By "sweep," I think they just mean rake. When we Americans say "sweep," we picture a broom.
Speaking of brooms.... have you ever heard of "The Broom of Destruction"? Here, it's in Isaiah 14:22-23:
‘I will rise up against them,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors, her offspring and descendants,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will turn her into a place for owls and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,’ declares the Lord Almighty.
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The leaves will kill most things under them so, if we're talking about the garden that has run its course and will be replanted in the spring, fine. Go ahead. But if we're talking about the lawn, no thank you. I will rake as per usual.
Fallen leafs are sanctuaries for progressive fungus, pathogens, and migrating rodents.
Having reluctantly filled and lugged hundreds of bushel baskets full of leaves, I wish my parents had known this when they made me go out and rake the yard every week in the Fall back in Iowa. Yes, we raked them into bushel baskets (do those even exist now?) and carried them to the street where we burned them in the gutter. Like everyone else.
Ah, the smell of burning leaves and that pervasive light, smoky haze in the air during the Fall! It was good, and a fond memory. We didn't care about no stinkin' air pollution.
"If you can’t bear to leave them where they are, get the kids to kick them into a corner, stick them in a pile, "
Impractical in my case. Our little lot doesn't have an out of the way "corner".
Guy across the street waits for wind to come up, then uses leaf blower to clear lawn. Efficient, but neighbors downwind unappreciative.
I've never raked my 8.5 acres. Grass- and weeds- and everything else come right back in the spring and the leaves are gone. But today's comics have one on the subject- https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2025/10/17
Earwig Farming for Dummies.
Don't forget the Black Walnut trees!
Chipmunk camo!
Anyone remember Lawn Sweepers? Back when push mowers ruled!
Hedgehogs can get their own damn shelter. I'm tired of them freeloading and paying no rent.
High winds make unraked leaves a problem.
Worms are an invasive species. Why would we want to protect them?
Not in California
https://readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/defensible-space/
Zone 1 extends 30 feet from buildings, structures, decks, etc. or to your property line, whichever is closer.
Clear all dead plants, grass, and weeds
Remove dead leaves and pine needles from your yard, roof, and gutters
Trim overhanging branches and keep them 10 feet from your chimney
Regularly trim trees to maintain a 10-foot gap from others
Move wood piles to Zone 2
Prune flammable plants and shrubs near windows
Clear flammable vegetation and items from under decks, balconies, and stairs
Maintain space between trees, shrubs, and flammable items like patio furniture and wood piles
Ensure outbuildings and LPG tanks have 10 feet of clear space to bare soil and no flammable vegetation within an additional 10 feet around them
The Broom of Destruction is what's about to happen to the Brewers.
Before law school I used to call it composting in place, now it's composting in situ.
we don’t have hedgehogs here…
I suppose sweep has crept into the Brewer Nation unconscious.
n.n said...
"Fallen leafs are sanctuaries for progressive fungus, pathogens, and migrating rodents."
Like Democrats?
Everybody's talkin' at me. I don't hear a word they're sayin'....
The song I think of when I read these types of articles. That or "Don't tell me what to say, and don't tell me what to do"
Ah, the smell of burning leaves and that pervasive light, smoky haze in the air during the Fall! It was good, and a fond memory.
YES! Every now and then down here in AZ someone will be burning something in their outdoor firepit/whatever that has something close to that. Immediately takes me back to Fall in WI. Trick or Treating with the smell of burning leaves. Ahhhhhhhh.......
There are a dozen or so verses in the Old Testament where the Lord inflicts punishment on the enemies of Israel, and their ruined cities are taken over by owls. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah all mention them as symbols of desolation.
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on
This makes me wonder.
Collect, sequester, and allow natural decay in sanctuary states to protect lawns, prevent infestation, and provide fertilizer when life renews after [seasonal] climate change. Do better.
Don't forget the jabs, gloves, masks, knives, and other protective gear for the kids.
If we don't have hedgehogs should we get some. How many do we need?
"Like Democrats"
Rats, yes.
The people around my neighborhood who advertise that they are going to "leave the leaves" tend to have one small tree. My yard would be blanketed if I didn't blow them to the curb. Besides, I want to keep the sucker truck guys employed. :-)
So that's why you don't hear much about the Babylonians anymore. Even their tower is gone, though their legacy lives on in the babble of foreign tongues when I visit strange lands.
Ah, the simple days of rakes and brooms. Powered by humans making minimal wispy sounds. De-thatching while you go. I believe I am the last person in my small city to use either rake or broom. Now it is gas blowers always and everywhere.
I do recall the leaf sweeper, circa 1970's. Pop would get it going and fill the back bin quickly and then dump into a pile way big enough for worms, hedgehogs, and the neighborhood kids.
These pronouncements by "experts" remind me of the expert advice against prostrate cancer screening. Government entities want to save money (no screening, no leaf pickup), so aligned "experts" hit the airwaves to argue that them doing nothing is a virtue.
Pagoda Dogwood disease prevention: "Sanitation: Regularly remove fallen leaves and debris to minimize disease spread."
I mow mine into little pieces by starting in the middle of the lawn with no bag so they're sucked through the rotating knives multiple times as the rows move outward. The problem is every few years, like this one, the pecans must be picked up first before mowing and before the squirrels get them. Then there are the aborted nuts, which don't shred or move or compost easily.
I'd be fine with this, but I'd have to print this article and pin it to my neighbors' doors to even hope to get away with not raking leaves.
I've never understood why they can't just share the hedge. CC, JSM
Finally persuade the frau to get rid of the 54" oak (diameter) in the yard. But I had to use the tree surgeon, aka the guy who would take this monster down, to give his opinion that the tree was in bad shape. I didn't care whether the tree was in bad shape or not; I just wanted the thing gone. His so-called "opinion" worked. The frau bought it. She's take his assessment, but not mine!. When the thing was taken down the central core did have significant decay, though it would have probably last a few more years.
Right now I'm enjoying the leaves that aren't there.
Shared responsibility. There are precedents.
So you think the Brewers will get swept then, ann?
Since you brought up the subject, I recommend reading the entirety of Isaiah 14, especially beginning at verse 29:
Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
that the rod that struck you is broken;
from the root of that snake will spring up a viper,
its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent.
The poorest of the poor will find pasture,
and the needy will lie down in safety.
But your root I will destroy by famine;
it will slay your survivors.
Wail, you gate! Howl, you city!
Melt away, all you Philistines!
A cloud of smoke comes from the north,
and there is not a straggler in its ranks.
What answer shall be given
to the envoys of that nation?
‘The Lord has established Zion,
and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.’
Seems to resonate, doesn't it?
I won't have an opinion this leaf business until Meade tells me what it is.
Tim Maguire said:
... if we're talking about the lawn, no thank you. I will rake as per usual.
I accidently left six or seven leaves in one single place one winter. They destroyed the grass they were above. They sheltered frost in place to burn the grass; they harbored microbes of decay; they kept the sun away in the spring. Rake the lawn.
Fun fact
When the settlers came there was no lawn grass in America and no dandelions. One was imported to make lawns look like English lawns; the other was brought for greens in the spring. Dandelions thrive in disturbed soil and when they arrived in Boston they raced west, crossed the Hudson, got into the Alleghenies and crossed them before the settlers, crossed Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, the Mississippi, crossed the Great Plains in some way, met us as we came trudging along and so have been a part of the American home since we came and had homes.
And all dandelions are clones. Yet in California they are featured in the curriculum as an example of how necessary bees are since without bees spreading pollen dandelion flowers could not develop dandelion seeds. This is wrong scientifically (clones don't need pollen) as well as the grossest anti-trans prejudice. Why has not this false information been corrected? As I see it, the hardy pioneer dandelion ignored gender as it spread across America - why can't we? I blame Trump. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Here in Texas it isn't the leaves. It is the mulch. We drop our cuttings and stumps and trunks of cedar bushes (junipers, but who cares, we're all allergic January to April) and post oaks and more cedar bushes and hackberry trees and more cedar and so on at the local mulching center, and in return get a pickup truck load of somewhat older mulch, either free for the pitchforking or $10 for a heavy load from the front end loader (paid in cash only, and we get a receipt now, so I wonder what happened to the cash for those 20 years I paid for this before they gave receipts). Mulch, the king of keeping plants alive in Texas. And our armadillos love, love, love coming into the back yard at night and digging nose-shaped holes into the mulch around the flower beds, eating pestilential insects for us. Leaves are fine - we blow them into a pile in the corner of the yard so the lightning bugs have a place to lay eggs - but mulch is worthy of consideration, too.
Speaking of the smell of burning leaves taking one back to one's childhood. I was visiting Ireland on my honeymoon and I smelled peat burning for the first time. I recognized it instantly - although I had never to my knowledge smelled it before in my life. Was the one time I ever thought there might be something to reincarnation.
I have seen this argument many times . I wonder why they are pushing the idea to leave leaves on yards. People for decades clear their yards of debris. Otherwise the ground cover dies and crates a mud yard. Not great. Hundreds of years ago roads were muddy and wagons got stuck. People hate to walk in the mud. We started to cobble streets and clean yards so they can be used by the residents.
I do have forest on my property and branches and sticks fall down get covered by leaves and when I walk I sometimes trip on the branches since I can not see them under 4-6 inches of leaves. As to helping bugs and small vermin I see no reason why I should help them since they are destructive to my property. Who likes ants in the house, termites eating the wood, spiders and cobwebs, pantry moths? I have a constant struggle to maintaining the property and push nature back. The vines raspberries and wild rose constantly encroach on the gardens and yards.
The Authorised Version refers to “the besom of destruction” which seems more apt than a mere broom, a besom being the sort of broom made with a bundle of twigs. A hard scratchy sort of broom you really don’t want to get swept aside by.
As a birder, more owls would be really cool.
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