Raking Leaves

Do you rake your leaves?

Do you rake them all into a big piles all over your yard?

Why?

And more importantly: then what?

Do you rake them up & then shovel them into plastic bags, set them at the curb & pay someone to haul them away for you?

Do you burn them?

Do you just use your ginormous, loud, gas powered leaf blower to blow them into the street & let somebody else worry about them?

If you do any of these things you are totally missing the boat.

Totally.

Fallen leaves are a gift.

They are the best, cheapest, most abundant source for mulch & compost that will ever fall on your lawn.

Don't throw them away!

Rake them up into piles yes!

But then rake those piles into your flower beds to thickly mulch your perennials & protect them from the winter cold.

Still have bunches & bunches of leaves?

Rake those big piles onto a tarp or into the wheel barrow & haul them over to your veggie garden. Spread a thick covering of them onto your garden. Over the winter they start to decompose & in the spring you can till them into your soil replenishing the nutrients & providing organic matter to the soil.

Still have more leaves even after that?

Or gasp! you say you don't have a veggie garden?  Well, you need to fix that ASAP.

But in the mean time haul all of those leftover leaves into a corner of your yard (someplace close to where you will put your new garden) & pile all those leaves up and...

...leave them alone. Yep. All alone.

Oh... you could throw some grass clippings in there & some scraps & even some manure if you happen to come across any...

And in a year or so you will have the most gorgeous, beautiful, black, crumbly compost that you have ever seen.

All from those wonderful FREE fallen leaves in your yard.

Those leaves are not a bane, they are a boon.

They are plant protecting, soil enriching red & gold gifts from God.

So stop paying someone to haul them away!

Or send them to me :)

Blessings.