Compost troubleshooting

[DonyaQuick]

I ran the mower at it’s second highest level and it worked well. It’s been dry here, though, so the leaves weren’t matted down. If they were, a quick fluff with the rake.

Ah darn, not being dry enough is probably my issue. Whether its rained the day before or not, every morning I have to put my rain boots on to walk through the grass because nightly fog re-wets everything. The ends of the grass are dry come afternoon sun but not the fallen leaves.

 

[gtaus]

A bit of a random question, but how high do you have the mower set for that and/or do you rake a bit first to fluff the leaves up so the leaves are easier for the mower to get? I have been trying to chop/collect leaves with my mower and its very hit and miss. I usually mow at 5-6" because I keep the grass on the long side (trying to let it outcompete some other shorter stuff) but maybe one shorter mow is worth not having a royally big leaf-collecting job if that's what's needed.

When I use my riding mower for leaf collection, I usually have it set to the highest position, which is all the way up (about 6 inches). If the leaves are dry, they just get vacuumed up and thrown into the collection bins. I have a 3 bin collection system, but leaves will fill it up fast. Also, I have to check the chute from the mower deck to the bins constantly for blockage. The trick is to judge how thick the leaves are on the ground and slow down the mowing so as to not plug up the chute.

Having said that, the bins fill up extremely fast and need to be dumped accordingly. But I find that mowing the leaves, checking the chute, and frequently dumping the bins is still much much faster than raking the leaves in a pile and moving them later.

If the leaves are wet and matted down, I just don't mow them. Wet leaves will immediately plug up my chute. So I don't even bother. But if you don't want your wet leaves to winter over on your lawn, then I guess you would have to take out a rake and work them up manually.

I like to mow my lawn several times in the fall so the leaves never really get very thick on my yard. If there is a patch that gets too thick of leaves, then I mow them down with my other riding mower that has mulcher blades on it. That chops up the leaves into bits and leaves them on the ground. Then I can come back later, if I want, with my riding mower with the collection bins, drop the deck down to normal mowing height (about 2.5 inches) and vac up the bits of leaves.

As for the chickens, I think they prefer the larger leaves rather than mowing the leaves first with the mulching mower, and then mowing up the bits with my riding mower with the collection bins. Of course, the finer you break down the leaves, the faster they will compost. But I have more compost in my chicken run than I need to harvest, so it's easier for me just to mow them up with the riding mower and throw them whole into the chicken run.

I have a tow behind leaf sweeper and collection unit, but it too fills up way too fast and I find it more work to dump the leaves into the chicken run. It is just easier for me to carry each collection bin from the mower into the run to dump then it is too empty the leaf sweeper and then carry the leaves.

I also used one of those extremely large drag behind collection bags for leaves. Instead of filling up the 3 bins, you just have a huge bag that drags behind the mower and fills up. It holds maybe about 5X the amount of leaves that I can fit into my 3 bins. That really works great for moving the leaves into the bag, but I found that the bag was too heavy for me to carry anywhere and I spent too much time having to empty the huge bag of leaves into garbage sized containers to carry into the chicken run. If I had someway to drag the large leaf bag into the chicken run behind my mower, dump the contents, and then drive out again, that would be my best option. But I only have a people sized door to my chicken run so my mower will not fit.

Since I got chickens, none of my leaves get burned or sent to a landfill. I consider them money on the ground and why would someone want to burn money or throw it away? Ditto for fallen branches that I can put into my wood chipper. I will add the wood chips to the chicken run compost and/or use them as deep litter for the coop. I also shred most of our paper and light cardboard from the mail and deliveries so that stuff does not end up in the landfill either. It all makes a good carbon source for the composting.

 

[gtaus]

My run is big, so this was a drop in the bucket…between dirt out and chips in, the wheel barrow and I will be getting quite well acquainted!

No doubt you put a lot more manual effort into your projects than I can afford to do. I traded my wheelbarrow in for a 4 wheeled Gorilla cart a few years ago and never looked back. Not only does the Gorilla cart hold about 2-3X more material than my wheelbarrow, but it is also much easier to move around the load because you don't have to balance the cart like you do a wheelbarrow. If I have a heavy load of dirt or sand, then I tow it behind my riding mower.

 

[gtaus]

Ah darn, not being dry enough is probably my issue. Whether its rained the day before or not, every morning I have to put my rain boots on to walk through the grass because nightly fog re-wets everything. The ends of the grass are dry come afternoon sun but not the fallen leaves.

Yep, the morning dew can make everything wet. Even without rain, I usually wait until about 4 pm before I mow up the dry leaves. The leaves are just too damp until later in the afternoon where I live.

All I do is take a short walk out in the yard, if my shoes are wet, then it's not time to mow.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

No doubt you put a lot more manual effort into your projects than I can afford to do. I traded my wheelbarrow in for a 4 wheeled Gorilla cart a few years ago and never looked back. Not only does the Gorilla cart hold about 2-3X more material than my wheelbarrow, but it is also much easier to move around the load because you don't have to balance the cart like you do a wheelbarrow. If I have a heavy load of dirt or sand, then I tow it behind my riding mower.

A Gorilla cart is on my list - as a big one will hold 8 5-gallon buckets of food waste. I actually bought one at TSC, but it was damaged. Exchanged it, and that one was damaged, and decided I need to find one somewhere else.

One more advantage to “mowed” leaves…the chickens love picking out any little bits of green grass!

 

[Sally PB]

Our mower isn't working right now, and as it was free from a friend and very old, it may just become our "pseudo-quad." So a new mower is probably on the list for next spring.

The grass sure is long now! I may hack at some of it with the string trimmer, then rake it up for the chickens.

After the rain stops and everything dries out... Give it a couple days. It's pouring now.

 

[gtaus]

A Gorilla cart is on my list - as a big one will hold 8 5-gallon buckets of food waste.

If you have a riding mower, then I strongly suggest you get a cart with the type of handle that can switch between manual pull and attaching to the hitch on the mower. Some of the less expensive carts only have a manual handle for pulling. For me, it was worth the extra money getting a cart with a handle that could convert to a pull behind cart attached to my mower. In reality, I find I use my carts maybe 50/50 between using the hand hold and the attachment option. So I am very glad I got the type of carts that offered both options.

 

[gtaus]

Our mower isn't working right now, and as it was free from a friend and very old, it may just become our "pseudo-quad." So a new mower is probably on the list for next spring.

I live in northern Minnesota, and that means my push mowers spend about 7-8 months in the shed not being used. My main issue is that my gas mowers would gunk up in the carb and not run the next season. I was replacing my gas push mowers about every 3 years.

However, last time I got a push mower, I went with a battery operated push mower. No more bad gas clogging up the carb issues for me. I just recharge my batteries and use the mower when needed. I think I'm going on 4 or 5 years now and the battery mowers work as good as new. I happen to have bought into the Ryobi line of 18v tools about 15 years ago, so I just bought a Ryobi 18v mower because they all use the same batteries.

I also use the same batteries for my weed wacker, mini tiller, brush cutter, leaf blower, and chainsaw. All within the Ryobi line of tools that share the same battery for my 18v outdoor tools as well as all my hand tools I have purchased over the past 15+ years. Over time, I also bought into the Ryobi 40v outdoor tool line and they offer even more power.

Since I bought my first Ryobi battery push mower, there are many more options and improvements out there. If you have not bought into a tool line, then I might suggest the Ego brand of outdoor tools as they seem to be the leader at this time. At any rate, if you have to buy a new mower, I suggest you consider going electric because the quality has really improved over the years and in my experience, you will get a much longer trouble free life using them.

BTW, I used to replace my gas weed trimmers about every 2-3 years. My Ryobi battery trimmers are going on about 8 years now and still work as good as new. That alone has saved me hundreds of dollars I would have spent to replace my gas trimmers.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I bought my first house with a small yard in December of 2004. The following spring, I bought a corded electric mower since I didn’t have a shed or garage in which to store gas.

We moved to our current house 8 years ago, and rented the old house, and later sold it to, family. I left them the plug in mower as my new property was big enough that corded mowing wasn’t practical.

That electric mower is STILL working like a champ 16 years later! Electric is a really good option!

 

[Sally PB]

The problem with our mower (riding, not push) is the belt that drives the blades. It's a Murray (we call it "Bill"), and hard to find parts...? With about a mile of mowing over hilly and uneven terrain, a push mower isn't an option any more.

DH has some DeWalt tools, and we really like them. For our 30th anniversary, he gave me a string trimmer. Love that thing! He loved that he had a second battery that ran his chainsaw, so it was a present for both of us.