Collecting catkins off of my roof and paved areas has become an annual tradition for me. The live oak tree in the front yard drops most of its catkins in April, and I remove them from those areas at an auspicious time.
On March 29, 2014, the driveway had some leaves, as well as smatterings of oak catkins on it. At this stage, the catkins were barely visible.
A little over a week later, on April 6, 2014, the driveway had a fairly thick covering of catkins, which aggregated along the cracks.
They also spread over the front walkway and the sidewalk, as well as on the street.
And they blew off the roof onto the back patio.
They also cover much of the roof and completely fill most of the rain gutters. Every year, I try to time when I clean all of this up to be as soon as the catkins stop falling, but I have been a little late so far. I use the catkins as mulch for my garden, assuming that the pollen they hold would add nutrients to the soil. In 2016 and 2017, I even swept them from the sidewalk and street in front of my neighbors' yards and collected bags of them from curbs along with raked leaves people put out for the city to pick up.
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