Social Question

Aster's avatar

Crazy neighborhood! Do your neighbors continually blow their leaves and mow their yards in December?

Asked by Aster (20028points) December 3rd, 2010

I think leaves on yards look nice and wintery. I mean, it’s that season, right?
What’s the harm in leaves? But each day I hear the roaring of lawn mowers and leaf blowers—and they’re paying for this! So we end up looking like the bums of the neighborhood because as soon as they have a leaf on their yard or driveway they call someone to blow them away. Do you leave your leaves? Or do you get rid of them twice weekly and get the yard mowed short?

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22 Answers

CyanoticWasp's avatar

I stop mowing my leaves in mid-November. But years ago I would have stopped in October. Blame it on ‘climate change’.

Cruiser's avatar

I leave mine out to blow over onto Mr and Mrs Anal Lawn next door. Mostly because it is leaves from their tree anyway and they are out there every other day raking up the leaves still.

chyna's avatar

By the end of October, first of November, we get such high winds that I don’t have to rake.

Xena's avatar

Yep, yard maintenance continues throughout the year. I don’t know what the big deal with leaves on your lawn is, other than it maybe not being as aesthetically pleasing. Isn’t it good as a mulch and to add some organic material to your soil?

Aster's avatar

It’s aesthetics. They think , evidently, that leaves are ugly. I like them. And I don’t even mind a little growth in the grass but they want their grass as short as possible . I need to move.
@Cruiser I’d get backaches and blisters on my hands raking each day. It’s out of the question.
Plus, everyone has lots of trees with leaves falling everywhere.

Coloma's avatar

I live in the land of the chainsaw. lol

Can’t complain though, my awesme neighbor just spent two days clearing brush and limbs and building a giant bonfire to clear the hill and pasture off my deck where the Coyotes ambush unsuspecting pets.

No noise complaints of a manmade nature on my hill, but the real Jackasses next door sure know how to rouse one early in the morning.

john65pennington's avatar

My leaves stay put. the leaves are good for the grass next spring.

There is a lady on my street that is a widow. she must be ocd. she cuts her grass twice a week and heaven forbid a falling leaf to land on it. this goes on throughout the fall and winter. i have actually observed her picking of minature blades of grass with a set of tweezers.

This woman is Koo Koo…........................

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

There is one reason to get rid of the leaves. If you get a lot of them they can form a thick enough mat that kills the grass under it. But it takes a lot of leaves. Otherwise. they’re good organic matter.

Aster's avatar

@john65pennington More power to her, not that she needs it. I admit that in the summer I trim the shrubs with scissors. But in winter I do zilch. Nada. Nothing but sweep sidewalk leaves into the yard lol.

Coloma's avatar

I love leaves, still havn’t raked my yard full of Oak leaves, soon, but, I wait til they ALL fall and enjoy them.

I couldn’t handle OCD neighborhood stuff, of course, the neighbors would love my geese grazing on the lawn and honking at strangers. hahaha

iamthemob's avatar

As I live in an apartment building in NYC – no.

That would be, I think, a truly crazy neighborhood.

jonsblond's avatar

I had a neighbor that would point to the leaves in his yard and say they were from my trees. He wanted me to rake them up. I obliged, only because he was elderly.

Luckily I don’t have to worry about it anymore. Living on a farm now, the leaves blow out into the field. We don’t need to rake at all. yay!

Coloma's avatar

@jonsblond

Haha…‘your leaves’.

Reminds me of a story from waay back when I lived in the burbs.
I split the cost of a new fence with the neighbors behind me but…they did a crappy job and left too big of a gap between the boards.

My dog at the time, ( a coonhound, lol ) loved to ‘stalk’ them in their bckyard by pressing one eye up to the cracks in the fence and then waiting til they were unsuspecting before issuing a decibal breaking ‘WOOOOOOOOOOO! hahaha

Not a good situation. lol

I moved to the country within the year.

funkdaddy's avatar

I had to mow my yard and rake the leaves just this week. I felt crazy doing it, my neighbor came over and reminded me kindly that there were lots of leaves still on the trees.

Thanks dude.

I did it because we had pest control coming the next day (long story) and they needed everything trimmed up before they got there. This week has made apartment living look awful appealing.

LuckyGuy's avatar

Our lawn is covered in snow already. Usually in November I rake and burn leaves.
“I love the smell of burning leaves in the morning. It smells like, Fall.”

Supacase's avatar

Our leaf situation is out of control. They are over ankle deep in the back yard and the trees still aren’t finished. Leaving them there is out of the question. Getting them up is a complete PITA. Next house = no big trees

partyparty's avatar

I just leave the leaves where they are. I think they are very pleasing.
Here in the UK we would stop mowing about October.
We couldn’t mow anyway if we wanted, thick blanket of snow here

BarnacleBill's avatar

I can’t stand leaves under the snow. Dead leaves kill off what little lawn I have, leaving brown patches in the spring. When I go to shovel the sidewalk in front of the house, leaves mixed in with the snow is ugly.

I’ve bagged leaves 6 times this fall, and only have one small tree. I hate my neighbors’ oak trees because they lose their leaves so late. I’m getting ready to do leaf clean-up right now…

rts486's avatar

Too many leafs will kill the grass under them. My yard would be completely covered in leaves a couple of inches thick if I left them. I hate raking leaves so I mow them with a mulching blade. If

Paradox's avatar

Dam mowing season ended for me back in early October. I just leave the wind blow the leaves away since it is windy where I live. I don’t see too many others raking or blowing leaves either. Some of us have bigger worries in this bad economy.

partyparty's avatar

@Paradox How very true :)

Aster's avatar

I was tickled last night when I heard wind howling. I know it blew leaves everywhere and I was hoping it might make them realize it’s futile to blow their leaves 2X weekly and pay for it. Let me check and see if our yard looks different now: .....there are more leaves now making it half leaves , half grass showing and the neighbors’ yards have some . Not as many as I thought.

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