Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. - Cyril Connolly
Monday, November 20, 2006
Mulch
My yard is the size of most people's first floor. It's only about 900 square feet with privacy fences on either side and a brick wall along the back. It also has a big ass Siberian Elm tree growing like a weed in the corner. It's by far the largest tree on the entire street.
Described by horticultural writer Dr Michael Dirr as "one of, if not the, world's worst trees...a poor ornamental that does not deserve to be planted anywhere".
Nice. It's also a dirty tree. It spews sap like rain this time of year and drops all of its leaves into the yard, which acts like a big basket. Raking it up only takes an hour or so due to the amount of real estate involved, but it's sticky and nasty, and the tree tends to drop its leaves over a period of mid-November to nearly New Year, so I have to clean it up nearly every weekend from now on.
So I succumbed to the lure of a leaf blower / vac for $60 at Lowe's over the weekend. Woooo---eeee! A half hour later, I had two bags of finely mulched leaves and twigs instead of 4-5 bags of sticky, wet, nasty leaves and twigs sticking out of the bags. Better yet, my back and legs don't hurt today. Good investment.
Why don't this year's unraked leaves count as next year's mulch?
We have been pondering that and related questions on a gardening blog. Come visit, and leave a comment: http://indianhillmediaworks.typepad.com/gardentalk/2006/11/index.html
Seriously? 60 beans? What brand?