Do you rake leaves?

We mow over them in the beginning and then we do lots of raking. We have to then bring them to a landfill. We have a big yard with trees and it’s just too much work. We are currently trying to hire a company to come a few times this season. Looks like it will be a few hundred dollars but if it works out it will be worth it.
 
We rake or mow, depending on how bad it is. We fortunately have few trees. I do not understand people who do *nothing* with their leaves. Leaving them matted across the lawn kills the grass, grows mold, invites bugs and diseases, and just looks awful from a curb appeal perspective. If its a snowy climate, it also makes it slippery under the snow when they are in walkways or driveways. I would also add that it creates more work in the spring to get the lawn looking halfway decent again, but I'm guessing that people who do nothing with their leaves don't care much about spring lawn work either!
 
I rent. I have to. Lot is too small for a tractor and push mower is too small to mulch them up.

I used the mower with a bag once, well, for only 10 feet anyways. Then I had to take the bag off and wrestle that into the bags I use to transfer down to the dump area in the car. Huge hassle. I just use the leaf blower on vacuum and they get mulched down so I don't have to take 456,083 trips in my car down to the dump.

I do hate having to load up the inside of my car with bags of leaves.
 
Well, I just mowed what was out there this weekend. We will rake up the rest. We have a new garden bed we will put them on.
 


Mostly mowing, just rake the leaves out of the flower beds before I mow
 
We rake or mow, depending on how bad it is. We fortunately have few trees. I do not understand people who do *nothing* with their leaves. Leaving them matted across the lawn kills the grass, grows mold, invites bugs and diseases, and just looks awful from a curb appeal perspective. If its a snowy climate, it also makes it slippery under the snow when they are in walkways or driveways. I would also add that it creates more work in the spring to get the lawn looking halfway decent again, but I'm guessing that people who do nothing with their leaves don't care much about spring lawn work either!

That's a pretty broad sweeping statement. Just because people don't do anything with their leaves doesn't mean it kills their lawn and that they don't care about how their lawn looks. In fact, leaves can be good nutrients for the lawn. It really depends on many factors -- every yard is different. I can't speak for others, but for us, we have about 3.5 acres of yard with approximately 25 trees planted in clusters throughout the yard along with some 50+ year old trees along the edge of our property. Based on the advice of our landscape designer, we do nothing with our leaves other than mow over them if we happen to mow the lawn after they've fallen (and this is what we've done for the last 18 years). If the wind creates a pile of leaves that gets "stuck" in a corner of the landscaping or house, we will remove those leaves. The reality is, because of where we live, our lawn actually starts to go to it's dormant/winter state before most of the leaves fall -- we *might* need to do one lawn mowing after the leaves start to fall, but that usually doesn't happen as the grass has already stopped growing. Curb appeal??? I guess I have other things to worry about because I'm really not that concerned about what the neighbors think if we've got leaves in our yard for a few weeks -- I don't need to impress anyone. It's not like our yard is covered with leaves all year round -- it's a month or so...maybe...if the wind hasn't blown them away yet. Our neighbors all have leaves in their huge yards as well so I don't think any of them care that we have leaves in our yard. I actually like to see the colorful leaves blanketing the yard -- that's what autumn looks like. It's a very pretty change after 6 months of plain green grass. We don't have a thick layer of leaves on our lawn -- just a thin scattering of leaves. Most of them blow away (directly into our wooded area or a field -- so no harm to anyone else's lawn if they would care about leaves...which they don't.) within a few weeks and the rest mulch/disintegrate over the winter and the lawn actually looks green and lush in spring. I've never had piles of leaves left in the yard after the snow melts in Spring. We don't really need to do much of anything to get our lawn looking great in the spring -- just the initial trimming/pruning and then mulch every other year. Mother nature takes care of the rest. We don't even need to fertilize the lawn as the leaves take care of that over the winter. People compliment us on our yard all the time, so I know it's not just us who think it looks nice. We actually have a lot of pride in our yard.

If we lived on 4 acres of heavily wooded land and had thick layers/piles of leaves everywhere, maybe we'd do something with our leaves, but we don't have that under our current conditions. I see no reason to waste hours of our time raking leaves that are going to take care of themselves. Obviously people with a ton of leaves in their yard might need to remove them. That's not my yard. Not sure why it matters what other people do with *their* leaves. Also can't imagine assuming someone doesn't care about their lawn if they don't rake their leaves. That's a leap.
 
That's a pretty broad sweeping statement. Just because people don't do anything with their leaves doesn't mean it kills their lawn and that they don't care about how their lawn looks. In fact, leaves can be good nutrients for the lawn. It really depends on many factors -- every yard is different. I can't speak for others, but for us, we have about 3.5 acres of yard with approximately 25 trees planted in clusters throughout the yard along with some 50+ year old trees along the edge of our property. Based on the advice of our landscape designer, we do nothing with our leaves other than mow over them if we happen to mow the lawn after they've fallen (and this is what we've done for the last 18 years). If the wind creates a pile of leaves that gets "stuck" in a corner of the landscaping or house, we will remove those leaves. The reality is, because of where we live, our lawn actually starts to go to it's dormant/winter state before most of the leaves fall -- we *might* need to do one lawn mowing after the leaves start to fall, but that usually doesn't happen as the grass has already stopped growing. Curb appeal??? I guess I have other things to worry about because I'm really not that concerned about what the neighbors think if we've got leaves in our yard for a few weeks -- I don't need to impress anyone. It's not like our yard is covered with leaves all year round -- it's a month or so...maybe...if the wind hasn't blown them away yet. Our neighbors all have leaves in their huge yards as well so I don't think any of them care that we have leaves in our yard. I actually like to see the colorful leaves blanketing the yard -- that's what autumn looks like. It's a very pretty change after 6 months of plain green grass. We don't have a thick layer of leaves on our lawn -- just a thin scattering of leaves. Most of them blow away (directly into our wooded area or a field -- so no harm to anyone else's lawn if they would care about leaves...which they don't.) within a few weeks and the rest mulch/disintegrate over the winter and the lawn actually looks green and lush in spring. I've never had piles of leaves left in the yard after the snow melts in Spring. We don't really need to do much of anything to get our lawn looking great in the spring -- just the initial trimming/pruning and then mulch every other year. Mother nature takes care of the rest. We don't even need to fertilize the lawn as the leaves take care of that over the winter. People compliment us on our yard all the time, so I know it's not just us who think it looks nice. We actually have a lot of pride in our yard.

If we lived on 4 acres of heavily wooded land and had thick layers/piles of leaves everywhere, maybe we'd do something with our leaves, but we don't have that under our current conditions. I see no reason to waste hours of our time raking leaves that are going to take care of themselves. Obviously people with a ton of leaves in their yard might need to remove them. That's not my yard. Not sure why it matters what other people do with *their* leaves. Also can't imagine assuming someone doesn't care about their lawn if they don't rake their leaves. That's a leap.

I was being facetious in my statement that you bolded. Leaves can be nutrients for the lawn if they are mowed over/mulched. But if left as a big, wet, matted down mess, they do nothing but suffocate the lawn and do not allow it to get the air it needs. My post was specific to those who do nothing to their leaves. By your own post, you say that you mow them over and remove large piles, so my post doesn't really apply to your situation. Because of your effort, you don't see the effects those large matted piles can leave. I unfortunately live between two people who don't touch a leaf all season. Their yards are small but loaded with Maples and Crimson Kings that drop big, thick leaves. I have to deal with it every season.
 



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