Here in So California the cities gives us 75 gallon green waste receptacle cans. They are big and sturdy so I decided to try them as a vessel to mulch weeds,leaves and grass. The weed whacker minus the safety cover goes in first. Then I load 75 gallons of loosely packed leaves on top. It takes me 5-10 minutes to chop the lot down to fine mulch for spreading on the garden.
Between my Gardener shredding them with his mulching mower and EGO and I, ZERO leaves have gone to the city this fall.
In the past the cost for fire clearance averaged about $2500 a year per lot. I paid half that this year on one lot, cleared 3 others with the weed whacker and still have one to do. Call me a happy camper.
Between my Gardener shredding them with his mulching mower and EGO and I, ZERO leaves have gone to the city this fall.
In the past the cost for fire clearance averaged about $2500 a year per lot. I paid half that this year on one lot, cleared 3 others with the weed whacker and still have one to do. Call me a happy camper.
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5,318 Points
Posted 2 years ago
Oregon Mike, Champion
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71,474 Points
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5,318 Points
I think it's a better chop with it off. Second time I put the trimmer in first, the loaded leaves on top. It worked well with virtually no dust. The crushed leaves drop to the bottom. I use a pitch fork to toss it. I think a mower is faster but mine is dead.
Oregon Mike, Champion
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69,936 Points
Thanks Beth. I'll give it a try with it on. What I'm going to do is run my Ego mower over the leaves to collect them into the bag, it vacuums them up pretty well, and then into the bin to further mulch with the weed whacker. I've been mulching the leaves right into the yard, but there are enough in the yard now so I've got to put them somewhere else and my compost pile will be a perfect place for them.
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5,318 Points
I'd use the mower, then shovel or rake 'em up. I think you'll get a better chop with less effort
Oregon Mike, Champion
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71,474 Points
Ok, I just had to try this. I used the mower to vacuum up leaves from my front and back yards. So they didn't get broken down too much. Put them into a 30 gal trash can. Got about 2/3 full on the can. I didn't remove the safety guard on the string trimmer and it still broke a good 90 - 95% of the leaves down to only about 1/4 full on the can. Into my compost pile they went. I will try it again with another batch of leaves and with the guard off to see the difference. Definitely faster than mulching, raking, and into bins or bags. Maybe 30 minutes from start of mower to end of mulching with trimmer?
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5,318 Points
Ken, Champion
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73,580 Points
That's really awesome! I'm going to have to try that next year.
I wonder if this would be a good way to mix large quantities of margaritas?
I wonder if this would be a good way to mix large quantities of margaritas?
Blue Angel, Champion
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179,948 Points
I bet that string trimmer could put the fear of something else into that squatter while chasing them off your property with it!!! :-)
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5,318 Points
Just relax, bend over and take a deep breath.
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9,866 Points
Mike: what setting did you mow/vac the leaves up on? How did they not get mulched just into the bag? does attaching the bag stop the mower from mulching? I really want to try this this year, but I've never used the bagger, always just mulched the leaves into the yards as I mow. But I got a ton on my gravel drive right now so mulching over that is not such a good plan. lol.
Oregon Mike, Champion
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70,918 Points
Prairiedog, I mow at height 3. Yeah, I think with the mulching plug removed and the bag installed the leaves tend to just get swept right into the bag with minimal breakage. The bag fills pretty quickly so be aware of that. I will usually run the mower in the gutter at the curb too to suck up leaves. I do that at height setting #1. Same with sidewalks. I sucked up some leaves on a gravel pad at the side of my driveway (where I hit the copper ground rod) and I think I just left it on #3, but may have dropped to #2.Â
As far as mulching in the trash can, leave the guard on the trimmer. It tends to help keep leaves from blowing up as you grind away in that trash can. Keeping the lid on loosely also helps. I'm considering buying a second lid for mine and cutting a slot in it from the center out to one edge so I can snap the lid on to contain the leaves even better while mulching them.
As far as mulching in the trash can, leave the guard on the trimmer. It tends to help keep leaves from blowing up as you grind away in that trash can. Keeping the lid on loosely also helps. I'm considering buying a second lid for mine and cutting a slot in it from the center out to one edge so I can snap the lid on to contain the leaves even better while mulching them.
(Edited)
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9,866 Points
Thanks, Mike! Great idea for modification, I wondered about the leaves blowing around too. Yeah, we tried mowing the drive one season. The folks who complain about not enough suction for grass should see what sucked up gravel did to our blade, sigh. We dealt with the results this year, we could still sharpen the straight places, but probably should just grind a whole new edge.
