Leaves Everywhere

When you live on the North Coast of Ohio and your house is surrounded by several large mature maple trees, you end up with lots of leaves on the ground at the end of fall. such was the situation again this year. I spent the three days following Thanksgiving working at getting rid of the leaves.

There are many methods of leaf disposal. Our neighbors simply mow the leaves up and leave them on the ground to rot away. This works but it's not the best solution for your grass. It leaves the grass thin and patchy in places. (You got that pun didn't you?) And while our yard is not going to make the cover of any grass catalog, it's better than the neighbors. I like our grass suitable for Uma to walk around in her bare feet, so that means raking up the leaves.

That takes me back to my previous comment about leaf disposal. My preferred method is to mow the leaves up and bag them, then dump them onto a large tarp. Once the tarp is full you drag it off to the dump site which is behind our woods.

This is the back yard before starting the project. Keep in mind this is about 1/4 of the area to clean. There is also the front yard and side yard.

Here I'm stopping to dump the leaves. The tarp will hold about 10 loads of leaves before it needs to be hauled away.

Here's another photo looking back towards the house. It's Friday late afternoon and the sun is just dipping behind the garage. So many leaves to go.

The reason it's so late in the dat at this point is that the garden also needed attention. It's time to clean up for winter.

It's been awhile since we've enjoyed the fresh taste of tomatoes. There is, however, something still thriving in the garden.

Thyme! It is an evergreen type herb. It will still be here in the spring. This plant is 3 years old. The basil on each side is past it's prime, however.

The garden is all cleaned up ready for a rest. I'll dump some leaves on top and work them into the soil next spring.

It's the end of the day and the sun is gong down fast.

It was sunny in the morning and cloudy most of the day, but the sunset is pretty spectacular. It's been a long day of leaf collecting in the back and the front yard awaits for tomorrow.