My yuck, I mean my yard is in need of tidying. The neighbors
have those cute plastic orange pumpkin bags filled with leaves. They look so
inviting. If I had some, I could use them to fill in the dead spot where the
horrendous Bradford Pear incident occurred several weeks ago. As it stands now,
my house looks haunted and decrepit, and with the dogs barking, I’m certain
people will think they’ve stepped into an
M. Night Shyamalan film if they attempt
trick-or-treating.

Fall leaves are an eco-menace in our world of manicured
lawns. Americans toss out 24 million tons of leaves and grass every year;
leaves alone can account for 75 percent of solid waste generated during fall
months. Burning them is dangerous for our health and the environment. In dry
places, like Atlanta,
there is additional danger of the fires spreading. Even if you use a burn
barrel to contain your leaf burning, you are still releasing carbon into the
atmosphere that would have been better used in the ground.

We want to reuse things as much as possible before we
recycle them. Have a leaf rolling party. Awesome for the little people in your
life. Keep the camera ready because rolling in fall leaves with your kids is a
family photo album full-o-cuteness. Then bag them up in those pumpkin bags and
have a festive yard for Halloween. Save the prettiest ones for art projects.
Leaf prints with homemade tempera paint can make some awesome fall stationary.

November 1^st you’ve got bags full of wet leaves
that are finished being cute. Throw them in your compost. Wet leaves make an
awesome layer between food scraps. Have more than your compost can handle?
Transfer them into paper leaf bags and arrange them in a circle around your
compost. It’ll help keep things warm and decaying over the winter. If you have
more, chop the extras with your mower or mulcher. Chopped leaves make a great weed
suffocating, soil nurturing, garden loving mush. Sprinkle it around to keep
moisture in your beds and around your trees all year.

Still have too many? Seriously? You’re yard is as big as
mine and your trees have it out for you and your neighbors have been scowling
at you and occasionally reminding you of community covenants about grass height
and leaf piles? They’ve taken you community association sign out of your yard
three times already and you’ve had to grovel to the block captain to ask for it
back? They’ve threatened a twenty-dollar fine for yard maintenance? You’ve got
that many leaves?

Contact your municipal waste management company.
Chances are, you’ve got a community organic waste site. Some cities even pick
it up for you.

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