Morning Light: The Fetchland Gardening Wire

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jacdaw Nov 2021 6:01pm, 14 Nov 2021 3,498 posts	0 jacdaw This sort of thing? mowers2go.co.uk £300... and think of the carbon footprint.
Hanneke Nov 2021 6:02pm, 14 Nov 2021 82,095 posts	0 Hanneke Myself, i hoover the leaves up cutting the grass with the mower and they go in the compost. I have two compost dahleks I reserve for leafmould. I get it from a friend's drive up the road: oak tree lined drive. I do shred and "hoover up" other plant material with an old lawnmower. It no longer self propels. I left it on its 2 rear wheels and plonk it on too of the greenage until shredded, then it goes in the compost. Works a treat and re-purposing the lawnmower rather than it going to landfill is a win too.
Cheeky’s Dad Nov 2021 9:27pm, 14 Nov 2021 1,662 posts	0 Cheeky’s Dad Yep, look like Sycamore to me. My Mum & Dad had a big stand of Sycamores alongside their house and reckoned they were a right pain. Always something falling off them and if you don’t get the seedlings early they are a bugger to get up. Alternative to the mowing suggestion, my Dad used to just spread the leaves as a thick mulch on his veg beds and leave (ha!) them for the worms to do the job for him. He reckoned that by Spring they would have disappeared & any small amount left would just be easily dug in.
Eynsham Red Nov 2021 5:36pm, 18 Nov 2021 8,199 posts	0 Eynsham Red Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I ended up buying one of these amazon.co.uk for just under £50. After just ten minutes outside the front of our house I now have a full bin bag of well shredded leaves (mainly sycamore) which has been put aside to do its thing after adding some water to dampen them. In a few days I’ve no doubt that it will be back in action again.
alpenrose Nov 2021 6:27pm, 18 Nov 2021 53,268 posts	0 alpenrose I hope you stabbed the bag a few times with a garden fork. My old house was in a road with loads of sycamore and lime trees. The leaves drove me to distraction. I did make leafmould a few times but in the end I swept them back out into the road where they came from. As soon as it rained they started staying in place and parking cars eventually flattened them down. Eventually, a road sweeper would come round just before Christmas.
Flatlander Nov 2021 7:14pm, 18 Nov 2021 2,295 posts	0 Flatlander I was out today and as I went round a corner I heard a noise that sounded like a tree shredder - the type that tree surgeons use to turn branches into chippings. Except it wasn't a shredder, it was a huge vacuum hose (50cm diameter?) being used by some council workmen to suck up all the fallen leaves on the pavement. Brilliant - it made short work of clearing them. That's what you need ER although I don't know what they did with the vacuumed leaved afterwards.
Eynsham Red Nov 2021 7:18pm, 18 Nov 2021 8,200 posts	0 Eynsham Red Yes AR, the bags are stabbed. As for a road sweeper, we live in a cul-d-sac and very rarely see one. Most of the leaves around here are not on the road so they just remain where they in piles on the pavements or in porches, unless they are moved on by the wind.
Velociraptor Nov 2021 7:40pm, 18 Nov 2021 54,992 posts	0 Velociraptor We've got some deposits like that around us. If I had more hours in the day I'd be out scooping the leaves from the pavement into bags for leaf mould.
MarkyMarkMark (3M) Nov 2021 7:42pm, 18 Nov 2021 16,634 posts	0 MarkyMarkMark (3M) Today I raked leaves, added them to my compost bin. Then I mowed the lawn to mop up the rest of the leaves, then added that on the top of the leaves. And added some ripped up cardboard on top of that!
sallykate Nov 2021 7:58pm, 18 Nov 2021 8,460 posts	0 sallykate Good move MarkyMarkMark - brown to counteract the green (carbon to counteract the nitrogen...).