A high cut with our rotary battery mower does pick up leaves and chops them @Palustris. Maybe your mower isn't powerful enough. Haven't tried it on gravel though. I use a rake or a brush for that, depending how wet the leaves are.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
The amount of work to collect leaves, spread them out, mow them two or three times is just not worth doing, sorry.
The fact that you can make 3 tons of leaf mould - once it's broken down, shows how much you have. I think some members really haven't taken that into account! Trying to lift them from gravel when they're wet is also a different proposition altogether from lifting dry stuff. I know my Dad used one of the leaf blower/suckers successfully on his gravel areas, but it wasn't on that scale, and the timing is a factor, ie getting them when dry. I hope you can get a solution @Palustris, without having to 'hire staff'
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I agree with @Fairygirl. You are putting a lot of leaves down and making leaf mould your own way without help from a machine to shred them. The replies show that mowers can and do chop up or chop up and collect leaves but it obviously depends on the model. Monty does it his way, and we all have our own methods adapted to our situations. I wouldnt have time to collect them all from borders as they fall, but generally gather any excess leaves when going through the borders in spring. In 'wilder' woodland borders they act as a mulch and dont get removed. I just concentrate on the grass areas in autumn. I wouldn't rake them all together then run the mulching mower over to chop them, then gather them up, that's far too time consuming when I can do it as I mow and it's all in the mower bag to tip into bulk bags. I dont know what to suggest about the amount of gravel and stones you are picking up along with the leaves, but it presumably ends up back on the soil with the finished product, and you perhaps have to top up the gravel drive periodically.
I've just suggested OH gather up our leaves - mostly walnut and ash but some oak, prunus, polar and hawthorn - using his mower and he's a happy boy. He's always raked them up in the past so they're left whole and take years to break down.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast. "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
I’d guess a fertiliser bag which is half full of leaf mould so it’s not too heavy to lift might weigh 20kg. I think you could manage to barrow 4 of those bags at a time. Therefore 3 tonnes = 40 wheelbarrow loads. That’s a lot.
Applying the mulch at a depth of 10 cm, how many square metres are covered?
I filled 2x 1 ton builders bags to the brim, three daleks and two standard dustbins with the finished material, after digging a dozen or so barrow loads into the vegetable patch.
Never managed to work out how much coverage there is.
One of our problems is that we end up with leaves 6 inches deep on the border and there are so few worms that they just stay there without changing. Also they do provide homes for the quintillion of slugs that we suffer.
I would love to do something with the top half of the drive, but A. We don't yet own it and B. We cannot afford to do anything major.
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Trying to lift them from gravel when they're wet is also a different proposition altogether from lifting dry stuff. I know my Dad used one of the leaf blower/suckers successfully on his gravel areas, but it wasn't on that scale, and the timing is a factor, ie getting them when dry.
I hope you can get a solution @Palustris, without having to 'hire staff'
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The replies show that mowers can and do chop up or chop up and collect leaves but it obviously depends on the model. Monty does it his way, and we all have our own methods adapted to our situations.
I wouldnt have time to collect them all from borders as they fall, but generally gather any excess leaves when going through the borders in spring. In 'wilder' woodland borders they act as a mulch and dont get removed. I just concentrate on the grass areas in autumn.
I wouldn't rake them all together then run the mulching mower over to chop them, then gather them up, that's far too time consuming when I can do it as I mow and it's all in the mower bag to tip into bulk bags.
I dont know what to suggest about the amount of gravel and stones you are picking up along with the leaves, but it presumably ends up back on the soil with the finished product, and you perhaps have to top up the gravel drive periodically.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
I’d guess a fertiliser bag which is half full of leaf mould so it’s not too heavy to lift might weigh 20kg. I think you could manage to barrow 4 of those bags at a time. Therefore 3 tonnes = 40 wheelbarrow loads. That’s a lot.
Applying the mulch at a depth of 10 cm, how many square metres are covered?