Leaves: Are They Overtaking Your Yard?
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The one yard task I dislike the most is raking leaves. I have a very large Silver Maple tree on the side of my house. My neighbor has a multi-trunk Silver Maple that is not as large as my tree, but it formed many years ago, probably from one seedling that was mowed a couple of times, resulting in a “clump” Silver Maple. Eventually, the five trees that are all growing into each other at the base will start crowding each other out and, eventually, the entire tree will probably come crashing down. Anyway, that group of trees also produces an abundance of fall leaves.
Raking all those leaves was back breaking work. I would rake them into numerous piles and use the paper yard waste bags that our reuse company requires us to use. When disposing of any yard waste bags, place them at the street on garbage day and place a sticker on each bag to pay for its disposal.
The bags are not that expensive as you can roughly buy 5 for about two dollars. The yard waste stickers, on the other hand, cost about two dollars each.
With the number of leaves that fall in my lawn, 15 to 20 bags of leaves, collected for two or three weeks, was common place. The number increases when I have to bag up all the garden waste as well. One weekend’s labors could easily cost $50.00 – and that does not include the bandages for blisters or tubes of Ben-Gay for sore muscles.
Thankfully, new research has come out to say that you don’t need to rake your leaves. The new mantra is to just “Grind ‘em up!”
After a heavy leaf drop, it is not uncommon for the leaves in my lawn to reach a depth of about 3 feet. I just take my time, attack the piles with my mower and grind them all up. Silver Maple leaves grind up easily, so I am not too worried about covering my lawn with ground up leaves. Depending on the type of tree in your lawn, you may have to run over the leaves two or even three times to get them finely ground up. Over the winter, the leaves will decompose to feed the microorganisms in the soil, which in turn, will produce a better lawn. Grinding or mulching your leaves does not significantly contribute to the increase of thatch layers. If your lawn has a thatch problem, you should be core aerating it every year, which will speed up the decomposition rate of the mulched leaves.