4 May 2016

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Falling autumn leaves are coating Christchurch in colour but creating a mountain of work across the city.

At the Botanic Gardens tonnes of leaves are being raked, swept, mown and blown from paths and lawns on an almost daily basis.

Botanic Gardens Collection Curator David Barwick says deciduous trees such as oak, maple, beech and sycamore shed leaves which need to be cleared before they pile up and damage the grass.

"It's an extremely high workload in the Gardens; we have to devote two to three hours a day in the peak of the leaf fall just to cleaning up the leaves. It's a huge job - it's phenomenal the amount that comes down."

Autumn leaves may look beautiful but they can create a lot of extra work.

Most of the leaves are taken by truck to a stockpile, a mountainous heap of leaves in South Hagley Park that has to be regularly turned and left to compost for up to two years before it can be returned to the Gardens as a high quality leaf mulch underneath trees and in borders.

Botanic Gardens Plant Collection Team Leader Richard Poole says home gardeners can leave some leaves at the back of garden borders to break down and add to the soil, or put them in their compost.

Autumn leaves also create extra work for Christchurch City Council contractors responsible for clearing streets.

Teams have been checking tree-lined streets around the city every three weeks to make sure kerbs and channels are clear. If leaves are building up to problem levels, the streets will be swept by a road sweeper truck within a few days of inspection.

Ness Nuttall from Council's City Streets Maintenance team says street cleaning "ramps up" at this time of year. Residents can do their bit by removing leaves from the street outside their houses and putting them in their red or green bin. She asks that people do not move leaves on to the berms where they can't be reached by sweepers. 

When there is a forecast of heavy rain council staff require contractors to check sumps in flood prone areas and they will be on stand-by to respond to any problems.  

If residents are concerned about leaf litter they can contact the council's Customer Call Centre on 03 941 8999 and the issue will be investigated within five working days or sooner.