I have been scraping up all the leaves in the garden (very large garden, unbelievable amount of leaves!!) Was wondering if having dumped a load of them on the veg patch for mixing in with horse manure when they are rotted down whether this will be beneficial or detrimental to the health (growth) of veggies next year??
Also, does anyone have a leaf blower and can they recommend them or not. Especially when the leaves are wet on grass??
Many thanks
Yes.
Leaf blowers come in 3 main categories:
Electric - Near useless, only for small amounts of leaves. Won't move wet leaves.
Backpack 2 cycle gas - This is what I have. Good for up to an acre. Wet doesn't matter.
Walk behind gas - What pros use, as big as a lawnmower clears large amounts of leaves in a hurry. You may still need a backpack blower for certain areas.
So for a homeowner with a lot of leaves, go with a backpack gas powered blower.
"very large garden" is meaningless... to some an 1/8 acre is very large, to others a full acre is very large, to some 20 acres is small.
So long as the leaves are well composted, otherwise mixing in uncomposted leaves will harbor/encourage insects/disease.
For large areas the pros use a lawn vac/mulcher (not a blower), often an attachment for garden tractors/riding mowers... but there are also walk behind/push types. It's actually silly to blow large expanses of leaves, much smarter to suck them up and grind them all in one fell swoop... otherwise one will be blowing the same leaves backwards and forwards all day.
The backpack types are overkill for the homeowner, those are used by professional landscapers who service several properties eachy day who will be blowing leaves/grass clippings all day every day... homeowners blow leaves once/twice a year, get the smallest unit that will do the job.
There are hand held blowers one can carry and/or support with a shoulder strap... these are very portable and work exceptionally well for homeowner tasks... I have this one, very powerful, will blow wet leaves easily, I've never encounterd a situation that required more than half throttle:
Hmm, I just read somewhere that "large areas" is meaningless.
About 80 percent of my neighbors have lawn services to deal with the leaves. None of them use tractors for the leaves. They have tractors, they just don't use them for leaves.
I'm a home owner. I blow leaves 5 or 6 weekends a year. Usually about 8 hours each weekend. I'm on just under an acre. I'm surrounded by really big tulip poplars.
This is somewhere between electric and backpack. I can see how this would be okay for some home owners.
I never wear a mask, I always wear ear protection.
Further to previous answers, i agree that when rotted they will be beneficial but just be aware that initially, they will rob the soil of nutrient as they rot down so I would be inclined to mix with the FYM and compost them in a heap first and add as a top dressing when rotted before digging them into the soil.
Remember also that unless well rotted FYM will contain loads of weed seeds which will germinate, thus making keeping the veg plot clean more difficult.
Add a compost accelerator to the heap and the leaves should rot down quicker, giving a nice friable organic medium, especially if the heap is kept relatively dry, if too wet (uncovered) you could end up with a wet sludgy pile
Lannerman
As has been said, it depends on what the remainder of the winter has instore, for as well as the previously mentioned die-back, pruning now could induce the production of new shoots which could be damaged by further periods of very cold weather. Already here in Cornwall, due to the very mild conditions we have had since the new year, things are beginning to 'creak' into action (roses, Hydrangeas, camellias etc) but the last few very cold nights will slow that down again. We still have a long way to go with this winter so, I agree hang on until end of Feb or even mid-March.
Lannerman
Some communities, like mine, have outlawed gas powered blowers. Even if the gardener gets caught, homeowner pays ticket.
HB
Just out of morbid curiosity, why?
D
NOISE!
Electric blowers (still irritating) are sufficient for most home owners, and much cheaper.
I see the flooding has moved south. Hope you and yours are high and dry.
An interesting solution to the problem. In Sydney for example there are no laws about what gear you can use just limits on the noise you can make (for whatever reason) at certain times of day. So you could have a brass band practice in your garage and as long as you didn't play outside hours it would be OK. Where I am any such laws may be in force but in practice they are irrelevant, you agree with your neighbour what is reasonable and nobody calls the police.
Our area has escaped extremes of rainfall but La Nina has provided weeks on end of clouds, light showers and humidity. My fruit won't ripen properly so I watch the fungus grow.
David
Normally, I'd wait until just before the time the leaf bud appear (late-Feb in NC), but with the weather we've had this year - I did at New Years when the forecasters threatened ice.
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