Sunday, October 23, 2016

WHY THE OBSESSION WITH LEAVES ON THE GROUND?





I marvel at the obsessive compulsive behavior of people during the fall season.   As soon as the first leaf hits the ground they are out with rakes, yard bags and leaf blowers; and this behavior continues until the last leaf has fallen. 

Leaves are a beautiful ground cover.  If left throughout the winter and then mulched with the lawn mower in the spring they fertilize the soil and prevent moisture depletion.



And did I mention they are beautiful?


 the Ol'Buzzard

8 comments:

  1. You and I are on the same page here. Although, now that I have a new/used John Deere lawn tractor,, I have sucked up the leaves once. I hope to create some more grass to mow next summer in the spots where the leaves have killed it off. I will most likely though, grow tired of removing the leaves and fall back into my slovenly ways in the near future. WHat I can't wait for is the first blowable snow. The tractor came with a 48 inch snowblower attachment. Once again I will be able to sit and remove the snow from my drive. There are probably plenty of things I hate worse than walking behind a snow blower, but at the moment I cannot think of one.

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  2. And is there anything more fun than kicking your feet through dry leaves as you walk?

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  3. I agree that leaf cover is very beneficial. Our yard is pretty big and for us to rake up all the leaves would take forever. Another good thing to do is to run over the leaves with the lawn mower, giving them a head start on the decomposition process. -Jenn

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  4. Amen, brother. And the people you're talking about would be my anal neighbors. In one case, they are out there several times a day.

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  5. That's the difference between town living and living in the country. In town your lawn has to look like a putting green, cut to the right length and no weeds allowed. If I got rid of all the weeds in my lawn, I'd just have dirt.

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  6. I guess it depends where the leaves fall. If they are left over winter on lawn or what passes for it, they encourage snow mould. They are great on flower beds as mulch though.
    The first night it froze here all the leaves fell off the walnut trees. Our neighbour bitched that they were blowing down the street onto her property so the leaves were duly raked and burned. Then the neighbour bitched about the smoke. The bible says to love your enemy. It also says to love your neighbour. I think it was Mark Twain who said they were usually the same person.

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  7. I live in a city apartment - smallish building, usually quiet neighborhood. One morning a few days ago there was a man across the street vacuuming the grass. Sigh..

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