In the fall in New England, the leaves descend from the deciduous trees and decorate the ground. Normal process is to rake them up into leaf bags for the DPW to haul away, or to pile them into some appropriate space along the property and just let them mulch away. I prefer to do the later and have space along one side and the whole back of our land to distribute the leaves. The natural process then does its thing.
Instead of raking the whole yard, section by section, I prefer to do what I call 'leaf herding'. Using my aged but functional mower (shown in the picture) without a bag, I cut the grass in a circular pattern blowing the cuttings and leaves inside the circle. As the circle gets smaller, the leaves and grass cutting pile gets larger or longer if it is more rectangular than circular.
When the pile either gets to hard to go through, or the blowing starts to spread beyond the pile, I stop and use the rake to herd the remainder of the pile. Coaxing the pile towards its destination, a rake full at a time, I herd the leaves into their final resting spot.
For this final section of leaves, I started at the far end of the pile shown in the picture and worked the leaves along the line of the pile and then to the right of the picture where the trees are.
With a little luck, this may be the last leaf herding I'll need to do this season.
How do you handle your leaves?
Do you do something like leaf herding?
