Fall is a special time of year. Trees turning all kinds of color, what a beautiful sight that is.
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| Our neighbor’s massive London plane tree |
But pretty soon the pretty leaves begin to fall – first a few, then a few hundred, then countless thousand. And somehow most of them end up in our garden, getting stuck in the center of agaves and aloes and swallowing up smaller plants almost entirely.
See for yourself.
I could have posted just a few photos to illustrate my point, but what would be the fun in that? Why limit yourself to one or two images when you can have a dozen or more! Plus, taking pictures of the annual leafageddon is the first step towards actually cleaning them up.
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| Agave sebastiana and Malephora crocea |
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| Grevillea ‘Scarlet Sprite’ and Mangave ‘Permanent Wave’ |
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| Rainbow hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus rigidissimus ssp. rubrispinus) |
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| Echinocereus rigidissimus ssp. rubrispinus |
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| This Aloe ‘Apache’ is almost completely buried, just the inflorescence sticking out |
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| Agave zebra and Mangave ‘Sponge Paint’ |
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| Agave pelona |
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| Agave shawii × isthmensis |
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| Agave ‘Ripple Effect’, illustrating why it’s important to remove the debris from the center before it becomes a soggy mess the next time it rains |
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| Dwarf Mount Whitney form of Opuntia basilaris, playing Where’s Waldo |
Speaking of cleanup, I was going to wait until our neighbor’s massive London plane tree has shed most of its leaves, but it’s probably best to tackle leaf removal in successive stages. There’s little rain in the forecast, so now’s the time to get stuck in. Rain would pack down the leaves and other accumulated debris, raising the potential of rot at worst or staining at best. So come Saturday, I’ll don my sturdy gauntlet gloves and scoop handfuls of leaves out of spiky plants. At least it’s good exercise!
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| The prettiest Chinese pistache tree in our neighborhood, most likely a male. Contrary to what we’d specified, our Chinese pistache tree ended up being a female, producing tons of berries but sorely lacking in the leaf color department. |
© Gerhard Bock, 2023. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.
For me it is a constant battle with citrus and Texas olive leaves all year long. At 77 my back is getting too old for constant cleanup. But what can I do, I need the shade here in Arizona and so I do my best. I have a landscaper a couple of time a year but do not trust them to blow all the leaves out as they clomp around in by plants. Of course we get so little rain that I have never had any rot!
ReplyDeleteIf only we didn't have two plane trees nearby, one next door and one across the street. Then I might get away with one or two cleanups....
DeleteI received an electric leaf blower for my birthday last year. It works like a dream blowing willow catkins and leaves out of my rock garden that has several large opuntia in it. No damage and the job can be done in a matter of minutes.
ReplyDeleteI use my leaf blower regularly, but plane tree leaves are very large and dry up into claw-like shapes that are very difficult to blow...
DeleteThe leaves look nice, dry & crunchy. I failed to do my mini clean this week, and of course we DID get a little rain last night. Hopefully we will dry out today and I can deal with it. Did you get rain there?
ReplyDeleteWould you believe it, it rained last night. Not much, maybe 0.02", but enough to get everything soggy.
DeleteDo you have a leaf vacuum, Gerhard? I bought a Leaf Hog many years ago and it's helped a LOT with leaves. It blows as well as sucking leaves up but I only use the vacuum function. I don't have as many deciduous trees as you appear to have but even the 3 I have overwhelm me with the amount of leaves they drop. Admittedly, I have to be careful using it to prevent damage around succulents but, even if I sweep leaves off those plants manually, the vacuum helps pick up everything I sweep out. And it shreds the leaves so I can dump them directly in my compost bin - a win-win!
ReplyDeleteA leaf vacuum sounds like the perfect tool for this. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to use a corded model (too far away from an outlet), and the cordless models don't appear to be as powerful. Will do more research.
DeleteI have seen and heard about leaf vacuums and blowers but the one we own is so heavy I can not hold it for very long. Does anyone know of one of these that is light in weight so I can hold and do the work with it?
ReplyDeleteI'm looking at cordless models. The one by Greenworks looks to be the most powerful, but it's also the most pensive at $265. The KIMO leaf blower/vacuum is only $69, but doesn't get the greatest reviews.
DeleteI just found a cordless Greenworks leaf blower that is "lightweight" and costs $85 on Amazon. I bought it and will see how it works for me. Thanks for the tip, Gerhard!
DeleteIf that's the Greenworks blower that I have Nancy I think you'll love it. I generally prefer to rake/sweep/grab by the handful, but occasionally a blower is the only answer my Greenworks blower is not too heavy and not too loud.
DeleteI feel your pain! All the neighbor's leaves blow right across their lawns and end up trapped in my plants. Of course it's the worst for the succulents because of the possibility of rot. I do at least weekly clean-ups targeted for the dry days.
ReplyDeleteI cover my beds with a floating row cover during leaf fall, then peel it off when the leaves are done. Works well.
ReplyDeleteGerhard, I suggest the Toro 51619 model $129 at Home Depot. This has a metal impeller (the part that shreds the leaves) whereas in many models it's made of plastic and won't last long especially since you'll accidentally vacuum up sticks or small rocks. It is corded, but an outdoor extension cord doesn't cost much at Home Depot or Amazon. A cord up to 50 ft long can be 14 gauge or 14/3 as it's known; if you need 100 ft get the 12 gauge (a smaller gauge means a thicker wire.)
ReplyDeleteAlso good are 15-inch reptile feeding tongs about $10 for a set of two at Amazon (they look like giant tweezers.)
We can't get away from the fallen leaf/soggy rain conundrum here. Rain always seems to coincide with leaf fall. Terrible on all of the smaller broadleaf evergreens. I've got a little manzanita whose leaves turned black within 48 hours because I didn't remove the fallen poplar leaves in time. Suspecting it will be fine and grow out of it in spring though. Love our battery operated - powerful and relatively quiet.
ReplyDelete