By DALE BRAKHAGE / Community Columnist

Those beautiful yellow, orange and red fall leaves are now off the trees and smothering your lawn. What can you do? One option is to pay a lawn service to come get them. You pay the price, and voila! You have your beautiful lawn back.

If paying someone to make the leaves disappear is not in your budget, you must rake them up yourself. (Tip: Raking leaves is what teenagers are for!) But, then what do you do with the leaves?

Leaves make excellent mulch. Mowing/mulching them into your lawn is a good option, until there are too many. Bagging them with your lawn mower and dumping them as mulch around your trees and shrubs is another good option.

What if you just want them gone? Waste Management operates our street side garbage pickup in Indian Springs. You could place a few bags of leaves in your Waste Management trashcan. Be aware that Waste Management limits the weight of any trash to 50 pounds. Also be aware there will be no trash pickup on Thanksgiving Day. The day after Thanksgiving is normal pickup.

See the Waste Management website, WM.com, for more information. They also offer an additional service to pick up yard waste, like leaves. Call 800-333-7724 for a quote.

What about burning those leaves? That is an option, but be careful. Have someone there who knows how to burn leaves safely, and recognize that Alabama, Shelby County and our village have laws regarding outdoor burning. Outdoor burning is allowed after Oct. 1, but being allowed to burn and knowing how to burn safely are distinctly different things.

A very informative publication about burning is titled, “There is Something You Should Know Before You Burn”. It is located on the Alabama Forestry Commission website at Forestry.alabama.gov.

Before burning anything, especially leaves, be certain the winds will be calm. Check local weather forecasts. Burnt leaves can be carried for long distances by the slightest breeze. As cinders, they can start unwanted fires.

Additionally, leaves produce lots of smoke as they burn. Please be considerate of your neighbors if you decide to burn your leaves.

 

Dale Brakhage writes a weekly column about Indian Springs and its residents. You can reach him at dale@dalebrakhage.com.