Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Mowing Leaves
Today is a beautiful, calm, sunny January. The morning started out at twenty-eight degrees with a promise to warm up to the fifties. This would be the perfect day to begin my annual mowing of the red oak leaves that have buried my lawn. Much easier than raking and bagging.
I dragged out the mower around ten o'clock. The temperature had warmed to the forties and no strong breeze to cause wind-chill trouble. I happily hummed as I gassed up the mower, changed the air filter, and rolled it to the lawn.
It started on the third try and I took off. Dust and debris flew everywhere. We had some rain recently, where was all this dry stuff coming from? And then I found out the worst part as I swung around to make another pass.
No breeze is not a good thing.
That big old dust cloud hung in the air, nose high! I held my breath and moved faster but each pass made the air worse. In for a penny, in for a pound. I clamped my lips tight, breathed through my nose, and finished.
The yard looks great, my clothes are washed, the neti-pot had a workout, and I settled down to read after a hot, hot shower.
Three hours later the tissue box is almost empty and I just popped an antihistamine.
But, like I said, my yard looks great.
Do you rake, mow, or hire someone to get rid of your leaves?
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Mow at the beginning...and then rake, and over the course of several weekends, haul over 100 tarps full of leaves into the woods behind us. If you get a chance to buy a house surrounded by trees...think very hard before you purchase.
ReplyDeleteWhoa! And I thought I was having it tough :)
DeleteMy husband mows, or basically sucks them up into the bag, and then he dumps them in a big pile. Hope your nose/head is feeling better!
ReplyDeleteI've seen those "vacuum" bags on TV, they're great! I do feel better this morning--Thanks :)
DeleteHope you're feeling better. I rake, though your mowing method sounds much easier--dust and debris aside.
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling lots better this morning, hardly sneezing at all :) I only rake when some of the leaves are blown into corners and make drifts. Luckily there's only two places that collect drifts.
DeleteI have never heard of mowing leaves, not on purpose anyway. I rake and use as much of the leaves I can as mulch. In principle, I guess we're doing the same thing. The big raking season in Florida is Spring when all the dead leaves fall off the trees to make room for the new guys.
ReplyDeleteMowing them cuts them into small pieces and as they break down they become fertilizer for the lawn. This makes it easier on my old body!
DeleteBefore my home burned, I raked. It gave my Norwegian Elk hound/German Shepherd mix the delight of diving into the mounds of leaves I had so laboriously arranged! :-)
ReplyDeleteI bet that was fun to watch!
DeleteI have always mowed my leaves and bagged them I save them over the winter and use them for mulch in my garden in the spring.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you came over! Leaves make great mulch for a vegetable garden, with out long term drought I had to give that up.
DeleteWow, Catherine, sounds like the process takes its toll on you. Hope you're feeling better :-) My hubby does the mowing--and the snowshoveling when needed...
ReplyDeleteThat's a great hubby!
DeleteThat doesn't sound at all fun. :( I hope you've recovered.
ReplyDeleteMost of our leaves end up as mulch, but I burn some of them.
I'd love to be able to burn some of them. Reminds me of the "old days" when you could do that inside city limits.
DeleteThis post read like a story~ loved it! We have one tree (a tiny aspen) in our front yard and none in our back, so leaves aren't an issue. And the grass is so cruddy and limited that we literally had to mow the lawn two times in 2012. It's a rental property, so we aren't going to invest our own money into seeding the lawn...
ReplyDeleteI understand that having lived in rental properties myself. I have several trees but all have small leaves. The big red oak is the problem child. In the summer I love how it shades my house, but come fall I'm ready to get the ax!
DeleteHope you're feeling better! I'm lucky that the hubster does all that yard work stuff for us. :)
ReplyDeleteHubbys are nice, aren't they?
Delete