An old one but I thought I'd mention that I picked up a free bag of leaves courtesy of our local council road sweeper, they sweep the leaves bag them in a white sack and leaf them on the roadside, you can see through them so I leaf them alone if theres other rubbish mixed in them, keep your eyes peeled people. ;D ;D ;D
thanks kev,what do you use them for? we have loads of leaves
on our plot courtesy of an enormous beech tree overhanging it
oooh, you lucky people,
we collect up as many as we can, every year, some are put in the bottom of our raised carrot and parsnip beds..the rest are put in a leaf box, surrounded with chicken wire and left to rot down over a year or two, some is mixed with sand and stuff and made into potting on compost and the rest is mulched up around precious plants ;D
get gathering ;D
I leaf mine in the bags with a few holes in and throw behind the shed to rot, as scousers said I lay mine in the bottom of the carrot beds and anything that dries out quickly. ;D ;D ;D
thanks folks!
I just went to Exeter Council today and bought an extremely large compost bin especially for just leaves £10:00. My own council charges £19:00 :o.
Make sure the leaves are wet, they rot down quicker ::)
I contacted streetcare (the department that sweeps the leaves) and collected 3 bags from them, while i was there i asked if a van load could be delivered straight to the allotment.
I was meant to have 70 bags delivered to our allotment yesterday, but they did not turn up.
I will phone their manager tomorrow to try and arrange another delivery.
Neil
Another bag snared as I walked to the lottie from work, theres a few more scattered about, so I will check them out tomorrow. ;D ;D ;D
from our garden and surrounding trees we manage to collect at least 12 large bags every year and they get spread amongst all the compost bins on the allotment - it is quite a lot of work I'd rather not have to do but it is always worth it in the long run :)
the council does not clear them they are just left to clog the drains and gutters :(
I popped over the allotment earlier and there must be over 70 bags full, some of the other plot holders have taken some so i have no idea how many they dropped off.
Some have a couple of crisp packets in but that is no big deal as all the hard work has been done.
Neil
Coming home from my mates halloween party I spotted a wet back of council leaves ;D at the end of my road, as I started to drag it down the road my 11 year old today, looked at me horrified :o and asked what the hell are you doing, the young daughter who normally drags her feet, suddenly found a spurt of energy and was ten yards in front of me before I knew it, don't think she was embarrassed do you. :-[ :-[ :-[ ;D ;D ;D ;D
Great minds think alike. I have seen the white bags full of leaves that the Council have swept up but have been too embarrassed to pick them up. Perhaps I will creep out after dark and bag a few. If I take my wheelbarrow people will think I am a bag lady. Probably get arrested for stealing Council leaves.
This is how many are left after some of the others have already taken some ;D
I have taken 10 bags before i took the pictures.
(http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x296/nilly71/allotment/01112008772.jpg)
(http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x296/nilly71/allotment/01112008773.jpg)
Its well worth asking the local council to deliver
Neil
Got another two Saturday night coming back from my club. ;D ;D ;D
Another three today. ;D ;D ;D
Leaf it out, mate!
;D
You are lucky - I've never seen our council sweep up leaves. I used to get them from the neighbours until the council gave everyone a wheelie bin for garden rubbish so I don't get bags from them any more. Might have to go surreptitiously road sweeping now.
I'm going to try putting a wanted ad on freecycle- I'll offer to help collecting the leaves but hope a few people might have stacks of bags ready for me to pick up- save them a trip to the tip!
cornykev, any more bags of leaves yet. Still plenty of white bags around in Enfield and loads more leaves that need sweeping up. Everytime I see a bag I think of you and it makes me laugh. Some of them are a bus ride away and I refuse to get on the bus, using my OAP bus pass with bags of leaves or may get put in a home. Luckily there are loads on the allotment near the playing fields but have to get there quick as other allotment holders want them. Do you realise that there are people that do not realise the value of these bags of leaves and just think leaves are a bl....y nuisance. Also seen some really good wood, glass frames in skips lately, one man's rubbish is another man's gold. Definitely turning into a bag lady, all I need is a supermarket trolley and I can go out at night and fill it up.
Haringey, the neighbouring borough to mine (Barnet), gives large white bags to residents to collect leaves. Some friends of mine have a couple of bags full and say I can have them instead of the council. Another couple down the road from me have given me half a dozen black plastic sacks full. It's amazing what you can get if you ask. Lots of crumbly leaf mould next year.
Well, I can report that freecycle worked for me. I got five or six offers and spent a nice hour or so this morning chatting to a lovely lady while we raked up and bagged enough leaves to fill the back of my car. She had broken her leg recently so was glad of the help, so we were both happy.
I think our council puts them straight in a trailer, so not much chance of any bags that way.
Slightly off thread, but how do you store your leaves? I know the two usual ways are either in black bags, or in a wire mesh container, but these two methods would seem to be completely different environments. What are the pros and cons of each?
Quote from: caroline7758 on November 16, 2008, 22:42:09
Slightly off thread, but how do you store your leaves? I know the two usual ways are either in black bags, or in a wire mesh container, but these two methods would seem to be completely different environments. What are the pros and cons of each?
i store mine in a darleck compost bin. the only thing as its not open to the elements you have to make sure the leaves a very wet so they will rot faster.
Last year I got them from under the trees in the supermarket carpark on Sunday after it had closed...this was so my teenage son would help.This year I just collected them already bagged from my friend who lives next to a church with many large trees over her fence. i just replaced her black bags after two trips including coffee I have 20 bags full with virtually no effort on my part! ;D
She also has an open fire so she's going to save the ash for me as well. I just need to grow more so I can 'pay' her back.
I knew you would twig it Amazing. ;) Borlotti I have loads of bags stacked up now, including all the ones I swept up from the park, but as you say there are loads of bags along the roadside and still more loose along the road, maybe if our neighbours from Barnet want any they only have to HOP on to the 307 bus at the Arkley Hotel to Brimsdown and keep up the good work Caroline you might find you'll have more offers than you can cope with. ;D ;D ;D
Yeah, today I saw the first "Offered- leaves" ad on freecycle- I restricted mine to within a few miles, so got about 4 or five offers then posted that I'd got enough!
This is how the council collects leaves in my area, so no packaged bags lying around for me to collect, but the grove of 11 oak trees in the front of my house sheds enough for me to collect a builders bag full each autumn :D.
(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk187/thifasmom/IMG_1071.jpg)
(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk187/thifasmom/IMG_1073.jpg)
Just walked back from the plot past a lady who had been sweeping leaves out of her garden from a tree on the pavement. She was about to take six huge bags to the dump. Guess who's taking the car round there later!