Redford Cemetery Association

FALL WORKDAY 2007

DATE: 4 NOVEMBER 2007

TIME: 9:00am-?????pm

LOCATION: Redford Cemetery

This workday was intended to be for the purpose of performing a general fall clean-up and formulating a to-do list for 2008. We will do a final mowing/trimming of the fences, pick up trash, collect branches and handle the remaining leaves that haven't been mulched by the lawn crew. Despite our hopes earlier in the year, there were not any plans for major tree work this fall, and there will be no skid steer loader work or concrete/masonry work undertaken at this workday. Compared to previous fall workdays, this one was a family-friendly, lower-key event.

We also took the first step in our active soil improvement program for the old section of the cemetery. For the past two fall leaf seasons we have had our lawn service mulch the leaves on the ground for the final two mowings of the season. However, since the final mowing generally occurs before the final leaf drop, we decided to pick up where the lawn service left off. The plan was to herd the leaves into piles and then shred them; the shredded leaves would then be applied as a top-dressing to the sandy areas in the old section of the cemetery where the grass won't grow and where erosion is causing monuments to shift or be at risk of shifting. As the engine on the official Redford Cemetery chipper-shredder lost a crankshaft oil seal a couple weekends prior to this event while grinding up cottonwood branches at our President's house, we went to plan B: to grind the leaves with our bagging lawnmowers and lawn tractors!

In the end, we were unable to accomplish everything in one Saturday. Despite a good turnout and a half-dozen leaf blowers running all day, including backpack and walk-behind blowers, the mulching process proved too time consuming. So we reconvened the following weekend and finished the job. The final result was the mulching of many, many cubic yards of leaves and the intentional reapplication of the shredded leaves to areas of the cemetery property where the soil condition would see the greatest benefit. We look forward to continuing the tradition in the coming years, as it is a cost-effective way to address our soil condition issues with an excellent source of organic material that we have no shortage of on the property!