They brought me all five bags stuffed full of leaves right before the rain began. This morning I went out to empty them into the "drying bin" and I noticed a sweet smell. When I dumped the bags, two of their contents were smoking!
I must have been cooking wet leaves over night. I spread them all out and turned them over as the sun is shining here today, not sure how long though.

glenda

I've never had so many leaves in my yard as this fall, normally they blow away to the neighbors or the field behind. Could be cause there's been rain off and on for a week. I always seemed to run out of shredded leaf mulch, though; so I still might go scrounging. I asked the town person in charge of leaf collection if I could have some bags from the huge pile they dump at the outskirts of town, but he said they were "already spoken for" the same guy gets them every year. He wouldn't elaborate. Hmph.

I like to rake leaves, but my back just kills me halfway through the job. Same with sweeping.

I'll be raking my yard in a couple weeks, and the neighbor's, and the neighbor's neighbor's. My leaf blower has a vacuum/shred function and I use it to chop the leaves into smaller bits that break down over the winter and spring. Makes nice dirt.