When we had 18 propagating beds, we covered them with shade cloth during the summer. In the winter the cloth was stored in the Pottle. One year as the autumn leaves were beginning to drop, I suggested to Tom that we should use the shade cloth to act as a barrier preventing the leaves from lodging in the rocks of the dry river bed.
This process worked so well and was such a time saver, back saver and did not take much time to install in the fall. It meant we no longer dreaded picking the leaves out of the rocks come spring . . . there were none!
We drain our ponds and line them with shade cloth
to stop the leaves from collecting in the catch basins.