Leaf Raking Etiquette?

[riser4]

A couple jugs of white vinegar applied generously around the root collars of the offending trees during the growing season will solve that shade problem. At least that is what a friend told me...

And then they will fall on my house! I don't want any part of that.

[BmillsSkier]

A couple jugs of white vinegar applied generously around the root collars of the offending trees during the growing season will solve that shade problem. At least that is what a friend told me...

Was he out of diesel fuel?

[highangle]

New homeowner here....

In most Seattle neighborhoods, there is a planting strip between the sidewalk and the street that the city owns but the homeowner maintains.

Well... there is a massive tree in the planting strip in front of my house....

What is the rule of thumb for how far I need to chase these leaves?

I cleared the sidewalk and gutter flow line in front of my house, through both adjacent neighbors. But this tree is massive, and these leafs can be found throughout the block...

WWMD?

Or just post your rants about your neighbors lack of raking , or firing up the stihl blower at 6am on a Sunday...



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Does your neighborhood have a Verge Council, like in UK or esp Aus? They're like HOAs, only more petty and political. But they do offer the opportunity for clear-cut rules.

I'd suggest single-handedly getting something passed through the city council or county board to the effect that new subdivisions have to make it a covenant that a verge council will tend the verges.
Then, you sell and move somewhere else within a year or two while complaining about 'big government'. heh

[Harvey44]

OP, at least were I am, you rake the leaves in your yard. period.

True here too.

My accross the street neighor has a huge stand of massive trees that shed in my front yard bigtime.

Also true here.

[BCMtnHound]

And then they will fall on my house! I don't want any part of that.

Sheesh. You just can't help some people.

Was he out of diesel fuel?

The evidence of said activity is not nearly as apparent using vinegar. So I've been told.

[hawkgt]

Was great in mo. Neighbor and I would grab sum beers, blow all the leaves into a big pile, rest of the 50/1 mix from summer and watch it all burn down. It was a wild flower patch area and would come back better each year.

Now I just wait for the wind in CO. Worked another year.

[BC13]

My next door neighbor and I have some kind of trees who's leaves fall early. Everyone else on my street have trees that get rid of their leaves about a month later.

Next door neighbor and I used to be on top of getting our leaves cleaned up, but every year we end up with everyone else's leaves in our yards a couple weeks later so we have stopped raking anything until all the leaves come down.

Kevo nailed it. Raking/blowing leaves is a race you win by being last.

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[Bobcat Sig]

Overlooked and only mentioned once; two-stroke leaf blowers. FKNA awesome.

I finally gave in and bought on this year. It's rad. I have a mid-century house with a flat-sh roof and giant maple in the side yard. A few other nearby trees also dump their leaves on my roof. Now, instead of raking or hoping for a wind event - I just get up on the roof and lay waste to the leaves with my Stihl blower.

God damn, I love power tools!

[Danno]

[riser4]

Leaf blower will fix that for ya.

[oftpiste]

OP, you have no idea....

Also in SEA, I live on a corner with 5 100+ year old London Plane Trees. They are 50' tall. I used to pay people hundreds of dollars a year to clean the leaves up. The leaves are like leather and take years to degrade.

The city cruises through every two years and BUTCHERS these poor trees resulting in WAY more leaves than they would naturally have. Fuck 'em. They get racked into the street now.

[old goat]

People who pollard plane trees should be shot.

[SumJongGuy]

The day my leaf raking got a whole lot easier...


That was the 2nd of two that size 15 feet from my back porch.

[lekawa]

Kevo nailed it. Raking/blowing leaves is a race you win by being last.

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....which "may" piss your neighbors off.... Your choice.

[lekawa]

My next door neighbor and I have some kind of trees who's leaves fall early. Everyone else on my street have trees that get rid of their leaves about a month later.

Next door neighbor and I used to be on top of getting our leaves cleaned up, but every year we end up with everyone else's leaves in our yards a couple weeks later so we have stopped raking anything until all the leaves come down.

Yeah, I realized that was my situation the first fall after buying my house, and have done the same thing on occasion....It just depends whether my neighbors are practicing halfway decent "leaf etiquette". If so, I'll follow suit and at least go out and mulch my "early leaves" to keep them from blowing into the neighbors yards, in the hope that they will follow suit with their own leaves.

Of course, because my leaves fall first I have to go on what the neighbors did with their leaves LAST year.... THIS year, my next-door neighbor is apparently on the "wait until everything has fallen" plan and the wind just happened to blow all of her huge oak leaves into my yard after I had everything well mulched. So many leaves I didn't feel I could leave even the resulting mulch in place without completely covering/shading lawn in mulch, so I ended up bagging them (15 bags!)

Normally, the way I see it is that my neighbors rake many of my leaves and I rake many of theirs...and it all works out pretty evenly, but if/when someone just doesn't rake at all or rakes very late... the leaves on their property just blow around into the yards of those who've actually made an effort.

[Jethro]

I have a pretty decent sized front and back yard. Probably half an acre, with aspens and scrub oak all around it. I have a 120v Toro leaf blower which I use to make several large piles with. Then I run the mower over the crispy leaves and turn them to dust and mulch. Seriously, I wear a respirator since the dust is so thick. Then I blow the remaining leave dust around the lawn and call it quits. I do this two or thee times in the fall since I never know when the snow will come and it’s better to get most of it mulched when it’s dry. Bagging and disposing of leaves should be criminal.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Most of my backyard is not lawn, but plants/mulch/rocks and a chicken run. This year, because of covid, the kids have spent so much time on the lawn that they've trampled the leaves into dust. Leaves on the mulch? What do I can. I ain't raking a damn thing.

[nickwm21]

Timely bump of my thread.

Developments: I borrowed this piece of company equipment from the yard for the month of October/November. Overkill for my 40’x120’ Seattle lot but it worked. Filled 14 bags of leaves, the tree is fucking massive.

Anyone use a mulching leaf vacuum? IE those blowers you can run backwards with a bag attached? I might get one for next year...




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[Buster Highmen]

I just mulch the leaves on the grass tennis court with the electric lawnmower.

[4matic]

Anyone use a mulching leaf vacuum? IE those blowers you can run backwards with a bag attached? I might get one for next year...





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They are ok for final cleaning up flower beds and so forth but they don’t condense enough to be practical for general gathering.

[oftpiste]

I have 5 one-hundred+ year old London Plane trees on my corner. City owned, but my problem. The city comes through to prune (keep wires clear) and the last time the shittypruning job/timing created a thousand new branches that generated 10000 new leaves to fall and blocked all the sun from my front yard. Trees are huge, misshapen and beautiful sorta but suffer from from decades of bad pruning. These leaves are like leather. They don't decompose pretty much ever.

Last year it cost me $600 to have the leaves cleaned up and removed, mostly due to the large volume. Two heaping landscaper trailer loads. This year I bought a corded leaf blower and blew them all out into the street. There'll be one more round and then done. There's literally no way for me to dispose of them. It would be like a hundred bags full. Not gonna do it. Neighbors not super stoked. And I acknowledge my bad leaf etiquette.

[dannynoonan]

I have 5 one-hundred+ year old London Plane trees on my corner. City owned, but my problem. The city comes through to prune (keep wires clear) and the last time the shittypruning job/timing created a thousand new branches that generated 10000 new leaves to fall and blocked all the sun from my front yard. Trees are huge, misshapen and beautiful sorta but suffer from from decades of bad pruning. These leaves are like leather. They don't decompose pretty much ever.

Last year it cost me $600 to have the leaves cleaned up and removed, mostly due to the large volume. Two heaping landscaper trailer loads. This year I bought a corded leaf blower and blew them all out into the street. There'll be one more round and then done. There's literally no way for me to dispose of them. It would be like a hundred bags full. Not gonna do it. Neighbors not super stoked. And I acknowledge my bad leaf etiquette.

Burn them

[oftpiste]

Man, I wish I could. I live in the heart of the city where such a fire would cause a significant degree of alarm.

[dannynoonan]

Yeah, I guess I can see how that might be frowned upon. Maybe just burn the leaves?