Our house is the one on the right. Photo taken in 1912, we think.
Our neighborhood is called “Old Town.” The trees that shade our streets and houses are very old. The oaks that surround our next door neighbor’s house, and stand tall on our property line, are over 100 years old. Their shade is wonderful in the heat of the summer, but they drop tons of leaves in the Fall. (My neighbor rolled down his window as he drove past us the other day and called out, “Leafageddon, again!”) The sound of leaf blowers (which my husband hates) is deafening on the weekends. We use our big rakes, raking leaves the old-fashioned way, and despite an occasional blister, we enjoy the job. Once each month, October through December, the town’s leaf vacuum truck comes by and vacuums up the huge piles of leaves that are raked or blown to the curb. Watching for the vacuum truck has become a delightful Autumn ritual.
*Note: This post is from the archives of my old garden blog.
A Fondness For Reading 
When we lived in Nebraska, we lived on a similar street and it seemed like the leaves fell for 6 months! I was always envious to see your posts of the vacuum truck coming by your house to suck up your leaves. I think every city should do that! Do you ever have a problem with the leaves just blowing back into your yard before they’re removed? We don’t really have many trees with leaves; just LOTS of pine needles! I always feel a little strange raking the forest. 🙂
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Les, this made me chuckle. Yes, the leaves will sometimes blow back after we’ve raked them…or worse, our neighbor’s leaves will blow into our yard. And the idea of raking the forest… 🍁🍂
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Oh, I just love this. When I think of the fallen leaves, I think of compost. Does your city collect the leaves for compost? Just wondering. I live in the desert, so we not have such a problem w/ leaves. But I sure wish we did.
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Ruth, I’m not sure where the city takes our leaves. I’ll have to check on that. I do know that we have a recycle place quite close because we pick up our mulch and garden soil there. So there is recycling being done.😊
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Oh, that’s great! But I bet where you live, you do not have a problem with soil or growing gardens. Our soil here is not really soil, but clay — great for desert plants, but not gardens. So it’s a science to get the right balance to grow much. Anyway, thanks for sharing your pictures.
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I love the ritual of raking leaves in the Fall, and this was a lovely, interesting post. We fill our compost bins full to the brim every week in Oct and then fill compost bags when the bins are full. When I was young, my dad would burn leaves, but those days are long gone due to the need for clean air it’s a good memory.
Happy Autumn
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It seems every time I want to take a nap is when one of our neighbors decides to get the leaf blower out! I really dislike that noise! We don’t have a leaf blower and thankfully my husband is the one who rakes all the leaves.
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Iliana, we hate that noise, too! And although it’s a lot of work, there’s something that feels good about actually raking those leaves. Sunshine and fall colors, and the satisfaction of a “clean lawn” without the noise!
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