We live a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico and are surrounded by live oak and pine trees. About November the oaks start dropping acorns and this year was the biggest acorn crop I've seen in the 15 years we've lived here. They are inches deep all over the yard - front, back, and the pool. Then about the 1st week in March the pines start shedding pollen. That covers everything with a layer of yellow pollen - the cars, windows, roof, driveway, and the pool surface. Anything outdoors turns yellow with pollen.
Then about the 1st or 2nd week in March the oak trees start shedding their leaves. Tons and tons of leaves coming down and if the wind blows even a little it looks like a brown snow blizzard. That results in inches of leaves on top of the inches of acorns. But wait, that's not enough the next event is oak tree pollen. It is preceded by the shedding of new leaf cases. That is very small bits tree debris that is fine enough to plug a sand filter in 24 hours. Then the oak tree pollen starts in earnest. This stuff is in the form of light weight nodules bound to an inch long stem and it comes down by the ton. It will plug off the pool skimmer in less than an hour with even a slight breeze. It can completely cover the surface of my 20X40 pool overnight, It covers the roof, the driveway, and the yard, and it adds a couple of inches to the acorns and leaves already on the ground.
Now I'm looking forward to at least two weeks of hard manual labor to get everything cleaned up. But I'm lucky because I have the land area to dispose of the debris. Some of my neighbors are not so lucky and will pay from $500 - $1500 to have their yards cleaned up and everything hauled off.
Then about the 1st or 2nd week in March the oak trees start shedding their leaves. Tons and tons of leaves coming down and if the wind blows even a little it looks like a brown snow blizzard. That results in inches of leaves on top of the inches of acorns. But wait, that's not enough the next event is oak tree pollen. It is preceded by the shedding of new leaf cases. That is very small bits tree debris that is fine enough to plug a sand filter in 24 hours. Then the oak tree pollen starts in earnest. This stuff is in the form of light weight nodules bound to an inch long stem and it comes down by the ton. It will plug off the pool skimmer in less than an hour with even a slight breeze. It can completely cover the surface of my 20X40 pool overnight, It covers the roof, the driveway, and the yard, and it adds a couple of inches to the acorns and leaves already on the ground.
Now I'm looking forward to at least two weeks of hard manual labor to get everything cleaned up. But I'm lucky because I have the land area to dispose of the debris. Some of my neighbors are not so lucky and will pay from $500 - $1500 to have their yards cleaned up and everything hauled off.
