Mulch your leaves into your lawn, It's just smarter.
Quick effective ways to make all those leaves dissappear
Do you see them up there? looking down at you laughing. They're turning all those pretty colors and just waiting to all fall on your nice green lawn. I used to go out there every year, rake them into a bag and drag them out to the curb. Then along came the green movement, now my municipality has made it more difficult to simply throw away the leaves. They had to do something, the landfills were getting to full. They also realized that as the leaves broke down while in the landfill they would release methane, which is considered a greenhouse gas. So best to avoid that situation altogether.
Many municipalities are now offering to pick up excess leaver in paper bags and distributing the leaves to huge compost piles and local farmers.
That's a lot of bags!
Now, let's get something straight... I'm lazy. Years ago, when grass clippings were banned from being included with the pickup for municipal garbage , one of the citys' suggestions was to simply mulch the grass back onto your lawn. The clippings would break down and feed nutrients back into the soil, a natural, free, and easy way to apply fertilizer. It also eliminates the need for paper bags. Another step not missed is emptying the lawn mower's collection bag. What a pain that was, stopping to remove the bag, dumping it into another bag and storing it untill pick up day. Ugh. So now my lawn mower is way lighter, and stays light! Never accumulating clippings in a heavy hard to manage bag... win, win, win, win. Everyone is happy, yaay environment!
So why not mulch the leaves as well?
That's what I do now and you'd be amazed as to how quickly the leaf mulch breaks down and feeds the soil. Any excess material I simply rake up and either throw on my garden bed, or place at the base of my hedges to help retain moisture. I can also throw the excess leaf mulch into my compost bin giving me rich, dark, sweet smelling soil for next year's plantings.
This is just a small part of the great re-thinking of how we do our gardening and how we can help the earth by letting the earth help us.
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
© 2011 Ardot
