Please Mulch Those Leaves Before Bagging or Raking Them Curbside

For many, October will finally be the month when people can slow down on their weekly lawnmowing frequency and begin to mow the lawn every other week. Lawn care providers who perform lawnmowing services may also start to do the same. For others, however, keeping a weekly mowing schedule will be a must for one or two reasons:

1. The lawn received a fall fertilizer feeding or/and
2. The lawn is known to get covered with leaves

While we recommend a fall-feeding of fertilizer to your lawn, we don't recommend leaving leaves on your lawn for too long. And, we also don't recommend raking or bagging the leaves if they are not too thick. 

Confused?

What we do recommend when there are thin piles of leaves that have fallen onto your lawn, is for you to mulch them back into the soil with the lawnmower. Most likely, in October and the beginning of November here in the Euclid, Ohio area, the grass will still be growing albeit slowly as long as air temperatures are above 50 degrees on average. So mowing should still be part of your lawncare routine.

Since the grass is slowing down this time of year, October is the best time to begin to lower your lawnmowing height gradually to 3 inches. Although it is not the main goal behind lowering the height of the mower in the fall, this will make mulching the leaves, and eventually cleaning up the leaves when they get too much to mow a lot easier.

Okay, so now let me go into detail with a few things that were mentioned earlier.

• Why you should not be leaving leaves on the lawn
• Why you should mulch the leaves before raking or bagging them

Why you should not be leaving leaves on the lawn

Leaving leaves on the lawn for any extended period of weeks is not good for your turf for several reasons.

First, if the leaves become too thick, or the leaves get wet even with a thin layer, they will block the already limited fall sunlight and air from reaching the soil and smother the grass. By the time you do remove the leaves, you will either have dead grass or a patch of dirt to enjoy come springtime.

This means you will need to spend money on reseeding the lawn in the spring, which 1) could have been avoidable and 2) forces you to reseed in the spring when the fall is perfect for this type of project when it comes to overall results because of our cool-season grasses.

Second, wet leaves will make the grass susceptible to fungus. snow mold disease, insects, and rodents. Ants may not be enough to convince you to take care of the fallen leaves on your property in a timely matter, but mice, rats, and even snakes are something I would imagine you'd like to prevent inviting close to your home, especially if your kids like playing in leaf piles.

A third reason is one that you may or may not care about, and that is being a good neighbor. Leaving your leaves on your lawn will just make your neighbor's job harder as he or she is determined to keep their lawns looking great and beautiful even if winter is coming around the corner.

Your neighbors are out there taking care of their leaves and bam, your leaves constantly blow onto their property. They may say something, they may not, but being a good neighbor could prove beneficial at a time you need them the most, and unexpectantly. 

Why you should mulch the leaves before raking or bagging them

Now if possible, before you begin to rake the leaves, bag the leaves, or blow the leaves curbside for city pickup,  please do your lawn a favor and mulch the leaves back into the soil as you continue to mow the lawn.

Why should you bother?

Mulching the leaves back into the soil provides a similar benefit that comes when you mulch grass clippings back onto the lawn.

Nutrients.

As the finely shredded leaves are broken down into the soil, they supply the lawn with:

• Nitrogen
• Phosphorous
• Potassium
• and more...much, much, more

Those 3 nutrients I spelled out above are the 3 numbers you would read on a fertilizer bag you buy when feeding your lawn. And leaves pack enough of these nutrients and more to make it worthwhile to have them mulched back into the lawn, and won't cause your lawn harm if you apply a fall fertilizer. 

Of course, these nutrients do little for the lawn if the leaves are just sitting on top of the grass. Sadly, some articles state to leave the leaves on the grass for those nutrients. But those articles are wrong in the fact that they fail to mention the leaves need to be mulched into the lawn or the leaves will kill the grass instead.

Another missed explanation is that leaving the leaves on the lawn kills the grass. This is true, but those same advisors fail to mention anything about mulching the leaves giving the misconception that mulching is harmful. While there is nothing wrong with bagging or raking the leaves, you are robbing the lawn of precious nutrients by not mulching the leaves when you can.

How to mulch the leaves back into the soil

I was not sure if I should cover this, but making assumptions...well you know. If you are not familiar with the term we use when we say "mulching clipping", or "mulching leaves", we are referring to using the lawn mower to cut the grass or leaves into finely thin specks that will decompose within a couple of days into the soil. 

Not all older models of lawnmowers have mulching capabilities, but many newer models support mulching. And if they do, it is important to make sure you have mulching blades for the best mulching results. If you hire the mowing out to a company, ask if they can mulch the leaves for you on their next visit.

In short order, here are the steps you need to take:

Remove large debris that may be hidden under leaves: Depending on how many leaves have fallen, you may want to do a quick walkthrough of your lawn first, to make sure there aren't any large sticks or rocks underneath. Depending on your area, I've serviced properties where people throw trash out their car windows onto lawns, leaving glass bottles and other debris buried under the leaves.

Once you start mowing, you may miss such items. And if you miss such items, you may risk damaging your mower, or having something slingshot from underneath and hit a person, or window, or causing damage to another part of the property.

Make sure the leaves are dry: The last thing you need to do is make this simple task difficult by having your mower constantly bogged down because the leaves are wet. Not only that, but time will also be wasted as you would either have to go super slow, or repeat the cutting several times as wet leaves will not cut finely enough to decompose back into the soil when you mow them wet.

Mow at 3 inches: While we suggest mowing high during spring and higher during summer for Northeast Ohio lawns, in October your lawnmowing height should be lowered to 3.5 inches for the first few weeks, and again to 3 inches for the remainder of the season. Although you may be mulching leaves at the beginning of October, the majority of leaves probably won't fall until mid-October and late November.

So by the time the leaves start to fall you will be mulching at 3 inches, and you should be fine mulching the leaves and very little grass at the same time.  Because of heavy wind, lots of leaves may fall to the ground at once. In that scenario, raise the mower to where it begins to easily chop the leaves, and repeat on a lower setting until the leaves are finely mulched back into the lawn.

Know when mulching will no longer work: Depending on the number of trees on your property and neighboring yards, or if you neglect this task for too long, mulching the leaves will prove to be too much work, and sometimes impossible. In that case, you still need to remove the leaves from your lawn. Do not allow those leaves to destroy all the work you have put into the lawn this past season. 

Using the mower, you can bag the leaves. Or using a leaf blower, blow them to the curb for the city to pick up. Finally, if the mower or leaf blower won't do, rake them up. Do something, please.

In Summary:  Leaves will begin to fall, and when they do, it is best to stay on top of the task and mulch them back into the lawn. There are numerous nutrients in the leaves, and when they can decompose back into the soil,  your entire lawn benefits. This is why you should mulch the leaves before opting to bag or rake them up.

Don't just let them sit and pile onto the lawn as this can and will eventually kill parts of your grass.

If you hire a company to do your mowing during the season, ask them to mulch the leaves as hopefully, they have already been mulching the grass clippings for those nutrients as well. If you must do it yourself, make sure you have a mulching mower with a mulching blade, clear the lawn of any obstacles, set your mower to 3 inches, and happily mulch away.