Collecting Leaves

Timothy's post got me thinking about the situation on my 3/4 acre permaculture playground. Most of the leaves that land on my property in the autumn are from my own black walnut trees. Great for the lawn (which I'm slowly going to be ridding myself of), but not so much anything else that isn't juglone tolerant. My neighbors, to the west, however, have a couple of hardwoods. They don't garden much and probably haven't even heard the word permaculture.

What do you think about me stealing their leaves when they fall? When I say steal, I mean going to their door with rake in hand and asking, "May I rake your leaves, please?" and then possibly doing it even if they say no.

Raking them onto MY property, of course. Once my perma projects start to take off, I won't have to rely much on outside input, but starting out I think anything I do will be helpful. Thoughts?

I say go for it. Worst that can happen is they say no and think you're weird.....which they probably already do if they are anything like my neighbors! I wouldn't do it though if they do say no. Be a good neighbor and respect their decision especially since it doesn't directly effect you in a negative manor. One thing that I love about people like Nicole from Living Free in Tennessee is that she expands permaculture and self-reliance beyond just her yard and is really big on building community.

You could also avoid adding more work to your plate and just go around in the dark collect all the bags of leaves the crazy normal people put out for the garbage!

I was halfway kidding about taking them even if they said no, but it was an inside joke to myself, too. I have a really good relationship with them, and we often bake treats for each other on special occasions. We're on the Goody Plate level of neighborliness.

j

Will Whitt wrote:I say go for it. Worst that can happen is they say no and think you're weird.....which they probably already do if they are anything like my neighbors! I wouldn't do it though if they do say no. Be a good neighbor and respect their decision especially since it doesn't directly effect you in a negative manor. One thing that I love about people like Nicole from Living Free in Tennessee is that she expands permaculture and self-reliance beyond just her yard and is really big on building community.

You could also avoid adding more work to your plate and just go around in the dark collect all the bags of leaves the crazy normal people put out for the garbage!

Leaves have so many great uses.  I feel collecting fall leaves is a great idea.

Some uses are that leaves make great mulch for the garden and leaves make great leaf mold.

I especially like not sending than to the landfill.

https://permies.com/t/152261/Fall-Leaves

I have an immediate neighbor who I have offered a quick solution to. My raised bed garden has a waist high fence and wide pathways to allow a wheelbarrow to turn in (tightly) which make a great dropoff point for bundles of leaves. Dump them in the paths!

I had a conversation once because he was new to the village and learning the ways to dispose of leaves/grass and now instead of putting them in paper bags they can just toss it into the pathways for me. Once I notice it, I rake it out to the farther sides and create a nice layer on the walking path/an area to hold it. If I get too much, I just wheelbarrow it out to other parts of the property. (Compost pile, hillside berm, ect ect)

My neighbors are THRILLED when I get their leaves! I asked them "May I have your leaves? I'll come get them!" They said "you want to clean my yard for free?!"  You have to PAY people to clean up leaves around here, and it's a lot of work, lots of trees. They are TOTALLY pleased to have me do it for free!

I modified my mower to gather/shred leaves, have done several variations, the first one is described in this thread, and I think  a couple of the variants.
Bricolage projects

This last fall I was too sick to cope with all of that, barely managed to get my own and one neighbors, but I raked and leafblowered them onto tarps, then folded it and crushed them, added more, compacted them more, made nice neat bundles so they would fit through the back gate, and dragged them into the back yard to feed the garden.
Permies Fall Sushi, not a tasty recipe

Dragging them in tarps or similar things makes them easy to move, by hand or by pulling with a mower etc. When I had the leaf picker upper running, I could move three really full tarps at one time down the street behind my mower.

So yes, ask ANY neighbors, not even ones you are friends with, or strangers and charge them! Everyone has to deal with leaves every year, and most don't want to do it themselves.

:D

You're on the right track, and your plan sounds perfectly fine, but I would recommend you spend some time looking for someone or multiple people to bring you their leaves, or at least collect and bag them up for you. Raking and hauling leaves is a lot of work, and I bet there are people near you who do that work anyway. Maybe some of them even burn the leaves afterward because they don't have a convenient place to take them.  
 
Near me, plenty of people bag their leaves, and I simply drive by and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv46AGnsGQE]take[/youtube]  them home; but also, lots of people are thrilled to load their leaves into a truck or trailer and drop them off at my place. You don't have to go as nuts as me and take leaves from commercial folks, but a couple people with a lot of trees might be perfect.  

I used to have people that dropped off for me but it was bust last two years. I just waited for people I knew to bag them and went and got them from the curb. I went a bit overboard with 4 jam packed trailer loads. It’s a lot of work to shred them but it’s worth it.

So I’m a yes vote on neighbors resources. Until they listen to you and start putting it to work on their property! Haha I infected my neighbor and lost my free wood chips. But glad to see them doing good things it’s a good trade off.

Thanks! And welcome to Permies, Charlie. Great first post.

BTW don't forget to participate in the Scavenger Hunts. Go to your profile page and you'll see a box on the left with several tasks. When you complete each one, the check mark will turn green. When you complete the first set of tasks, you'll be branded as a Pioneer and given another Scavenger Hunt to complete. I'm about done with my second, so try to catch me if you can. They're great introductions to all of the features of the site.

j

Charlie Lem wrote:You're on the right track, and your plan sounds perfectly fine, but I would recommend you spend some time looking for someone or multiple people to bring you their leaves, or at least collect and bag them up for you. Raking and hauling leaves is a lot of work, and I bet there are people near you who do that work anyway. Maybe some of them even burn the leaves afterward because they don't have a convenient place to take them.  
 
Near me, plenty of people bag their leaves, and I simply drive by and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv46AGnsGQE]take[/youtube]  them home; but also, lots of people are thrilled to load their leaves into a truck or trailer and drop them off at my place. You don't have to go as nuts as me and take leaves from commercial folks, but a couple people with a lot of trees might be perfect.  

Yup. It's a lot of work, repeatedly dragging a GIANT loaded tarp 400 feet down through the neighborhood. But there's a badge bit for that, somewhere.

Yes. We are the neighborhood weirdos. Just be sure to wear your machete as you work, so you wind up the respected weirdos.

I think.you should pursue this resource assiduously, but I  am biased.
I zealously gather the leaves from my parents house, in fact I think of them as my birthright.
I simply can't get enough leaves.
My compost utilizes leaves, my chicken bedding is leaves,my garden beds are mostly leaf mold,and I mulch those same beds with more leaves.

I am down to my last few bags of leaves,and I'm hungry for more.
I've topped many of the garden beds twice now, once in the fall, again just a week ago.
The weather and biology makes halves the depth pretty quickly, so I top them off when I can.
They make a great sponge for water,urine and compost tea.
I usually clear them away into a compost pile in the spring.
This year I want to leave them as a barrier against rain splatter born blight.

I hate mowing lawns, but I think having a leaf collecting business would be like getting paid to cart off money.

Check out Edible Acres on YouTube to witness the power of autumn leaves multiplied by the force of jungle fowl!
Their chicken composting system is worth replicating.

Someone mentioned walnut leaves.
I find the green ones to be an excellent thing to add to the chicken bedding.




One more thing.
You don't have to wait until fall to grab that fertility.
When pruning, green boughs can be piled and left till the leaves wilt and fall off.
You can also strip branches of their leaves and allow the branch to remain and regrow the greenery.
This works great for things like grape vine,box elder and mulberry,  which are hard to kill anyway.
They become a renewable resource of nitrogenous mulch, not unlike comfrey

Shredding these kinds of prunings is why I'm working on a treadle driven chaff cutter.
The chop 'n chop 'n chop 'n chop then drop method should speed and enhanced  nutrient cycling.

Y'all get me so excited about leaves!  Right now the composting system is set up at my MIL's house, so I bring down buckets of foodscraps when I visit and she puts it in, and gives me ready compost/soil to take home from my plant pots.  She has chickens so there's lots of straw/browns, but I've been wondering where I'm going to get browns someday when I can set up my own system when I have a yard in the future, so glad to get some ideas from this thread of acquring neighbourleaves.