I’m in HGTV Magazine October 2014 issue
While waiting in line at the grocery store checkout this morning, I flipped through the latest issue of HGTV Magazine and was absurdly pleased to see my own name on page 27, in their monthly feature, “How Bad Is It…”
You’re right, it really doesn’t take much to make me happy. Especially when grocery shopping, one of my least favorite household chores. (Laundry is my favorite.)
HGTV writer Jessica Dodell-Feder recently interviewed me to ask, “How bad is it to never rake?” My cheerful advice is that a mulching mower will put your rake out of business — good news for those whose least favorite household chore is raking leaves.
So how about you? Do you rake your leaves in Zen meditation or as an aerobic workout? Or do you enjoy running over them with a mulching mower (preferably electric for less noise and no pollution), shredding them into compost for your soil, zip-zip and you’re done? I prefer the latter — when I have a lawn at all.
I’m off to read the rest of the magazine over lunch. It looks like a good issue, with lots of house makeovers and ideas for using stone in your garden. Luckily it’s too early for any of us to be raking or mower-mulching autumn leaves, right?
All material © 2006-2014 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
My burr oak started dropping its leaves like crazy last week, so I will have plenty to mulch!
Bur oak leaves are crumbly and easy to mulch, so unlike slippery little live oak leaves. The latter are what I have to deal with every spring. Ah well! —Pam
Since we don’t have a mower I let the leaves fall in the beds and scoot the stray ones in there with a blower several times a year. Those leaves are so valuable, most of my compost comes from my neighbor’s 30-year old pile of leaves behind the fence.
You and I have lots of live oaks, Shirley, and yes, a blower comes in handy for moving those slippery suckers, especially out of agaves and yuccas. —Pam
I definitely just let most of it lie. When we had a Japanese Parasol Tree I had to remove its leaves as they would kill plants before they decomposed, but otherwise mowing the ones on the lawn and occasionally cleaning up the “leaf drifts” in flower beds allows them to just complete their life cycle. This is great advice. Glad you got it in the magazine.
Mulch-mowing leaves on a lawn is easy-peasy. When they land in beds it’s harder to know what to do. As you say, it depends on the kind and quantity of leaves and on the kind of plants they’ve fallen into. My agaves and yuccas don’t like being inundated with live oak leaves each spring, so I use a blower to move them out and gather them up. —Pam
I, too, just let them lie. those that end up in the grass get mowed over or leaf-vac-ed up so they can be mulched and re-distributed; those in the rock bed areas get leaf-vac-ed and added to the compost bin. My inlaws, however, insist on raking and bagging and hauling out with trash because that’s how all their neighbors do it and they don’t want to rock the boat by being the only ones not to rake and bag.
Do they live in Austin, Katina? If so, at least they know the leaves they put out for yard-waste pickup will be turned into Dillo Dirt and not go into the landfill. —Pam
Unfortunately, no – they’re in Sun City. I think, because Georgetown is changing how they’re picking up trash (you used to be able to leave as many bags at the curb as you wanted, now you will not be allowed to do so), Sun City will be coming up with some way to either a) allow yard waste to accumulate, or b) will have to either pick up yard waste, or allow people to drop off yard waste. Hopefully they’ll come up with a way to get all those yard trimmings to be turned into compost.
Pam, how exciting to have that in HGTV Magazine! And to read it in line at the grocery store was so cool. Thank you for telling people to mow and mulch their leaves. It drives me crazy to see the many bags of raked leaves waiting to be hauled off every year. Some houses in our area have 50 or more bags. Once I even stopped and talked to a man about not bagging his leaves and he said he liked doing it. Oh well, I tried! Also, I’ve been known to haul off bags to MY yard!
Maybe he’d like to bring his bags of leaves directly over to your garden for composting, Melody. 😉 —Pam
I have to rake when the leaves drop onto my pea gravel paths. But like you, I will either mulch them into my lawn with my mower or use them to mulch under shrubs in my back border.
When the lawn gets replaced with garden beds, mulch-mowing isn’t always an option, which is the case in my own garden now. Like you, I do have to rake or blow leaves out of my paths, and out of my agaves. But it’s great that you can still mulch what you’ve raked and mulch your beds with them. —Pam
The one bonus to people bagging their leaves is that I get free mulch, because I have no shame whatsoever when it comes to stealing lawn bags off the curb.
I love that! They should be glad that someone wants their leaves for composting. —Pam
Yeah – last year when the neighbors bagged all their leaves (in plastic trash bags), I grabbed a few and put them in our yard. Again, the husband thought I was crazy, though he did agree it was better than letting the trash guys pick them up and take them to the landfill.
I have about 5 acres, over half is woodland & then the rest has a lot of mature oaks. With all the shade we don’t have to mow around the oaks very often. In the fall we mulch the leaves with the mower, blow them into a pile & store them to decompose for mulch.
And then you have lots of black gold for your garden! —Pam
Congratulations Pam! Every mention matters.
It’s absurd but, at intervals, I get out and rake up the leaves before the gardener arrives and dump them in my composter. I should instruct the gardener to deposit the leaves in the composter rather than the green bin but I’m just a bit afraid what else he’d stick in there. However, once my lawn is gone, he’s not going to have much to do except raking and hedge-trimming so I might as well change up his practice.
I bet you’ll find plenty for your helper to do, Kris. Weeding your new beds? —Pam
How cool to see your great advice and mention of your book in HGTV magazine! Congratulations : )
We mulch mow what little lawn we have left and recommend it to our customers too!
I was especially happy for that mention of Lawn Gone!, Laurin, ironic though it may be for me to be giving advice on lawn care. —Pam
That is a pretty thrilling way to finish up a grocery store run. Did you manage to work into conversation the fact you are mentioned in that magazine to everyone in earshot? I swear I’d have found a way to casually introduce the information to anyone who’d have stood still long enough to listen! “Oh! I dropped my magazine! I’d hate to bend the page THAT MY ARTICLE APPEARS ON..”.
We’ve eliminated all the lawn under our oak trees. The Hub does seem to get fairly zen blowing oak leaves off the driveway. Due to prevailing winds, our neighbor’s sycamore leaves routinely blow up against our curbing. I happily rake that up, crunch it a bit with gloved hands and move it into our beds for “composting in place”. One person’s leaf pile is another’s garden soil!
Haha! Somehow I restrained myself from bragging to the checker, Deb, though not here at Digging. 😉 I wish I could tap into a feeling of zen while blowing leaves out of my agaves, but mostly I’m gnashing my teeth, sweating, and struggling to hoist the blower high enough to get Moby’s flukes cleaned out. —Pam
Congrats, Pam, on the interview with HGTV magazine. On two acres I mostly let the leaves fall where they may. Sometimes I pick up the Cedar Elm leaves for the compost pile – they are wonderful-already small and ready to rot!. I have a sycamore that I planted a few years ago and the leaves look so pretty on the ground after they’ve fallen that I just leave them there for a while before they go to the compost pile.
Cedar elm leaves are one of my fall favorites, Gina. So buttery yellow, crumbly, and small enough that they don’t smother other plants. The sycamore leaves sound pretty too. —Pam
Congrats! You would think they would have told you about it, I mean what if you never picked up the magazine? I actually enjoy raking. I read Organic Magazine since I was a kid, back in the days it was a tiny black and white no photo booklet. So I knew that leaves were good for the garden. But we moved often and even though I planted trees we never stayed long enough to really get a nice pile of leaves. Here in the desert you don’t see a lot of leaves. Anyhow I love raking them now that I finally can! I do it as an aerobic workout one day and zen meditation the next ; ) My favorite leaves are from my Raywood Ash because they turn a pretty red.
They did tell me it would run in the fall, but sometimes things get cut, so I didn’t count on it until I saw it. And so it was still a nice surprise. 🙂 —Pam
Congratulations! For the record, my leaves never leave the garden.