Problems removing leaves from gravel?

Lots of leaves, lots of gravel. I use a back pack blower. Works great. What I could use is a larger container for moving the piles of leaves to the compost pile. Tarps are a waste of time.

BTW, you posted to Garden Banter, but that site is gated to Usenet, rec.gardens where I read and replied.

Hi Dan,

Thank you for reposting and for your feedback. It is very helpful. Interesting to see the link, how much does it weigh all together. Also what do you use after the leaf blower to put them into the compost pile.

Thanks,

Ross

Leaf blower to piles. I use a rake to fill a 50 gallon RubberMaid wheeled trash can with a hinged lid. The job would go quicker with a larger container on bigger wheels. So far, I haven't seen one. The top opening on a 50 gal is slightly smaller than the rake which impedes filling the container. My guess is that 100 gal would be too big to move and empty easily.

I end up with compost pile about the size of a van each year.

If I was bagging leaves I'd be facing different issues.

Getting back to leaves and gravel, I use a lot of 3/8 inch marble chips in the landscape. The blower clears the leaves with very little gravel getting blown around.

You'd do far better working on a product for removing gravel... only an utter imbecile places gravel in a garden... after raking stones from my soil I'd have to be brain dead to put stones back.

I wait for a dry windy fall day and ride my tractor mower fitted with mulching blades over the dry fallen leaves, the mower shoots the ground up leaves into a plile as I cirled arond and over the pile, within a few minutes the leaves are shredded into tiny bits one can barely see. Come spring they have amended the soil. I can't be bothered collecting and composting leaves, too much time and effort... I compost kitchen scraps. I mulch mowed gras too, no grass clipping to deal wih. When clearing brush I make piles at the edge of the woods for critters. I can't imagine normal brained people dumping gravel in their gardens, what fools.

I can always count on you throw around random insults. I've got gravel instead of mulch in some places. Nice shiny white marble chips. It looks nice and does not splash up onto the foundation when hit by rain.

So, I'm an idiot.

On 19 May 2016, Brooklyn1 wrote in rec.gardens:

You're way lower than an idiot, an insect has more brain power. What pray tell does a garden full of stones accomplish?

A rake, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow. When I think of all the effort I expend removing stones from my gardens I imagine anyone buying pebbles to plant in their garden I imagine an extremely retarded child that requires institutionalization.

On 19 May 2016, Brooklyn1 wrote in rec.gardens:

Those aren't "products for removing gravel".

Idiot is IQ 30 and below.

You expect your garden to accomplish something? I'm just looking for something that looks nice.

Come to think of it, I guess I do accomplish something. The stones stop the mud, or mulch, or whatever from splashing up and getting stuff covered with other stuff.

Most places I put the gravel, I can't grow anything anyway. Nice white sparkly stuff where the shade is too deep to grow anything. Looks good to me.

They remove, or apply it just fine. If you know of better ones for doing it on a small scale, do inform the Connecticut Department of Transportation because I see their crews out manipulating gravel with exactly those tools on a fairly regular basis.

Of course if you need to do it on a larger scale, dump truck, backhoe, and grader become useful.

J. Clarke wrote: ...

large vaccuum, suck it up, rinse and/or screen it again and put it back down, all in one unit. recover the topsoil for use in other gardens, it'd probably be pretty good stuff. :)

songbird