LEAVES!!!

[TNTractor1]

This is our first fall season at the new house... Wow the leaves! We have 12 acres. About 4 of those acres I would like to get rid of the leaves... Or at least 75% of them. Lots of trees and hilly. I briefly tried blowing some of them into the woods, but soon realized that was not the solution... just too many. I could mow them, but there is so many, I'd just end up with little bits everywhere. Any suggestions? Is there an attachment for my 2520, that can help me rake them into piles for burning? Here is a pic of one area. Thanks!

 

[wrooster]

I don't know anyone else who has a similar problem as you have shown in your picture above. As for everyone else on TBN, well our yards look just like my pictures below. You should have your trees checked out, something might be wrong there.

Wrooster

 

[MikeInEburg]

I'd mow them as that is what we do. It's good for the soil and the environment. And WAY less labor than any other options.
Mike

 

[brokenknee]

I don't know anyone else who has a similar problem as you have shown in your picture above. As for everyone else on TBN, well our yards look just like my pictures below. You should have your trees checked out, something might be wrong there.

Wrooster

]

[/IMG]

To late to have the trees checked out. The leaves are dead, nothing you can do about that.

I would get a lawn vacuum for the back of your rider mower if you have one. I bought the one they sell at Home Depot, I use it on the back of my zero turn mower, works great.

 

[TNTractor1]

I don't know anyone else who has a similar problem as you have shown in your picture above. As for everyone else on TBN, well our yards look just like my pictures below. You should have your trees checked out, something might be wrong there.

Wrooster

I knew it! The guy sold me a property with bad trees. Live and learn.

 

[wrooster]

I knew it! The guy sold me a property with bad trees. Live and learn.

Yeah, I got the same raw deal as you on those crappy leaf-producing trees. A week ago Saturday it took me about 5 hours to get to the point I posted pictures of above. Then this morning I looked out the window and nearly cried. :laughing:

ps:
Have you seen this product:
http://www.cyclonerake.com/index.htm


Wrooster

 

[JB4310]

They do make a pto leaf blower, shouldn't be to crazy expensive, looks like it may be just what you need.

I've got alot of leaves too, but I'm able to manage it with a big walk behind blower and a large leave box I clamp on my forks, just make piles and pick them up with my 8'x4' "bucket" and bring them to the curb or the woods.

JB

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Get a Cyclone Rake!

 

[DNC]

I would call an arborist to see why all your leaves are falling off.

 

[Western]

Just curious, why mess with the leaves? I could see raking a few in a front manicured suburb type yard, but your place looks rural, at least in the photo.

Chainsaw would be the ultimate way to solve them "defective" trees

 

[MossRoad]

4 acres of heavy leaves like that is a lot. That's what happens when you want the forest floor to look like a lawn. :laughing: I would just get a PTO blower and blow them to an area of the yard that you could designate for the leaves to just sit and rot on their own. If there are too many to blow, then just blow them into windrows and use your FEL bucket to push the rows to the back of the property. Personally, I used our power angle snowblade to push leaves that I windrowed with a blower. It worked great.

 

[EE_Bota]

Of all the solutions I've seen, I'd like the cyclone rake the best I think.
But currently, I am using the bagger system on my JD rider. I pull a little wagon behind that, and I dump the bags into the wagon once, and refill the bags, and then dump the lot.

You have to get into a Forest Gump state of mind to use my system. It's pretty, the weather ain't bad, Jenny left, and all that.

 

[ShaleniFarm]

Trac Vac....

I have one and it is great. You'd have to empty quite a few times, though. Lots of models to choose from, Trac Vac Outdoor Lawn Vacuum, Leaf Vacuum & Grass debris Lawn Vac

Have a good one.

 

[MarkV]

I like the free fertilizer so I just would mow them.

MarkV

 

[MossRoad]

Mowing that many leaves and leaving them on the lawn will kill the grass. One or two trees is one thing, but the original poster has a forest.

 

[JB4310]

Yup, and if you chop em up they are impossible to blow later.

JB

 

[TNTractor1]

Well I must admit, there isn't much lawn under most of the leaves. It's semi wooded, but not wild. I want to keep it somewhat manicured or at least not overgrown. I think I will just take it a little at a time, blow away what I can and mow what's left. Would burning piles of leaves be a bad idea?

 

[EE_Bota]

It gets dark pretty early now, and I used my blower to get more leaves on the grass than I could possibly get moved before dark yesterday.

Here is what I did:

I put on the discharge blocker (to make the deck be in mulch mode) and I mowed over all the leaves and ground them up into bits. Then I put my bagger chute on and remowed the area in bagger mode, thereby getting all the larger bits back off the grass. That worked well, since the leaves left in the grass are pretty well chopped and will decompose quicker. But the vast majority of the stuff that was still sort of large got picked up by the bagger.

I do have a dethatcher, so if this is found to be a detriment, I can mostly undo by busting the stuff back out of the turf. But this saved me countless trips yesterday. I think it probably reduced the bag empty trips something like 10-1.

This can't be done repeatedly, since there is a limit as to what the grass can take up, but having the leaves mostly chopped makes it easy to hold far more in the bagger. There is a decrease in effectiveness at picking up the leaves once chopped, though, so all this has to be balanced.

 

[chopped]

My opinion , and I have a similiar situation, is I just rake some close to the house for the winter. I know in the spring ill be raking them again , I leave the others on the 'lawn' and out in the thinned trees land. Maybe mow them over in the fall. But in the spring I re mow them. within a coule of mowings they are gone. they become fertilizer to the 'lawn'' So other that a leafy look to the 'tree lawn'' Its not much effort.
You cant have a manicured lawn with alot of trees without alot of raking etc..

 

[jmurray01]

Wow - Leaves indeed!

I'd buy one of those Garden Vac contraptions you can attach to the back of a Ride on Lawn Mower, they seem to work well...

I will echo what the others have said though, I think your trees may be a little bit worse for wear...