Fall Leaf Removal: What You Need To Know

It's that time of year when leaves begin to fall from the trees and shrubs, summer annual weeds like crabgrass and spotted spurge die, and temperatures begin to cool off.

A light scattering of leaves won’t harm a lawn, but excessive cover of several inches prevents sunlight from reaching it. The leaves seem to “glue” together as they get wet from rain and are on the lawn for an extended period. This will prevent the grass plants from making carbohydrates that are needed to carry it through the winter.

Options for Fallen Leaves Other Than Raking and Bagging

Raking leaves can be a laborious task. It can also be expensive, as many municipalities require yard waste to be put into paper bags with a sticker. It is not uncommon to see twenty or more of these bags lined up in front of someone’s home on garbage day. So what is the alternative?

Composting is a great way to control the leaf cover on your lawn and reduce material in landfills. Leaves serve as an organic material for organisms to feed on and create compost to be used for other things. Most lawnmowers are of the mulching variety and do a great job shredding up the leaves for composting. It is important to stay ahead of the dropping of the leaves and not let the layer get too thick. It will still work, but it will take a much longer time. It may even require you to go back and forth across the same area several times.

An even easier way to control the leaves on your lawn is by mulching them. Just shred the leaves up with your mower and leave the shreddings on the lawn to help insulate the soil, but let your grass breathe. Some people may think that mulching the leaves will add to the thatch layer, which can negatively impact turf in the fall. However, there are no found long-term effects of the shredded leaves on turf quality, thatch thickness, organic content of the thatch, or soil pH or nutrients.

Go ahead and mow right over the leaves if you have a cool-season lawn and follow up with a fall nitrogen fertilization program and core aeration. If you have a warm-season lawn, you can still mow fallen leaves, but wait to fertilize and core aerate until the following late May or early June.