Is there any chance that Fairfax County will ever provide curbside vacuum leaf collection countywide? Arlington County does it neighborhood-by-neighborhood which seems to be more efficient than each homeowner disposing of leaves separately. If you do it yourself then the leaves from other yards have blown into yours in a couple of days. Also, if Fairfax County could guarantee the whole countywide job to one contractor then they should be able to get a good price.

Sounds good to me

The county is too big (too many houses). It would take 3 months to make it around to every neighborhood. I don't want to look at a pile of decomposing leaves on the curb for three months over the winter, do you?

It never fails. Every fall we have at least one new from-out-of-town homeowner in our neghborhood who piles up their leaves on the curb. You see them out three weeks later stuffing it all into 25 of those paper yard waste disposal bags.

you guys know that leaving the leaves in your yard will kill your lawn is a myth, right?

i have never and will never rake leaves, no problems with a healthy lawn ever

Anyone up for helping me rake leaves this fall on the Gerry Connolly Trail?

Ej49N Wrote:
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> you guys know that leaving the leaves in your yard
> will kill your lawn is a myth, right?
>
> i have never and will never rake leaves, no
> problems with a healthy lawn ever


It depends on how many leaves you have, what type, how much rain we get in the fall and whether you run them over with the lawn mower. For those of us living in suburban forests leaves left on the yard would smother the grass.

OP-In our neighborhood leaves start falling in late September and the last oaks may not be done before January. There is no way that a couple of county pickups each fall would be satisfactory. In addition leaves left in the gutter can lead to clogged storm sewers and flooding.

I have as many leaves as anyone with all of the trees here and I've not done the rake and bag thing for 20+ years. My yard looks as good or better than any of my neighbors. Between a good mulching mower and blower/vac/shredder thing it's faster and easier to just chop them up. A big pile of leaves turns into a surprisingly smaller amount of dust. The only time I break out the rake is at the end to get some left under bushes and then they meet the same fate.

Yes, it's a pain if it's a wet year but really not any worse than it is bagging. They still chop. Yes, the oaks are tough and some leaves hang on forever but most come done with the rest and after a few passes over a couple of weeks they're done too. I don't bother with the final stragglers much.

The key is not pile them up to the extent you can avoid it and to distribute the litter. As long as you don't have it inches thick where it's blocking the light it's fine. With the clay that passes for soil around here beneficial I think. One thing that I'be noticed after many years of mulching in place is that I don't need to fertilze or water as much. I don't recall the last time that I watered. When everyone else's lawn starts turning to straw when we have a hot dry Summer, mine stays green much longer. One downside is that it increases the acidity some so lime probably would help but that's the case here anyway.

Fairfax County comes by my house a couple of times every year and sucks my leaves up, too bad for you.

Neighborhoods of over 50 houses can petition for FFX county to vacuum up leaves; it costs about $75 per household but requires a majority of the homeowners in a particular area to support the service. Judging by the traffic on this website, good luck getting FFX residents to agree on anything.

Per the OP, I used to live in Arlington and was impressed that I could actually see my taxes being put to good use. I am still mystified where my FFX tax dollars go, especially considering the amount of revenue this county generates.

I believe there are also limits on where this can be done. I don't believe that they do leaf collection in neighborhoods with underground storm drains.

The big thing to know is that the people who get the service pay for it, whether they want it or not.

Do you want public or private service? Either way if you want this leaf service you must be willing to pay for it.

Let's see -- how many employees and how many trucks and how many vacuums and how much fuel would it take to pick up leaves at least twice per year for the 1 million plus residents living in the 300,000+ single family and townhome dwelling units? Plus we need a smart way to dispose of the leaves instead of just filling up landfill space (maybe - compost and/or provide 'free' mulch back to citizens).

Should your local government do that? Or should you arrange that through your privately contracted solid waste and recycling service? Communities that want the County to do this can petition to have a "sanitary district" tax added to your real estate bill and the County will haul your trash, recycling, and yard debris.

Here is what the County provides for sanitary districts in exchange for $345/year per home:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/trash/guidelines-text.htm

How to petition if you want the County to provide this service:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/trash/coll_initiation.htm

Map of current areas which like having the County provide these services:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/maps/images/maps/handouts/pdf07/sanitarydistricts.pdf

Many neighbrohoods use the County services and like it. Most County residents are still using private contractors for these services.