I’ve been pretty impressed with the number of rakes I’ve seen around the neighborhood this year. On a typical 30 minute dog walk this weekend, I passed several homeowners doing fall clean up.
Crepe Myrtle Leaves Soon to Join the Mulch Pile
And, not one of them was using a petrol-hungry, pollution spewing blower to clean up fallen leaves. Instead, families and neighbors were raking piles together. Kids were jumping into the piles. And, in a few cases, people were even mounding nutrient-rich fallen leaves on planting beds to protect and enhance beds over the winter. Sure, this might make for some tasty slug habitat, but it’s a simple way to bring a little permaculture to our own gardens.
Seeing all these healthy, happy families reminded me to encourage you to pull out the rake instead of the pollution machine for most — if not all — of your autumn leaves.
Original Post from November 17, 2008:
Growing up on the farm in Virginia, I had a never ending list of chores in the garden. In the summer I was weeding, harvesting or planting in the vegetable garden. Or, I was mowing and mowing and mowing around the house. (And, we did not have a riding mower unless you count the Bush hog attachment to the tractor for the outlying areas.) In fall, I raked and raked and raked.
Our house was settled in a clearing within a large forest of mixed deciduous trees and scrub conifers. We did not own a leaf blower. Heck, I don’t even know if leaf blowers existed back in the old days. And guaranteed I sported a nasty raking blister until the end of leaf raking season in winter. (Of course it was easy to bust open the healing leaf blister the minute I had to haul out the snow shovel, but that’s a memory for another day.) My one reward for all that raking was the joy of jumping into piles of leaves with my sisters and mom, laughing out loud as the dogs barked along with us and the chickens scratched up the newly exposed slugs our raking had exposed. It’s a joyful memory despite the thought of blistery hands and aching shoulders from all the hard work.
Over the past weekend I relived my childhood raking memories in my current garden. The sun was bright and actually quite warm. The soil had drained after many days of heavy rainfall earlier in the week. Most trees have lost their leaves, and the garden was ready for some clean up attention. With shears, saw, and hori-hori holstered to my person and a shovel, rake and broom nearby, I tackled a large section of clean up in my front garden.
Weeds and unwanted perennials came out quickly. And the perennials went into a pile on the curb with a free sign. They were gone to new homes in no time. Dormant shrubs that needed a little breathing space were moved to new locations. And, three yardwaste containers rapidly overflowed with raked up leaves, spent perennial clippings, and other materials appropriate for the clean green recycling pick up.
Battle Scars of a Raking Gardener
The front door entryway is tidied up for the season. There’s more to do, but when isn’t there more to do? But, at a certain point my blistery raking wound of childhood reappeared at the base of my right thumb. It’s a tender raw reminder that I don’t own a blower and choose to clean the green old fashioned way with a rake, shovel and broom. My garden doesn’t deposit enough leaves (yet) to make a jumping pile. Instead I glory in the clean, fresh look of the garden and happily nurse my sore little thumb.
One note on blowers for those of you who love yours. I do think there’s a time and a place for them. My mother lives in a dense deciduous forest these days and she does all of her own garden maintenance. She owns a rake, and she uses it. But without her blower, I doubt she’d be able to keep up with the heavy downpour of leaves each fall.
(a-hem, begin rant) HOWEVER, When my rental neighbor’s mow-blow-go gardeners start up their blowers and literally blow dust and weed clippings into my face as I’m hand weeding on my adjoining property, I find the application awful. Companies complain about the high price of fuel and are laying off workers. Perhaps exchanging a fuel-guzzling-pollution-causing machine with a simple rake would allow one more person a job while reducing the business’ footprint on the planet. Blowing dust, weed seed, grass clippings and other green waste into the neighbor’s face or garden does absolutely nothing but waste time, energy and make an even larger mess in the bigger picture. (end of rant)
Tags: blister, composting, fall clean up, fall foliage, leaf blower, leaves, Mulch, mulching, rake
I have the same battle scar on my hand today. I spent 4 hours raking on Sunday, with my husband picking them up and wheelbarrowing them to our leaf compost pile. And that is only the front!