Leaves and How to Get Rid of Them
Every year, the same story comes back: with the end of the summer and kids going back to school, you might suddenly realize that even though you love summer with all the sun and vacations and all that, you really are an autumn person deep down in your heart. Whether you’re driving to work or just walking along the street minding your own business, you cannot take your eyes away from all that beauty covering everything in sight, silencing your steps. Do you also secretly dream you could be 10 years old again and run around and enjoy all the colourful leaves, kicking your way through them? Just enjoy the dream a bit more, because when you get home and notice your own lawn, you might suddenly realize that whereas all the other leaves really are beautiful and so much fun, as it’s not you who has to care about them, the ones on your lawn are not so great, as you have to get rid of them. However, don’t loose your spirit and read further, as this 2nd Toronto Homeowner Tip is right about the top ways of yard waste disposal.
Not a long time ago, people used to burn the leaves or use them for mulching, there was no big fuss about it. Nowadays, don’t even think about the burning option – unless you are willing to go for an open burning permit, which could even take you until spring, honestly. An obvious approach is to sweep all your leaves into your neighbours yard, but this might lead to you getting twice as many in reward next year.
Community services
First, you should choose if you are able to do most of the work yourself, or if you would prefer the community services collect your organic waste. In the first case you will have to obtain an adequate number of kraft bags, because yard waste in Toronto is no more accepted if packed in any kind of plastic bags. In order to gather all the leaves into the bags, you can work with either a traditional rake or one of the modern tools such as a leaf blower. You may do this yourself or employ your own or neighbourhood kids – for sure they will be eager to earn some pocket money. In any way, consult the collection calendar to find out when to have the bags ready for collection.
(To see the rest of the story, please follow my original article How to get rid of leaves).