Photo by Christopher Gannon.
It's that time of fall semester. Members of the campus services staff conduct a daily march to collect the blankets of fallen leaves around campus. (pictured) Groundskeeper Bob Adolph used a blower to organize colorful leaves outside the Armory Monday afternoon.
According to campus services senior manager Barb Steiner, nearly all the leaves that are scooped up get hauled to the university's compost facility near ISU's dairy farm south of Ames. Occasionally, she said, the strategy is to chop leaves a bit finer and use them on central campus as mulch for flower beds. For example, the new Perennial Movement Sample Garden south of the Hub in the Anderson Sculpture Garden will receive a two-inch layer of twice-chopped leaves once an estimated 5,000 perrenial bulbs are planted.
But with so many trees and so many leaves, they can't all be transported. Steiner said mulching decks on the riding mowers chop some leaves where they've fallen to add organic matter to the lawn areas and help retain soil moisture.
