What To Do With The Leaves
Once fall gets here along with all the beautiful colors of the leaves mother nature supplies us, many homeowners are tired of lawn care. After all the time you spent the entire summer watering, trimming, mowing, and taking steps to fertilize your lush, green grass so it will stay that way next season. Then the leaves start to fall.
Although you might just want to relax and watch football the leaves can’t stay on the grass for the winter. It’s never a good idea to let them just lay there, and not because your neighbors might complain it just isn’t healthy for the lawn
Do I Really Have To Remove My Leaves?
Removing the leaves is the question. Yes, they have to be removed. Of course, there are a couple of options on how to “remove” leaves. The best way is to mulch them with a mower. This option will not only shred them but it will also help in providing nutrients back into the soil. The leaves from the trees supply the lawn with extra Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, Calcium, and other nutrients. Now, this doesn’t mean wait till they have all fallen and just run your riding lawn mower over them. If you can’t see the lawn after you have mulched them you waited too long. Too many chopped up leaves can block light to the grass and stress the lawn over the winter.
The other option is to blow them into a pile and remove them. This is the next best option. Do not leave them in piles along the yard. Just like above big piles of leaves can cause bare spots in the spring where the piles have actually killed the lawn. Blow them into a pile, bag them up and dispose of them. A lot of farmers would love to have the leaves that you collect to spread into their fields before they plow them to once again get all of those free natural nutrients.
The last way we have seen people get up leaves it to rake them into piles. However, this is the probably the cheapest way and most time consuming. “Remember you are wanting a break” This does work. However, it does do the most damage to your lawn. If you did any overseeding in early fall the baby grass may not be strong enough to handle the aggressiveness of raking.
It is always best practice to mulch or remove your leaves on a weekly basis so the leaves do not get you overwhelmed.
To learn more about PPLM’s take on why not to rake, check out our video on fall leaves here:
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