Clearing Autumn Leaves - The Local Buzz

A tongue-in-cheek- look at the autumn leaf clearing operation by our editor

Oh, how I am looking forward to October, not!

I have some huge trees and whilst I love to see them when they start to bud and are in full leaf, I dread the moment when they fall. I mean, why can’t they just fall at once! Why extend the agony over several weeks!

I learnt long ago that you can’t argue with nature and neither can you find your dogs when they are hiding in piles of leaves. Have you tried walking over mounds of leaves? Holes that you never knew existed suddenly appear in the lawn, sending your back into spasm and your ankles into a panic. Animals lurk underneath in the warmth and the fear of something slithering out is just too much to bear.

So, as a single girl of the “veuve” variety (and I don’t mean I sit and drink Clicquot all day), I “treated myself” to a trailer, a tractor, a gigantic rake and a collection pan to match. This went well until the blisters appeared and my arms could take no more. In my mind, this type of work is definitely a blue, rather than a pink job. I just love that expression but now, all the jobs seem to be purple!

At this point I invested in a sucky blowy thing. Of course, this was a foolish move. Anything electrical in my life always goes wrong. I either lose the battery charger and cable, or it just stops working. This proved to be no exception and, sure enough, the sucky part stopped sucking.

I don’t give up easily though so I bought another. The leaves proved too much once again and, this time, the blower stopped blowing. Am I the only person in the world with a combination of garden tools that have to be used separately to achieve the original aim? I am a manufacturers’ dream I tell you!

Anyway, this year I have a new project for me and my two machines. Together, we are going to collect the leaves and I am going to enter into the world of growing my own compost. I am not a bad cook and I reckon that I can follow the recipe from the pages of our gardening expert, Sue, for the perfect compost using the layering method with eggshells and vegetable peelings.

The leaves that have been sucked and shredded will be placed at the bottom of a homemade compost bin. Yes, I have a couple of pallets and I reckon I can find some breeze blocks, although I have yet to define where exactly they go. Hmm, breeze blocks at the side or underneath? With all these leaves I might even try two different constructions.

Sounds simple, but then so did buying a sucky blowy thing. Off to buy a new potato peeler – don’t even ask!

Done droning…..

If you need help with your garden, you will find a comprehensive list of landscape gardeners, tree surgeons, ground excavation and garden services and equipment throughout Gironde, Dordogne, Lot et Garonne, Lot, Gers, Tarn et Garonne and north Haute Garonne in our business directory pages. Search by region under Home and Garden and Building External Works.

Picture of the editor taken by The Local Buzz team.

First published in the September/October 2018 issue of The Local Buzz.