Scott, I really didn't know that the oak leaves were that acidic and that you had that great of a concentration of them. Around here it's mostly maples. But I agree with Greg. Mowing them turned the leaves to powder and the wind takes them away. Usually to be replaced by more leaves.

On 11/14/2014 10:27 AM, Tim wrote:
Scott, I really didn't know that the oak leaves were that acidic and that you had that great of a concentration of them. Around here it's mostly maples. But I agree with Greg. Mowing them turned the leaves to powder and the wind takes them away. Usually to be replaced by more leaves.


Yeah, not any more but for instance when I was a kid if we didn't rake
twice or more in the fall, we would probably have a layer of 2-3 inches
of leaves over the whole half acre.. Now it's not as bad with half as
many trees. Either way, if I just mulched it in now I am sure I would
have a solid 3/4 to 1" of solid mulch blanketed over my half acre. And
yes, red oak are very acidic. We have to put down a lot of lime here if
we want a good lawn without leaving the leaves at all.

If they didn't come and we cleaned the lawn in one shot there would be a
pile across our 80 foot (not driveway) curb access. That pile would be
80 feet long, probably 10 to 12 feet off the curb, and 3-4 feet high in
the middle... Back in "the day" we would move that much to the curb, 2-3
times in a 3-4 week period with our (then) 22 0aks, and at least a dozen
more close enough to our property in neighbors yards that are no longer
there either...