The season for rescuing Monarchs has transitioned into the season for rescuing bags of leaves—not quite as glamorous, but just as beneficial for our environment and the people who live in your community.  This photo shows the growing pile of leaves in my backyard.  Some go into containers and other leaves such as the ones shown above are just heaped in a large pile.  Underneath this layer of brown leaves lies a deep green layer of sweet potato leaves from vines I recently yanked up to harvest the sweet potatoes. - Taken November 11, 2015

Once you rescue a leaf in Garland, then what?

Here in Garland, residents have several choices for their rescued leaves:

1.  Residents can keep them and start a compost pile in their backyard.

If you don’t know how to make a compost pile, the City of Garland offers Compost 101 twice a year in the spring and in the fall.  If you don’t want to wait, you can come to a Loving Garland Green meeting and we will point you in the right direction.  We meet the first and third Monday of the month at 216 East Kingsbridge Drive Garland, Texas.

2.  Residents can offer their leaves for adoption by the City of Garland.

To do this, residents simply place their bagged leaves at the collection point between the sidewalk and curb in their front yard.  It is important that you have the bags of leaves in a pile that is distinctly separate from for any other bulky items that you may be tossing.  I recommend the two piles be at least 10 feet apart.

Your leaf bags should not contain anything other than leaves and small twigs:  No paper, plastic or other trash and especially no animal feces should be in these bags.  ONLY leaves should be given over for adoption.

What happens to your leaves after they are adopted by the City of Garland?

Our Environmental Waste Services employees will take very good care of them.  All clean brush and leaves are transported to the Wood Recycling Facility located at the C.M. Hinton, Jr. Regional Landfill site where it is ground into mulch.  This mulch is then made available free of charge to Garland residents.

3. Residents can drop their bags of leaves off at the Garland Community Garden.

 Loving Garland Green will compost the leaves for use in the Garland Community Garden.   

Opening Season for Leaves:  November 11, 2016 - Loving Garland Green's official truck seen in the Firewheel neighborhood adopting bags of leaves. 

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Perhaps it might make things easier for our city workers if residents who rake their leaves would also make homemade labels for their bags of leaves so our city workers will know for certain what’s in the bag.  If you have small children, this might even be a fun activity to create these labels on bright paper (about 81/2 x 11 inch size so they are easy to see and so the children have room to get creative with their signs).

Here are two inspirations for creating identity tags: