Monday, November 13, 2006

Raking Leaves

On Saturday, I raked the leaves in my front yard. It is a small yard, compared to most yards, but still it manages to capture a good amount of leaves. I don't mind raking, when I finally get down to it. It's good exercise, I'm outside in the fresh air, and with each bag I fill, I feel a sense of accomplishment.

There are other ways to deal with the leaves. I could hire a lawn company. Most of my neighbors do that. Their lawns are picture perfect green and no leaves litter their lawns. Or I could buy my own leaf blower, a very noisy, and from what I've read, pollution-oriented tool. Or I could leave them on the lawn and just let them mulch. This last choice is not as good for the lawn as it sounds. Too many leaves and they smother the grass below. So, I rake. I used to rake with my husband, but he's not an option anymore. He's not got any leaves to deal with in his apartment in the Back Bay.

While I was raking, I was contemplating, and that is the part of the raking that I love. I'm doing two things at once. Raking, raking, thinking, thinking. At first, I thought about how many spiders I was probably touching when I picked the leaves up to put them in the bags. I know there are spiders in these leaves, because I see them. They crawl up the sides of the the bags or they move away when I rake. My heart pounds a bit at first when I see them, and then I just breathe deep, accept that they are there, and keep raking. (I also wear gloves, cause the thought of actually holding one in my hands is not my idea of a good time.)

Then I thought about the argument I hear every year about leaf raking. When is the optimum time to rake? After all the leaves are off the trees? A little each week? And what about the neighbor who never rakes and just lets the wind take the leaves away? Is he/she as inconsiderate as some people think? This question fascinates me.

I'm kind of a live and let live type of gal, so when I hear a very good friend confess to me that if her neighbor lets his leaves blow into her yard again this year, she's going to bag them up and put them on his lawn, I'm kind of surprised. I'm not sure how she knows which leaves are his as opposed to which leaves are from her trees, and wouldn't some of the leaves from her trees also blow into others' yards? This logic of hers escapes me, but if I ask three or four different people how they deal with the leaves in their lives, I get very strong responses. Either people feel strongly that some people are too vigilant about their lawns, or they feel that others are not vigilant enough. There is really no middle ground.

I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts on the whole leaf question. Is it okay to wait til late in the season to rake your leaves or is it rude and inconsiderate to let your leaves blow into other's yards?

No camera yet, it is still broken, or I would have had some awesome pics of the 12 giant bags of leaves I raked and of the lovely spiders I saw and of the beautiful yellow tulip-shaped leaves on my tulip tree, which have yet to come down.