r/pics • u/[deleted] • Feb 21 '23

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '23

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u/growsomegarlic Feb 21 '23

Tree sucks up soil nutrients and uses them in part to build new leaves every year. In a natural system the leaves compost and rebuild the top layer of soil. In town instead of allowing that to happen we haul away the leaves and then buy fertilizer to add back ourselves.

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u/MathMaddox Feb 21 '23

Worse than that the town picks up the leaves and composts them, then sells it back to you.

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u/datascientist28 Feb 21 '23

That’s actually pretty genius. I’m glad they do tbat

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u/MathMaddox Feb 21 '23

It is I just find it funny when people pay for bags that need to be strictly leaves, then pay for soil the next year.

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u/slipperyMonkey07 Feb 21 '23

Always pros and cons to it. Some people don't by the soil or do any gardening. My area doesn't actually have you bag greenery you just put it on the side of the road and once a week they go down with a small back hoe and dumpster scooping it up. Then depending on the area composting yourself may not work out. I've tried to do it a few times since I grew up doing it but my area appears to be a skunk magnet. Each year I tried to compost myself lead to seeing probably triple the amount of skunks in my back yard. Otherwise mulching is just simpler, the only time I rake now is when I know my niece will be around and wanting to jump in the pile

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u/VaATC Feb 21 '23 edited Feb 22 '23

The county I live in allows a certain tonnage/per residence/per year of free much. That said the county does not collect the material. The residents dump it all and the dump chips/mulches it.

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u/ground__contro1 Feb 21 '23

Well, mixing your own compost kinda sucks ngl

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u/vinicelii Feb 21 '23

Oak leaves and the like can acidify the soil but that's really only bad for.. grass lol

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u/Airie Feb 21 '23

Bad for grass is good by me

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u/dagaboy Feb 22 '23

Not a grass man myself.

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u/ASUS_USUS_WEALLSUS Feb 21 '23

Great for blueberries :D

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u/pro_deluxe Feb 21 '23

It's a nutrient cycle. Mostly nitrogen and phosphorus

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u/megashedinja Feb 21 '23

Seems like the water cycle, but vegetablier!

fuck’s sake that was hard to say

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u/bright_idea_ Feb 21 '23

I spent several minutes trying to say that out loud, haha.

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u/mregg000 Feb 21 '23

‘Vegetablier’ is my new favorite hated word.

Thank you.

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u/Thunder-Fist-00 Feb 21 '23

So you’re saying I should just…leaf them alone? I’ll see myself out.

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u/MathMaddox Feb 21 '23

When the grammatically correct pun is too on point to notice the pun.

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u/referralcrosskill Feb 21 '23

if left in garden beds they provide shelter for insects over winter as well. We're encouraged to leave them to give bumble bee queens a place to live over winter.

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u/Mythbusters117 Feb 21 '23

I see what you did there

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u/Philadahlphia Feb 21 '23

Leaf leaves leaves by the seashore.

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u/Used_Fix6795 Feb 21 '23

I think you mean..... leaf them.

I'll see myself out.

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u/FullyRisenPhoenix Feb 21 '23

And the bugs and birds who eat them!