For the Riff Raff Who Think that All Leaves Can be Mulched.

[hardboiled]

Jack D.'s head will explode from the insanity.

Please post pictures!

[Dreamaloud1]

For what it's worth, (after you make that pile) if you take a mulching Toro 21", you can mulch that pile of leaves down enough to fill 2 garbage cans, maybe just over 1 can. Or just pile them on a tarp after mulched. It will take about 5 minutes tops.

Especially with those types of leaves.

Thats what I do. Blow em in a pile and run over them a few times. bag whats left and blow any remaining particles a round a bit just like reg grass clippings. Yep siree!

[Jack D.]

Please be advised that Jack D. knows mulching.

A 4 Foot High 4 Foot Wide and Thirty Foot Long Pile is Better off Loaded.

Below is the layer limit for efficient mulching. This is not Jack D.'s prop.. Jack D. has done similar.

Before



One Pass w/ Doubles Mulching.

[TSG]

Come be my apprentice for the day and one shall learn. No it will not take me 5 minutes but will add time to my schelule not having to go to the dump.

You actually take the leaves to the dump? I just throw them into the truck bed and the wind re-distributes them on my way down the road. And before somesone says that I'll get pulled over because of it I want to explain that they come out of the truck bed pretty slowly. Nothing very noticible. Who knows maybe I can create some extra cliants with any luck.


Can sarcasm be read or only heard?

[hardboiled]

Who knows maybe I can create some extra cliants with any luck.

Possibly, if you drive around the same block fast enough and long enough.

[Blake]

Jack D is a fool. That job can be mulched. But if that idiot wants to fill the already overflowing landfills with bags of leaves then so be it. Buy yourself an exmark equip it with a mulch kit and ram it where the sun don............. you know-it-all sob

[jimslawnservice1]

why take em to the dump, when you can find others who want them for mulch??

I've got a guy who wants all I can bring him

[1Chavez]

Blake, I hate to defend JD, but for all of my customers, if I mulched I would not have any accounts left. Only difference is I use walkers to suck up the leaves and have 16hp giant vacs mounted on my dump trucks to cart off debris to a local farmer who composts all for free. For the real property clean up, rakes, tarps, and blowers are all brought out, but with leaves on the lawn now, they get bagged, the customer stays hapy, and I bill out one more cutting on an invoice. I was out checking on accounts and saw a few of the "competion" side discharging leaves and could not believe people would pay for such a "service".
-Rich

[Blake]

Chavez, Ya'll must have some bad ass leaves in NY. I use a mulch kit on a 60in exmark and you can't tell there was ever a leaf on the lawn. I have nver had a complaint, NEVER. Actually alot of pats on the back.

[1Chavez]

NY has very different leaves than FL. In FL leaves are mostly going to stay on the trees year round. Up here, the leaves are in the trees one day, and the next week 3/4 of the leaves are on the ground making quite a mess. Soon the trees will all be bare and that's when the real clean up work kicks in and the money flows enough to carry me through to next March.
-Rich

[Dr.Bizzaro]

You CAN'T blow big piles of leaves and run mowers over them- you'll catch on fire. I wouldn't mulch the OAK leaves as it would just rot here in the NW- in this area one can only mulch into the first week of OCT....after that you gotta bag or you'll just shut down the soil and debris will start to build up. I lime as well but even so, good IPM is to bag in the fall.

[ritchiem]

I bag it all with my exmark...and if I cannot get the exmark on the prop, then rake-tarp all day long.

[Jack D.]

Jack D. did not realize that Mr. Blake was from FL.

Please note that Northerners must deal with much more manly conditions than their Green Industry Brethren in the South due to excessive growth spurts in Spring and Heavy Leaf Drops in Fall.

In response to our Esteemed Administrator, that Push Blower sports a 9hp Subaru/Robin, which Jack D. finds to be lighter, quieter, and as powerful as the Honda. They are also less expensive. Jack D. will report back on reliability in 5 years.

Happy Trails.

[Scaper-S2k]

Mr. Skaper is insane.

This pile is 30 ft long, 4 ft. high and 4 ft. wide.

Mr. Skaper is Bonkers.

Should Jack D. mulch this Mountain of Leaves with a 21" Proline or suck it up w/his 27hp Loader.

Hmmmm.

Yeh, that sounds like a good idea. The problem however is that your new "work truck" doesn't seem to have one hooked up on it. So what's the plan? Leave them sit there for a few hours, go back to your shed and get the vac? Then go back to your 'shed' and switch out again and head to the next job?

Good idea! I can't believe no one thought of that!

[Scaper-S2k]

Jack, you are showing 2 pictures.

In the original one you already had the leaves at the street. That pile of leaves is small....maybe not to you though. A 21" mower CAN reduce that pile in 5 minutes....maybe 6 minutes. Uh, you pop the front end up and push into the pile. Once they are down, back the mower over them and you have nothing but dust left over.



One lawn we have done for many years has many huge maples. We literally fill a 4 car driveway that is about 30'x30' and about 3' deep. A 36" Toro and a 21" Toro will reduce that pile in about 10 minutes, 15 minutes tops. And (believe it or not) my employee always takes them to his home for his dads garden. He puts that entire amount in the back of a 6' bed on his older Nissan Frontier.


The pile of leaves in your photo was very small.