This morning I went down to the city park and stole some leaves. I don’t think they’ll mind. I do this every year actually, and I haven’t been arrested yet.
I don’t know, maybe the police have better things to do than question crazy suburban moms in station wagons about why in the world they are raking leaves in a park on a rainy day. Maybe they’re afraid to approach us because they think we’re all hopped up on soccer mom crack or something.
Who knows. Who cares?
All I know is I just scored some free compost for my garden. Wahooooo! Okay, I’ve got to go. I’ll be back later to show you what I did with the leaves.
Peace Out
~ Mavis the outlaw
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Heather J. says
YOU should get paid to take the leaves away.. Less work for the city workers!!
Jenn says
I was JUST thinking I want to steal some leaves from my neighbors but this is an even better idea! Thank you Mavis 😛 I’m going to get my 2 year old to help me as well. No one will question the mom with the 2 year old…. right?
Mavis says
Ha! Nope. They sure won’t! 🙂
Heather says
Oh, I think your good…your taxes cover you…since bartering with the police is a no-no!
Are you going to try and grow more potato towers this winter?
Mavis says
No way Jose. Maybe I’ll try again in the spring.
Elizabeth F says
Doesn’t your city, every city, have yard waste recycling? The leaves in fall get picked up from the curb and taken to the yard recycling. It is also open all year round to drop off branches , garden waste, shrub and tree trimming. You just divide it onto the right pile when you get there, they turn it into mulch by composting, sometimes by chipping. You can go pick it up for free. I think still for free. Have never picked any up as we do our own composting. The city parks get their compost and mulch from here, also the schools. The University has it’s own system.
Elena says
I live in Oregon but you can steal my leaves any day. Please come steal my leaves!
alliegator says
We were driving around and saw people raking leaves- they had tons of bags already full. We stopped and asked if we could have them. Double win. Leaves for us, and they didn’t have to ration the bags into their garbage can over the next few months.
Now we live at a house with plenty of leaves so we don’t usually go looking for other people’s anymore.
Elizabeth says
They banned leaves and yard waste from garbage here almost 20 years ago. I can’t believe towns would still have leaves going into the garbage.
Nichole says
How do you compost them? I probably sound like a total noobie, but do you just throw them in the garden beds or do you cover them with dirt all winter? Is your dirt ready come spring time? I think I’ll try this!
Elizabeth says
It is best to shred them. My husband picks them up with the bagging attachment on the lawn mower, then we spread them out over the garden. Our garden is empty and done by the time we are doing leaves. Sometimes he might have to rototill the first batch of leaves in if an especially heavy year. But if you don’t shred they can just stick together when wet and make a solid layer that doesn’t break down and doesn’t let water through.
Nichole says
Good idea. Thanks Elizabeth!
Julia says
I just dash a few houses down or across the street and grab bags of leaves from my neighbors. I get more leaves than I know what to do with this way! I did find the trimmings from a rose at the bottom of one bag (a painful find) but this way I get the leaves that someone else neatly put in a bag. I get the bag and the yard waste sticker on the bag; they cost about $2 and I saw one house put out 20 bags at once.
Penelope says
Saw the leaves in the trailer at the piano teachers house and asked for them already today. Plan to rake more and till them in soon.
Karinna says
This is what I like to call “community service”. They should send you a thank you basket if you ask me.
Brenda says
My sister and I use to laugh at our neighbor because she would hang a sign up that said “Free leaves, you rake” and have a couple rakes and bags nearby. We always thought it was a joke, now I see that it probably wasn’t. How silly of us.
Angie Smith says
We used to go around the neighborhood & get the leaves our neighbors had raked up. We have just used our own leaves for the last year or two, so it may be time to add some from the neighbors’ yards again. Just don’t use walnut leaves; they make the soil way too acidic for most plants.