Once again, the leaves are winning. Every day my husband and I rake, sweep, mow or blow leaves, trying to stay ahead of the yellow storm falling from the trees. We know it’s futile, but we don’t want leaves smothering the lawn.

JoAnne Skelly

Thank goodness, our big riding mower has a three-bag collection system. Of course, we aren’t able to get the mower into the shrub or flower beds, so the leaves stockpile there. I clean up the flower beds by the patio regularly, but all the other beds will be cleaned by the landscape crew once the cottonwoods have finally shed all their leaves. We used to do all the clean up by ourselves, but we are no longer able to. 

That being said, I still love to rake. I can rake for the longest time. The only thing that stops me or slows me down is having to pick up all the piles. That’s the most painful and tedious part. Although I admit that after a few hours of raking, I’m pretty sore the next day.

A big challenge is where to put all the collected leaves. Fortunately, since I’m not a fan of plastic bags, we have an old fenced-in garden, approximately 12 feet by 20 feet. Over the years as the shade and roots took over the space, we turned it into our leaf pile. There’s at least 10 years of high-quality leaf mold at the very bottom.

We have a really large garden cart with big wheels that we line with an old king-size sheet. The reason for the sheet is quite practical. Once the cart is full, we have to empty it on the top of the leaf pile, which is uphill and hard to push the cart up. So, instead of trying to jam the cart to the top, my husband and I lift the corners of the sheet and carry it up where we can then dump it.

I use two rakes to lift the leaves into the cart, a large plastic one underneath and a lightweight metal one on top. If you try this, remember to bend your knees and tighten your core as you pick the pile up. Be sure to turn your feet towards the cart to dump the rakes, rather than just twisting at the waist. The twisting is a sure-fire way to make your back ache whether you are young and old. 

Hope you enjoy raking too!

— JoAnne Skelly is an Associate Professor and Extension Educator, Emerita, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. She can be reached at skellyj@unr.edu.