Mary B- Usually if you lay mulch down early enough before you actually have to clear leaves, the mulch gets rained on enough to “set” in which case you can just use a blower to blow almost all of the leaves out of the mulch (and then just hand pick the few that refuse to vacate the premises). It’s definitely not a good idea to mulch and then try to get rid of leaves a few days later, but we actually took these pics a few weeks ago (hence all the green trees) and will attack our leaves in another month or so, when the mulch is definitely going to have set for the season.

And although we could have waited to mulch until after all the leaves fell, some of our shrubs are very small and newly planted so we wanted to insulate them for the cold nights that started rolling in a few weeks ago (although older more established shrubs could probably wait a lot longer). Hope that helps!

Oh and Elizabeth, I can’t even express how jealous we are about your natural leaf blower (aka, the hill + the wind). John and I spend an entire weekend (sometimes even two) raking and blowing our almost-an-acre lot, so you’re certainly the luckiest girl in the world (with a super lucky hubby, too).

It’s also pretty funny to hear that other pups love mulch/sunbathing just as much as our little guy. Maybe we should have an annual mulch party for Burger and all of his dog friends (followed by a bath party of course).

xo,
Sherry

And where did you get the mulch?