Leaf Hacks

[Edco Haglund]

Insteadof using a noisy leaf blower or labor-intensive rake to clean up her leaves, Lane simply takes a large cardboard box and uses it as a shovel, pushing large piles of leaves at a time into a pile.

Not only that, but the cardboard and your piled-up leaves can come in handy later if you own a raised garden bed. They're great to pack in underneath your soil. If you don't have a raised garden bed, the cardboard and the leaves can still be composted for your flowers or other plants.

They require excellent drainage, which can seemingly limit your pot options. They can grow massive, which makes them difficult to move. And, of course, there are all the regular annoying things with being a plant parent in general, like pots marking up your floors and furniture!

I love to put my larger trees on rolling plant platforms or dollies to make moving them easier (or even possible in some cases!). You can find these at hardware stores or online. They come in tons of different styles, so you should have no trouble finding one to match your planter and decor.

One of the first rules of fiddle leaf fig care is to make sure your plant has excellent drainage. But what if you fall in love with a planter that has no drainage holes? What if you want to put your tree in a basket? (This is my favorite!)

This works really well for small- to medium-sized trees that are easy to lift in and out of the planter. When you water the plant, simply remove it from the decorative planter and place it in a sink, shower, or outdoors where it can drain. Add your water, let it drain, and replace it in the decorative pot or basket!

This drove me crazy until I realized that I could put simple felt pads on the bottoms of my planters! Chances are, you may have some of these laying around that came with furniture you purchased, but you can also buy them at most stores and online.

Suckers or stems that grew between the main branch and a leaf stem should be plucked off. They would use too much energy from your plant and prevent it from fruiting a lot. You could plant them in another pot and just water a lot. Let them soak in water for some days and they will eventually grow roots and pot once they started rooting.

@thecryptofiend Tell your Mom I second that - it's not just psychological. I don't spray anything on my tomatoes, I just add compost in the soil - organic vegetable peels only - they smell and taste different than that of the supermarket.

Congratulations on your tomatoes!

I have grown them this year - broken a lot of your rules and managed to get away with it, I'm pleased to say.

My tomatoes have taken over the greenhouse and I expect to see Tarzan one day when I harvest them.

@michelle.gent thank you!

You're growing tomatoes in the greenhouse - that's the perfect place to grow for them as I mentioned in the post.

Lucky you. I suppose you'll be harvesting soon? Cheers to homegrown!

I've been harvesting them for a few weeks in any quantity. We took a tub full of them to Brittany three weeks ago, enough to last all week. I came back and took the same amount off again, prompting my experiment with tomato soup (Yum!)

I have quite a few to pick later today and on Friday I took a dozen or so round to one of my elderly neighbours.

This morning, another one of my elderly neighbours brought me a bag of his tomatoes, twice as many as I gave away - Karma works FAST sometimes :)

@switapril you really have to make a verification post with you holding that steemit paper - you can overlap the old post with new posts but the @steemcleaners would still be looking into your post. I suggest that you do that soon.

We've all seen the heart-warming ads where children and dogs jump into this massive pile of leaves and make it seems like leaf-raking is the ultimate way to spend time with the family, enjoy fall, find pleasure in the small things, and so forth (and what have you).

The truth of the matter is nobody likes raking leaves. Not unless it's the only quiet moment in your day, and you enjoy being outside in the cold, with your headphones on and listening to your favorite music. Unless you're that kind of person, raking leaves is just tedious yard work.

First of all, your lawn needs to breathe. Imagine what would happen if you covered your flowers with a rug. The grass can quickly get smothered under the carpet of leaves if you don't have them removed by snowfall. Additionally, the bed of leaves can act as a barrier that prevents water and nutrient from entering the soil. Not to mention the fact that your grass needs fresh air to get to its roots.

Even more, there is a high chance that all sorts of unwanted critters will make cozy shelters under the bed of leaves, and you don't want that to happen. Depending on the area where you live, we would even be talking snakes.

A couple of years ago, The Washington Post published an article with a very different leaf raking approach. After doing a little bit of research and talking to a couple of specialists, they concluded that leaf raking is an unnecessary task. It would be better if you looked at the matter from a different perspective.

Having spoken to a turfgrass researcher from a university, going over your "fall garden carpet" with a lawnmower is a better idea not just for your tired arms but also for the sake of your soil. Due to the organic matter inside them, leaves can benefit the soil in the long run. Further, since you don't need any fancy rakes to get rid of leaves, you can save time and money. Even more, should your current lawnmower have a chute or a bag, close it up to make sure that the leaves are left in the mower and chopped up.

As you've guessed by now, this process helps transfer nutrients from the leaves into the soil, thus pushing your grass towards better growth for next year. Studies were also conducted to confirm or destroy the myth that too many organic materials transferred from the leaves to the ground changes the soil's chemistry and causes it to be less fertile. Myth busted!

But here is where things get interesting. Studies have shown another hidden benefit of getting rid of leaves by running them over with a lawnmower: they can suppress weeds. Mulching leaves can reduce dandelions by about 84% in the next season.

Wait, you didn't think it was that simple, did you? There is such a thing as too many leaves, and experts suggest that you remove some of them before the lawnmower vs. leaves carnage starts. Long story short: the leaves-to-grass ratio needs to be about 50-50. In other words: if you stare at the ground and see more leaves than ground beneath them, you will need to remove some of them to even out the balance.

If you're not entirely convinced about the efficiency of the methods mentioned above, let's talk about the traditional way of raking leaves, as shown in this video. So, let's go over the best practices that are used to rake leaves.

First of all, make sure you invest in a quality rake. The rake should be lightweight to make it easy for you to maneuver it. It should also have a handle that's long enough to avoid too much bending over and back problems. A rake with a broad end means that you can rake more leaves at once.

When grabbing the handle of your rake, make sure you do so with both hands and also switch hand positions now and then. Your knees should be slightly bent, but not too much as to cause strain on your waist and legs. It will also be easier if you rake the leaves towards you as you take steps backward.

You should look for ways to avoid going to the trash can or whatever spot you drop your leaves on after more than necessary for easier raking. There are a lot of ways to solve this problem. You can use a large bag and place it next to you at all times.

Empty it whenever it's full of leaves. Alternatively, you can use a wheelbarrow for the leaves, a cardboard box, or even a tarp. The goal is to have a generous space recipient so that you won't have to travel too much to the dumping spot after picking up a rake-full of leaves.

If you've never dealt with raking leaves, then you need to know the right time to start raking and how often it needs to be done. While there isn't an exact rule and a precise answer, some hints will tell you to pick up the rake and start cleaning the yard.

Generally speaking, it isn't recommended to leave the leaves (no pun intended) on the grass for more than four days. But this also depends on how wet the leaves are and how thick or thin the leaves' layer is. Wet leaves weigh more, which means that the grass under them is smothering when too many leaves start to pile up.

It's also important to consider the size of your yard and plan accordingly. Having an oversized yard means you need to allocate a more extensive time slot to perform this chore. If you have many trees, that also means more work, so you'll have to start early. Another critical factor is the equipment you're using. People who own a leaf-blower will have a much easier job than people who use a regular leaf rake.

While there are many tools that people use to rake leaves, most prefer the traditional rake. As you can imagine, there are good rakes and bad rakes, and there is an entire process you have to go through before buying one, as you need to understand what makes a leaf rake appropriate.

Leaf rakes should be designed to be light because you will often find yourself fiddling with it for hours, and you don't want it to take a toll on your body by being too heavy and straining your arms.

On a general note, most leaf rakes are lightweight, and their heads are shaped like fans. They have springy tines that are radiated outwards. These times are springy because you don't want them to damage the grass underneath while you're raking leaves. You need to able to glide the head of the rake gently over the leaves without having the tines stick into the ground or scratching the surface.

There are all sorts of materials used to construct a rake: from bamboo, polypropylene, and even steel. While steel rakes are believed to be sturdier, bamboo and polypropylene rakes won't rust over time. However, you need to pay attention to the tines wire (the one that holds them together) and make sure you oil and store it in proper conditions to avoid rust.

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