Instead of piling and bagging fallen leaves, put them to work in your yard.
by Kathy Sykes
Fall provides a great opportunity to suppress weeds and provide essential nutrients for next year’s yard and garden. But there is no need to spend money on mulch and fertilizer. Mother Nature is about to provide both.
Fallen leaves are a free resource with many benefits. They create an organic layer, providing not only food and shelter but also nesting and bedding materials for wildlife and winter protection for beneficial insects. The leaves are an important component to a home compost pile and can be layered between your food waste throughout the winter. And, they feed and shelter numerous microbes, which are probably the most important “crop” you can grow. All plant life depends on healthy soil, and microbes in the soil provide the essential nutrients for next year’s grass.
If you have a lawn mower, you can mow over the fallen leaves and convert them into tiny particles that enhance the lawn’s fertility. While a mulching mower (which cost $200 to $250) is recommended, any mower can accomplish the task. One simply needs to mow over the yard filled with leaves a few times during fall.
If you decide you need a “tidier” look to your lawn, and don’t want to look at dried leaves, you may rake them into garden beds, flower beds, or around bushes or trees. It is important to note that raking actually removes important nutrients from your yard.
Fall leaves act as mulch and fertilizer, and they’re free.
For those of us living in an apartment, coop or condominium, decisions on how to care for the landscape may be made by the management company, a landscape committee or board of directors. Hired contractors to care for the lawn and garden may also not be aware of the benefits of leaves for lawns. In that case, as a resident you may need to weigh in and educate those in charge of landscaping decision-making. They may not be aware of the important cost savings or the environmental benefits.
Kathy Sykes was inspired by the memory of her mother, a master at gardening, when she seriously took up the art in 2017. To learn more, she completed the UDC Master Gardening program, and volunteered at Hillwood Estate and Peabody School on Capitol Hill until Covid-19 interrupted that work. Sykes most recently has been coordinating with Van Ness Main Street to plant pollinator-attracting gardens in the tree boxes along Connecticut Avenue.
Paul Harrison says
Thanks for the reminder Kathy. We’ve got a big yard with lots of trees so I’m planning to try this year to use our existing electric mower with a $20 leaf mulching blade.
https://www.bobvila.com/articles/mulching-leaves/
Even though it’s big, I mow our lawn myself. Lots of other folks in the neighborhood use landscapers – I wonder if anyone can share a success story of getting them to mulch, or even if getting them to switch from gas mowers and blowers to quieter and greener electric? Good story in the Post yesterday highlights how one hour of gas leaf blowing is the same as driving a Toyota Camry 1 100 miles:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/10/12/california-newsom-law-equipment-pollution/
Kathy Sykes says
I could not agree more. Another article that should be written is the noise pollution from leaf blowers and the fact that blowers move around, but never pick up trash too. I have to hand pick out the litter and sometimes replant plants after a blower is “clearing” or cleaning the sidewalk for a short period time at best. Car traffic and the wind will send the leaves right back to the cleared area.
Kathy Sykes says
You are correct! Looking forward to the sounds of nature sans leaf blowers, at least the most pernicious ones with gas.
Joey S says
And please remember that we have a law in DC, starting in January, that bans gas-powered leaf blowers.
https://www.quietcleandc.com
Mary Beth Tinker says
Great article- thanks, Kathy!!