Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Bag Lady Strikes Again

I've learned over the years which weekend is the perfect weekend to start collecting leaves. It is after the leaves are 90% off the trees and right after a weekend with good weather. Everyone will go out and rake that weekend. And in the process leave garden gold (and red and orange) at their curbs to be hauled away. By me.

At my last house there was no trash pick up. So no gold left on the curbs. I had to go one town over to pick up my haul. This year I'm in Arlington with trash pick up right at my curb. Many people don't leave bags, but leave their leaves out in trash bins labeled "Yard Waste". We have weekly yard waste pick up in the fall and you don't even need those wonderful paper bags that I so love. But not to worry. Most people's yards have too many leaves to fit into their single yard waste barrel. Within two blocks of my house there were more leaves in paper bags on the curb Monday than I could possibly use.

My big issue with getting them is that I no longer had my minivan to collect leaves. I could use my husband's car which is a Prius, but you can't even fit the bags in upright. When I got rid of my old minivan I knew it might be an issue. So I gave my car to a friend that lives just a few blocks away. He lent me the car for a few hours. That minivan can fit an enormous amount of bags. And while I had the car I stopped by one of the local hardware stores to pick up two more pallets. Now I have four bins.

And three of them are totally filled with leaves. The other is for the leaves from our yard and the extra leaves in the bags. In the spring the leaves will all have compacted and this bin will be empty to start composting.

You will notice that I need two more small pallets to enclose them. I like the small ones in front because I can reach in if I need to and when I move them they are lighter. They still keep the leaves in well enough. The small pallets are harder to come by. These are from the Ideal Hardware store in Waltham. They use small pallets for their bricks. I didn't even have to collect them. They were from the bricks used to make our walks. I just wish I'd thought to tell them to leave more.

19 comments:

  1. I'm sure that your new neighbors will used to the crazy garden lady relatively quick! They (non-gardening people) all think we are a bit crazy....but, they sure are amazed at what we grow!

    Nice to have 4 compost bins. I have only 2...but I'm going to make one more very soon.

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  2. I like the way you have set up your compost bins...they are stuffed. That is a whole lot of leaves, you are going to have some very good mulch for the garden. We have been raking up leaves as well, our yard is full of maple trees and they have been very generous to us this fall.

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  3. As you know, I love leaves as well. I need to get some new compost bins set up as mine have fallen apart. I wish I had a nice fence to put them up against. Enjoy your gold!

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  4. Lovely bag lady harvest! LOL! The pallet bins look spiffy too. I need to rake leaves myself this coming weekend, if it will stay dry enough for me to do it!

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  5. Most of the leaves in our backyard are now on the ground. I'm hoping to do a final mowing for the season this weekend so that I can get a good mix of grass and leaves for the compost bin.

    I love the look of the pallets. It makes things look nice and neat. My set up is a bit more rudimentary.

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  6. Nice bins. Do you rake the leaves you get or simply put them in the bin?

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  7. Good for you! I like the lower front sides to the pallet bins, because it's much easier to turn the piles with a manure fork. I guess since 90% of the leaves there have fallen already, mine should start falling really soon too. Yay!

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  8. Great Harvest Daphne. I'm a bag lady too. I'm in luck, my brother gave me 9 bags full of leaves :-)

    Tyra

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  9. Those small pallets do make a nice front for the pallet bins. I need something like that for mine.

    I'm with you on collecting other's leaves. I haven't found any yet this year, but it won't be long. I did bring home a box of rotten fruit yesterday from the soup kitchen. It was headed for the dumpster, now it's on my compost pile!

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  10. I go on "leaves and grass clippings patrol" every Tuesday morning before the yard waste truck starts rolling. I'm sure thankful I have a pickup truck. I watch out for Elm leaves and Walnut leaves though, as they are said to have a negative effect on vegetation around them as well as affecting the composting microbes. Patrolling is sure worth it in the end. All that rich dark compost... the vegetable plants can't get it quick enough. I'm sure we all get some stares from people that see us when we're picking it up, but that's committment!

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  11. Gosh, I wish I had such a nice pallet bin setup as you do. I tried to do something similar last year, but the pallets I gathered from work went to the base for the wood pile instead of the compost bin. My current bin is falling apart.

    Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and I will gather up the leaves in the yard this weekend.

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  12. We have a lot of trees on our property so we have more than enough leaves for composting. Last year, my husband filled 20 bags. Do you leave the leaves in those brown bags? I just bought some of those bags because we already filled two compost bins, and I'm thinking I should start filling the brown bags and use them as temporary composters.

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  13. Robin, I do have other crazy garden people in the neighborhood. I haven't a clue if they act like I do, but I've seen two yards that have their whole backyards as vegetable gardens. Well one is a side yard which is most of the yard they have.

    Mr H, in our last yard we had a lot of oak trees and two maples trees in the front. Now I just take what is in the bag. We do have one maple tree here, but it is in the corner of our lot and doesn't give us much.

    The Mom, My old bins were just fencing wire attached at the ends. They were cheap and amazingly practical since they are easily moved. I didn't have room for circular bins though. I need to use every inch of space I have in this yard. So square it is.

    kitsapFG, we've been having a lot of rain too recently. I think we might catch a break for the next few days and have a touch of sun. I hope so. I miss the sun.

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  14. Thomas, last year I mowed all the leaves before I stored them. It has been so wet recently that I couldn't do it. My mower doesn't do wet leaves. Which is too bad since they break down so much easier that way.

    sarada, I just put them in the bin.

    EG, With a low side I can also get the leaves into the bin. I'd have trouble with my bad shoulder lifting them over a four foot high bin.

    Tyra, last year I got a lot from my neighbor. I saw him raking and asked for them. He was quite happy to give them to me.

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  15. villager, the cook for my husband's office has been threatening to send all the veggie waste to me once the kitchen is up (they didn't have a kitchen before). I'm not sure I could take that much material, but oh it would be nice to have some of it. I also get coffee grounds from the office. Again a bit more than I can use, but it is nice. I only get them during composting season though which is now over here (well you can do it, but you have to keep it hot and big piles so it will retain enough heat).

    Veggie PAK, I'm always afraid of grass clipping patrol. I don't want the grass with herbicides on them. Though I'm hoping to get one of my neighbors to give me his clippings. Maybe I can convince a couple others to also.

    GrafixMuse, lol they would be good for the bottom of the wood pile. But you can always collect more.

    meemsnyc, Sometimes I do leave them in the brown bags, but I prefer not to. I like to get them into the bins and wet them down. Some of the leaves in the bags are sopping wet and other are dry. It is best if they are all wet. But if you are collecting your own you can wet them as they go in. Hopefully your bag won't disintegrate before you move them to a bin.

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  16. I snarfed up enough leaves from the house-scheduled-to-be-demolished yard and public area nearby to mulch two garden beds a few days ago, then I made the mistake of going into the house to take a break. When I went back out, the lawn guys had been there and taken away the leaves from both places, although I still collected enough from the leftovers to mulch a third bed.

    Darn, none for the actual compost,though.

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  17. The Bag Lady, Ha :-) Looks like your yard is really taking shape now. Can't wait to see what it looks like next spring.

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  18. Silly me, I meant to ask "do you get your leaves under lawn mower to make them small" ...not rake :) anyways thanks for the answer

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  19. Dan, me either. It is hard just sitting looking at the bare soil.

    sarada, I figured that :> no mowing involved. I have in other years done that, but this year it was too wet.

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