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Mulching Leaves: Why Mowing Is Better Than Raking
Mulching Leaves: Why Mowing Is Better Than Raking
Let me start this post with a fact: I hate raking leaves.
Being a homeowner with several large trees on my property and in neighboring properties, I always looked upon fall with anger and loathing as I knew I had to rake up all those leaves that came dancing down this time of year. The amount is consistently extensive… one day I wake up to find a sea of leaves where my once beautiful lawn resided! I always tell people that I have the world’s largest Silver Maple. Its diameter is 4 feet! If I’m being realistic, it most likely is NOT the world’s largest… but we don’t have to tell anyone else that!
The Silver Maple is truly huge and beautiful and provides excellent shade during the summer. In the fall, every one of those beautiful shade-casting leaves drops onto my lawn causing such a mess. I used to spend hours raking up all the leaves, putting them in plastic bags so that they could be shipped off to the local landfill. As time went on, laws changed and I had to put the leaves in a special paper bag so that the yard waste could be taken to the local recycling center. Not only did I have to buy special bags, but each bag had to have a sticker attached to it and each sticker cost about $1.75. I would easily fill thirty or forty of the special yard waste bags each fall. Such an expense!
Then, about five years ago, I attended a turf conference that changed my fall yard duties forever! The speaking professor said that there was really no reason to rake up all those leaves. Just mulch them up with your mower and they will decompose over the winter. His advice about mulching leaves was one of those AH-HA moments we occasionally have in our life, and I felt a renewed desire to like fall again.
I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about mulching leaves, especially when the layer of mulched leaves in certain sections of my lawn reached about 6 inches in depth. I thought that the grass underneath would be suffocated by the thick layer of leaves, but I figured the professor would not lead me astray and waited to see what happened to my beautiful lawn the following spring.
I live in the Chicagoland area, and winters can be brutal to say the least. It can be bone-chilling cold, it can be cloudy for weeks at a time, and the snow can range in depth from a couple of inches to several feet. It may not seem like the best weather to encourage the decomposition of organic matter. I was pleasantly surprised the following spring to see that the layers of leaves were gone and my lawn looked fine. In fact it seemed greener and grew better the following year!
Hopefully, you figured out the lesson here – you don’t have to rake your leaves, just mulch them. Of course, there are always exceptions. If a tree or shrub on your property suffered from a leaf disease, it is advisable to rake up and dispose of those leaves. Diseases like apple scab, powdery mildew, bacterial leaf scorch and tar spot on maples will leave behind spores on the leaves that can re-infect your trees if they are left on the lawn.
Fall is a great time of year and you should enjoy it, not spend every weekend raking leaves.
Mulching leaves is pretty easy, but there are other projects you should leave to the professionals for a healthy, weed-free lawn. Ready to get started with your customized lawn care plan? Talk to your local franchise owner today!