Leaf season....uuugggghhhh!

[thelawnguy]

Originally posted by MOW ED
There was one day about 10 years ago when a maple was full leafed out in the morning and when I came home it was almost all down, there were about a foot of leafs in a 40 foot circle. I think I have a pic somewhere but i'LL have to dig.

Sounds like a Norway maple, they seem to fall all at once, and the same day each year, late in the season, at least from my experience.

[Evan528]

Matt, I used my little wander push blower to blow the leaves from the front lawn into the street....thats faster than anything! Besides...I dont like to use the mower back and forth because it leaves the small chopped up leaves....When I leave, I like it to look immaculate. Even if its only for an hour or so

PS. The Toro in the picture was used to cut the lawn following the cleanup in case you were wandering.

[K9LWT]

Evan,

How do you like the Little Wonder, and what size engine did you get? I just bought a 10hp briggs on the little wonder, and can't wait to use it.

[brandy]

Looks like two hours worth of work. Just by looking at the pile!!!!!!!!

[Runner]

Originally posted by mklawnman
This is my first year doing spring and fall cleanups and man i have to say fall cleanups suck. Just filled a 12ft trailer in less than 30min all full of leaves. Cant dump them there so i have to haul them across town to my place. Though next year im gonna get a bagger for my turf tiger so im hoping that will cut down on my time raking the leaves and space on the trailer.
Matt

If you're filling up a 12 ft. trailer in 30 minutes or less, then you're not doing something right. First of all, all you bhould be loading into it is leaf dust. 5 ft. high of leaves is really 5" high when it's chopped up. If you have a ztr, pile them up by the road, and back ocer them a few times. It doesn't matter if they spread out a bit, you stil have them in a reasonably contained area. How do you move them? Did you say you are raking? Use your mower(s) to put them into rows, if nothing else, then just pull the tarp along the row, picking them up. Ha! I remember when I first started out, we used to pick all the leaves up first, before we cut, then mow. Once we got them on the truck, we spent (wasted aLOT of time walking them down to get more on the truck. Yes, we could get alot on the truck, as we could walk 3 ft. down to 6 inches, but it's NOTHING like you acn do with mowed or better yet ground up leaves. Boy, as I think in hindsite, all the time we spent doing our goofy "marching" on the truck. If only I knew then what I learned several years later.

[Randy]

I just love leaf removal. Makes me thankful for blowers & vacs. Got leaves.

[Green Care]

Hey How long did that take . What a pile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lawrence stone]

From my point of view you don't have the proper equipment to do a proper job.

Using a 62" sofa bed on a property that size is just not proper utilization of equipment.

I could have just double cut that at property and got the same results without having to move any of those leaves.

The front would have been done with a 52" Toro WB and the back with a 32" walkbehind.

Here is a pic of my 32" walkbehind. I have installed a 12.5 OHV engine that revs big time with a set of double blades. Two passes in the back and the leaves are dust. After a good rain nothing will be left on top of the canopy of the turf.

[Chuck Sinclair]

Stone,

You need to put down the bottle and join the real world.

There is no way you could do it that way.

[MIDSOUTH]

I would have to agree with stone on the mulching, However I would use a 61" in the front to mulch and then run a 60" ultravac over to pickup the tidbits left and use the 34" to mulch the back and if many tidbits were left strap the bag on the 34" and pickup the rest. That pile wouldn't even fill up a bag if it was done right and the majority was mulched into dirt and what left is collected.