-turn or ex-mark wb.I read an article that said lawns with mulched leaves especially Maple leaves had less weeds the following year.I figure the mulched leaves must leave nutrients in the lawn and i find that by mid spring of the following season the mulched lawns often look better than my bagged lawns.

[elbow300]

We mulched leaves for years until we picked up a leaf loader. We are in a fairly heavy leaf load area. We noticed the very next spring that the lawns were healthier with the leaves removed. Now we try to convince out clients to at least let us put them in the woods if they have any rather than mulching if they don't want to pay for the vacuum pick up. No tarping and dragging either. Built leaf plow blades for the walk behinds.

[STIHL GUY]

after i do a leaf cleanup i go over the lawn quick with the mulch kit to get the stragglers left in the lawn...a few lawns have minimal amounts of leafes so i just blow out the beds and mulch everything

[Smallaxe]

Originally Posted by elbow300

We mulched leaves for years until we picked up a leaf loader. We are in a fairly heavy leaf load area. We noticed the very next spring that the lawns were healthier with the leaves removed. Now we try to convince out clients to at least let us put them in the woods if they have any rather than mulching if they don't want to pay for the vacuum pick up. No tarping and dragging either. Built leaf plow blades for the walk behinds.

What criteria is being used to make the claim that, "... the very next spring that the lawns were healthier with the leaves removed."???

What kind of leaves and why didn't they enrich the soil???

[integrityman]

Mulching leaves works very, very well. Ive used mulch kits on all my mowers. (Exmark z w/ Triton deck, Toro 40' WB and Toro 60' Z) On the lawns with heaviest leaves I go a litter higher on the N application in late fall. No hauling no loading. Blow leaves from landscape areas onto the lawn and mow away.

[Darryl G]

I only mulch leaves at the beginning of the cleanup season when leaves are at the nuisance level. Once they start getting thick I either blow them to the woods or bag them. I don't like having to run a lawn over as many times as it takes to mulch up the leaves, and on some lawns with thin turf it's just too hard to "hide" them. For me, mulching works to a point, but beyond that it's more work than just collecting/removing the leaves.

[Duekster]

Down here we actually have two leaf drops. Fall and Spring. We pretty much mulch them up on an on-going basis. Live Oaks drop in March.

[Florida Gardener]

Originally Posted by Duekster

Down here we actually have two leaf drops. Fall and Spring. We pretty much mulch them up on an on-going basis. Live Oaks drop in March.

Same here. I HATE the live oak drop month. They get stuck in the St Augustine and you can't really get all of them.
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