The massive sycamore (Platanus × hispanica) in our neighbor’s front yard provides valuable shade for her house, but in the fall, it becomes the bane of my existence. It produces a seemingly endless stream of leaves – large leaves that curl up and are difficult to dislodge with a leaf blower.
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| Our neighbor’s sycamore at the very beginning of its leaf drop |
Because of our prevailing winds (typically from the north), a lot of the sycamore leaves get blown our way. The most immediate destination is the driveway bed my friend Kyle helped me redo last December (see here). This bed is full of hechtias, agaves, and aloes – spiky, toothy, and/or prickly plants that trap the leaves and make manual removal painful.
In an effort to make my life a little easier, I decided to try something new: bird netting, like you would use in an orchard to prevent birds from eating the fruit. And it seems to be doing the trick. Here’s a photo of the leaves piling up on our neighbor’s side instead of being blown into ours:
The netting I bought comes in a
7 × 100 ft. roll. To get good coverage, I had to overlap three layers, but since they’re not connected in the middle, a strong wind will blow them apart. As a result, some leaves do end up under the netting:
Plan A (the current netting, 7 × 100 ft. with an 0.8 × 0.8 in. mesh size) is proof of concept, but because of the overlapping layers, it’s not as effective as I want. Plan B will be a big improvement:
25 × 50 ft. netting that will cover the bed completely. It’s too windy to install it today, but I will as soon as the wind has died down.
I should have plenty of netting left over for the area you see below, basically an extension of the driveway bed. Once I’ve removed all the leaves that are there now, I’ll throw netting over this bed as well.
This is an experiment that may not yield perfect results, but even if it cuts down on leaf accumulation by half, it will be a big improvement. That would be a big help, considering our neighbor’s sycamore will shed leaves for another 6 to 8 weeks.
12/19/24 UPDATE: Click here for an update to find out how well the netting worked.
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That is one huge tree! I hope your temporary solution does the trick. The leaves of multiple liquidamber trees across the street from us blow in our direction but the hedge running along the street seems to keep the bulk of them out of my garden beds - and the gardeners who tidy up both our yards on a weekly basis thankfully vacuum up the majority of what accumulates.
ReplyDeleteA hedge is perfect for catching leaves and other debris!
DeleteMy neighbors to the north have no trees so I don't have to deal with that . I like to make compost so my own leaves (one birch and two Crepe Myrtles) either stay on the ground or go into the compost bin. Once leaf drop is over I'll get my shop-vac out and suck up all the leaves that are stuck in the agaves, yuccas and cordylines and empty them into my compost. I like your solution too. I think I parked in the shade of that Sycamore when I visited last month !
ReplyDeleteYep, you parked under that sycamore.
DeleteI've heard that these large leaves take a long time to decompose so not ideal for compost.
Yikes and I thought I had a problem with citrus and Texas Olive leaves! Looks like you may have a solution!
ReplyDeleteI sure hope so. Even a small victory would make me happy.
DeleteThere is a reason these plants don't live together I guess. The netting is a good idea. I have the same issue in my rock garden though thankfully my plants aren't nearly as spiny as yours.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem with these sycamore leaves is that they curl up and get stuck. And once they're stuck (typically inside an agave or aloe rosette), they don't get blown away by the wind.
DeleteI wish I could do something like this in our garden. I swear I need a retractable roof over our entire lot. I wish Andrew would get on that.
ReplyDeleteI've been dreaming of a Star Trek-style force field over the entire garden to keep leaves and other debris out. Dirt, too :-)
DeleteHope that netting works for you. What a beautiful monster of a tree. Here the wind is so strong a lot of leaves simply vanish--I wonder where they all go. The oak leaves seem to fall straight down and stay. They don't fly well.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Most of the leaves on our garden come from the Oak forest in the backyard. So...most get raked further into the woods. Some stay on the garden beds, but Oak leaves, unlike other species, can take years to break down. I love the trees, but I do get tired of the leaves, especially this time of year.
ReplyDeleteThis is great, and worth the effort. It is a pita picking leaves out, even worse when it starts to get wet. I went so far as to get a leaf vacuum, but it doesn't work as well as I'd hoped. I love your force field idea, or Loree's retractable roof. Yes please -with shade cloth for the summer.
ReplyDelete