imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Saturday, November 12, 2005
AND I'M NOT EVEN AN "ENVIRONMENTALIST"!
Click picture to enlarge.
When we moved into this house, it was fall, and the 100+-year-old maples on our property produced an unbelievable quantity of leaves. That first year I raked all one afternoon and ended up with at least 20 bags of leaves and some nasty blisters. The following year, I tried hiring some kids to do the job -- at least the front lawn; I'll do the back -- but no one wanted the job. I decided to mow over them first to break them down, and then I'd pour the remains over my gardens. Mowing over them, without the leaf catcher, wasn't nearly as bad a chore as raking them, and I didn't get any blisters. I mowed the front and the back lawns and decided to transfer the chopped leaves to my gardens the next day. However, by the next day, the leaves had almost totally disintegrated; there wasn't much there to even rake. That was 20 years ago, and I haven't raked leaves since.
Today was a beautiful day -- 60* and barely a breeze -- and the trees around our home were finally bare. So I trotted outside and began mowing the leaves, while our neighbors were raking theirs. I begin at the house and mow in one direction only with the chute blowing the leaves towards the road. I mow across the lawn and then drag it back in the same path and continue that way until I've reached the road. My neighbors were sweeping their lawns, using a riding mower with a sweeper attached, and raking, too. Our lawns are approximately the same size with approximately the same amount of leaves, and yet compare the piles. I'll never understand why people rake their leaves, to say nothing of cramming our landfills with bags of them. Makes no sense whatsoever.
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