A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Clever Girl, if I do say so meself . . .

OK - so I guess this isn't original - guess everybody's tried these tricks before.

But still, there has to be an even easier way to pick up leaves after you rake them.

On with experiment # 2 . . .

You can't see it that well, but that shower curtain has cute little ducks on it. So you might say my idea is 'just ducky' in more ways than one.

Next? Well, it's a matter of picking the curtain up by the edges and pouring the leaves into the garden bag or the bin.

Then you push the leaves down into the bin - best to do it with the sheet right in there so there's no spill.



Next? Very carefully pull the sheet out and lay it out again. Replace the bricks to keep it stable, of course.

Then you have a break and congratulate yourself.

Verrrrrrrrrry Clever Girl!!!!
You brought back memories of the first 3 years here with my husband.... we had no lawn mower,
and had to rake the whole yard, front and back "40" ***UGH*** and we would rake the leaves onto one of those big blue tarps... and then hook up a bungie cord to the holes w/ gromets......
and use it as a handle to pull it all the way back 40!!!! I get a back ache thinking about it..
I did, on the 3rd year, start my 60ft bed with all the leaves, piled them up high, the full 60ft length, thru on cardboard, and thru on somemore leaves, and let it render down....Hence a great base to start my beds with...

Do you compost Carly???
Just curious???

Weezie

Hey go?????

This trick would be even more efficient if I use a big drop sheet, like the kind you use for painting a room.

It would need two pairs of hands though. Well, the second pair? That would be the guy that was taking the pictures of me using my shower curtain to gather the leaves.

It is going to rain for a couple of days and we won't be able to do more raking. We'll have to wait to get that big drop sheet and do even more leaves.

Jeff is terribly sorry to hear that, you know.

Oops! That's a good question - about Skitter, I mean. I wonder . . .

Nah! She is presently lounging in the top shelf of the wicker cabinet in the bathroom. I'll share that picture sometime.

We don't have a composter (we should have one and the owner of this place ought to provide one - she won't).

But we do rake the leaves into spots where they help build up the soil.

At the end of each autumn, the owner sends her kids down to rake up the bulk of the leaves and pack it.

Think I oughta' share my neat trick with 'em? Ha ha!

BTW, I like that idea of piling the leaves and using them for soil. I've often said it should be done but the owner and my husband, Jeff who is the super/manager insist it should be raked up and put out for the recycling truck.

Who the heck am I? I'm just 'the wife', eh?

Tell them both, that is how the trees technically feed themselves, is when the leaves fall down, they over winter onto the ground, as the leaves layer from year to year, the weight of the previous year weighs them down to make contact with the ground and the ground/roots from the trees' etc., grow up to the decaying/composting down and that's where they get their food......

I just piled mine up, and card board, then some more chopped up leaves on top... I let the weight of the snow hold hte stuff down, wet it up and it'll start to break down, as long as it stays reasonably moist
*not soggy* and good contact with the soil/dirt.
We then made a raised bed, and loaded up some top soil and wa~la instant raised bed...

Weezie

P/S I was wondering about Skeeter, I would see him in pictures and then the next you were loading the can and no cat !

Skitter was in the bag. More of my warped humour, I guess.

I think I will insist that some leaves get packed down around the trees. Every year I say those trees need that.

I'm letting them stay on my periwinkle patch - the lady next door had good luck with that. She did it last year and got double winkles.

I can't really have any 'big' garden beds, cause there's just too many trees. But that space around the triangle - I don't know if you've seen that - it's another 'stick fence' project I did - that could use some soil.

I don't really know how much longer we'll stay here at the building. Jeff wants to move on (but never does). So I just figure on being here another couple of summers.

This is actually the first year I've done any serious gardening on the lot - the year before I just made circles and put pine cones in them. My flowering plants are usually done on the picnic table outside our window.

In other years, I didn't get that involved with the front lot - wasn't 'allowed' to - heh! heh! I was into other projects anyway.

I'm looking forward to working out there again this spring and just hope I can do so. I hope to feel as healthy (bone-wise) as I did this year. That exercise has done me the world of good. I can move around, stretch my arms and legs must easier now.

I have a weak right leg (polio as a child) it has deteriorated over the last few years. I've been through my ups and downs with that, but lately I'm able to walk more. I ride my bicycle a lot - as long as the snow is not on the ground, I take the bike anywhere I have to go. I ride better than I walk - ha ha!

Jeff was in the habit of raking leaves into the fence - I found some good soil in that and it might have been the leaves rotting in there.

I've cleaned all that out, and have been keeping the fence clear. Maybe after everything's come down and it's bagged I'll hold some back and find a place to mulch 'em.

And I might even see about getting a composter - city hall will supply you with one, but you have to apply for it. We'd have to buy it and send the bill to the owner, I guess, cause I doubt they would supply them to income properties.

But I'll tell you something about this building's owner - she doesn't like hearing that we have 'gardening' going on. The water is not on a flat rate in an apartment building, like it is in residential.

Oh, Ma don', ma don', she babbles - the water beel - ees costing me money! No use the water!

Can you imagine? But I shouldn't laugh - my own mother was like that too.

The owner's eldest daughter is looking after a lot of things for her now and she is more reasonable about spending money. That's one of the reasons I've been able to do more on the lot lately.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! I can't wait till spring! I can't wait to see if any of those seeds I've collected will do anything.

Carly you're doin' great!!

quack quack

YOU GO GIRL!

G-Mom

Carly,
When you rake your leaves, leave 'em right in the black plastic garbage bags! (and if you have a push or riding lawnmower that you can chop them up first... that's even better ) and leave 'em... at least one full year...
and keep them in the sun if you can..
*that'll heat them up and cook 'em and get them composting/rendering down!!!!*
You'll end up with some lushour stuff in there.

Get some big garbage cans and leave them under where your roof drips water when it rains, the pour off will end up in the bucket and
and you can then use a watering can to hand water all of your plants, with rain water, and not use her water or hike up the water bill!!!

We grew up on a hill with only a spring to feed our water container, if it was rainy you got to wash and use alot of water, but if it was a dry spell, you learned how to use it sparenly!!!
So, I know how that works!!!

And the more you move around, the better you'll feel!!! Thats' a fact!!!
Movements keep you mobile and limber!!!
Keep up the good work I wished alot more people would have alot of good movement in the gardens....

Weezie

P/S You should look into some of the neat hosta's, I think you'd really like all of the different varieties, shapes, and colors..
And Lungworts, *Mrs. Moon, Pulminaria's*, in a moist shady area they are goregeous!!!

Thanks for the cheer, GardenMom and Duckie, you must have liked that 'just duckie' trick, eh?

Good idea - I just told Jeff about saving a couple of plastic bagfuls (sometimes the city doesn't get them all and we end up keeping them in the 'snow room' over-winter).

Catching rainwater? Yep - I've done it. I save big plastic bottles from the recycling bin, cut off the tops then turn them nose down so the rain goes into it. I try to keep those bottles in various spots of the lot so I can do a quick water when I'm tending to things. If I pop something into one of the circles (a nice bit of plantain or clover), I can give it water right there on the spot if I don't have the hose out or the watering can nearby.

Yes, that would be a good idea - get one of those big barrels and put it somewhere; a mesh over it, of course, so I won't find any critters floating in it.

We didn't have a big mosquito problem in the evenings this year, but I am conscious of that. I have a bottle of lemon juice in my tool cart for that reason - I just put a few drops in the bottles. Maybe that's what helped out with the mosquits, don't know. Or, maybe they just don't like our foilage much this year.

There's plenty of those 'no-see-ums' mind you.

That hill you grew up on must have been a challenge - especially for washing and bathing. Collecting rainwater is a good idea under those circumstances.

Yes, hostas would be a good idea - I don't favour them, but they would be good to dress up some places. What I don't like about them is the attention they seem to need. If you don't want a lot of bug holes throughout the summer you have to put beer under them. When I was tending a garden on Parkside Drive a few years ago, there were hostas hostas hostas (that's how I learned to hate 'em, I guess). I put wood under them so the bugs would go under and stick to it in hot weather. That kept them off the leaves.

Thanks for all your suggestions on the plants - I'm looking for ground covers, mostly. I've started some periwinkle and goutweed. There is a big sprawl at the top of the middle lot that could do with a couple of bushes.

I think I might draw up a proposal to present to the landlord's daughter this coming spring - set out what I want to do about putting things in (low maintenance, expense, etc.), and have our contractors do some 'digs' when they're in to work on something else.

I'll have the winter to think of all that, I guess.

Oh, damn! Now I've become attached to this place and I can't leave.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Thanks again for your advice, especially about the composting. I've been yammering at Jeff about it this morning and he's been going 'um hummm', putting his hat on and off - that means he's digesting the info.

When he gets up and bolts out the door to escape on the excuse of some 'emergency', I know he doesn't wanna' hear it - ha ha!

At the end of the week it's supposed to be warmer and dryer so I might move the sticks in the 'stick circle' over and scoop some of the dry leaves into it, then cover it with the sticks again.

Think that would be as good as using the cardboard bits?

We have a giant maple tree on the neighbor's property, but it dumps it's leaves onto our side of the line. I don't mind it, but there are SOOOO many leaves!!! Not he mention the amount of leaves that we get from the oak in the back! I also just use a blower to blow them down to the curb so that the truck will come and suck them all up. Sometimes when I feel like doing extra work, I suck the through the blower, which shreds them, but then I have to bag the pieces because I don't have a compost pile large enough to hold it all!! Want any of it for your compost pile weezie??

Oooooooooooooh man,
send any amount any time,
I would LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVE to take it off your hands!!! <img border="0" alt="[clappy]" title="" src="graemlins/clappy.gif" />

Weezie

Well, with all this encouragement from Weezie, I've been composting for a couple of days now.

I moved some of the sticks in my circle and put a couple of buckets of leaves in - just scooped them onto the plastic cloth, and poured them in. I spread them around, then threw the sticks back in.

I'll be showing some of the other stuff where I'm using leaves. Later - gotta' download the pics.

(I've been a busy girl since Thursday. The rain let up a bit, and the weekend is nice so far, so I've been able to work some more)

Carly,
I am very happy to hear that!!!
But I do want you to remember, it's not an over night process and does take a while to render down, I'm just moving 3 of my bins that I started a year and a half ago... (In the spring of 2003)

Will you take some pictures for me, of how you're going about it, and I can help you step by step, if you'd like...

This part Kinda lost me?

but I am very happy FOR YOU that you'll have something to have some yummy dirt with in a while!
And like you said, if for some reason you don't live there or move, take the bags with you!
And the stuff is yours where you move to..

I am putting some of my unsifted compost right now into some garbage bags, to keep in my basement, as an experiment, I'm always waiting for my piles to unthaw in the spring, and sometimes that gets me behind, so I thought if I kept some bags in the basement, it'd be unthawed
*actually never frozen* and I can sift it even when the snow's flying out side...
We'll give it a try...Still have 2 more bins to empty..
And if I get ambitous, YEAH RIGHT, like I don't have enough to do, I'm going to unload the start some more bins.....(making them, so I have even more bins to use... )
Between the two lawns though, I have sooooo much stuff to put in...plus from two gardens and a veggie garden, I'm over flowing with stuff to put in...

Keep me posted Carly!!!!!

Weezie

Ooooooooh! I haven't done anything that complicated yet. I'm just raking the leaves into various spots where I have things growing (or decomposing dying - ha ha!)

We need all our bins and containers on the go to collect the leaves for the Wednesday pick ups.

We have some bags, of course.

At the end of the season, the owners come down with 100 bags - they fill 'em too. But maybe this year, with me on the loose out there, they won't have to do it.

There's new pictures in the other threads. I've started putting bulbs in - somebody brought me some as a gift today. And I'm transplanting wild growth - I figure there's no frost yet so I might as well do some more.

My north lot is so bald, and there are many tree roots coming up. So I'm transplanting around them. I did some of the clover today (you know that creeping stuff). It looks ok if you find patches for it to be on its own.

I love wild stuff.

Oh, btw - if you want more leaves, you can always drive up to Toronto and we'll dump it all in your truck or whatever ya' got.

I'm sure they'd love that one at the border
- ha ha!