Stimw - very interesting. On all of my 80 acres I have ONE tree with leaves. They fall and the fall winds blow them away.
However - I have a complete forrest of ancient Ponderosa pines. The dry summer and fall winds cause the pines to dry out and they shed needles by the bundle. It gets thick enough to suffocate the lawn - if I don't remove them.
Pine needles are tough to rake. So I set my riding mower at 2 and a half inches and "mow" them all into a single row in each of my three large yards. Then I just have to rake and gather the one row in each yard.
Looks like you get lots of experience raking pine needles also.
