Leaves for the Garden

[Penny_Plinker]

Was driving past the library and he groundskeeper was bagging up leaves so i pulled over to the curb. I said hey mister, could i have those leaves? Sure, so he had 3 big bags and said he'd put more in a place where i can come back. Then he told me they're bagging them up over at the courthouse. So i went over and they loaded them on the truck for me, 11 bags. Could have gotten more but i had some gas cans in there i had to fill. He said come back today, there'd be more waiting.

So i brought them home and piled them up and going to leave them in the bags. That way, they'll be real convenient to use as mulch on the garden.

Penny

[MYellowRose]

Boy are you lucky. I don't think they'd do that here. If they did agree to give you the lives you'd have to load them yourself, these guys favorite past-time seems to be leaning on their tools, talking, smoking, and drinking, tea or a soda or the like. Seems like their "breaks" take up more of the day than they actually work. I do know though that after Christmas you can go out to the "Bitters Road Brush Site" as it's called and pick up chipped up Christmas trees to use as mulch. You can also get elephant Doo after the circus has been here, don't remember if it's the Shrine Circus or the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey, though.

[leera]

Great going! I wish I'd thought of that sooner!

I don't use them as mulch though.I shred them up and till them right into the soil.

I didn't get to that this year because the park owner didn't finish his demolition of my yard until last week!
Grrrr.........

Now I am wondering if I should even bother rebuilding the garden,since we plan on moving in a couple of years anyway..........

[Penny_Plinker]

MYR, i guess the men around here are gentlemen, plus they're on the taxpayers dime so they didn't mind, plus it make them look good for gettin the leaves out of the way. That elephant dung would be worthwhile. And they're all the time saying that lions manure will keep pests away from the garden, you might even be able to get some of that from the circus.

Leera don't give up on your garden, if you don't have your garden to work in, the time till you move will seem even longer. You can fix it back up, and i'm sure you'll get more in the mood when spring comes.

penny

[leera]

Penny,you're probably right.......... :)

Going to call the park office tomorrow and find out if they are finished finally,and WHERE exactly I can put my garden......

If nothing else.....I have enough planters to go all the way around my patio!

I can still get leaves,I know where the maintainance man dumps them from around the park,so I can just go back to the pile and get whatever I need.......he won't care.

He even had tomatoes and cucumbers planted in front of the office this year because he thought our idea was great,til someone kept stealing his tomatoes...........he said he never did get any because someone kept stealing them,even the green ones.

[LaDonna]

Hi, I am new to the board and just reading some posts about gardening. My husband and I start in the fall and collect bags of leaves all season. This is our 4th year to do this and now people call us up and say 'leaves are ready'. We now have about 400 bags of leaves in our yard. This year I am going to try them for mulch instead of pine needles or Hay. WE are going to use the smaller leaves for the mulch. We will emply many bags directly on the garden and till that in, then many will go into 'next year's compost bin' and the rest I am going to use as mulch around my plants. This should be so much easier than hauling pine needles. Our cemetary has pine trees and they rake them up and we go get them, but I tell you right now, thats backbreaking work. Last year we got 3 trailer loads and I used every pine needle. Hay just puts grass seed in the garden. It works good for mulch, but I am just tired of the grass.

LaDonna

[LaDonna]

AND, I was gonna mention that the Circus winters in our town and we have an Elephant area they built, that is like a place for endangered species, its huge. I bet I could go there for manure, I never thought of that. :D

[Star1pup]

We have a LOT of leaves as we have a lot of trees. My wife mows them into ever diminishing piles until they are cut up and in a small pile. Then we haul them in our cart behind the tractor. The first batch goes on the garden for the winter and the rest into a compost pile. We spread a layer of leaves and then add dehydrated lime. Then another layer and more lime, etc. We use the dehydrated as it works better than agriculture lime.

In the summer the compost is used to mulch around plants and flowers. Just nature's bounty being put to good use.