Disappearing under a carpet if leaves.

I've been wondering about that, Luckygirl. Our small front garden is like a wind trap and we get all the dead leaves from the trees in front.
As it's our first year here I'm going to leave them and see if they rot down into a mulch.
There are a few fuschias and small roses there.

Do you know anyone that makes their own compost. Leaves are great for this once they rot down. Just a thought

Leaves do make good compost but they take an age to rot down.
DH has spent days clearing up the leaves here - as soon as it looks a bit clearer and we can get to the front door, down come another lot from neighbours' trees.
I have been saying that we need to move to somewhere where we can see trees but in the far distance Luckylegs9.

I don't think they do the lawn any good if they are left. Could you find someone to come and have a good clear up when they are all down?

ps I think they would be OK left until they're all down but would need clearing before winter.

Luckylegs9 It depends what sort of leaves they are. Some break down better than others.

I have the same problem. When I first moved here (at the right-angle of an L-shaped cul-de-sac) I suggested to the neighbours that we shared in buying a top-of-the-range leaf vac but they weren't interested. I realised why when it seemed that I was the only one who got everybody's leaves due to being on the right-angle. The worst leaves are from Plane trees, of which there are 3 at one side of my house on a council-owned swathe of grass, and some of the leaves are the size of dinner plates.

One year when I was ill I just left the leaves where they fell but they wrecked grass and plants.

The trees are on council owned land but the council don't care. I battle with them via email every year. Sometimes they send a truck down with a whooshy-brush thing that sweeps and sucks up, but they never give advance notice and sometimes it comes at 7 am and people's cars are parked outside and it can't get round. I have seen the driver check out the situation and just reverse out and park up and have a fag!

The leaves are getting slimy now and mushed down and as the road slopes, our cars skid and can't grip the tarmac.

I worry about falling over. Last year the leaves were ankle-deep - dry on the top and slimy underneath, so treacherous. I also have 3 trees opposite my house which are ash and the leaves that fall on the grass beneath just break down, but those that completely cover my car like an Army camouflage net, and those that fall on the ground, just go soggy.

It costs me money every year as I am now 22 years older since I moved here, with health problems and a back and neck injury, and couldn't possibly deal with them all myself.

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after years of battling kneedeep leaves-raking, hauling or burning when it was acceptable.
i invested in a leafblower.it gathers them in a pile.
then it has a reverse blade that sucks up the leaves and shreds them to tiny bits and deposits them into an attached bag.mulch for compost heap and have even given it away to others.works a charm and takes very little time,

I don’t know what happened to my words earlier! Your leaf blower / vacuum sounds good, mimiro

I was about to suggest a blower as well. Blow the leaves onto the flower and/or vegetable beds, then reverse the blade, but take the bag off so that the broken up leaves are distributed on the flower beds. Once broken up like that the wind will not blow them around and they make a marvelous mulch for the beds over the winter and, com the spring will be drawn into the soil by worms.

I leave them to mulch their own way down if they land on the flower beds and so far it seems to have done no harm. They just have a warm winter blanket.

But I do try and clear the ones on the gravel - a bit of a challenge! - and also on the grass.

I do have a leaf blower, but I am always a bit wary of it on suck/mince mode as you have a fiendish blade swirling about on your side! Also it is virtually impossible to stop it also sucking up gravel, so minced gravel is not what is wanted.

I have far too many leaves for them to be sucked up as the bag would need emptying every few minutes. I have borrowed one and tried.

We have a large garden with lots of trees in it and around us, So masses of leaves. We add some to the flower and shrub borders, and only really clear the lawn. Those leaves go on our compost heap.

I get huge quantities of leaves from nearby trees. I do pay a gardner for a couple of hours a week, so before he stops for the winter, he spends part of this time leaf-clearing.

It's not a good idea to put many leaves in a normal compost heap, as leaves break down in a different way from other vegetation, and take longer. If you have room to create a special bin or heap for leaves, they can be piled in there, covered up and left for year or two. Another way is to stuff the leaves into plastic sacks, close them off and leave them to break down there. The leaves should be kept damp, so you can add some water before covering or sealing them off.

The result should be lovely crumbly leaf mould, which can be used to condition the soil or use as a mulch.

We moved to escape our huge amount of leaves! .
Before that we had a blower/ collector machine, but it was heavy to use. Then DH hit upon the idea of mowing them up. They’re shredded and compacted to put into a garden bag. Of course you then have to take them to the tip!
Years ago in our first season of leaves we optimistically bagged them up for leaf mould. It was some years before it had rotted down.

If you mow the leaves you will get a little grass and the leaves will be broken, both things help speed up the decomposing.

I did that Grannyticktock but 18 months later they still hadn't broken down much.

Maybe it depends what type of tree. The leaves in our garden are from a kind of maple. They were beautiful a few weeks ago in their autumn colours.

Raking the leaves on a nice autumn day is absolutely my most favourite garden job of the year.

Where we live now we are surrounded by trees, in our garden, next doors garden (both sides) and as many again at the front. My rule is not to even start raking until all the leaves are down. I take my time, I have a rhythm and two different sized rakes. It is quite impossible to do it all in a day. It gets done bit by bit over a fortnight.

We pack all the leaves into those huge 1 cubic metre builders bags and take them to the tip only about a mile away (fortunately). We have an estate car so with the parcel shelf out and the back seat down we can get two sacks in it at the same time.

With a bit of luck I should start this week and may well have done a second tidy-up rake by Christmas - then there is all those pesky gutters to clean out.

Luckylegs, mow the law! That will pick them up and chop them at the same time. Spread around shrubs and the flower beds as a weed suppressant/soil improver.

P.S Husband advises to set the mower on high cut to reduce cutting the grass too much.

get a leaf blower and blow then back where they came from lol

As SpringyChicken has said they will feed the lawn and flower beds if left in situ. Or you could rake them up into black bin liners, tie up and just leave them to rot down. Takes about a year aand then you'll have a great mulch for the garden.

We have a stand of trees at the back of our garden but all the leaves end up on the adjacent farm, so DH walks up the road 2 or 3 times each Autumn with a wheel barrow collecting all the fallen leaves and bags them up. It keeps the pavement free of slippery leaves and provides us with leaf mulch the following year. All our ericaceous plants really appreciate it!

Yes they will. But why not invest in one of those leaf vacuums?

Watching Monty Don on his gardening programmes, he had some sort of wooden enclosure were he raked up the leaves and then put them in this to rot down for mulch. Could you maybe get something like this ready made from a garden centre, or a local joiner make you one. This way you could just keep adding the leaves into it and eventually they will rot down to mulch and can then be used to protect various plants and shrubs in your garden. The one Monty used had removable planks that built up as necessary and equally taken off individually when mulch ready to use.
PS I realise that MD had a very large garden to deal with, but this idea could be scaled back for a smaller garden.