start collecting those leaves folks!

[Nicos]

I'm not far from the seaside so I'd much rather fill my compost bins with seaweed.

..ooohhh...I can see a trip to the seaside coming on folks!!!!!( just must remember to hose off the salt first!!!)

Yup- our leaves are dry and crispy too- but it's so much easier to bag them- (nice and light)- and then water them when on the compost!

[Dynamo]

..ooohhh...I can see a trip to the seaside coming on folks!!!!!( just must remember to hose off the salt first!!!)

I didn't bother hosing the seaweed down before I added it to the heap, but I reckon that because it was all picked up from the highest high water line and has been exposed to the wind and rain for a while, most of the salt was already washed off naturally anyway.

[Flummery]

I brought a barrow load of leaves home for the chicken run on Sunday - boy did they have fun!

[HeyWayne]

Try running them over several times with a lawnmower - that'll chop them up & saves you buying a leaf blower. Unless you want a new 'toy', of course!

Yeah - tried that once. Problem is that during the winter months the back lawn doesn't get much (any) sun so it ends up being a bit of a quagmyre. Added to that the fact that I have an electric mower and more often than not when trying to pick up the leaves they are often very wet at the bottom.

I saw someone that tried mixing electrickery with water once...

[Nicos]

This the guy Wayne???

http://www.wikiraqi.com/images/1/15/Electric_shock.jpg

[HeyWayne]

This the guy Wayne???

http://www.wikiraqi.com/images/1/15/Electric_shock.jpg

Le very same!

[Littlemouse]

Our garden is about to be immersed in oak leaves. Not srue if most of the acorns haven't fallen by now as seem to be less of them. I've collected leaves for mulching before but not collected the acorns. Do any of you compost acorns and does anyone know whether they break down at a comparable rate to other general stuff in composter? 0r are they like tomato seeds passing through the digestive system -emerge intact?

[Scottishnewbie]

i've just finished the 10th black bag of leaf collection and i am k*ackered! i bought one of those leaf blower/chopper/sooker machines - its great but you need to collect twice as many leaves to fill your bin as the machine chops them into wee pieces so they dont take up as much room.

i'm sure i wont be complaining next year when i have all that lovely leaf mould to add to my soil though!

[Glutton4...]

I came home from a gardening job today with 5 bin bags full of leaves - yay!

Life's simple pleasures

[Two_Sheds]

The worst thing about collecting leaves is having to explain to bemused passersby what you're doing.
Even when I say "this is worth five quid a bag" or "it's brilliant for the garden" they walk off shaking their heads. Round here, a garden is something you pave over to park the people carrier

[Nicos]

Round here, a garden is something you pave over to park the people carrier

Sad isn't it!????...go educate the lot of them lass!!!

[HeyWayne]

Our garden is about to be immersed in oak leaves. Not srue if most of the acorns haven't fallen by now as seem to be less of them. I've collected leaves for mulching before but not collected the acorns. Do any of you compost acorns and does anyone know whether they break down at a comparable rate to other general stuff in composter? 0r are they like tomato seeds passing through the digestive system -emerge intact?

In my experience they take even longer to break down. I made a leaf bin three years ago and have loaded two lots of leaves into it so far. When checking out the "produce" recently I noticed that there were acorn "shells" still present in the bottom layer. I think the acorns themselves break down relatively quickly, but the shells don't.

Sad isn't it!????...go educate the lot of them lass!!!

Of course, the other (realistic) alternative is that everyone clogs up the roads, and makes them even more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists by parking their cars on the road...

We have a block paved drive, and there is no way that we could park our cars on the road - there just isn't room, even if we only had one car!

[jackie j]

My plot and surrounding area is on the edge of some woods so I collect the leaves every year into bags I have three so far from the last two years, looked at them the other day and I must empty them and use some of the compost. Need to rake up the leaves for this year, I am the only one that does it on the site, the other day my lottie neighbour asked what I had in the bags.

[Two_Sheds]

We have a block paved drive, and there is no way that we could park our cars on the road

A drive is one thing; round here the entire gardens are being paved over. Not even a patch nor a sprig of green stuff is to be tolerated.

[jackyspratty]

We have severallarge trees on the street outside our house. have just collected 4 bags of leaves with much more to come. The leaves have a mixture of seeds in off of the trees aswell, think they are lime trees? Will the seeds rot down along with the leaves? Is there a posibility that I'll be spreading the seeds around my garden and plot aswell? Seems a shame if I can't use them, anyone know?