In a strange way, nature cooperated with leaf clean-up this fall. Hurricane Sandy’s glancing blow provided enough limb-shaking wind to bring most of the leaves to the ground. This weekend, three days long for some, provided perfect weather for working outside. After filling 120 of the brown paper 30 gallon leaf bags one year, I improvised: first I rake the leaves into piles; then I slowly run the mulching mower through the piles which grinds most of the leaves into postage-stamp size fragments. Then you rake up the remnants and shovel them into the same brown paper bags. One bag of leaf fragments equals about five bags of whole leaves. There’s probably a better way (like hiring the professional who thrust a flyer at me from the cab of his pickup equipped with a massive plywood leaf container on back), but this one works for me and now it’s all done.