The Joys of Raking

While I am so tempted to leave this post blank ('cause let's be real, what could possibly be joyful about raking?  Unless you consider it doing penance in some sort of religious sense?)  But raking, like mowing, is one of the unavoidable tasks of yard maintenance which can seem like thankless work.  Whenever I rake, however, I remember a story from one of Leo Buscaglia's programs on PBS that I heard as a child (yes, I am just that old, and no, we did not have cable TV so there was nothing better on).

In this particular story, Leo talks about teaching his students during a pretty fall day and being inspired to bring all the leaves inside the house.  At the time it sounded like so much fun, bring all the leaves inside for jumping into and rolling around in.  However, when I think of it today, all I can imagine is the mess that it would make and how long it would take to clean up.  The difference?  Attitude.  If we imagine something to be undesirable and a real chore, well, it will be.  If we can look more at the positive aspects (exercise, fresh air, how nice it will look when done) then it won't be as difficult to get motivated.  I strongly suggest raking with someone else, a family member, gullible friend, etc.  Talking during any unpleasant task always seem to make it go faster and you feel accountable to finish the job when someone else is with you.  An ipod also makes a good companion (plus it can block out the sounds of your neighbor's high powered leaf blower that makes you a bit green with envy).

Autumn Follies

It occurred to while I was admiring the baby grass grow around the new labyrinth that the reason we don't usually plant grass seed in the Fall is because we inadvertently end up disturbing most of the new blades while raking.  Because we have a large maple in the backyard, the leaves tend to fall fast and furious.  And once the maple has covered the yard in pretty red fallen leaves, the (5) pin oaks begin (and don't usually end until after the first snowfall).  So, this year we will have to be really gentle on those areas where new grass has sprouted.

It is generally a difficult task when you have a large area of containing both perennial beds and deciduous trees as raking can disturb other plants as well.  I've tried a few different approaches: using a small soft rake to get some of the leaves out of the beds; hand picking the leaves; and, my laziest method, justifying that the leaves "protect" the ground from heavy snow and just leaving them there until Spring.  The soft rake still pulls a lot of mulch out of the yard with the leaves, and if you've just laid mulch in the previous Spring, you may not want to waste the mulch.  In general I usually hand pick the leaves, if they are wet from a recent rain they tend to be easier to pick.  I also finally invested in a leaf blower with a vacuum option.  If the leaves are dry (and maple, as oak leaves tend to take far longer to decompose) we can vacuum, mulch, and use in the compost pile.

I saw a gardening TV show a few years ago that was encouraging gardeners to create leaf mold/mulch over the winter for the benefit of their gardens in the Spring.  In a nutshell, you collect the leaves into dark green trash bags, add water (only if the leaves are dry; if they are already wet, so much the better), tie off, and then store in your yard in a sunny spot.  The heat from the bag combined with the moistened leaves will cause them to decompose quickly and months later produce a leaf mold that can be used like humus or compost for the benefit of the flower beds.  I love ideas like this one, simple, inexpensive, and useful.  However, we do not have the benefit of a large yard, so finding a secluded sunny spot to place a garbage bag or two isn't doable. I'd have to leave the garbage bag on the front lawn, and I'd worry that the neighbors would be suspicious of just what was in the bag.  (Like, if I saw someone digging in their yard late at night I might begin to wonder when the last time it was I saw their spouse).