Does anyone have "messy" trees they have to deal with?

I'm trying to figure out what I can buy to make life easier than just a big rake.

We have a huge old Magnolia tree in my back yard and the neighbor (the ones who let their dog poop in my yard, but they've stopped now that I called them out on it) has a giant old Shagbark Hickory where half of it is over my yard.

Both trees shed stuff like crazy; the Magnolia blooms a couple times a year then drops a shit-ton of petals that will kill my grass if I don't rake them up. They don't mulch well either as I've tried that. It also drops these large green seed pod/cone things which it's doing right now, again by the metric shit-ton. The thing sheds twigs and branches like mad too, every time before I mow I'm picking up a tote bin worth of that. The Hickory drops these large green nuts like the size of large limes starting in the late summer and also sheds branches like crazy.

Then we get to the fall and both trees drop a million pounds of leaves, last year was brutal as they were rain soaked by the never ending East Coast rains and hard to get rid of.

Is there some kind of lawn vacuum that I could run over all this crap to pick it up? Or a lawnmower with a bag attachment?

There's got to be an easier way than raking by hand and picking up nuts by hand!

I see there are commercial lawn vacuums, but they are really expensive.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PASig,

I saw a video of someone using this, not sure if it works:
https://www.drpower.com/power-...t/leaf-lawn-vacuums/

I just mulch leaves up when I cut my grass. Anything larger than a dime gets another pass and spread as evenly as possible. If you're getting a lot of rain ( we have gotten plenty) it breaks down small leaf fragments quickly. My yard also has woods on all sides so I can blow excess leaf material into these areas and add to the leaf litter already there without much impact.

Riding mowers usually have a leaf/grass system collector available if it is a major brand name if none of the above works for you.

We were able to control the leaves, seed pods, and shedding branches with a chainsaw. No problems since. When I was a kid we pretended they were hand grenades, packed a little more punch than my make believe stick gun.

Glad you had a conversation with the neighbors. Do you think they will stick to keeping their dog off your property?

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
We were able to control the leaves, seed pods, and shedding branches with a chainsaw. No problems since. When I was a kid we pretended they were hand grenades, packed a little more punch than my make believe stick gun.

Glad you had a conversation with the neighbors. Do you think they will stick to keeping their dog off your property?

I've tried to convince the wife many times in the 18 months we've been here now to let me have the Magnolia cut down but gets vetoed. It *IS* a beautiful tree, and gives that corner of the yard some nice shade but it's just a PITA to deal with. I'm hoping that since it's so old (I estimate 65 years old if it was planted when the house was built) that it won't last a whole lot longer as I was reading that most Magnolias have something like a 75 year lifespan.

The Hickory sits in my neighbor's yard and is easily 100 years old, I'd love for that damned thing to be struck by lightning or otherwise have to be taken down, it's got to be 150 feet high.

You can't win. You just have to try to keep up.
I just cut down a mimosa tree over the weekend. But they breed like rabbits. Ever heard of Bush honeysuckle? Nasty stuff.

An understory shrub in woodlands. Asian bush honeysuckles invade quickly and outcompete native plants. Because they leaf out so early, they steal light from native plants that need a sunny forest floor in spring in order to flower, fruit, and gather energy for the next year. Birds and small animals eat the berries and deposit the seeds elsewhere, spreading this noxious weed. Learn to identify this aggressive invader, and then kill it before it spreads more seeds elsewhere.
https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/disc...de/bush-honeysuckles

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Ever heard of Bush honeysuckle? Nasty stuff

It rims our property, keeping it knocked back is a truly noxious chore 2-3 times a year. Left on its own, it grows into the light (the yard) fifteen feet high and looks like a tidal wave breaking. I try to shape it where possible just to embarrass it for its wild ways.

Honeysuckle's twigs and branches are particularly stiff, brittle and pointy. Mow near and you're sure to get scratched up even with minor contact. Tho only thing that tempers my hatred of honeysuckle is grape vine, skeeters, crabgrass, carpenter ants, moles...semi-country living comes with a price.

I've got the mother of all messy trees in my front yard; a chestnut. It's a hybrid between and American chestnut and the Chinese chestnut and hence blight resistant. Chestnut trees have both male and female parts but are not self-fertile. There must be another chestnut tree close enough for insects to pollinate it if it is to bear nuts.

When I set it out, it was just supposed to be an ornamental; I thought it unlikely that here in the city there would be another nearby one. Worst mistake since Gen Custer said, "They look like friendly Indians".

Here's what my yard looked like last fall:



If I leave these on the sidewalk, people (most have never seen a chestnut burr before) stick themselves.



Ever hear the expression, "He's got a burr under his saddle"? A common practical joke back when there were more horses and more chestnut trees.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:


Here's what my yard looked like last fall:

That's how mine looks, except the tree is about 9-10 times taller and the trunk is about 30 inches across.

Ever deal with a Jacaranda tree when it drops its blooms?

I deal with tons of pine cones. Bought an Agri-Fab lawn sweeper. Works great.

Hickory nuts are small, but tasty. Matter of fact, the old timers would collect as many as they could to supplement their diet before other nuts were sold like they are now.

It takes work to crack and dig the nut out. But it’s one of my favorite tasting nuts. My Mom would make hickory nut cake. It was excellent.
The last time I collected a bunch of them, worms had already drilled into them. I sure was disappointed.

Seems they’d play hell on blades and vacuum system. That’s all I got short of hiring a kid or someone.

I am surrounded by a mix of Oak and Pin Oak so I have fall twice a year. A riding mower with a bagger is the only way I can keep up.

Cottonwoods, probably the messiest of all trees. Euphemistically called "self pruning" as stuff breaks off them with little wind. Of course the "cotton" clogs AC's, mowers and such and the bunches leave white blots on the yard when mowed. Tree guys hate them because they're so fragile.

This from a couple weeks back --

I'm going to try one of these for the hickory nuts at least:

Simplicity makes (or used to make) a leaf vac for riding mowers. My father has one just like this pic (random pic stolen from the inner webs). My dad made a handle for the clear plastic tube so he can pull it off the mower deck and use it to suck up large piles of leaves, twigs, etc... it won't pick up large sticks, but it will pick up seeds, nuts, whatever. Probably anything smaller than a softball.

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
Cottonwoods...
This from a couple weeks back --

Ripley, Ugh! Is that your house? Did it do much damage?

It is rare for me to recommend one of these, because, as anybody who's ever owned one can tell you: They're a frackin' maintenance nightmare. But the best clean-up machine on the market is probably a Walker brand mower: Walker Mowers.

The way they work is a pair of counter-rotating blades under the deck, a chute in the middle of the back of it, an impeller up under that collection bin behind the seat, and a motorized outlet in the collection bin to spread whatever is picked up. Has a fill alarm (that sometimes works, too) to let you know when you have to dump.

When the leaves come down in the fall we simply get 'em out of the edges and corners with blowers and spread 'em out more-or-less evenly on the lawn. I run the front of the deck up a half-inch and the back down a half-inch to prevent snow-plowing. Pick 'em up and we spread the shredded leaves and grass clippings in the gardens.

Spring clean-up is similar, except I can level the deck and I dump what I collect out back.

It'll even suck up and shred small branches to a degree--though that's naturally tough on the blades.

The other downside to that mower is you tend to forget you're trailing all that machine behind you and back into stuff. I've replaced the frame for the hatch on the back of our bin twice because of that. (I backed into a tree I forgot was there. My wife backed into one of the µBarn doors.)

You can buy a deflector to eject clippings out the back, when you don't want to pick them up, but it doesn't disperse them as well as a side-discharge.

And they're expensive. Ours, either a Model S or Model C, I don't recall which, with a 4' deck was $8k 20 years ago.

I have a love/hate relationship with our Walker mower.

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
Cottonwoods, probably the messiest of all trees. Euphemistically called "self pruning" as stuff breaks off them with little wind. Of course the "cotton" clogs AC's, mowers and such and the bunches leave white blots on the yard when mowed. Tree guys hate them because they're so fragile.

Oh jebus... cottonwoods

My mother's house had two mature cottonwoods in the back yard. Beautiful trees, but what a mess they made year-round. I think if we'd had any cottonwoods in our hard when I bought this house they'd have been long gone by now.

Another fun tree is wild cherry--though not nearly as bad as a cottonwood or willow.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Ripley, Ugh! Is that your house? Did it do much damage?

Yep, the exceedingly humble abode. Gutters, a little roof damage, some electric and window stuff, deductible covered plus. Missed the generator by inches and other very close calls. Not shown: The other half of that limb, caught 35' up in a stink tree over the power line. A fun time was had by all.

Severe storms tomorrow, chellim1.

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
Not shown: The other half of that limb, caught 35' up in a stink tree over the power line.

"Stink tree"... Tree of Heaven, by chance? Next door neighbour on one side used to have two of those in their yard. Those are also messy. And they stink.