Fall leaf bags

[SmiYa0126]

Hello! So it's the season where suburbia will be putting their leaves in bags for municipality to pick up, anyone know if I can take a few? I'd like to use in garden and in the chicken run... Am I overthinking it that some could be harmful .. with pesticides? We don't spray anything on our property..

Thoughts?

 

[aart]

If leaves aren't completely dried before bagging, there's a huge chance of molds multiplying to toxic levels.

 

[The Moonshiner]

A quick google search says that trash-picking or dumpster diving is not illegal at the national level in the USA

D@mn it. There goes my chance of being some kind of outlaw.

 

[Ted Brown]

Not an expert and guessing...

In the fall I gather great amounts of leaves from my property and put them in the run, my flock goes nuts and spends days tromping them down and eating the bugs that come along with them. Also adds very beneficial organic material to the run.

The leaves are on the trees and, it seems to me, very unlikely to have been sprayed with anything unless they come from fruit trees. Guessing most are very safe for whatever use you have for them.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Talk to your neighbors and ask if they have any treatments done around their yards, and if it's ok to take the bags - I doubt most people would object as they generally have to pay extra to have the excess bags removed.

I admit I only use my own chips and my own dried leaves so I don't have to question if there's anything questionable about them.

 

[Brooks_]

In my area many of the leaf bags have "free mulch" printed on them. I've gathered some before from oak heavy yards to use around the azalias.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

I always make a post on FB and say that I'll take bags - and most people message me and put their bags out happy to have me take them instead of go to the town mulch pile. I like to keep 8 full bags in the basement, dry, and do a bag a week in my run for the girls during the snowy season. It really helps keep them entertained and ends up being great compost in the spring.

 

[NatJ]

This is very true.
That said, I would be most concerned with bags from the most pristine yards. I would view them as more likely to contain fertilizer or ant poison residue. The ones that are doing "just enough" to avoid neighbor/code complaints would be my target.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the ant poison. I found one of those little plastic ant spikes in a bag of leaves too. Ironically, it had a nest of happy ants inside-- apparently it makes a fine ant nest after the poison is gone.

 

[Brooks_]

D@mn it. There goes my chance of being some kind of outlaw.

Go for the recycling. I think that is coded at local level. You won't get an FBI poster, but it's a start.

 

[NatJ]

And could have dog poop in them !

Depending on where you get them, they could have dog poop, or dog poop in plastic bags, or bits of old Christmas light strings, or squished plastic cups, or shreds of old tarp, or many other things. (I have seen all of those things and more.)

People bagging leaves may not bother to pick out bits of trash that have gotten into their yard, and just put it all in the bag. And then someone walks their dog along the street, picks up the poop with a plastic bag, and thinks a bag of leaves by the curb is the right place to put that bag of dog poop

If you use leaves you did not personally bag, I would definitely pay attention as you dump them out, and pick out any trash you see. Some neighborhoods are probably better than others in general, and bags from some individual houses are probably much better or worse than others.