Just a quickie for any newbies, the council are leaving bags of leaves around our streets get in quick and snare them for your lottie. ;D ;D ;D
I don't believe it, but as I was looking at the bags of leaves, thought I do know someone that will be stalking the streets at night/early morning, picking up. If he is not picking up leaves he will be going through the recycling bins, or I could put you in touch with some good skips. I will download my photo in a minute just to make Cornykev jealous, guess what the Council delivered today. Sorry Kev if you have been taking some stick, but think you love it really (you don't really look like the scarecrow (much), he is better looking. ;D ;D ;D
Unfortunately our council piles them into trailers and takes them away. :( Guess I should be glad they are not putting all those plastic bags into landfill.
We asked our council for leaves and where told they use them all on the parks ect :(
We must be very lucky because we get regular deliveries of leaves to our site at this time of year. Yesterday they brought us a nice heap which were mixed with grass cuttings.
what do you actually DO with em?
I worry about the dog mess mixed in around here, we gather ours from places like asda, after asking, and around the bowling green near the plots ;D
btw, elvis, we put most in a 'dalek' to break down and some in the bottom of the carrot and parsnip beds, last year we mulched our early potatoes with them :)
thanks manics,ive had some in a dalek for 2 years now,and they dont look much different ha ha,still collecting them though
We collect ours from around our street (lots of trees). Bag it up, take to the plot and put in a leaf bin.
my ultimate ambition, sad though it is, is to keep enough leaf mould to make my own potting compost ;D
lol manics,im absolutely sure you will!
Aren't you worried that leaves from the street are contaminated with oil, diesel and worse?
We get loads on leaves on the opposite side of our street but I have never thought I wanted to harvest them.
I have been collecting leaves for a couple of weeks now. They have been dry but today we have had rain so tomorrow they will be damp and I will use those in my haystack. Last year I did not pick up many (not enough time for personal reasons) but most of those have degraded and been dug in where they were stored. This time I will try a few black bags and try mixing some with the grass.
I did ask the trees and they kept throwing more leaves at me so I thought they were content that I should have them.
My clay soil needs the improvemnent.
Bill
The council deliver them to the lottie either by the pedestrian cleaners or by the HGV cleaners, they have delivered 4 loads today
Hi all,
I`ve collected leaves for leaf mould ever since I got my plot, Its harder now as my hip joints are much worse than when I started so I have a cage on my top plot for friends to drop bags of leaves from their gardens into and the council may or may not deliver leaves to the site this year. Unfortunately they put a notice up a few weeks ago informing us that deliveries of green waste to the car park would be treated as fly-tipping. So they might have to prosecute themselves if they do deliver. ???
If I harvest them from the street I try to leave the gritty long standing stuff from the bottom but apart from that leaves on the top haven`t been there long enough to be contaminated. I`ve never encountered dog poo or glass but I always wear thick gloves.
I have found that they don`t rot off in bags so I prefer to make big stacks in pallet cages. The soil that has leaf mould added is noticebly improved and very productive and that make the effort worth while.
Col
I've been using leaves and grass cuttings from a local garden contractor for ten years. I've never asked where they come from but there's always the odd sweet paper in it. That's the worst I've ever found, and my crops are perfectly healthy.
In our area we have green compost bags for householders to put grass clippings and anything green from the garden.
This time of year the bags are full of leaves and the council only collects every other week. Sooooooo, I have become my neighbours weekly collection - from street to plot in about 5 mins and I bring the bags back on my return from the plot. They think I'm a bit bonkers but I'm still a few years away from wearing a purple hat! ;)
Sure has taken the hard work out of leaf collection ;D ;D ;D
Quote from: manicscousers on October 23, 2009, 10:22:06
we put most in a 'dalek' to break down and some in the bottom of the carrot and parsnip beds, last year we mulched our early potatoes with them :)
Sounds like a good use for them manics (I put mine in my bean beds last year) but might try (and remember!) to put some in with the carrots and parsnips
Thanks!
I've counted 40 odd bags of leaves on the way to pick up the little un from school in the last two days and the bloody council van has thrown them on the back of his van by the time I get back, how comes there was 6 bags left down my road for two weeks with street rubbish in them and no bugger picked them up sharpish. :( :( :( ;D ;D ;D
Seems like all the councils are up to this. I'm sure I don't remember them sweeping and bagging leaves with so much gusto before. Wonder what reasoning they give for spending so much effort doing this? I emailed our council but didn't get a reply. It makes me mad they just chuck the bags of leaves in with the other rubbish!
There's a council (Calderdale I think),who got an environmental innovation award for doing stuff with its leaves. Why can't they all follow suit. ???
We got a delivery of leaves from the council yesterday, but of course they've dumped them on top of the wood chips. :( What with the huge pile of mushroom compost and various horse manure mini mountains it's actually quite hard to get to your plot!! ;D
I felt sorry for the Council bloke sweeping up the leaves as it was very windy that day and it didn't look any better after he had finished. Probably better to wait for all the leaves to fall and do it in one go, but I suppose if someone slips on the pavement they could sue. We have a special Council leaf van that collects them and they don't go with the normal rubbish, they go to be made into compost, which the Council use on their beds, parks and any left over if you ask nicely gets delivered to the allotment. But there won't be many leaves left if Enfield if Cornykev is around night and day collecting. ;D ;D ;D
Quote from: grawrc on November 07, 2009, 17:11:45
We got a delivery of leaves from the council yesterday, but of course they've dumped them on top of the wood chips. :( What with the huge pile of mushroom compost and various horse manure mini mountains it's actually quite hard to get to your plot!! ;D
Wish we had that problem, Anne- we get nothing delivered! :(
My leaf composter requires 40 bags a year, although I get about 15 bags from the garden, its not enough.
Now it gets dark early, I sneak out, late evening, and fill the car with bags of leaves. If you know when the collections are due, its positively a gold mine.
I then spread them in the grass back at home and use the lawn mower to shred them and pick them up again. Straight into the composter, and if they're a bit dry, soak them with the hose - if they re dry they wont rot down.
In the spring/summer I also collect grass cuttings from the neighbours (again under the cover of dark), which when mixed in with the leaves warm it up and add moisture.
Turning the whole lot over not only mixes the stuff, but also adds oxygen.
Its the combination of moisture and oxygen that the microbes need to decompose the leaves.
Mine's done in 12 months, just in time to start all over again.
Slug-killer I have a strange picture in my head of you going round your neighbours gardens in the Summer with your lawnmower in tow & the neighbours waking up & wondering what on earth is going on ;D ;D ;D.
We have a Jim's Mowing franchise man as one of our neighbours so I think I will ask if he has any leaves to get rid of ;).
You mean like a secret Lawnmower Man, robbing the rich of their grass ? ;D
I can't be bothered to actually cut the grass, I just 'harvest' the bagged up stuff - let them do the hard work. :)
Another bump for the newcomers amongst us, I hope I'm not upsetting any council workers out there. :-X ;D ;D ;D
Thanks kev will be out collecting this week
Oh sounds fun, I've got my eye on a couple of piles of grass clippings and hedge trimmings in the hedge down the allotment......might have look out for some leaves too :)
Begining to feel a bit hard done by of late. No free bees of any sort delivered to our site. The only thing we've had is a rent rise.
I've been trying to get our allotments officer to deal with fly tipping on the site. We no who it is and its been going on along time.
Reps meeting in Nov so am going to take a couple of plot holders with me to ask why nothings being done.
Hope your having a good halloween and have a save and happy bonfire night. Won't be around so much in the next few weeks so take care. Regards, Taurus.