Really nothing wrong with some leaf chips in the grass,but I never had a problem like that
I always mulch my leaves and let them lay

I knew you were talking about a backpack but the stihl hand held or equivalant does a real good job.I tried the same with an ECHO and it was like a fart in a whirlwind

 

Obviously you aren't getting the same volume of leaves we get here. If you tried to mulch leaves into oblivion up here you'd still have a 2" layer of leaf dust left on top of your turf when you were done. I wasn't exaggerating when I was talking about a 5' to 6' windrow all along my woods right now.

I always say that if they sell it at Home Depot don't bother. I wouldn't touch a lawn mower or chainsaw or leafblower or pretty much anything with a motor if it came from Home Depot. Now you can't quit buying the whole brand, but avoid the models they sell at Home Depot/Lowes. My brother worked at a JD/STIHL dealership for a few years and said that a lot of the JD mowers from Home Depot came in and they couldn't fix them because they didn't make the replacement parts or it was impossible to change the broken part. He also said that they use plastic fasteners in a lot of places.

 

Prescribed burning also comes to mind.......

 

My whole 1 acre yards is red oak,white oak and maple with a few sour woods,when the leaves fall I can barely find my driveway,guess that ain't many leaves

 

Do you mulch it all at once? I can't even get my mower to eat through the layers of leaves. It doesn't matter if I try it every other week it still ends up acting more like a plow than a mower.

It probably doesn't help that I'm using an old fixed deck Bobcat Ransomes wb but I still can't see the leaves all getting mulched up that much. Maybe I'll try mulching next year if I get a Wright Stander RH w/mulching baffles. That depends on if I get a mowing contract.

 

I left before the leaves fell and may go up next month or last of march and they will all get mulched
Right now using an old 44 inch craftsman 18 hp

 

Well I officially have a new type of PMS (Polaris modification syndrome) This is gonna be FUN! I already want to replace the rims & tires to 14" wheels, and put actual TRUCK tires, probably a Super Swamper type. Should be bulletproof! There are 3 plugs in one of the original Polaris tires on one of mine.....can't have that!!!!!!

 

I've done the lawnmower thing, and it didn't work out very well either. Stupid bagger filled up in like half a lap. I raked 30 bags of leaves in two weekends, and I'm very picky about my yard, and everything I've tried hasn't worked as well as raking. We have that deep St. Augustine grass, too. I have a very large maple, two tall-pines, a medium Bradford Pear (that is coming down, Joe!!), and a Cypress tree in the front. In the back, nothing but a VERY large Oak that drops probably 20 bags by itself.

I have a hand-held blower, but I probably won't spend $500 on a back-pack type unless I end up mowing lawns for a living, so it may work very well. I hope I never find out!!

 

Think I just rescued an excrusion in Ga

 

Joe you might want to change it up from "laps" to something else every once in a while. Doing laps on your lawn will cause compaction in that pattern you always use. That can cause dead grass where your tires always go. Most professionals who have zero turn mowers will stripe the lawns in different directions every week. Usually they'll change it up every other week. They'll stripe one way for two weeks and go perpendicular to that afterwards. From there they'll go diagonally to their first stripe style and then go opposite of their other diagonal. It reduces compaction and IMO it looks really cool if the turf doesn't see a lot of use and you can still see the old stripes and it forms a checkerboard.

Not tryin to be an ****. Just tryin to be helpful since landscaping is something I want to do for a profession.

 

At least my 'phins won....

Now I'm sitting here watching another House episode. Too bad I've seen this one like 5 times. Time to channel surf a little.

 

LOL... I only run around the perimeter twice, then go back & forth, and I do alternate N/S stips & E/W strips. Been there done that.

 

Ok. Good deal. Just trying to help out.

 

Hey Guys,

New OT. Cool. I didn't really read through the old OT, too much to read...but it seems like everyone had a nice holiday.

Iowa Mark - no real ice problems. We got really lucky. We left the evening of the 23rd and got to Fremont, Nebraska before the snow started. Today was beautiful and made for a nice drive. I heard there was some real melting and flooding issues. Randy got a call early yesterday morning about a CSX locomotive filling up with water somewhere near the Illinois border.

Scott - CUTE baby. He does look like he's grown a bit.

Pete- Sorry to hear about the pink jeep. How pink is it? Like, faded reddish pink, or pink pink?

Cris - yep doin' just fine, just too hard to jump on the internet at Randy's folk's house.

We just got home a bit ago. Nice drive on the way there and the way back. Pretty decent weekend!

Jeep ended up going to the shop for the waterpump. $500 later, we were back on the road. I could have done that pump, pretty straight forward job. Very similar to the waterpump on a 7.3. Remove the fan, shroud, serpentine, and its right there. Randy's dad freaked out and demanded the Jeep go to the dealer and Randy gave in. Oh well. Instead Randy's mom and I went to Nebraska City and explored.

I snapped some photos for you all on the drive back.

 

That's the color. Fade that color just a little bit more and that's roughly it. I'll try to snag pictures of the one I'll be driving tomorrow.