Lots of Leaves!

All last week, I was feeling like a slacker. I watched as our neighbors had cleared their yards, neatly piling leaves into bags and lining them up on the curb. Every day I head a leaf blower or shredder or vacuum or mower running, guilting me. Every time I drove in and out of the neighborhood - green lawn, green lawn, green lawn, huge leaf pile, green lawn, green lawn.

I did go out in the front yard with the kids one day and Peanut and I raked a bit. We made some progress and got some play-worthy piles going, but within a few hours the wind and the leaves still on the trees had conspired to make it look like we had done nothing. It just looked like some spots had drifted to create huge piles under the regular leaf cover. Oh well - she was tired from raking and playing and took a great nap, and I got a little workout so all was not lost.

We all went out to attack the leaves this weekend - rakes and blowers in hand. It was a beautiful day and Peanut and I did our best to rake (well - she raked for a few minutes and then wallowed in piles of leaves) while Pumpkin napped in the Moby and Honey wielded the leaf blower. We created quite an amazing pile which Honey then manhandled around to the back of the house and dumped into the garden and the mulch beds. I got a few wheelbarrows full into the composter along with the remains of our garden. The leaves should do a nice job of keeping the good garden soil from losing too many nutrients over the winter and they should add a little bit of goodness too. Why bag leaves when you can use them? Seems silly work to me.