The Clumper is a approximately square piece of canvas (about 36 x 36 inches with a piece of 1 x 1 wood stapled to two opposite sides. The cloth is tie-dyed. It is one of the products sold within the Worm Corral system along with soil building (Novosoils) strategies. A sample is available.
Many people rake leaves and do "pick-up" with bed-sheets or large pieces of plastic. The work is hard, discouraging, and prevents people picking up leaves often and moving them to a composting site. Using the Clumper, the task becomes much more easy. An arm full of leaves can be picked up and placed in a wagon or caried to the composting site. The size and weight of each "load" can be adjusted to suit the strength and abilities of the person doing the pickup. Most people get a large "clump", picking up all of the leaves that have been raked into an easily-picked-up-pile.They use a clam-closing motion.
The Clumper is a simple device to make autumn leaf pick-up easy and to allow efficient movement of them to a personal or neighborhood compost area. Designed by an ecologist and used by him for over 20 years, it is made of clear hardwood from Certified -sustainable Appalachian mountain forests. It's tie-dyed with native colors, and then given a dip in a natural preservative.
This beautiful aid to personal lawn care is usually used in two ways. Leaves are raked into a flat row or cone-shaped pile. The Clumper is grabbed in the center of each bar, then wrapped over the pile, enclosing it. Then the two bars are pressed toward each other as far as they will go uder the pile of leaves, bar to bar. The leaf bundles are carried (hugged in both arms or carried in one hand as a satchel) to the compost pile. Later, for cleaning up fine particles, the Clumper is laid flat on the ground and leaves, acorns, etc. are raked onto it.
Be careful about too agressive raking. It can damage young grass and turf.
Dried, hung on the wall because it is pretty (or then rolled up and stored away), The Clumper can be used for many, many years with reasonable care.
The attached booklet that comes with your purchase gives advice on leaf composting.
With your Clumper comes a $____ advance on your membership in Nature Folks, a natural resource organization. That group publishes a wonderful newsletter on the Internet. It includes information on composting, decomposition rates in forests and the wildlands, and other ecosystems.
Also enclosed is a catalog of other opportunities and services of Rural Systems, Inc..
One dollar from the sale of every Clumper goes into ecosystem studies within Rural System, Inc..
Contact ____ at any time with advice, comments, and suggestions.
Notes:
See tree leaves and autumn colors
See Trees
In Roanoke, (about 100,000 people, 2004) looking at the total city, about 20 -30 pounds of leaves are produced per year per person. Amounts vary with concentrations in the center city and residential areas counted within the city.
Leaves can be mixed with quarry soils and rock for good mulch and soil starter.
Raking and carrying leaves is good exercise, burning about 330 calories per hour. Commercial yard cleanup costs about $130 per 5,000 square feet. (There are 10,900 square feet in the average 1/4 acre yard.) Not using the worth of an hour in the gym... Adding value to your soil and landscaping...just think of the money you are saving by using the Clumper.)