As of Tuesday, Oct. 1 it's time to rake your leaves into the street for pickup by the Milwaukee Department of Public Works.
The DPW will begin collecting piles on Oct. 14 and will continue through Nov. 15.
This year, the ash trees in front of my house dropped a bunch of leaves a couple days before the official start of autumn but fortunately most other trees are hanging on tightly to theirs.
If the seasonal leaf drop is delayed, as has been the case in recent years, at least in my neighborhood, DPW will extend the deadline, as it has often done lately.
Remember when you make your leaf piles, leave about a foot between them and the curb so rainwater can drain toward the sewer basins.
The gap also helps machinery collect the leaves without damage to equipment and curbs.
Please remember to clear leaves from those catch basins, too, or they'll clog and stormwater will back up onto the streets.
You can include flowers, garden trimmings, weeds and other similar yard waste atop your piles for pickup, but please do not put pumpkins, grass clippings or anything in bags onto the piles.
Once the collection period ends, you'll have to take leaves and yard waste to the city's drop off centers.
You know what's even better than raking your leaves into piles? Using your lawnmower to mulch them on the grass. The sliced and diced leaves make great fertilizer for your lawn.
"Put fall leaves to work in your landscape," says Wisconsin horticulturalist Melinda Myers. "This valuable resource makes a great mulch in planting beds, adds organic matter and nutrients to the soil, provides habitat for many beneficial insects, and is insulation for ground-dwelling queen bumblebees, toads and more."
For more on this from Myers, click here.
The Zoological Society of Milwaukee also promotes a Leave the Leaves approach that's sort of like No Mow May, as a means to help nature do its own thing. You can learn more about it here.
You can also put leaves in your compost bin to create a beneficial garden compost. That is, unless your neighborhood, like mine, has a rat problem, in which case you shouldn't compost anything or you're providing a food source and/or residence for the critters; my compost bin went away when I found a nest in it.
Wondering what happens to your leaves after DPW scoops them up? Wonder no more:
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
