Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for October 30, 2011

absolutely brilliant!!!

Down to seeds and stems again.

In the other gardens, and all up the vale,From the autumn bonfires see the smoke trail.Pleasant summer over, and all the summer flowers,The red fire blazes, the white smoke towers.Sing a song of seasons, something bright in all,Flowers in the summer, fires in the fall. — Robert Louis Stevenson

All hail the NIMBY King!(Not In My Back Yard)

I’ve always wondered if that would really work. I do so miss the smell of burning leaves, an advantage of small towns over the big-city bans. Is it really air pollution if it smells so good?

Why do we rake leaves, or otherwise move them around? Why don’t we just leave them there?

hey, that’s my yard ya bum…..

Fences make good neighbors? At least from his view.

Right back at ya buddy. (Two can plany at that game).

Just got my snowblower out as well….

…because we just got snow….

…in October……

The leaves are raked and removed because if left on the grass, the decaying leaves change the pH of the soil (makes it too acid) which kills the grass. It will take several seasons to kill the grass completely.

In Midland Michigan those in the city are encouraged to put the mountain of leaves in the curb whereupon the city trucks come along with contraption resembling ice hockey goals and …………….well you have a game on…how much get back into the neighbours yard

Mmmm, rarely get snow, however my neighbor has two very large broadleaf maples. Brilliant

That solution blows.

I have a feeling someone’s about to have his Snow King rammed up his nose.

We have burn bans in Texas. But, we have “Haboobs”!!! Just stick around, all the leaves go to Mexico…

I have a friend who lives across the street from a helicopter landing pad at a hospital. Never has to rake leaves.

Hilarious strip! But this weekend we’ve gotten snow while the leaves are still on the trees! Welcome to Bizarro Autumn.

I like the smell of burning leaves, though I agree it’s better to compost them. It’s the horrid smell of burning plastic and metals from my neighbor that I object to. We live in a very rural county – meaning no law against it. Too bad.

Brilliant! Just brilliant!

And to the reader who asked why we rake leaves — two main reasons:

1. in a manicured lawn, leaves under the snow can cause certain molds and blights to form, killing the grass beneath which of course allows for natural plants (i.e. weeds) to flourish. And

2. It gives husbands and children a task for Saturday afternoons to keep them out of trouble. At least that’s how my mother stated it.

I’ve tried the snow-blower – it doesn’t work. Mulching with a powered lawn mower works just fine, but hiring a neighborhood kid is best.

This reminded me of a friend who stood in the street with a blower, blowing the leaves back across the street into the yards where the wind had just blown them from. Bless you, Jack. I miss you.

It has been my experience, that when women go to name calling, one of their secrets has been uncovered.

No wonder they make room for snow blowers in hardware stores as soon as autumn arrives.

@Grog-in-a-half-shellNext frame: The neighbor with HIS Snow King alongside his fence. (Yin and Yang maybe?)

Today’s comic is strangely on target. With all the snow we’re getting, and all the leaves that are still up and not yet raked, the snow blower will indeed be brought out to deal with the mess. Looking out at my driveway earlier, the snow was deep enough to make me groan, and it was also covered with the leaves from my weeping willow. And it’s that really heavy wet snow. There goes my back, so early in the season.

Generally the reason for leaf-burning bans isn’t so much air pollution, although it does put a goodly amount of hydrocarbons into the air, but the risk of fire, especially in the dry fall season. It shouldn’t be a problem if the weather hasn’t been too dry, but in standard government management, it’s all black-and-white. Outlaw burning, no matter the conditions, and you no longer have a problem you’re forced to deal with. The ultimate goal of lawmakers is to turn any and all issues into non-issues.

Wish I’d thought of that. But mowing the leaves into lawn mulch is good, too.

of course around here today, a lot of people can use it as a snow blower and get rid of the leaves as a bonus

Burning leaves is a waste of good fertilizer. Mulch them with a lawnmower and bagger.

i just leave ’em. if it kills the grass, less mowing. why bother, anyway? they go away eventually.

We mulch ours. Much cheaper than paying to bag up the leaves and haul them away, and then buy fertilizer!

Did that this morning, of course there was snow mixed in with the leaves…

Wait until the neighbor gets the same idea and gives you his and yours. You can’t cry foul then can you. Tit for Tat.

Love panel 7 as he scurries to get the snow blower. Nice work, Wiley!

You don’t lose anything by burning leaves. Burning the leaves just turns it into fertilizer quicker. And it smells great. It should be against the law NOT to burn leaves.

“I put mine in my nice stinky compost pile at the back of the yard.”++++We had a compost pile for 30 years. I don’t recall it ever stinking.

Crankshaft did the same gag a couple of weeks ago…

LEAF FIGHT!

The same CO2 the plant took in less than a year ago? No big thing. Man’s tiny addition to this trivial greenhouse gas may make a difference somewhere in the fifteenth decimal point- or may not. CO2 is plant chow, more CO2 just means some plants somewhere get luckier.

The big deal about leaves is that you can’t roll up a good looking snowgoon… uh, “snowman”, from a leafy yard.

Tried this one year. Never again. Kept clogging up the snow thrower (and I have one of the big boys, a 36 inch clear.)

The leaf blowers L.A. County tried to ban a few years ago (and a few enterprising souls got batteries and electric motors for theirs, which got around the gas-engine ban, but not the rest) take your leaves, your dust, your rodent droppings, and loft them into the air you (AND your neighbors) breathe. Yum!I call them “Somebody Else’s Problem Machines” (yes, from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!)MUCH better to compost them, skip the lawns and plant veggies instead — we’re going to need them soon!

If you have room for trees, you have room for the leaves.

Leaves and leaves…Leave me alone!