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October 24, 2008

GARY CHURCH: Sticky shoes, sharp blades get rid of leaves

I don’t think there is any doubt why they call this season fall.

Leaves are covering the lawns everywhere, and I would like to give you a little advice on how to remove them with little work.

Let’s say your neighbor has a riding mower with a grass catcher and you don’t. While he is on his mower catching those leaves, you go out with a rake in one hand and your other arm in a sling. He will take pity on you and say, “I’ll get those leaves for you with my mower.” Give him a few bucks for gas and go in and watch the football game. Mission accomplished

My favorite one is, take the dog for a walk in the lawn. When you come in, you both will have an ample supply of leaves on your shoes and paws. Walk over to your chair and remove your shoes. When the shoes dry, the leaves will fall off on the rug and your wife can gently vacuum them away. I use this one a lot, although my wife is not real fond of it.

If you like to rake your leaves, Ames True Temper has come out with a “no clog” rake that the leaves are not supposed to stick to. I already have three leaf rakes hanging in the garage, so I didn’t purchase one to test for you.

The reason my leaf rakes are collecting cob webs is: I don’t rake leaves anymore, thanks to those dear people at Michigan State, who have discovered that raking is not the best remedy to get rid of those leaves.

In several states, leaves are not allowed in landfills, so they had to find an alternative method.

Here is the Michigan State— and the Gary Church — tested and approved way of getting rid of those leaves.

Wait until the leaves are dry and mow them at regular height.

Now, you can’t wait until the leaves cover the chimney before you start. You will probably have to mow them several times to get them the size of a dime. You want to make sure that a half-inch of grass can be seen through the mulch. Once you have them mulched and scattered around the yard, the worms and microbes can go to work and make nutrients for your lawn from the leaves.

At this point, I was going to say something smart about Ralph Martone using up all his worms for fishing. But, it seems that Ralph doesn’t use worms.

Why, you ask?

Ralph fishes with his wife, Denise. The boat is carpeted — wall to wall, I think. Ralph says worms are messy, and one of the two doesn’t allow them on board, so they use fake lures.

Ralph, I’m proud to say, still has all his worms.

I bet Thad Bukowski still uses real worms.

The Scotts company suggests fertilizing after you mulch to help speed up the microbes breaking down the leaves. This may help a little, but fall is the best time to fertilize anyway, so you can kill two birds with one stone.

You also may use the shredded leaves to mulch around your shrubs and trees for winter protection.

There, I’ve given you several suggestions to save you a lot of work.

If I were Ralph though, I don’t think I would try using the leaves-on-the shoes thing. I hear Denise is another Sarah Palin with a rifle.

Make your space a green space.

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GARY CHURCH: Sticky shoes, sharp blades get rid of leaves
by Anonymous , , Fri Oct 24, 2008, 12:02 PM EDT
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