Fall is in the air here in the beautiful village of Andover. The maple lined streets of the village offer picturesque greenery and shade for the summer and beautiful colors in the valley for fall. As fall wanes and winter approaches these majestic maples spew forth their decaying leaves onto the lawns and streets of our fair town.
What do we do with all these leaves? All these leaves not on these trees? Well, that's a really good question with several good answers.
Leave them where they are. You know nature has a whole circle of life situation going on and fall leaves help to return nutrients to the soil. You could mulch them with a mower or just leave them where they lay until the snow covers them up. Sure, you'll have some dead grass come spring, but grass is overrated, amirite?
Rake or blow the leaves onto a tarp in manageable quantities and then drag them to your compost pile.
Use the leaves as ground cover to insulate some of your more weather sensitive plants.
Make a Scarecrow. If you have enough leaves you can make a whole scarecrow colony and freak out your neighbors.
Photo-ops. Is your fabulous self Instagram ready? Is your fit just so fall fab today? Throw some leaves in the air or lay down with a crown of fall majesty and get that amazing new autumnal profile pic. Put your dogs or children in leaves and you'll have a magical photo to show your friends and family.
If options 1-5 just aren't for you and your yard and you're located in the village of Andover NY, you can bag up your fall leaves and leave them on the curb for pick up every Monday from now (10/13/2021) until November 29th and the village crew will pick them up. ***Yes, you can also just rake them to the curb, but the village no longer has that leaf machine to suck them up so they'll have to rake them. It'll be faster if they're in bags*** Also consider not raking your leaves into the street as they can clog the storm drains and they've emptied them all out like 9 million times this year already.
Any of the above options can also include raking the leaves into a pile and jumping in it as a first step. You should always follow up this activity with warm cider and donuts or your favorite fall confection*. We do not recommend jumping or playing in piles of leaves that are in or near the street. It's kinda like doing the same with snow piles. Playing in or near traffic is never recommended.
It should also be noted that you're not allowed to burn leaves in the town or village and, in fact, in the entire state of New York. The code enforcer and town cops won't love coming to write you a ticket for that and the volunteer fire fighters in town probably won't love coming to put out your yard if/when it catches fire. So please refrain if your pyro heart can manage it.
*Pumpkin Spice latte is acceptable here, but not recommended for children unless you're just living dangerously.
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